科罗纳多CORONADO

我的帽子，我的头盔，所有一切，我要向斯图尔特·尤德尔致敬。我的意思是，当有一个白人升到了美国最高的内政部长以后，他会做什么呢?他本可以做任何事的，或者什么都不做。他做了什么呢?他深入研究了美国西南部的历史，还写了一本关于西南部和创造这段历史的西班牙人的书。谢谢你，尤德尔先生，谢谢你写成了书出版。你是如此坦诚，甚至说他自己也不知道到底发生了什么。对大多数人来说，历史似乎很简单:你只要报道发生了什么，就完成了。如果你像科罗纳多那样身处其中，你至少会觉得，你知道发生了什么。你可以很容易地看到你自己，以及你所处的环境。但是：如果你连自己在哪里都不知道呢?
My hat, my helmet, whatever, is off to Stewart Udall. I mean, here’s a white guy who rose to the top of the U.S. as Secretary of the Interior, and what’s he do after that? He could have done anything. Or nothing. And what’s he do? He gets so deep into the history of the southwest he writes a book about it and the Spanish that made it happen. Thank you, Mr. Udall, for getting this into print. And with complete honesty, even admitting even he doesn’t know exactly what happened. - For most people, history would seem simple enough: You just report what happened, and you’re done. And if you’re there in real time, like Coronado was, you would think you would know what was going on at least. You can see yourself easily enough, and the landscape you’re in. But: What if you don’t even know where you are?

“德克萨斯路线之谜”这个标题是前内政部长斯图尔特·尤德尔在他的书中给这个部分取的名字，这个部分主要讲那个“土耳其人”带着科罗纳多和他的同伴们一路南行，到达的最远的地方，当时科罗纳多开始意识到希望渺茫，甚至可能活不下去了。地图上这个大头针的位置，就是尤德尔所总结的最可信的地方。当时，第一阵营(科罗纳多实力雄厚时建的)和第二阵营(这是为大部分探险队和科罗纳多的小探险队分道扬镳做准备的)相距不是很远。这个位置(比博尔顿提议的那些峡谷)更说得通，因为按照科罗纳多的陈述，他的小分队是“用指南针”地向北行进的。因为这个位置可以让黄线跳过很长的西北-东南峡谷，图莱和帕洛杜罗峡谷就是其中的一部分，从德克萨斯州的圣安吉洛附近径直向北走，一直到阿肯色河的大拐弯处(而不是今天的堪萨斯州福特)。博尔顿用现在的地名来描述阿雷拉诺回到泰戈斯的路线就更清楚了。(博尔顿认为，那个地位应该比地图上的蓝线还要南很多，我不得不省略一些更南的地名，以便把“蓝”线画成从图莱峡谷直接向西的路线，这是博尔顿的另一个想法。事实上，我发现博尔顿要求阿雷拉诺从图雷峡谷由西返回，这与他要求阿雷拉诺通过他指定的那些更南部的地名的路线是不一致的)。我觉得博尔顿的路线还有一个问题，他在书中说阿雷拉诺直接从图莱峡谷由西返回泰戈斯，他还说图莱峡谷是第一个峡谷，这是不一致的。还有一处不一致是，他还说阿雷利亚诺是从“第二个峡谷”返回的，博尔顿认为是在帕罗杜罗峡谷(比图莱峡谷还要往北)。
“The Texas Route Mysteries” is the title previous Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall gave to the section in his book dealing with the question of how far south the Turk was able to lead Coronado and company before Coronado felt like he was on a wild goose chase that he might not even survive. This pin on the map is located at what Udall concludes is suggested by the most persuasive argument. In this scenario, both the initial camp (made when Coronado had had enough) and the second camp (made to prepare for the parting of the ways of the bulk of the expedition from Coronado’s small exploratory band) were not very far apart. This location would make more sense (than Bolton’s proposed barrancas), given Coronado’s statement that his small band proceeded north “by the needle”. Because this location would allow the yellow line to skip dealing with the very long northwest-southeast canyon of which Tule and Palo Duro Canyons are a part, and just go straight north from near San Angelo, Texas, to connect with the Arkansas River at its big bend (instead of at present-day Ford, Kansas). It would also make more sense of present-day place names that Bolton cites as the route of Arellano’s return to Tiguex. (Bolton’s place names start considerably farther south than the blue line on the map, and I had to ignore some of the more southerly ones in order to plot the “blues” line as heading west directly from Tule Canyon, which is something else Bolton proposed. In fact I found Bolton’s call for Arellano’s return to commence going west from Tule Canyon to be inconsistent with his call for it to pass by various more southerly place names he designates as also marking Arellano’s route) One other problem I had with Bolton’s routing was the inconsistency in Bolton’s book in which he says Arellano headed back west to Tiguex directly from Tule Canyon, when he also states that Tule Canyon was the “first barranca.” This is inconsistent with his also saying that Arellano headed back from the “second barranca”, which Bolton places at Palo Duro Canyon (farther north than Tule Canyon).

事实上，如果科罗纳多走到了圣安吉洛地区，地图上的红线应该是更深的红色，以代表更大程度的尴尬和愤怒，因为他们被引入歧途的。但是红色已经属于那个过去的时代了。这里，我们可以确定的一件事是，现在对于科罗纳多是一样的。
If in fact Coronado went so far as the San Angelo area, the red line on the map ought to be an even deeper shade of red, to reflect an even greater degree of embarrassment and anger at having been led so far astray. But the shade of red belongs to a time that is long gone. At this point, the one thing we can be sure of is that it’s all the same to Coronado now.

现在我引用一本非常有趣的书《到内陆帝国:科罗纳多和我们的西班牙遗产》：
So now I quote from a pretty interesting book called “To the inland empire: Coronado and our Spanish legacy”:

斯图尔特·艾尔·尤德尔，杰瑞·迪·杰卡，《到内陆帝国:科罗纳多和我们的西班牙遗产》，(花园城市:双日出版社，1987年)，第152-165页：
Stewart L. Udall, Jerry D. Jacka, To the inland empire: Coronado and our Spanish legacy, (Garden City: Doubleday, 1987), pp. 152 – 165:

"自20世纪20年代以来，关于科罗纳多的路线位置，在德克萨斯州一直存在争议。在西德克萨斯，唐·弗朗西斯科和他的同伴们对于记忆中的地标描述极少，因此，对于征服者在孤星州的路线地点和距离，博尔顿博士和其他科罗纳多的狂热者们得出了截然不同的结论。
"Since the 1920s, there has been a dispute in Texas about the location of Coronado's trails. In West Texas, Don Francisco and his companions described so few memorable landmarks that Dr. Bolton - and other Coronado aficionados -reached sharply conflicting conclusions about where, or how far, the conquistadores traveled in the Lone Star State.

"总船长说，他有计划地发出'……船长和士兵们从四面八方去寻找这个国家是否有什么对陛下有用的东西'，他给了我们思路，用广角方法来绘制他在地图上的行程。在我看来，如果博尔顿教授在西德克萨斯路线上弄错了，那是因为各种报道大声疾呼西班牙人的迷失或困惑，他显然是受到了影响而做出了武断的判断。
"When the captain general wrote that he systematically sent ' ... captains and men in many directions to find out whether there was anything in this country which could be of service to your Majesty', he gave us reasons to use a wide-angle approach as we attempt to plot his travels on our maps. In my view, if Professor Bolton erred about the West Texas routes, it was because he apparently felt compelled to be decisive even though the reports cried out that the Spaniards were lost or bewildered.

"博尔顿博士主要依靠对路线距离和明显地标的描述。这种方法在追踪康波斯特拉到格兰德河的路线时是很有用的，所以对他来说，在平原上使用同样的技术肯定是合理的。
"Dr. Bolton relied mainly on descriptions of distances traveled and prominent landmarks. This method worked well in tracing the routes from Compostela to the Rio Grande, so it must have seemed reasonable to him to use the same technique on the plains.

"博尔顿声称，通过西班牙人在安东奇科的佩科斯河上建造的一座桥，唐·弗朗西斯科从图桑卡里北部到达加拿大河，在那里他的部队遇到了克雷丘印第安人。他接着宣布，西班牙人登上了大草原，也就是今天的40号州际公路连接那个台地的地方，然后向阿马里洛进发，来到德克萨斯州维加附近的一个营地。
"Bolton asserted that from a bridge the Spaniards built over the Pecos River at Anton Chico, Don Francisco went north of Tucumcari to the Canadian River, where his force met the Querecho Indians. He next pronounced that the Spaniards ascended the Llano where today's Interstate Highway 40 climbs onto that mesa and thereafter marched toward Amarillo to a camp in the vicinity of Vega, Texas.

"20世纪80年代，在西德克萨斯州仍有一条壮丽的神秘小径，就是因为探险家们在那里迷失了方向，前后长达三周，他们经历了埃斯卡多大草原的“致盲效应”。科罗纳多提到“......我们迷失在这片平原上”——这段历史描述中的宁静和迷茫，表现了所有西班牙人当时真的都迷失了方向。
"The paramount reason why there is still a splendid trail mystery in West Texas in the 1980s is that the explorers lost their way for three weeks, victims of the famous "blinding effect" of the Llano Estacado. Coronado referred to an interval '. . . while we were lost on these plains' - and the silence and vagueness in this section of the chronicles suggests that all of the Spaniards were disoriented.

"在他的书中，博尔顿首先承认了这段历史的存在，他说'……[他们]在人迹罕至的平原上游荡了许多天，大概是往东南方向走。'然后，我们可以感觉到，他突然间“确定”图雷峡谷是第一个峡谷，帕罗杜罗峡谷是第二个峡谷，在今天的德克萨斯时，西班牙人从未离开过埃斯塔卡多平原。尽管这可能是一个合理的猜测，但是科罗纳多和他的同伴们发现了帕洛杜罗峡谷(现在是德克萨斯州风景最优美的国家公园)，并考察了图雷峡谷及其周围——有令人信服的证据表明，征服者们确实离开了大草原，并且比博尔顿猜测的要往南走得更远。
"In his book, Bolton first acknowledges the existence of this gap by admitting '. . . [ they] wandered for many days over the trackless plains going generally southeastward.' Then, with sudden strokes, we learn he is "certain" that Tule Canyon was the First Barranca, that Palo Duro Canyon was the Second Barranca, and that the Spaniards never left the Llano Estacado while they were in present-day Texas. Although it is probably a sound surmise that Coronado and his crew discovered the Palo Duro Canyon [now the most scenic state park in Texas] and explored in and around Tule Canyon - there is convincing evidence that the conquistadores did leave the Llano and did journey much farther south than Bolton suspected.

"作为一名路线向导，博尔顿博士步伐轻快，以军事上的精准度带领他的西班牙人到达目的地。例如，他告诉我们，科罗纳多和他绑在基维拉的骑兵们“……登上了西经100度以西的德州狭长地带......然后继续向东移动，穿过堪萨斯南部，到达阿肯色河。
"As a trail guide, Dr. Bolton has a springy step and takes his Spaniards to their destinations with military precision. He informs us, for example, that Coronado and his Quivira-bound horsemen, . . ascended the Texas Panhandle west of the 100th meridian ... and continued with a slight eastward swing through southern Kansas to the Arkansas River.

"同样地，他指出印第安导游带领阿雷拉诺和他的部队从在普莱维尤和图利亚之间的南图雷河，‘几乎正西方向’前进,来到缪尔舒附近的布莱克沃特德罗,登上新墨西哥州的波塔莱斯谷,沿着埃斯卡多大草原的栅栏往下走，来到泰班的一个泉水边，然后到达老萨姆纳堡附近的佩科斯河……就在通往出口的路上建的那座桥下面。
"And with equal dispatch, he states that Indian guides led Arellano and his army 'almost due west' up the South Tule River between Plainview and Tulia, on to Blackwater Draw, near Muleshoe, up New Mexico's Portales Valley, down the palisades of the Llano Estacado to a spring at Taiban, and thence to the Pecos River near old Fort Sumner". . . below the bridge that had been built on the outward journey.

"在赫伯特·博尔顿完成《科罗纳多，普韦布洛斯和平原的骑士》这本书之前，研究科罗纳多之旅的德州学生就开始发表他们自己的发现了。1944年，德克萨斯历史学家W. C.霍尔顿回顾了编年史，以步行和骑马的方式，走过了赫伯特·博尔顿走过的地方，并驳斥了博尔顿关于科罗纳多离开佩科河，直接前向加拿大河的结论。霍尔顿博士认为，征服者们沿着佩科山脉向圣罗莎进发，然后转向东方，沿着一条“中间交叉”的印第安小道爬上大草原，然后来到弗里奥拉。这个假设使他得出这样的结论:科罗纳多遇到的克雷科印第安人不是在加拿大，而是在得克萨斯州赫里福德以东的弗里奥河和蒂拉布兰卡小溪的汇合处。
"Texas students of Coronado's journeys began printing their own findings even before Herbert Bolton finished Coronado, Knight of Pueblos and Plains. In 1944, W. C. Holden, a Texas historian, reviewed the chronicles, walked or rode over the same ground Herbert Bolton had traversed, and rejected Bolton's conclusion that Coronado left the Pecos and marched directly to the Canadian River. It was Dr. Holden's judgment that the conquistadores hugged the Pecos to Santa Rosa, then turned east and climbed onto the Llano on a "middle crossing" Indian trail that took them down Frio Draw. That assumption caused him to conclude that Coronado met the Querecho Indians not on the Canadian, but at the confluence of the Frio and Tierra Blanca creeks, east of Hereford, Texas.

"著名的石油地质学家E. 德高勒是下一个解决科罗纳多难题的德州人。他是第一个提出科罗纳多不仅向南走了很远，而且在他转身去寻找基维拉之前，他实际上已经离开了大草原。德高勒在黄屋峡谷的卢博克市东南几英里处找到了第一个峡谷，并确定第二个峡谷的位置是在该区域以北，埃斯塔卡多平原的盖层海角以东的'裂口'。
"The noted petroleum geologist E. DeGolyer was the next Texan to tackle the Coronado conundrum. He was the first to suggest that Coronado not only traveled much farther south but actually rode off the Llano before he turned about on his quest for Quivira. DeColyer located the First Barranca a few miles southeast of Lubbock in Yellowhouse Canyon and fixed the site of the Second Barranca north of that locale in the 'breaks' somewhere east of the Caprock promontories of the Llano Estacado.

然而，一位富有想象力的威奇托福尔斯高中教师对博尔顿的描述提出了很大的质疑。这位很有个性的路线神探就是J. W.威廉姆斯。他提出了优雅的园艺见解，以支持一种理论，即唐·弗朗西斯科不仅离开了盖岩，而且在他意识到自己被带往'错误的方向'之前，还前往了遥远的南方。
It was, however, an imaginative Wichita Falls high school instructor who raised the most serious questions about the Bolton scenario. This self-styled trail detective was J. W. Williams. He developed elegant horticultural insights to support a theory that Don Francisco not only left the Cap rock, but toured far to the south before he became aware he was being led in 'the wrong direction.'

"威廉姆斯是一位业余的植物学家，他的户外直觉告诉他，这片土地上的植物群——西班牙人描述的山核桃树、李子和野葡萄——可能会提供标记，确定路线的最南端，以解决“科罗纳多之谜”。他通过研究西德克萨斯本土树木的历史和总结有关该地区野生葡萄和李子成熟周期的专家知识，来研究这个“问题”。
"Williams was an amateur botanist, and his outdoor intuition told him the flora of the land - the pecan trees, plums, and wild grapes described by the Spaniards - might supply markers that would fix the southern terminus of the march and resolve "the Coronado tangle." He solved his "case" by studying the history of the native trees of West Texas and by compiling expert knowledge about the ripening cycles of wild grapes and plums in this region.

"作为植物学方面的夏洛克·福尔摩斯，威廉姆斯首先确定了大草原及其附近没有野生山核桃树。然后，他进行了一项分析，证明了拥有大片山核桃树林的西德克萨斯州最西部的县(即离新墨西哥州佩科斯河最近的县)是圣安杰洛北部的斯特林县。威廉姆斯接着'在地图上钉了一颗钉子'，把西班牙人定位在一个峡谷上，他认为那里才是他们的南行终点。
"As a botanical Sherlock Holmes, Williams first ascertained that there were no wild pecan trees in or near the Llano Estacado. He then conducted an analysis that demonstrated that the westernmost county in West Texas with large groves of pecan trees (i.e., the one closest to New Mexico's reach of the Pecos River) was Sterling County, just north of San Angelo. Williams next 'drove a nail into a map' to tie the Spaniards to the ravine where he presumed they ended their southerly wanderings.

"为了支持他的山核桃论点，J. W.威廉姆斯收集了一系列园艺证据，证明只有在斯特林县的纬度附近才能找到野生葡萄(很可能是野马品种)，这种葡萄六月'开始成熟'，当时科罗纳多和他的手下正在西德克萨斯。他觉得，这是大自然提供的证据，毋庸置疑的。
"To support his pecan thesis, J. W. Williams assembled an array of horticultural evidence demonstrating that only near the latitude of Sterling County would one find wild grapes (probably of the mustang variety) 'beginning to ripen' in June as Coronado and his men roamed about in West Texas. Here, he felt, was evidence offered by nature which, like a porcupine, would be difficult to deal with.

"自从25年前这个谦虚的高中老师第一次发表了他的发现,后来没有人提出过质疑。他的位置位于科罗拉多河的北孔乔支流，更像是河谷或山谷，而不是一个峡谷。然而，如果威廉姆斯的证据是无可辩驳的，那么很明显，他将赫伯特·博尔顿的德克萨斯路线论文辩驳得一文不值：图雷峡谷和帕罗杜罗峡谷不再是有历史意义的峡谷了;他确定，西班牙人不仅被走出了大草原，而且实际上，还进入了北孔乔河(卡韦萨·德瓦卡的'坚果河'的一条支流)的山谷，并在六年前与德瓦卡走过的路径交叉。最后，威廉姆斯的发现解释了卡斯塔涅达所写的‘……这是他们在佛罗里达方向的大转弯。’
"Since this modest high school teacher first published his findings, twenty-five years ago, no one has disputed the conclusions he developed while he was sleuthing in the bushes, although his site on the North Concho tributary of the Colorado River is more comparable to an arroyo or a valle than a barranca. Yet if Williams' evidence is irrefutable, it is obvious that he knocked Herbert Bolton's Texas trail thesis into a ten-gallon hat: he disqualified Tule and Palo Duro canyons as the two historic barrancas; he established that the Spaniards were not only led off the Llano but actually entered the valley of the North Concho River (a tributary of Cabeza de Vaca's 'river of nuts') and intersected the path followed by De Vaca six years earlier. And, finally, Williams' finding explained what Castaneda meant when he wrote about'. . . the great detour they had made toward Florida.'

"为了解决他的问题，J. W.威廉姆斯接着绘制了一条他认为是探险队返回新墨西哥的路线。根据地标,他得出结论,阿雷拉诺的印第安向导让他往北返回布拉索斯河的山双叉,沿河而上，经过卢博克，来到黄屋峡谷连接平原的狭长地带,然后通过波塔莱斯谷,泰本泉和萨姆纳堡，返回到佩科斯河。
"To tie up his loose ends, J. W. Williams then proceeded to plot a trail he presumed the expedition followed on its way back to New Mexico. Relying on landmarks, he concluded that Arellano's Indian guides had him backtrack north to the Double Mountain Fork of the Brazos River, up that stream past Lubbock to the area where Yellowhouse Canyon tapers into a plains draw, and then back to the Pecos River via the Portales Valley, Taiban Spring, and Fort Sumner.

"当威廉姆斯着手寻找第一个峡谷的时候，他在论文的结论中犯了一个明显的错误。编年史上写得很清楚，这两个峡谷在同一植物带里，只相距几英里。然而，这位精力充沛的学者却不去研究他收集到的花样，却宣布第一个峡谷是基塔克峡谷，它是德克萨斯州盖普罗克峡谷州立公园南部的一颗美丽的宝石。这个选择很奇怪，因为基塔克在圣安吉洛以北200英里处，远离山核桃果园，在这个纬度上，葡萄不会在6月成熟。
"Williams made an obvious mistake at the conclusion of his paper when he undertook the task of locating the First Barranca. The chronicles are clear that the two barrancas were a few miles apart in the same botanical belt. Yet this energetic schoolman turned his back on the floral proofs he had gathered and announced that the First Barranca was Quitaque Canyon, a scenic jewel just south of Texas' Caprock Canyons State Park. This choice was odd, because Quitaque is two hundred miles north of San Angelo, out of the pecan orchards, at a latitude where grapes do not ripen in the month of June.

"以 J. W. 威廉姆斯提供的基本数据为基础，下一个研究科罗纳多难题的西德克萨斯人是阿比林的著名律师R. M. 瓦格斯塔夫。瓦格斯塔夫认为威廉姆斯关于树木和灌木的证据是“无可辩驳的”，但他相信这位威奇托福尔斯的老师在基塔奎的问题上是有错误的。瓦格斯塔夫熟练地利用威廉姆斯的树木和灌木丛理论来证明第一个峡谷应该是斯特林县的北孔乔峡谷——而不是奎塔克峡谷。
"Building on the basic data provided by J. W. Williams, the next West Texan to tackle the Coronado thicket was R. M. Wagstaff, a prominent Abilene lawyer. Wagstaff regarded Williams' tree-and-shrub evidence as 'unanswerable,' but he was convinced the Wichita Falls teacher was wrong about Quitaque. Wagstaff adroitly used Williams' trees and bushes to prove that the North Concho ravine in Sterling County - not Quitaque Canyon - was the First Barranca.

"激起瓦格斯塔夫律师兴趣的是博尔顿和其他人基本上都忽略了的事实。吸引这个“律师转行的侦探”的是在这两份历史记录中的一个简单描述：当科罗纳多离开第二个峡谷，出发前往奎维拉时，他用指南针“指针向北”的方向前进，到达阿肯色河在堪萨斯州开始的大拐弯处。瓦格斯塔夫认为，由美国最高法院认可的神圣证据规则——以及关于征服者在夏季的四天内行走距离的常识计算——他能沿着经度线找到西班牙人所说的第二个峡谷的地方。
"Solicitor Wagstaff's interest was piqued by facts Bolton and the others had largely overlooked. What caught the eye of this barrister-turned-detective was the flat declaration in two of the chronicles that when Coronado left the Second Barranca and set out for Quivira, he used a compass to march "north by the needle" to the point where the great bend of the Arkansas River begins in Kansas. Wagstaff reasoned that a hallowed rule of evidence sanctioned by the U.S. Supreme Court – and some commonsense calculations about the distance the conquistadores traveled in four summer days - would enable him to follow a line of longitude and locate the ravine the Spaniards described as the Second Barranca.

"在共和国早期的一个著名的边界案件中，美国最高法院认为，一个'已知点'可以与指南针的方向联系起来，'……通过常识'是'反向推断'，以确定需要建立标记或边界线的一个未知点。根据这一规则，瓦格斯塔夫从堪萨斯州的福特镇向正南方向划了一条线，到布法罗峡谷以西的布拉索斯河榆树叉上的一个峡谷，这片区域与得克萨斯州的斯威特沃特和阿比林市的距离相等。他以一种法理上的夸张口吻宣称，这就是第二个峡谷的位置。
"In a famous boundary case in the early years of the republic, the U.S. Supreme Court held that where a 'known point' can be linked to a direction of the compass '. . . the dictate of common sense' is to 'reverse the calls' to locate an unknown point needed to establish a marker or a boundary line. Using this rule of law, Wagstaff drew a line due south from the town of Ford, Kansas, to a ravine on the Elm Fork of the Brazos River west of Buffalo Gap - in an area equidistant from the cities of Sweetwater and Abilene, Texas. With a legalistic flourish, he proclaimed this was the site of the Second Barranca.

"如果有人认为'瓦格斯塔夫路线'是合乎逻辑的，并且认为科罗纳多在'各个方向'都派出了他的骑手——那么就可以推断，1541年的征服者们成功地探索了子午线100度两边至少25英里宽的一片土地。这也就意味着，科罗纳多和他的30名同伴经历了得克萨斯州西部、俄克拉何马州和堪萨斯州西南部的大量毫无防备的社区。
"If one accepts the 'Wagstaff Line' as being logical - and also assumes that Coronado sent his riders '... out in all directions' - it follows that the 1541 conquistadores effectively explored a belt of land at least twenty-five miles wide on either side of the 100th meridian. This means, in turn, that a large number of unsuspecting communities in West Texas, Oklahoma, and southwestern Kansas were in the path of discovery trod by Coronado and his thirty companions.

瓦格斯塔夫律师在结束他的论述之前还说了最后一点。为了证明西班牙人曾探索过西德克萨斯的中部地区，他着重研究了西班牙编年史中谈到的唐·弗朗西斯科的路线与卡韦萨·德·瓦卡的路线重叠的段落。卡斯塔涅达写道:‘……卡韦萨·德·瓦卡和多兰蒂斯走过这条路。’同样，哈拉米略提到，在其中一个峡谷‘……有一位蓄着胡子的盲人老人，他在许多天前曾见过另外四个像我们一样的人。‘对瓦格斯塔夫来说，这些参考资料表明，总船长到达了科罗拉多河高地上泰亚斯印第安人的夏季狩猎场，因此有力地证明了这两个历史性的峡谷都位于西德克萨斯的斯特林-阿比林-斯威特沃特三角地带。
Counselor Wagstaff made one final point before he rested his case. To prove the Spaniards explored the midsection of West Texas, he focused on passages in the Spanish chronicles that demonstrate that Don Francisco's route overlapped Cabeza de Vaca's. Castaneda wrote: '. . . Cabeza de Vaca and Dorantes had passed this way.' Likewise, Jaramillo mentioned that at one of the barrancas '. . . there was an old blind man with a beard' who 'had seen four others like us many days before." To Wagstaff, these references demonstrated that the captain general reached the summer hunting ground of the Teyas Indians in the Colorado River uplands and was thus cogent evidence that both historic barrancas were in the Sterling-Abilene-Sweetwater triangle of West Texas.

对此，我要说的是:除了考古证据，所有这些听起来和其它任何事情一样可信。(比如，探险队的盘子在峡谷遭遇冰雹时摔碎的碎片都到哪里去了?)但是，我不太相信科罗纳多遇到了一个知道卡韦萨·德·瓦卡穿过该地区的“有胡子的老盲人”，并以此证明他的路线与卡韦萨·德·瓦卡的路线相交。这是整整十年后的事了，那个老盲人很可能已经死了，胡须在当时的文化中可能不是很独特的。难道就不会更多的蓄着胡子的老瞎子听说过如此令人难以置信的事情：三个白人和一个黑人正在施行奇迹般的治疗，于是吸引了方圆几英里的印第安人吗?
To which I say: All this sounds as plausible as anything else, barring archaeological evidence. (Like, where are all the shards from the expedition’s dishes that got broken in the hailstorm at the barranca?) But, I wouldn’t pin too much on Coronado’s encounter with an “old blind man with a beard” who knew of Cabeza de Vaca’s passage through the area as proving his path intersected with Cabeza de Vaca’s. This was a good decade later, the old blind man might very well have died, and beards probably were not unique in the culture of the time. Might there not be more than one old bearded blind man who had at least heard the mind-boggling news that three white men with a black man were performing miraculous cures that were drawing Indians from miles around?

不好意思，我不是故意让你厌烦的。你是来大峡谷玩的。但如果你想了解德克萨斯，那还是有点意思的。
Sorry. Didn’t mean to bore you. You’re here for the Grand Canyon. But if you know Texas, it’s kind of interesting.

● 获得书籍
● GET BOOK