Page:Don Coronado through Kansas.djvu/108

VSOPETE, THE KANSAN. 97 Ysdpete commune together discussing the difS-culties which were to be overcome; for the Quivira Indian had traversed the country when he was captured on the plains and brought to the mountains. Alonso and Monte made it a point to treat the Quivirian kindly and, more than that, meted out substantial benefits to him in the way of comforts; which to this plains Indian were delicious luxuries, and hence he would have devoted his life to his Spanish and Mex- ican friends; and all through the expedition the two - received many benefits by the sagacity and nobleness of the poor slave Indian, which repaid them many fold. Of course, up until the time when the army left Tiguex in February, 1541, our two young men did not have the advantage of the experi- ence of Ysopete. It was only after they left for th6- great cities of Quivira that he became their slave by choice. -But Alonso found himself very advanta- geously situated from the first day of the expedition, owing to the acquaintance of Monte with the natives^ for many of the chiefs had known his father, and the fact of his sire having been a great chief, they natur- ally respected his son; so frequently Alonso saw things which even Coronado never had any knowl- edge of and which would have been undiscovered by our hero had it not been for his servant Monte. All through the narratives written by the men whose province it was to record the history of the exploring party it is noted how frequently Spaniards died from a slight woundj because the arrow or spear which inflicted it was poisoned. Monte knew that the mountata tribes used this poison for he had been