Antonio de Espejo
In February 1583, Espejo arrived at the territory of the Piros, the most southerly of the Pueblo villagers. From there the Spanish continued up the Rio Grande. Espejo described the Pueblo villages as "clean and tidy". The houses were multi-storied and made of adode bricks. "They make very fine tortillas," Espejo commented, and the Pueblos also served the Spanish turkeys, beans, corns, and pumpkins. The people "did not seem to be bellicose". The southernmost Pueblos had only clubs for weapons plus a few "poor Turkish bows and poorer arrows". Further north, the Indians were better armed and more aggressive. Some of the Pueblo towns were large, Espejo described Zia as having 1,000 houses and 4,000 men and boys. In their farming, the Pueblos used irrigation "with canals and dams, built as if by Spaniards". The only Spanish influence that Espejo noted among the Pueblos was their desire for iron. They would steal any iron article they could find.
Pingpu peoples
The Plains aborigines have once owned extensive space for agriculture and hunting. They solved their disputes by means of betel-nuts treats, apologies or fights. They led a life of self-sufficiency without restriction and suppression from outside regulations or foreign armies. For a very long time, before the arrival of the Han Chinese, the Plains aborigines only used simple agricultural tools, such as sticks and spades, to plant millet, taro and yam. And they only produced what they required for living. Without knowledge of fertiliser, they always found new lands to plant when the land was exhausted. In addition, they still lived on primitive ways of fishing and hunting. The hunting methods included traps, spears and arrows. And they used nets, baskets and arrows for fishing. Usually, women were responsible for farming, while young men took on hunting and fishing jobs. Their hunting targets were mainly deer and wild boars. There were regular seasons for hunting deer and it was prohibited to hunt young deer, in order to maintain the ecological balance. When the Dutch occupied Taiwan, they have taught the Plains aborigines farming skills and administered a policy of breeding farm cattle. They indirectly ruled the indigenes and managed the land cultivation. After the improvement of farming skills, the Plains aborigines changed their crop into rice. This happened more obviously to the southern tribes that had earlier contacts with foreigners. The northern tribes still planted millet mostly until the early Qing period.