436 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1917. 



the year without any other thing; but even the nuts they do not have every 

 season, as the tree produces in alternate years. The fruit is the size of that 

 in Galicia [Spain], the trees are very large and numerous/ 

 Oviedo's account of the same place says : 



There were on the banks (en las costas) of the river many nuts, which the 

 Indians ate in their season, coming from twenty or thirty leagues round about. 

 These nuts were much smaller than those of Spain.* 



The location of this river of nuts has been the matter of consider- 

 able investigation by Baskett, who decides that it was the Guadalupe, 

 somewhere in its lower course. The time is given by Hodge as the 

 year 1533. 



In view of the wide distribution along the wooded bottom lands, 

 bordering the lower course of most of the rivers of middle and east- 

 ern Texas, of several species of trees related to the walnuts, one can 

 hardly state with certainty what kind is here concerned. However, 

 the habitat, the great size of the tree, the edible quality, and the size 

 of the nuts (in case Oviedo was right) would strongly suggest that 

 the accounts here refer to one of the many pecan groves which 

 occur in localities like that here described. 



The problem faced by the translator of Spanish annals is an im- 

 portant one for us, since Texas was visited for centuries by Span- 

 iards who left accounts of their travels, and scholars wishing to 

 render these stories into accurate English usage have to decide what 

 to call the nuts there mentioned. Some have adhered to the philo- 

 logical aspect of the matter and in translating the words nueces and 

 nogales have used the terms nivts and walnuts^ while others have 

 adopted the word pecan as the probable modem name of the trees 

 discussed. The latter course involves a botanical as well as a philo- 

 logical judgment and might lead to error if incorrectly employed. 

 It seems to me, however, highly probable that the tree seen by Cabega 

 and Oviedo on the banks of the Guadalupe in 1533 was the pecan 

 as certain translators have regarded it. 



At a somewhat later date, Hernando de Soto entered the pecan 

 area from the north and east. Between 1539 and 1542 he traversed 

 the southeastern part of the present United States. An English 

 translation of his account is included in that treasury of adventure, 

 Hakluytus Posthumus or Purchas his Pilgrimes contayning a His- 

 tory of the World in Sea Voyages and Lande Travells by Englishmen 

 and others.^ 



1 Hodge, Frederick W., Spanish Explorers in the Southern United States, 1528-1543. 

 The Narrative of Alvar Nunez Cabega de Vaca. Scribner's Sons. 1907 : 59. 



2 Baskett, James Newton, A Study of the Route of Cabeza de Vaca. Texas Hist. Assoc. 

 Quart, 10 : 253. 1906-7. 



^ In the excellent edition published by James MacLehose and Sons, Glasgow, 1906, in 20 

 volumes, the account of De Soto's wanderings in America Is found in volumes 17 : 521-548 

 and 18 : 1-51. 



