196 ■ EIvDORADO 



ing care to have a knife in their hand ; and being se- 

 cure against the sea-water, they throw themselves into 

 the ocean. Here they are soon perceived by a large 

 eagle called a griffin which takes them for cattle, darts 

 down and seizes them in his grip, and carries them 

 upon dry land where he deposits his burden upon a hill 

 or in a dale there to consume his prey. The man. 

 however, now makes use of his knife to kill the bird 

 and creeps forth from his hide. Many people have 

 been saved by this strategem." 



Another traveler, writing of the strange lands he 

 had visited in this region of the world, says : "In 

 one of these islands are people of great stature like 

 giants, hideous to look upon, and they have but one 

 eye which is in the middle of the forehead, and they 

 eat nothing but raw flesh and fish." "And in another 

 isle toward the south dwell people of cursed nature 

 wlio have no head, but their eyes are in their shoul- 

 ders. And in another isle there are dwarfs which have 

 no mouth, but instead they have a little round hole 

 through which they take their food and drink by means 

 of a pipe or pen or something by sucking it in. Many 

 other diverse people of diverse natures there are in 

 other isles and lands there about." 



That California was the land mentioned In tlie 

 novelist in T510, cannot be dovibted, as it was con- 

 sidered an island and placed upon the maps as sik ■■ 

 until the Vicerov of Spain, in 1686 (luore than one 

 hundred and fifty years after Cortez), visited the 

 country and discovered and reported it to be a part 

 of the main land of the continent of America. T have 

 chosen from what is regarded as the most authentic 

 and reliable historical accounts obtainable of the early 



