34 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [boll. 73 
Thus his testimony may be confidently accepted. . . . It is from Castro's report and 
after several enquiries into this seizure that we have learned that the women brought from 
that region wear lions' skins and the men wear skins of all other wild beasts. He says 
these people are white and larger than the generality of men. When they were landed 
some of them searched among the rubbish heaps along the town ditches for decaying 
bodies of dogs and asses with which to satisfy their hunger. Most of them died of 
misery, while those who survived were divided among the colonists of Hispaniola, 
who disposed of them as they pleased, either in their houses, the gold-mines, or their 
fields. 
Farther on Peter Martyr gives Ayllon, "one of those at whose 
expense the two ships had been equipped," and his Indian servant, 
Francisco of Chicora, as additional informants, and states that he 
had sometimes invited them to his table. 
In 1523 Ayllon obtained a royal cedula securing to him exclusive 
right of settlement within the limits of a strip of coast on either side 
of the place where his subordinate had come to land. In 1525, being 
unable to visit the new land himself, in order to secure his rights he 
sent two caravels to explore his territory under Pedro de Quexos. 
" They regained the good will of the natives," says Shea, "and explored 
the coast for 250 leagues, setting up stone crosses with the name of 
Charles V and the date of the act of taking possession. They 
returned to Santo Domingo in July, 1525, bringing one or two Indians 
from each province, who might be trained to act as interpreters." 1 
After considerable delay Ayllon himself sailed for his new government 
early in June, 1526, with three large vessels, 600 persons of both 
sexes, including priests and physicians, and 100 horses. They 
reached the North American coast at the mouth of a river calcu- 
lated by them to be in north latitude 33 Q 40', and they called it the 
Jordan — from the name of one of Ayllon's captains, it is said. Here, 
however, Ayllon lost one of his vessels, and his interpreters, including 
Francisco of Chicora, deserted him. Dissatisfied with the region in 
which he had landed and obtaining news of one better from a party 
he had sent along the shore, Ayllon determined to remove, and he 
seems to have followed the coast. The explorers are said to have 
continued for 40 or 45 leagues until they came to a river called 
Gualdape, where they began a settlement, which was called San 
Miguel de Gualdape. The land hereabout was fiat and full of marshes. 
The river was large and well stocked with fish, but the entrance was 
shallow and passable only at high tide. The colony did not prosper, 
the weather became severe, many sickened and died, and on October 
18, 1526, Ayllon died also. Trouble soon broke out among the sur- 
viving colonists and finally, in the middle of a severe winter, those 
that were left sailed back to Hispaniola. 2 
Shea, op. Pit., p. 240. 2 Ibid., p. 241. 
