348 THE CORONADO EXPEDITION, 1540-1542 Ieth.ann.h 



in the winter of 1528-29. Toward the end of April, 1536, Oabeza de 

 Vaca, Alonso del Castillo Maldonado, Andres Dorantes, and a negro 

 named Estevan, met some Spanish slave catchers near the liio de Peta- 

 tlan, in Siualoa, west of the mountains which border the Gulf of Cali- 

 fornia. These four men, with a single exception, 1 were the only survivors 

 of the three hundred who had entered the continent with Narvaez 

 eight years before. 



Cabeza de Vaca and his companions stayed in Mexico for several 

 months, as the guests of the viceroy, Don Antonio de Mendoza. At 

 iirst, it was probably the intention of the three Spaniards to return to 

 Spain, in order to claim the due reward for their manifold sufferings. 

 Mendoza says, in a letter dated December 10, 1537,* that he purchased 

 the negro Estevan from Dorantes, so that there might be someone left 

 in New Spain who could guide an expedition back into the countries 

 about which the wanderers had heard. An earlier letter from the 

 viceroy, dated February 11, 1537, commends Cabeza de Vaca and Fran- 

 cisco Dorantes — he must have meant Andres, and perhaps wrote it so 

 in his original manuscript — as deserving the favor of the Empress. 

 Maldonado is not mentioned in this letter, and no trace of him has 

 been found after the arrival of the four survivors in Mexico. All that 

 we know about him is that his home was in Salamanca. 3 



Cabeza de Vaca and Dorantes started from Vera Cruz for Spain in 

 October, 1536, but their vessel was stranded before it got out of the 

 harbor. This accident obliged them to postpone their departure until 

 the following spring, when Cabeza de Vaca returned home alone. He 

 told the story of his wanderings to the court and the King, and was 

 rewarded, by 1540, with an appointment as adelantado, giving him the 

 command over the recently occupied regions about the liio de la Plata. 

 The position was one for which he was unfitted, and his subordinates 



traversed. Or J. G. Shea, in his chapter in the Narrative and Critical History of America, vol. ii, p. 

 286, disagrees in some points with Mr Baiidelier's interpretation of the route of Cabeza de Vaca west 

 of Texas, and also with Mr Smith's identifications of the different points in The march of the main 

 army before it embarked from the Bahia de los Cavallos. Other interesting conjectures are gives in 

 II. II. Bancroft's North Mexican States, vol. i. p. tiii, and map at p. 67. 



'Buckingham Smith collected in his Letter of Hernando de Soto, pp. 57-61, and in his Narrativt of 

 the Career of Hernando ile Soto (see index), all that is known in regard t" Ortiz, one of the soldiers of 

 Narvaez, who was found among the Indians by De Soto in 1540. 



M' ndoza to Charles V, 10 Diciemhre, 1537. Cabeza de Vaca y Dorantes, • . . despues de haher 

 llegadoaqui, determinaron de irseenEspana, yviendo que si V. M. era servidode enviaraquellatierra 

 alguna gente para saher de ciertoio que era, no quedaba persona que pudiese irconella nidarninguna 

 razon, compre .i Dorantes para este ofecto un uegro que vino do alia y se hallo con ellos en todo,que se 

 llama Esteban, porser persona de razon. Despues sucedio, comoelnavioenque Dorantes ibase volvid 

 al i tuc i to, y sabido esto, yo le escrihi a la Vera-Cruz, rogandole que vini.se aqni; y como llego & esta 

 ciiolad, yo le liable diciendole que hubiese por bieu de volver a esta tierra eon algunos religiosos y 

 gente de eaballo, que yoledaria :\ caialla, y saber deoierto loqueen ella habia. Y el vista mivoluntad, 

 y el servicio que yo le puse delantre que hacia con ello a Dios y a V. M., me responded que holgaba 

 dello, y asi estoy determinado deenvialle alia con la gente de eaballo y religiosos que digo. I'ienso i]iie 

 hade redundar dello gran servicio a Dios ya v. M.— From the text printed in Pacheco y Cardenas, 

 Docs.de Indias, ii, 206. 



'Some recent writers have been misled by a chance comma inserted by the copyist or printer in one 

 of the old narratives, which divides the name of Maldonado— Alonso del Castillo, Maldonado— making 

 it appear as if there were five instead of four survivors of the Narvaez expedition who made then 

 way to Mexico. 



