404 THE CORONADO EXPEDITION, 1540-1542 [eth.ask.14 



had scut out under tlie command of Ulloa the previous summer, turned 

 back from these shoals, and Alarcon's sailors begged him not to venture 

 among them. But the question of a passage by water through to the 

 South, or Pacific, sea, which would make an island of the California 

 peninsula, was still debated, and Alarcon refused to return until he had 

 definitely determined the possibility of finding such a passage. His 

 pilots ran the ships aground, but after a careful examination of the 

 channel, the fleet was floated across the bar in safety, with the aid of 

 the rising tide. Alarcon found that he was at tlie mouth of a large 

 river, with so swift and strong a current that it was impossible for the 

 large vessels to make any headway against it. He determined to explore 

 the river, and, taking twenty men in two boats, started upstream on 

 Thursday, August 26, 1540, when white men for the first time floated on 

 the waters of the Colorado. Indians appeared on the river banks dur- 

 ing the following day. The silence with which the strangers answered 

 the threatening shouts of the natives, and the presence of the Indian 

 interpreters in the boats, soon overcame the hostile attitude of the sav- 

 ages. The European trifles which had been brought for gifts and for 

 trading completed the work of establishing friendly relations, and the 

 Indians soon became so well disposed that they entirely relieved the 

 Spaniards of the labor of dragging the boats up the stream. A crowd 

 of Indians seized the ropes by which the boats were hauled against the 

 current, and from this time on some of them were always ready to 

 render this service to their visitors. In this fashion the Spaniards con- 

 tinued northward, receiving abundant supplies of corn from the natives, 

 whose habits and customs they had many excellent opportunities for 

 observing. Alarcon instructed these people dutifully in the worship 

 of the cross, and continually questioned them about the places whose 

 names Friar Marcos had heard. He met with no success until he had 

 traveled a considerable distance up the river, when for the first time he 

 found a man with whom his interpreter was able to converse. 



This man said that he had visited Cibola, which was a month's jour- 

 ney distant. There was a good trail by which one might easily reach 

 that country in forty days. The man said he had gone there merely 

 to see the place, since it was quite a curiosity, with its houses three 

 and four stories high, filled with people. Around the houses there was 

 a wall half as high again as a man, having windows on each side. The 

 inhabitants used the usual Indian weapons — bows and arrows, clubs, 

 maces, and shields. They wore mantles and ox hides, which were 

 painted. They had a single rider, who wore a long shirt with a girdle, 

 and various mantles over this. The women wore long white cloaks 

 which completely covered them. There were always many Indians 

 waiting about the door of their ruler, ready in case he should wish for 

 anything. They also wore many blue stones which they dug out of a 

 rock — the turquoises of the other narratives. They had but one wife, 

 and when they died all their effects were buried with them. When 



