480 THE CORONADO EXPEDITION, 1540-1542 [eth.ajto.H 



all did not know how to fasten the packs, and as the horses started off 

 fat and plump, they had a good deal of difficulty and labor during the 

 first few days, and many left many valuable things, giving them to 

 anyone who wanted them, in order to get rid of carrying them. In the 

 end necessity, which is all powerful, made them skillful, so that one 

 could see many gentlemen become carriers, and anybody who despised 

 this work was not considered a man. With such labors, which they 

 then thought severe, the army reached Chiametla, where it was obliged 

 to delay several days to procure food. During this time the army- 

 master, Lope de Samaniego, went oft' with some soldiers to find food, 

 and at one village, a crossbowman having entered it indiscreetly in 

 pursuit of the enemies, they shot him through the eye and it passed 

 through his brain, so that he died on the spot. 1 They also shot five or 

 six of his companions before Diego Lopez, the alderman from Seville, 

 since the commander was dead, collected the men and sent word to the 

 general. He put a guard in the village and over the provisions. There 

 was great confusion in the army when this news became known. He 

 was buried here. Several sorties were made, by which food was ob- 

 tained and several of the natives taken prisoners. They hanged those 

 who seemed to belong to the district where the army-master was killed. 

 It seems that when the general Francisco Vazquez left Culiacan 

 with Friar Marcos to tell the viceroy Don Antonio de Mendoza the 

 news, as already related, he left orders for Captain Melchior Diaz and 

 Juan de Saldivar to start off with a dozen good men from Culiacan and 

 verify what Friar Marcos had seen and heard. They started and went 

 as far as Chichilticalli, which is where the wilderness begins, 220 leagues 

 from Culiacan, and there they turned back, not finding anything impor- 

 tant. They reached Chiametla just as the army was ready to leave, 

 and reported to the general. Although the bad news was kept as 

 secret as possible, some things leaked out which did not seem to add 

 luster to the facts. 2 Friar Marcos, noticing that some were feeling dis- 

 turbed, cleared away these clouds, promising that what they would see 

 should be good, and that the army was on the way to a country where 

 their hands would be filled, and in this way lie quieted them so that 

 they appeared well satisfied. From there the army marched to Culia- 

 can, making some detours into the country to seize provisions. They 

 were two leagues from the town of Culiacan at Easter vespers, when the 



'The account which Mota Fadilla gives, cap. xxii, sec. 4, p. 11-, is much clearer and more specific 

 than the somewhat confused text of Caataneda. lie says: "A Chametla . . . hallaron la tierra 

 alzatla, de suerte que fue precise entrar a la sierra en busca de maiz, y por cabo el maese de campo, 

 Lopez de Samaniego; internarouse en la espesura de un monte, en donde an soldado que inadvertida- 

 mente se aparto, fue aprehemlido per los indios, dio voces, li las que, como vigilante, acudio el maese 

 de campo, y libro del peligro al soldado, y pareciendole estar seguro, alzo la vista a tiempo que de 

 entre unos matorralesse lo clisparo una flecha, que entrandole porun ojo, le atraves6 el cerebro. . . . 

 Samaniego (era) uno de loa mas esforzados capitanes y auiado de todos: enterrose en una raniada, 

 de donde despues sus huesos fueron trasladados a Compostela." 



■Compare the Spanish text. — The report of Diaz is incorporated in the letter from Mendoza to 

 the King, translated herein. This letter seems to imply that Diaz stayed at Chichilticalli; but if 

 such was his intention when writing the report to Jlendoza, he must have changed his mind and 

 returned with Saldivar as far as Chiametla. 



