486 THE CORONADO EXPEDITION, 1540-1542 [eth.ann.14 



captain beard that there bad been ships at a point three days down 

 toward the sea. When he reached the place where the ships had been, 

 which was more than 15 leagues up the river from the mouth of the 

 harbor, they found written on a tree: "Alarcon reached this place; 

 there are letters at the foot of this tree." He dug up the letters and 

 learned from them how long Alarcon had waited for news of the army 

 and that he had gone back with the ships to New Spain, because he was 

 unable to proceed farther, since this sea was a bay, which was formed 

 by the Isle of the Marquis, 1 which is called California, and it was 

 explained that California was not an island, but a point of the main- 

 land forming the other side of that gulf. 



After he had seen this, the captain turned back to go up the river, 

 without going down to the sea, to find a ford by which to cross to the 

 other side, so as to follow the other bank. After they had gone live or 

 six days, it seemed to them as if they could cross on rafts. For this 

 purpose they called together a large number of the natives, who were 

 waiting for a favorable opportunity to make an attack on our men, and 

 when they saw that the strangers wanted to cross, they helped make 

 the rafts with all zeal and diligence, so as to catch them in this way on 

 the water and drown them or else so divide them that they could not 

 heli> one another. While the rafts were being made, a soldier who had 

 been out around the camp saw a large number of armed men go across 

 to a mountain, where they were waiting till the soldiers should cross 

 the river. He reported this, and an Indian was quietly shut up, in 

 order to find out the truth, and when they tortured him he told all the 

 arrangements that had been made. These were, that when our men 

 were crossing and part of them had got over and part were on the river 

 and part were waiting to cross, those who were on the rafts should 

 drown those they were taking across and the rest of their force should 

 make an attack on both sides of the river. If they had had as much 

 discretion and courage as they had strength and power, the attempt 

 would have succeeded. 



When he knew their plan, the captain had the Indian who had con- 

 fessed the affair killed secretly, and that night he was thrown into the 

 river with a weight, so that the Indians would not suspect that they 

 were found out. The next day they noticed that our men suspected 

 them, and so they made an attack, shooting showers of arrows, but 

 when the horses began to catch up with them and the lances wounded 

 them without mercy and the musketeers likewise made good shots, they 

 had to leave the plain and take to the mountain, until not a man of 

 them was to be seen. The force then came back and crossed all right, 

 the Indian allies and the Spaniards going across on the rafts and the 

 horses swimming alongside the rafts, where we will leave them to con- 

 tinue their journey. 2 



' Cortes. 



f -Mota Padilla, sec. xxxii, p. 158, says: Melchior Diaa paso el rio del Tison "en uuos cestoa grandes 

 que loa indios tieuen aderezados run un betum que do lespasael agua, y asides de 61 cuatroo eeis indios, 

 lo llevau nadando, . . . a lo que ayudaron tambien las indias." 



