506 THE COKONADO EXPEDITION, 1540-1542 [eth.ann.14 



When the general came up with the army and saw the great quantity 

 of .skins, lie thought he would divide them among the men, and placed 

 guards so that they could look at them. But when the men arrived and 

 saw that the general was sending some of his companions with orders 

 for the guards to give them some of the skins, and that these were 

 going to select the best, they were angry because they were not going 

 to be divided evenly> and made a rush, and in less than a quarter of 

 an hour nothing was left but the empty ground. 



The natives who happened to see this also took a hand in it. The 

 women and some others were left crying, because they thought that 

 the strangers were not going to take anything, but would bless them 

 as Cabeza de Vaca and Dorantes had done when they passed through 

 here. They found an Indian girl here who was as white as a Castilian 

 lady, except that she had her chin painted like a Moorish woman. In 

 general they all paint themselves in this way here, and they decorate 

 their eyes. 



Chapter 20, of how great stones fell in the camp, and how they discov- 

 ered another ravine, where the army teas divided into tiro parts. 



While the army was resting in this ravine, as we have related, a 

 tempest came up one afternoon with a very high wind and hail, and in 

 a very short space of time a great quantity of hailstones, as big as bowls, 

 or bigger, fell as thick as raindrops, so that in places they covered 

 the ground two or three spans or more deep. And one hit the horse — 

 or I should say, there was not a horse that did not break away, except 

 two or three which the negroes protected by holding large sea nets 

 over them, with the helmets and shields which all the rest wore; 1 

 and some of them dashed up on to the sides of the ravine so that they 

 got them down with great difficulty. If this had struck them while 

 they were upon the plain, the army would have been in great dan- 

 ger of being left without its horses, as there were many which they 

 were not able to cover. 2 The hail broke many tents, and battered 

 many helmets, and wounded many of the horses, and broke all the 

 crockery of the army, and the gourds, which was no small loss, because 

 they do not have any crockery in this region. They do not make gourds, 

 nor sow corn, nor eat bread, but instead raw meat — or only half cooked — 

 and fruit. 



■The Spanish text is very confused. Ternauxsaya: " Leschevaux ronipirent leura lieua et s'echap- 

 pereut tuns a ['exception de deux on trois qui furent retenus par des negrea qui avaient pris des cas- 

 ones el des boucliers pour se iueltre a l'abri. Le vent en enleva d'autrea et lea colla contre lee paroia 

 du ravin." 



2 M.itu l'adilla, xxxiii. 3, p. 165: "A la priinera barranca. . . . a las trea de la tarde hicieron alto, 

 y repentinaniente un reciu viento lea llevo una nube tan caxgada, que causn horror el granizo, que dea- 

 pedia tan gruesos conio nuecea, huevos de gallina y de ansares, de suerte que era Decesario arrodeiarae 

 para la resiatencia; los caballos dieron estampida y se pusieron en fuga, y no se pudieran hallar si la 

 barranca no los detiene ; laa tiendas que Be habiau armado quedaron rotas, y qnebradas todas las alias, 

 cazuelas, comales y denias vasijas: y ariigidos run tan varioa sucesos. detenninaron en aqneldiaque 

 fue el de Ascension del Senor de 541, que el ejercito se volvieae a. liguea a reparar, coiiiu que era tierra 

 abasteoida de todo." 



