winship] TRANSLATION OP CASTANEDA 539 



them more freely, without hindrance or observation, and lie kept send- 

 ing for his particular friends in order to ask them to be sure to speak 

 to the soldiers and encourage them to accompany him back to New 

 Spain, and to tell them that he would request the viceroy, Don Antonio 

 de Mendoza, to show them especial favor, and that he Mould do so him- 

 self for those who might wish to remain in his government. After this 

 had been done, he started with his army at a very bad time, when the rains 

 were beginning, for it was about Saint John's day, at which season it rains 

 continuously. In the uninhabited country which they passed through 

 as far as Oompostela there are numerous very dangerous rivers, full of 

 large and fierce alligators. While the army was halting at one of these 

 rivers, a soldier who was crossing from one side to the other was seized, 

 in sight of everybody, and carried off by an alligator without it being 

 possible to help him. The general proceeded, leaving the men who did 

 not want to follow him all along the way, and reached Mexico with less 

 than 100 men. He made his report to the viceroy, Don Antonio de 

 Mendoza, who did not receive him very graciously, although he gave 

 him his discharge. His reputation was gone from this time on. He 

 kept the government of New Galieia, which had been entrusted to him, 

 for only a short time, when the viceroy took it himself, until the arrival 

 of the court, or audieucia, which still governs it. And this was the end 

 of those discoveries and of the expedition which was made to these 

 new lands.' 



It now remains for us to describe the way in which to enter the 

 country by a more direct route, although there is never a short cut 

 without hard work. It is always best to rind out what those know 

 who have prepared the way, who know what will be needed. 2 This 

 can be found elsewhere, and I will now tell where Quivira lies, what 

 direction the army took, and the direction in which Greater India 

 lies, which was what they pretended to be in search of, when the 

 army started thither. Today, since Villalobos has discovered that this 

 part of the coast of the South sea trends toward the west, it is clearly 

 seen and acknowledged that, since we were in the north, we ought to 

 have turned to the west instead of toward the east, as we did. With 

 this, we will leave this subject and will proceed to finish this treatise, 

 since there are several noteworthy things of which I must give an 

 account, which I have left to be treated more extensively in the two 

 following chapters. 



■Gomara, cap. ccxiiii : " Quando llego a Mexico trayael cabello nmy largo, y la barua trencada, y con- 

 taua estranezaa de las tierras, rios, y montanaa, q a trauesso. Muclio peso a don Antonio de Mendoca, 

 que se boluiessen, porque auia gastado maa de sesenta mil pesos de oro en la empresa, y aim deuia 

 mucbos delloa, y no trayan cosa ninguna de alia, ni muestra de plata, ni de oro, ni de otra riqueza. 

 Muchos quisieron quedarse alia, mas Francisco Vazquez de C'oronado, que rico, y rezien casado era con 

 bermosa nmger, no quiso, diziendo, que no se podriau sustentar, ni defender, en tan pobre tierra, y 

 tan lexos del socorro. Caminaron maa de nouecicntas lcguaa de largo esta Jornada. " 



2 Ternaux, p. 228: " il n'y ait pas de succes a. esperer sans peine; mais il vaut niieux que ceux qui 

 voudront tenter l'entreprise, soient informes d'avance des peines et des fatigues qu'ont eprouveea 

 leurs predeeeaseurs." 



