540 THE CORONADO EXPEDITION, 1540-1542 [kth.akn.h 



Chapter 7, of the adventures of Captain Juan Gallego while he teas 

 bringing reenforcements through the revolted country. 



One might well have complained when in the last chapter I passed 

 in silence over the exploits of Captain Juan Gallego with his 20 com- 

 panions. I will relate them in the present chapter, so that in times to 

 come those who read about it or tell of it may have a reliable authority 

 on whom to rely. I am not writing fables, like some of the things 

 which we read about nowadays in the books of chivalry. If it were 

 not that those stories contained enchantments, there are some things 

 which our Spaniards have done in our own day in these parts, in their 

 conquests and encounters with the Indians, which, for deeds worthy 

 of admiration, surpass not only the books already mentioned, but also 

 those which have been written about the twelve peers of France, 

 because, if the deadly strength which the authors of those times 

 attributed to their heroes and the brilliant and resplendent arms with 

 which they adorned them, are fully considered, and compared with 

 the small stature of the men of our time and the few and poor weapons 

 which they have in these parts, 1 the remarkable things which our people 

 have undertaken and accomplished with such weapons are more to be 

 wondered at today than those of which the ancients write, and just 

 because, too, they fought with barbarous naked people, as ours have with 

 Indians, among whom there are always men who are brave and valiant 

 and very sure bowmen, for we have seen them pierce the wings while 

 flying, and hit hares while running after them. I have said all this in 

 order to show that some things which we consider fables may be true, 

 because we see greater things every day in our own times, just as in 

 future times people will greatly wonder at the deeds of Don Fernando 

 Cortez, who dared to go into the midst of New Spain with 300 men 

 against the vast number of people in Mexico, and who with 500 

 Spaniards succeeded in subduing it, and made himself lord over it in 

 two years. 



The deeds of Don Pedro de Alvarado in the conquest of Guatemala, 

 and those of Montejo in Tabasco, the conquests of the mainland and 

 of Peru, were all such as to make me remain silent concerning what 

 I now wish to relate; but since I have promised to give an account of 

 what happened on this journey, I want the things I am now going to 

 relate to be known as well as those others of which I have spoken. 



The captain Juan Gallego, then, reached the town of Culiacau with 

 a very small force. There he collected as many as he could of those 

 who had escaped from the town of Hearts, or, more correctly, from 

 Suya. which made in all 22 men, and with these he marched through 

 all of the settled country, across which he traveled 200 leagues with the 

 country in a state of war and the people in rebellion, although they had 

 formerly been friendly toward the Spaniards, having encounters with 



'The letters of Mendoza during the. early part of his administration in Mexico repeatedly call 

 attention to th<- lack of arms and ammunition among the Spaniards in the New World. 



