TRANSLATION OF THE 1 {.EL AC ION DEL SUCESO 1 



Account of what Happened on the Journey which Francisco 

 Vazquez made to Discover Cibola. 



When the army reached the valley of Culiacan, Francisco Vazquez 

 divided the army on account of the bad news which was received 

 regarding Cibola, and because the food supply along the way was small, 

 according to the report of Melchor Diaz, who had just come back from 

 seeing it. He himself took SO horsemen and 25 foot soldiers, and a small 

 part of the artillery, and set out from Culiacan, leaving Don Tristan de 

 Arellano with the rest of the force, with orders to set out twenty days 

 later, and when lie reached the Valley of Hearts (Corazones) to wait 

 there for a letter from him, which would be sent after he had readied 

 Cibola, and had seen what was there; and this was done. The Valley 

 of Hearts is 150 leagues from the valley of Culiacan, and the same 

 distance from Cibola. 2 



This whole distauce, up to about 50 leagues before reaching Cibola, 

 is inhabited, although it is away from the road in some places. The 

 population is all of the same sort of people, since the houses are all of 

 palm mats, and some of them have low lofts. They all have corn, 

 although not much, and in some places very little. They have melons 

 and beans. The best settlement of all is a valley called Sefiora, which 

 is 10 leagues beyond the Hearts, where a town was afterward settled. 

 There is some cotton among these, but deer skins are what most of 

 them use for clothes. 



Francisco Vazquez passed by all these on account of the small crops. 

 There was no corn the whole way, except at this valley of Seiiora, where 

 they collected a little, and besides this he had what he took from Culi- 

 acan, where he provided himself for eighty days. In seventy-three 

 days we reached Cibola, although after hard labor and the loss of many 

 horses and the death of several Indians, and after we saw it these were 

 all doubled, although we did rind corn enough. We found the natives 

 peaceful for the whole way. 



l Tbe Spanish text of this document is printed in Buckingham Smith's Florida, p. 147, from a copy 

 made by Mufinz, and also in Pacheco y Cardenas, Documentos de Indias. vol. xiv, p. 318, from a copy 

 found in the Archives of the Indies at Seville. The important variations in the texts are noted in ttie 

 footnotes. See page 398 in regard to the value of this anonymous document. No date is given in the 

 document, but there can lie no doubt that it refers to Coronado's expedition. In the heading to the 

 document in the Pacheco y Cardenas Colecoion, the date is given as 1531, and it is placed under that 

 year in the chronologic index of the Coleceion. This translation, as well as that of the letter to 

 Charles V, which follows, has already been printed in American History Leaflet, No. 13. 



2 The spelling of Cibola and Culiacan is that of the Pacheco y Cardenas copy. Buckingham Smith 

 prints Civola and Culuacan . 



