576 THE CORONADO EXPEDITION, 1540-1542 [bth.ash.M 



river to Francisco Vazquez, he proceeded forward to these plains, and 

 at the borders of these he found a little river which flows to the south- 

 west, and after four days' march he found the cows, which are the most 

 monstrous thing in the way of animals which has ever been seen or read 

 about. He followed this river for 100 leagues, finding more cows every 

 day. We provided ourselves with some of these, although at first, until 

 we had had experience, at the risk of the horses. There is such a quan- 

 tity of them that I do not know what to compare them with, except with 

 the fish in the sea, because on this journey, as also on that which the 

 whole army afterward made when it was going toQuivira, there were so 

 many that many times when we started to pass through the midst of 

 them and wanted to go through to the other side of them, we were 

 not able to, because the country was covered with them. The flesh of 

 these is as good as that of Castile, and some said it was even better. 



The bulls are large and brave, although they do not attack very 

 much; but they have wicked horns, and in a fight use them well, 

 attacking fiercely; they killed several of our horses and wounded 

 many. We found the pike to be the best weapon to use against them, 

 and the musket for use when this misses. 



When Hernando de Alvarado returned from these plains to the river 

 which was called Tiguex, he found the army-master Don Garcia Lopez 

 de Cardenas getting ready for the whole army, which was coming there. 

 When it arrived, although all these people had met Hernando de Alva- 

 rado peacefully, part of them rebelled when all the force came. There 

 were 12 villages near together, and one night they killed 40 of our 

 horses and mules which were loose in the camp. They fortified them- 

 selves in their villages, and war was then declared against them. Don 

 Garcia Lopez went to the first and took it and executed justice on many 

 of them. When the rest saw this, they abandoned all except two of the 

 villages, one of these the strongest one of all, around which the army was 

 kept for two months. And although after we invested it, we entered 

 it one day and occupied a part of the flat roof, we were forced to abandon 

 this on account of the many wounds that were received aud because it 

 was so dangerous to maintain ourselves there, and although we again 

 entered it soon afterward, in the end it was not possible to get it all, 

 and so it was surrounded all this time. We finally captured it because 

 of their thirst, aud they held out so long because it snowed twice when 

 they were just about to give themselves up. In the end we captured it, 

 and many of them were killed because they tried to get away at night. 



Francisco Vazquez obtained an account from some Indians who were 

 found in this village of Cicuique, which, if it had been true, was of the 

 richest thing that has been found in the Indies. The Indian who gave 

 the news and the account came from a village called Harale, 300 leagues 

 east of this river. He gave such a clear account of what he told, as if 

 it was true and he had seen it, that it seemed plain afterward that it 

 was the devil who was speaking in him. Francisco Vazquez and all of 



