winship] CORONADO TO THE KING, OCTOBER 20, 151 1 583 



agreeably to what Your Majesty had commanded, and they have received 

 no harm in any way from me or from those who went in my company. 1 I 

 remained twenty-live days in this province of Quivira, so as to see and 

 explore the country and also to find out whether there was anything 

 beyond which could be of service to Your Majesty, because the guides 

 who had brought me had given me an account of other provinces beyond 

 this. Aud what I am sure of is that there is not any gold nor any other 

 metal in all that country, and the other things of which they had told 

 me are nothing but little villages, and in many of these they do not 

 plant anything and do not have any houses except of skins and sticks, 

 and they wander around with the cows; so that the account they gave me 

 was false, because they wanted to persuade me to go therewith the whole 

 force, believing that as the way was through such uninhabited deserts, 

 and from the lack of water, they would get us where we and our horses 

 would die of hunger. And the guides confessed this, and said they had 

 done it by the advice and orders of the natives of these provinces. At 

 this, alter having heard the account of what was beyond, which I have 

 given above, I returned to these provinces to provide for the force I 

 had sent back here and to give Your Majesty an account of what this 

 country amounts to, because I wrote Your Majesty that I would do so 

 when I went there. I have done all that I possibly could to serve 

 Your Majesty and to discover a country where God Our Lord might be 

 served and the royal patrimony of Your Majesty increased, as your 

 loyal servant and vassal. For since I reached the province of Cibola, 

 to which the viceroy of New Spain sent me in the name of Your Majesty, 

 seeing that there were none of the things there of which Friar Marcos 

 had told, 1 have managed to explore this country for 200 leagues and 

 more around Cibola, and the best place I have found is this river of 

 Tiguex where I am now, and the settlements here. It would not be 

 possible to establish a settlement here, for besides being 400 leagues 

 from the North sea and more than 200 from the South sea, with which 

 it is impossible to have any sort of communication, the country is so 

 cold, as I have written to Your Majesty, that apparently the winter 

 could not possibly be spent here, because there is no wood, nor cloth 

 with which to protect the men, except the skins which the natives wear 

 and some small amount of cotton cloaks. I send the viceroy of New 

 Spain an account of everything I have seen in the countries where I 

 have been, and as Don Garcia Lopez de Cardenas is going to kiss Your 

 Majesty's hands, who has done much and has served Your Majesty very 

 well on this expedition, and he will give Your Majesty an account of 

 everything here, as one who has seen it himself, I give way to him. 

 And may Our Lord protect the Holy Imperial Catholic person of Your 

 Majesty, with increase of greater kingdoms and powers, as your loyal 

 servants and vassals desire. From this province of Tiguex. Octo- 



ber 20, in the year 1541. Your Majesty's humble servant and vassal, 

 who would kiss the royal feet and hands: 



Francisco Vazquez Coronado. 



1 Coronailo had apparently forgotten the, atrocities committed by the Spaniards at Tiguex. 



