5S8 THE CORONADO EXPEDITION, 1510-1542 [eth.ann.14 



the left hand, which would be more to the northeast, and began to 

 enter the plains where the cows are, although we did not find them for 

 some four or five days, after which we began to come across bulls, of 

 which there are great numbers, and after going on in the same direc- 

 tion and meeting the bulls for two or three days, we began to find 

 ourselves in the midst of very great numbers of cows, yearlings and 

 bulls all in together. We found Indians among these first cows, who 

 were, on this account, called Querechos by those in the fiat roof 

 houses. They do not live in houses, but have some sets of poles 

 which they carry with them to make some huts at the places where 

 they stop, which serve them for houses. They tie these poles together 

 at the top and stick the bottoms into the ground, covering them with 

 some cowskins which they carry around, and which, as I have said, 

 serve them for houses. From what was learned of these Indians, all 

 their human needs are supplied by these cows, for they are fed and 

 clothed and shod from these. They are a people who wander around 

 here and there, wherever seems to them best. We went on for eight 

 or ten days in the same direction, along those streams which are 

 among the cows. The Indian who guided us from here was the one 

 that had given us the news about Quevira and Arache (or Arahci) and 

 about its being a very rich country with much gold and other things, 

 and he and the other one were from that country I mentioned, to 

 which we were going, and we found these two Indians in the fiat-roof 

 villages. It seems that, as the said Indian wanted to go to his own 

 country, he proceeded to tell us what we. found was not true, and I do 

 not know whether it was on this account or because he was counseled 

 to take us into other regions by confusing us on the road, although 

 there are none in all this region except those of the cows. We under- 

 stood, however, that he was leading us away from the route we ought 

 to follow and that he wanted to lead us on to those plains where he 

 had led us, so that we would eat up the food, and both ourselves and 

 our horses would become weak from the lack of this, because if we 

 should go either backward or forward in this condition we could not 

 make any resistance to whatever they might wish to do to us. From 

 the time when, as I said, we entered the plains and from this settlement 

 of Querechos, he led us off more to the east, until we came to be in 

 extreme need from the lack of food, and as the other Indian, who was 

 his companion and also from his country, saw that he was not taking 

 us where we ought to go, since we had always followed the guidance 

 of the Turk, for so he was called, instead of his, he threw himself 

 down in the way, making a sign that although we cut off his head he 

 ought not to go that way, nor was that our direction. I believe we 

 had been traveling twenty days or more in this direction, at the end 

 of which we found another settlement of Indians of the same sort and 

 way of living as those behind, among whom there was an old blind 

 man with a beard, who gave us to understand, by signs which he made, 



