58 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 137 



the Trinity about the present Nacogdoches, a city which bears the 

 name of a Hasinai tribe. Pushing beyond, they reached a consid- 

 erable river known to the natives as Daycao, and this was undoubtedly 

 the Trinity because the horsemen they sent beyond it returned with 

 some Indians whose language no one could understand. This is 

 what we should expect if the river in question was the Trinity since 

 this was the boundary between the Caddo Indians and the Tonkawa. 

 The identity of these strange Indians with the Tonkawa or their 

 neighbors to the south, the Bidai, is furthermore indicated by the 

 description of their dwellings as "very small huts" and "wretched 

 huts." 



The dryness and poverty of the country ahead determined Moscoso 

 and his principal officers to return to the Mississippi River and find 

 sufficient provisions there to carry them through the winter while 

 they built boats in which to descend to the Gulf and find their way 

 to Mexico. As far as Ayays, they retraced their course along the 

 same trail they had followed in coming out, but descended the 

 Ouachita from that point with the expectation of finding the grain 

 they wanted at Anilco. They now, however, had a sample of the 

 evil effects of overtaxing industry, the people of Anilco having been 

 so discouraged by previous exactions that they had not planted. 

 Nevertheless, they presently directed these unwelcome guests to an- 

 other town called Aminoya, evidently hostile to them, lying on the Mis- 

 sissippi but higher up than Guachoya, and Moscoso immediately dis- 

 patched a captain thither to seize this place, following shortly himself 

 with the rest of the army. 



The corn in the two villages of which Aminoya consisted proved 

 sufficient to carry our explorers through the winter, and there they 

 remained until the summer of 1543. During this time a plundering 

 expedition was sent against a town called Taguanate still higher 

 up the river, and they were also able to thwart a very natural con- 

 spiracy of the surrounding peoples to cut them off. In March the 

 river began to rise and the spring flood of that year proved to be 

 exceptionally high, extending clear across to Anilco and driving 

 them off of the floors of the houses which they had occupied. In 

 the meantime they were at work upon seven small boats, and by the 

 end of June these were completed. Finally, on July 2, they took 

 their departure from Aminoya, having disposed of their hogs and 

 most of their horses and turned loose all of their Indian servants 

 except a hundred. A few horses were carried along in a couple 

 of dugouts lashed side by side but this makeshift conveyance moved 

 so slowly and caused so much annoyance that they presently slaugh- 

 tered some of the horses for their flesh and the few that they 

 spared were evidently killed by the Indians. A few days after their 



