VOYAGE OF CABEILLO. 303 



The Indians came anointed with a white bitumen on the thighs and body and arms, 

 and they had the bitumen applied in the manner of slashes, so that they appeared like 

 men in slashed doublets and hose; and they made signs that five days' journey thence 

 were the Spaniards. And they made sigus that there were many Indians, and that 

 they had much maize and many parrots.* They came covered with deer-skins, and 

 some had the deer-skins dressed in the manner in which the Mexicans dress the skins 

 which they carry in the cutters! It is an advanced aud well-disposed people. They 

 carry bows and arrows like those of Eew Spain, the arrows tipped with flints. The 

 captain gave them a letter, which they should carry to the Spaniards who they said 

 were in the interior. 



They departed from this Puerto de la Posesion, Sunday, the 27th of the said 

 month of August, and sailing on their course found an island 2 leagues from the main- 

 land ; it is uninhabited ; there is a good port in it ; they gave it the name of San Agus- 

 tin [St. Martin] ; it coutaius 2 leagues in circumference; and so they held on along the 

 coast with slack winds, plying to windward, until the following Wednesday, the 30th 

 of said mouth, which gave them much wind from the northwest, which made them put 

 into the island of San Agustin. In this island they found some sign of people, and two 

 cow horns [see foot-note, page 307], aud very large trees which the sea had cast there, 

 which had more than 60 feet in length, and were of such thickness that two men could 

 not clasp one of them ; these appeared to be cypresses, and there were cedars. There 

 was a large quantity of this wood ; it contains nothing else. If a good port, it is not a 

 valuable island; they were in this island until the following Sunday. 



On Sunday, the 3d day of the month of September, they departed from the said 

 island of St. Agustin, and proceeded, sailing on their course, and the following Monday 

 they cast anchor about 7 leagues distant on the weather shore, on a coast running north 

 and south ; and immediately they set sail aud held on their course with fair and light 

 winds, on a coast running north and south until Thursday, the 7th day of the said 

 month of September, when they cast auchor in a creek which the land forms [Todos 

 Santos Bay] ; and here ends the coast, which runs north and south and turns to the 

 northwest. On this creek there is a large valley, and the land is level on the coast, and 

 within are high ridges, and rugged land good in appearance. All the coast is bold and 

 with a smooth bottom, as at half a league from land they were at anchor in 10 fathoms ; 

 here there is much vegetation on the water [kelp]. 



On the Friday following, on the 8th of the said month, they held on with slack 

 winds, plying to windward, and they found here contrary currents ; they cast anchor at 

 a point which forms a cape, and affords, a good shelter from the west-northwest ; they 



California, 1539 and 1540, the latter of whom sailed some distance up the Colorado, may have furnished 

 these Indians the first, meager accounts of the existence of a race of men different from their own. 

 With little doubt, however, it was to the expedition of Coronado in search of the seven cities of Cibola 

 in 15-10, discovered the year previous hy Friar Marcos de Niza, that these special references were made. 

 The horses and strange weapons, as well as the savage warfare waged by Coronado against the oppos- 

 ing tribes, were well calculated to make a deep impression ; and no one aware of the celerity with which 

 news is transmitted by means of Indian runners will be surprised that the full knowledge of such 

 important events had long before reached the coast tribes, but four or five hundred miles distant. 



* The Pueblo Indians are now, and doubtless were then, in the habit of keeping birds in captiv- 

 ity, chiefly birds of prey, to obtain the feathers for ornamental and ceremonial purposes. The birds in- 

 dicated were doubtless not "parrots," whatever they were, as this region is entirely out of the range of 

 the parrot fp.mily. 



