28 
The Colorado River 
body of the expedition, which during this time was compla¬ 
cently robbing the Puebloans on the Rio Grande, two officers 
of that expedition were marching through the wilderness en¬ 
deavouring to find him, and a third was travelling toward the 
Grand Canyon. One of these was Don Rodrigo Maldonado, 
thus bearing exactly the same name as one of Alargon’s offi¬ 
cers; another was Captain Melchior Diaz, and the third Don 
Lopez de Cardenas, who distinguished himself on the Rio 
Grande by particular brutality toward the villagers. Don 
Rodrigo went in search of the ships down the river to the coast 
from the valley of Corazones, but obtained no information of 
them, though he met with giant natives and brought back with 
him one very tall man as a specimen. The main army of Cor¬ 
onado had not yet gone from this valley of Corazones, where 
the settlement called San Hieronimo had been established, and 
the best man in it reached only to the chest of this native 
giant. 
The army moved on to another valley, where a halt was 
made to await orders from the general. At length, about the 
middle of September, Melchior Diaz came back from Cibola, 
with dispatches, accompanied by Juan Gallegos, who bore a 
message for the viceroy. In their company also was the mis¬ 
erable Friar Marcos, pursuing his dismal return to New Spain 
by direction of the general, who considered it unsafe for him to 
remain with the army now that the glorious bubble of his im¬ 
agination had been exploded. Melchior Diaz was an excellent 
officer, and already had an experience in this northern region 
extending over some four years. It was he, also, who had 
been sent, the previous November, as far as the place called 
Chichilticalli, in an attempt to verify the friar’s tale, and had 
reported that the natives were good for nothing except to 
make into Christians. The main army, which was in command 
of Don Tristan de Arellano, in accordance with the orders re¬ 
ceived from Coronado, now advanced toward Cibola. Mal¬ 
donado, who had been to the coast, went with it. Diaz retained 
eighty men, part of whom were to defend the settlement of 
San Hieronimo, and twenty-five were to accompany him on his 
expedition in search of Alarcon. He started north and then 
