them and kill some of them. The rest then drew back to the village, which was then surrounded and attacked. We had to withdraw on account of the great injury they did us from the flat roofs, and we began to harm them from a distance with the artillery and muskets, and that afternoon they surrendered. Francisco Vazquez came out of it badly hurt by some stones, and I am certain, indeed, that he would have been there yet if it had not been for the camp-master, D. Garci-Lopez de Cardenas, who rescued him. When the Indians surrendered, they abandoned the village and went to the other villages, and as they left the houses we made ourselves at home in them.

Father Friar Marcos understood, or gave to understand, that the location and neighborhood in which there are seven villages, was a single village which he called Cibola, but the whole of this population and region is called Cibola. The villages have from three hundred to two hundred and a hundred and fifty houses; some have the houses of the village all together, although in some villages they are divided into two or three divisions, but for the most part they are all together, and within their courtyards and in these are their hot rooms [estufas, or sometimes called kivas] for winter, and they have their summer ones outside the villages. The houses have two or three stories, the walls of stone and mud, and some with mud walls. The villages have for the most part the walls of the houses; for Indians, the houses are too good, especially for these, since they are brutish and have no decency in anything except in their houses.

Much of the food they have is corn and beans and melons, and some fowls, like those of Mexico, and they keep these more for their feathers than to eat, because they make long robes of them, since they do not have any cotton; and they wear cloaks of henequen [a fibrous plant,] and of the skins of deer, and sometimes of cows.

Their rites and sacrifices are somewhat idolatrous, but water is what they worship most, to which they offer small painted sticks and feathers and yellow powder made of flowers, and usually this offering is made to springs. Sometimes, also, they offer turquoises which they have, although poor ones.

From the valley of Culiacan to Cibola there are two routes of two hundred and forty leagues. That is about the thirty

fourth and a half degree North, and from there to Cibola, towards the northeast, which is nearly the thirty-seventh degree.

Having got to understand the natives of Cibola, about what was beyond, they said that there were settlements to the West. Francisco Vazquez then sent D. Pedro de Tobar to investigate, who found seven other villages, which were called the province of Tuzan; this is thirty-five leagues to the West. The villages are somewhat larger than those of Cibola, and in other respects, in food and everything, they are of the same sort, except that these raise cotton. While D. Pedro de Tobar had gone to see these, Francisco Vazquez despatched messengers to the Viceroy, with an account of what had happened up to this point, and sent orders by these same to leave with D. Tristan on their way, who as I have said, was at Hearts, for him to go on to Cibola, and to leave a town established in the valley of Senora, which he did, and in it he left eighty horsemen, each of them having one horse, and the weakest ones, and Melchor Diaz with them as captain and leader, because Francisco Vazquez had so provided for it. He ordered him to go from there with half the force to explore the West; and he did so and travelled a hundred and fifty leagues, to the river which Hernando de Alarcon entered from the sea, which he called the Buenaguia. The population and people who are in this direction are mostly like those at the Hearts, except at the river and around it, where the people are much better built and have more corn, although the houses in which they live are hovels, like pig pens, almost underground, and with a covering of straw, and made without any skill whatever. This river is reported to be large. They reached it thirty leagues from the coast, where Alarcon had come up with his boats, and as far again above, two months before they reached it. This river runs north and south there. Melchor Diaz passed on to the West five or six days, from which he returned for the reason that he did not find any water or vegetation, but only many stretches of sand; and he had some fighting on his return to the river and its vicinity, because they wanted to take advantage of him while crossing the river. While returning Melchor Diaz died from an accident, in which he killed himself, throwing a lance at a dog. After D. Pedro de Tobar returned and had given an

account of those villages, he then dispatched D. Garcia Lopez de Cardenas, the camp-master, by the same road D. Pedro had followed, to go beyond that province of Tuzan to the West, and he allowed him eighty days in which to go and return, for the journey and to make the discoveries. He was conducted beyond Tuzan by native guides who said there were settlements beyond, although at a distance. Having gone fifty leagues west of Tuzan, and eighty from Cibola, he found the edge of a river down which it was impossible to find a path for a horse in any direction, or even for one on foot, except in one very difficult place, where there was a descent for almost two leagues. The sides were such a steep rocky precipice that it was scarcely possible to see the river, which, although it is as large or much larger than that of Seville, according to what they say, looks like a brook from above, so that although they sought for a passage with great diligence, none was found for a long distance, during which they were in great need of water for many days, which could not be found, and they could not approach that of the river, although they could see it, and on this account Don Garcia Lopez was forced to return to where they found it. This river comes from the Northeast and turns towards the South-southwest, so that it is without any doubt the one that Melchor Diaz reached.

Four days after Francisco Vazquez had dispatched D. Garcia Lopez for this discovery, he dispatched Hernando de Alvarado to discover the way towards the East. He started off, and thirty ieagues from Cibola found a rock with a village on top, the strongest position that ever was seen in the world, which was called Acuco in their language, and Father Friar Marcos called it the kingdom of Hacus. They came out to us peacefully, although it would have been easy to avoid it and to stay on their rock, where we would not have been able to trouble them. They gave us cloaks of cotton, skins of deer and of cows, and turquoises, and fowls and other food which they had, which is the same as in Cibola.

Twenty leagues to the East of this rock we found a river which runs North and South, well settled; there are on it in all, small and large, seventy villages, a few more or less, their style like those at Cibola, except that they are almost all of well made mud walls; the food is neither more nor less. They raise cotton, I mean those near the river, the others

not. There is much corn here. These people do not have markets. They are settled for fifty leagues along this river, North and South, and some villages are fifteen or twenty leagues distant, in one direction or another. This river rises where these settlements end at the North, on the slope of the mountains there, where there is a larger village different from the others, called Yuraba. It is settled in this fashion. It has eighteen divisions, each one has a situation as if for two ground plots [terraced, possibly, on the mountain side?]; the houses are very close together, and have five or SIX stories, three of them with mud walls and two or three with thin wooden walls, which become smaller as they go up, and each one has its little balcony outside of the mud walls, one above the other, all around, of wood. In this village, as it is in the mountains, they do not raise cotton nor breed fowls; they wear the skins of deer and cows entirely. The village has the most people of all that country; we estimated there were fifteen thousand souls in it. There is one of the other sort of villages larger than all the rest, and very strong, which is called Cicuique. It has four and five stories, has eight large court yards, each one with its balcony, and there are fine houses in it. They do not raise cotton nor keep fowls, because it is fifteen leagues away from the river to the East, towards the plains where the cows are. After Alvarado had sent an account of this river to Francisco Vazquez, he proceeded forward to these plains, and at the borders of these he found a little river which flows to the Southwest, and after four days' march he found the cows, [buffaloes] which are the most monstrous thing in the way of animals which has ever been seen or read about. He followed this river for a hundred leagues, finding more cows every day. We provided ourselves with some of these, although at first, until we had had experience, at the risk of the horses. There is such a quantity of them that I do not know what to compare them with, except with the fish in the sea, because, on this journey as also on that which the whole army afterwards made when it was going to Quivira, there were so many that many times when we started to pass through the midst of them and wanted to go through to the other side of them, we were not able to, because the country was covered with them. The flesh of these is as good as that of Castille, and some even said it was better.

The bulls are large and brave, although they do not attack very much; but they have wicked horns and in a fight use them well, attacking fiercely; they killed several of our horses and wounded many. We found the pike to be the best weapon to use against them, and the musket for use when this misses.

When Hemando de Alvarado returned from these plains to the river which was called Tiguex, he found the camp, master D. Garci-Lopez de Cardenas there, getting ready for the whole army, which was coming there, and when it came, although all this population had met Hernando de Alvarado peacefully, part of them rebelled when all the force came. There were twelve villages, and one night they killed forty of our horses and mules which were loose in the camp. They made themselves secure in their villages, and war was then declared against them, and D. Garci-Lopez went first and took and executed justice on many of them. When the rest saw this, they abandoned all except two of the villages, one of these the strongest one of all, about which the army was kept two months. And although when we invested them, we entered them one day and took a part of the flat roof, he was forced to abandon it on account of the many wounds that were given and its being so dangerous to maintain ourselves, and although we again entered it once more at this same time, in the end it was not possible to get it all, so it was surrounded all this time, and we finally took it because of their thirst, and they held out so long because it snowed twice when they were just about to give themselves up. In the end we took them and many of them were killed because they tried to get away at night.

Francisco Vazquez got an account from some Indians who were found in this village of Cicuique, which if it had been true, was of the richest thing that has been found in the Indies. The Indian who gave the news and account came from a village called Harale three hundred leagues West of this river. He gave such a clear account of what he told, as if it was true and he had seen it, that it seemed plain afterwards that it was the devil who was speaking in him. Francisco Vazquez and all of us gave him much credit, although he was advised by several gentlemen not to move the whole army, but rather to send a captain to find out what was there. He did not wish to do this, but wanted to take