or eight other horses were wounded; but both the men and horses are whole and sound.

CHAP. 3.

of the situation and state of the seuen cities called the kingdome of Cibola, and of the customes and qualities of those people, and of the beasts which are found there.

IT remaineth now to certifie your Honour of the seuen cities, and of the kingdomes and prouinces whereof the Father prouinciall made report vnto your Lordship. And to bee briefe, I can assure your honour, he sayd the trueth in nothing that he reported, but all was quite contrary, sauing onely the names of the cities, and great houses of stone: for although they bee not wrought with Turqueses, nor with lyme, nor brickes, yet are they very excellent good houses of three or foure or fiue lofts high, wherein are good lodgings and faire chambers with lathers instead of staires, and certaine cellars vnder the ground very good and paued, which are made for winter, they are in maner like stooues: and the lathers which they haue for their houses are all in a maner mooueable and portable, which are taken away and set downe when they please, and they are made of two pieces of wood with their steppes, as ours be. The seuen cities are seuen small townes, all made with these kinde of houses that I speake of: and they stand all within foure leagues together, and they are all called the kingdome of Cibola, and euery one of them haue their particular name: and none of them is called Cibola, but altogether they are called Cibola. And this towne which I call a citie, I haue named Granada, as well because it is somewhat like vnto it, as also in remembrance of your lordship. In this towne where I nowe remaine, there may be some two hundred houses, all compassed with walles, and I thinke that with the rest of the houses which are not so walled, they may be together fiue hundred. There is another towne neere this, which is one of the seuen, & it is somwhat bigger than this, and another of the same bignesse that this is of, and the other foure are somewhat lesse: and I send them all painted vnto your lordship with the voyage. And the parchment wherein the picture is, was found here with other parchments. The people of this towne seeme vnto me of a reasonable stature, and wittie, yet they seeme not to bee such as they should bee, of that iudgement and wit to builde these houses in such sort as they are. For the most part they goe all naked, except their priuie partes which are couered:

There

and they haue painted mantles like those which I send vnto your lordship. They haue no cotton wooll growing, because the countrey is colde, yet they weare mantels thereof as your honour may see by the shewe thereof: and true it is that there was found in their houses certaine yarne made of cotton wooll. They weare their haire on their heads like those of Mexico, and they are well nurtured and condicioned: And they haue Turqueses I thinke good quantitie, which with the rest of the goods which they had, except their corne, they had conueyed away before I came thither: for I found no women there, nor no youth vnder fifteene yeeres olde, nor no olde folkes aboue sixtie, sauing two or three olde folkes, who stayed behinde to gouerne all the rest of the youth and men of warre. were found in a certaine paper two poynts of Emralds, and certaine small stones broken which are in colour somewhat like Granates very bad, and other stones of Christall, which I gaue one of my seruaunts to lay vp to send them to your lordship, and hee hath lost them as hee telleth me. Wee found heere Guinie cockes, but fewe. The Indians tell mee in all these seuen cities, that they eate them not, but that they keepe them onely for their feathers. I beleeue them not, for they are excellent good, and greater then those of Mexico. The season which is in this countrey, and the temperature of the ayre is like that of Mexico: for sometime it is hotte, and sometime it raineth but hitherto I neuer sawe it raine, but once there fell a little showre with winde, as they are woont to fall in Spaine.

The snow and cold are woont to be great, for so say the inhabitants of the Countrey: and it is very likely so to bee, both in respect to the maner of the Countrey, and by the fashion of their houses, and their furres and other things which this people haue to defend them from colde. There is no kind of fruit nor trees of fruite. The Countrey is all plaine, and is on no side mountainous: albeit there are some hillie and bad passages. There are small store of Foules: the cause whereof is the colde, and because the mountaines are not neere. Here is no great store of wood, because they haue wood for their fuell sufficient foure leagues off from a wood of small Cedars. There is most excellent grasse within a quarter of a league hence, for our horses as well to feede them in pasture, as to mowe and make hay, whereof wee stoode in great neede, because our horses came hither so weake and feeble. The victuals which the people of this countrey haue, is Maiz, whereof they haue great store, and also small white Pease: and Venison, which by all likelyhood they feede vpon, (though they

say no) for wee found many skinnes of Deere, of Hares, and Conies. They eate the best cakes that euer I sawe, and euery body generally eateth of them. They haue the finest order and way to grinde that wee euer sawe in any place. And one Indian woman of this countrey will grinde as much as foure women of Mexico. They haue most excellent salte in kernell, which they fetch from a certaine lake a dayes iourney from hence. They haue no knowledge among them of the North Sea, nor of the Westerne Sea, neither can I tell your lordship to which wee bee neerest: But in reason they should seeme to bee neerest to the Westerne Sea: and at the least I thinke I am an hundred and fiftie leagues from thence: and the Northerne Sea should bee much further off. Your lordship may see howe broad the land is here. Here are many sorts of beasts, as Beares, Tigers, Lions, Porkespicks, and certaine Sheep as bigge as an horse, with very great hornes and little tailes, I haue seene their hornes so bigge, that it is a wonder to behold their greatnesse. Here are also wilde goates whose heads likewise I haue seene, and the pawes of Beares, and the skins of wilde Bores. There is game of Deere, Ounces, and very great Stagges: and all men are of opinion that there are some bigger than that beast which your lordship bestowed vpon me, which once belonged to Iohn Melaz. They trauell eight dayes iourney vnto certaine plaines lying toward the North Sea. In this countrey there are certaine skinnes well dressed, and they dresse them and paint them where they kill their Oxen, for so they say themselues.

CHAP. 4.

Of the state and qualities of the kingdomes of Totonteac, Marata, and Acus, quite contrary to the relation of Frier Marcus. The conference which they haue with the Indians of the citie of Granada which they had taken, which had fiftie yeres past foreseene the comming of the Christians into their countrey. The relation which they haue of other seuen cities, whereof Tucano is the principall, and how he sent to discouer them. A present of diuers things had in these countreys sent vnto the Viceroy Mendoça by Vasques de Coronado.

THe kingdome of Totonteac so much extolled by the Father prouinciall, which sayde that there were such wonderfull things there, and such great matters, and that they made cloth there, the Indians say is an hotte lake, about which are fiue or sixe houses; and that there were certaine other, but that they are ruinated by warre. The kingdome of Marata is not to be found, neither haue the Indians any knowledge thereof. The

kingdome of Acus is one onely small citie, where they gather cotton which is called Acucu. And I say that this is a towne. For Acus with an aspiration nor without is no word of the countrey. And because I gesse that they would deriue Acucu of Acus, I say that it is this towne whereinto the kingdom of Acus is conuerted. Beyond this towne they say there are other small townes which are neere to a riuer which I haue seene and haue had report of by the relation of the Indians. I would to God I had better newes to write vnto your lordship: neuerthelesse I must say the trueth: And as I wrote to your lordship from Culiacan, I am nowe to aduertise your honour as wel of the good as of the bad. Yet this I would haue you bee assured, that if all the riches and the treasures of the world were heere, I could haue done no more in the seruice of his Maiestie and of your lordshippe, than I haue done in comming hither whither you haue sent mee, my selfe and my companions carrying our victuals vpon our shoulders and vpon our horses three hundred leagues; and many dayes going on foote trauailing ouer hilles and rough mountaines, with other troubles which I cease to mention, neither purpose I to depart vnto the death, if it please his Maiestie and your lordship that it shall be so.

Three dayes after this citie was taken, certaine Indians of these people came to offer mee peace, and brought mee certaine Turqueses, and badde mantles, and I receiued them in his Maiesties name with all the good speaches that I could deuise, certifying them of the purpose of my comming into this countrey, which is in the name of his Maiestie, and by the commaundement of your Lordship, that they and all the rest of the people of this prouince should become Christians, and should knowe the true God for their Lorde, and receiue his Maiestie for their King and earthly Soueraigne: And herewithall they returned to their houses, and suddenly the next day they set in order all their goods and substance, their women and children, and fled to the hilles, leauing their townes as it were abandoned, wherein remained very fewe of them. When I sawe this, within eight or tenne dayes after being recouered of my woundes, I went to the citie, which I sayde to bee greater then this where I am, and found there some fewe of them, to whom I sayde that they should not be afrayd, and that they should call their gouernour vnto mee: Howbeit forasmuch as I can learne or gather, none of them hath any gouernour: for I sawe not there any chiefe house, whereby any preeminence of one ouer another might bee gathered. After this an olde man came, which sayd that hee was their lord, with a piece of a

mantle made of many pieces, with whom I reasoned that small while that hee stayed with mee, and hee sayd that within three dayes after, hee and the rest of the chiefe of that towne would come and visite mee, and giue order what course should bee taken with them. Which they did: for they brought mee certaine mantles and some Turqueses. I aduised them to come downe from their holdes, and to returne with their wiues and children to their houses, and to become Christians, and that they would acknowledge the Emperours maiestie for their King and lorde. And euen to this present they keepe in those strong holdes their women and children, and all the goods which they haue. I commaunded them that they should paint mee out a cloth of all the beastes which they knowe in their countrey: And such badde painters as they are, foorthwith they painted mee two clothes, one of their beastes, another of their birdes and fishes. They say that they will bring their children, that our religious men may instruct them, and that they desire to knowe our lawe: And they assure vs, that aboue fiftie yeeres past it was prophecied among them, that a certaine people like vs should come, and from that part that wee came from, and that they should subdue all that countrey.

That which these Indians worship as farre as hitherto wee can learne, is the water: for they say it causeth their corne to growe, and maintaineth their life; and that they know none other reason, but that their ancestors did so. I haue sought by all meanes possible to learne of the inhabitants of these townes, whether they haue any knowledge of other people, countreys and cities: And they tell mee of seuen cities which are farre distant from this place, which are like vnto these, though they haue not houses like vnto these, but they are of earth, and small: and that among them much cotton is gathered. The chiefe of these townes whereof they haue knowledge, they say is called Tucano: and they gaue mee no perfect knowledge of the rest. And I thinke they doe not tell me the trueth, imagining that of necessitie I must speedily depart from them, and returne home. But herein they shall soone finde themselues deceiued. I sent Don Pedro de Touar with his companie of footemen and with certaine other horsemen to see this towne: And I would not haue dispatched this packet vnto your lordship, vntill I had knowen what this towne was, if I had thought that within twelue or fifteene dayes I might haue had newes from him: for hee will stay in this iourney thirtie dayes at least. And hauing examined that the knowledge hereof is of small importance, and that the colde and the