through a desert country until he discovered the river, but from such high banks that he could not reach it. It was the river called the Tizon, and it flowed from the north-east toward the south-west. It seemed to the Spaniards when they first descried it that they were on mountains through which the river had cut
de suivre les rochers qui bordent la rivière, parce qu'on y manquait d'eau. Jusque-là ils avaient été obligés chaque soir de s'avancer une lieue ou deux dans l'intérieur pour en trouver. Quand ils eurent marché pendant trois ou quatre jours, les guides leur déclarèrent qu'il était impossible d'aller plus loin, qu'on ne trouverait pas d'eau de quatre jours; que quand les Indiens passaient cette route, ils emmenaient avec eux des femmes chargées de calebasses remplies d'eau, et qu'ils en enterraient une partie pour les retrouver au retour; que d'ailleurs ils parcouraient en un jour autant de chemin que les Espagnols en deux. Cette rivière était celle del Tizon. On arriva beaucoup plus près de sa source que de l'endroit oú Melchior Diaz et ses gens l'avaient traversée, et l'on sut plus tard que les Indiens dont on avait parlé étaient de la même nation que ceux que Diaz avait vus. Les Espagnols revinrent donc sur leurs pas, et cette expédition n'eut pas d'autre résultat. Pendant la marche, ils arrivèrent à une cascade qui tombait d'un rocher. Les guides dirent que les cristaux blancs qui pendaient à l'entour étaient du sel. On en recueillit une quantité que l'on emporta, et qu'on distribua à Cibola, où l'on rendit compte par écrit au général de tout ce que l'on avait vu. Garci-Lopez avait emmené avec lui un certain Pédro de Sotomayor, qui était chroniqueur de l'expédition. Tous les villages de cette province sont restés nos alliés, mais on ne les a pas visités depuis, et l'on n'a tenté aucune découverte de ce côté.'
As soon as Don Pédro de Tobar had fulfilled his mission, he returned and gave the general an account of what he had seen. The latter immediately ordered Don Garci-Lopez de Cárdenas, and 12 other persons, to go and visit that river; this officer was well received and politely treated by the Indians of Tusayan, who furnished him with guides to continue his journey. Our soldiers departed loaded with provisions, the Indians having notified them that it was necessary to travel 20 days through a desert before entering any inhabited country. After this 20 days' march, they arrived at that river whose banks are of such a height that it seemed to them that they were three or four leagues up in the air. The country is covered with low and stunted pines, exposed to the north, and the cold is so violent that, although it was summer, one could hardly endure it. The Spaniards during three days skirted those mountains, always in the hope of finding a descent to reach the river, which from above appeared to be no more than a fathom in width, and which, according to the Indians, was more than half a league wide; but all their efforts were vain. Two or three days later, they arrived at a place where the descent seemed easier; Captain Melgosa Juan Galeras and a soldier who were the lightest men of the band, resolved to make an attempt. They descended until those who had remained on the top had lost sight of them. They returned at about four o'clock in the afternoon, saying they had found so many difficulties that they could not reach the bottom; for, what seemed easy from above was not at all so when approaching the water. They added that they came down about one third of the descent, and that even from there the river seemed very large. This statement confirmed what the Indians had said. The three men affirmed that some rocks seen from above and which appeared to be of the height of a man, were higher than the tower of the cathedral of Seville. The Spaniards stopped following the rocks that bordered the river on account of the lack of water. Until then, they had been obliged to advance one or two leagues in the interior to find
