turned out to be entirely false, because the kingdoms that he had told about had not been found, nor the populous cities, nor the wealth of gold, nor the precious stones which he had reported, nor the fine clothes, nor other things that had been proclaimed from the pulpits. When this had been announced, those who were to remain were selected and the rest loaded their provisions and set off in good order about the middle of September on the way to Cibola, following their general. Don Tristan de Arellano stayed in this new town with the weakest men, and from this time on there was nothing but mutinies and strife, because after the army had gone Captain Melchior Diaz took 25 of the most efficient men, leaving in his place one Diego de Alcaraz, a man unfitted to have people under his command. He took guides and went toward the north and west in search of the seacoast. After going about 150 leagues, they came to a province of exceedingly tall and strong men—like giants. They are naked and live in large straw cabins built underground like smoke houses, with only the straw roof above ground. They enter these at one end and come out at the other. More than a hundred persons, old and young, sleep in one cabin.[1] When they carry anything, they can take a load of more than three or four hundredweight on their heads. Once when our men wished to fetch a log for the fire, and six men were unable to carry it, one of these Indians is reported to have come and raised it in his arms, put it on his head alone, and carried it very easily.[2] They eat bread cooked in the ashes, as big as the large two-pound loaves of Castile. On account of the great cold, they carry a firebrand (tison) in the hand when they go from one place to another, with which they warm the other hand and the body as well, and in this way they keep shifting it every now and then.[3] On this account the large river which is in that country was called Rio del Tison (Firebrand river). It is a very great river and is more than 2 leagues wide at its mouth; here it is half a league across. Here the
- ↑ Bandelier, in his Final Report, vol. i, p. 108, suggests the following from the Relacion of Padre Sedelmair, S. J., 1746, which he quotes from the manuscript: "Sus ranchcerias, por grandes do gentio que sean, se reducen á una ó dos casas, con techo de terrado y zacate, armadas sobre muchos horconea por pilares con viguelos de unos á otros, y bajas, tan capaces que cabon en cada una mas de cien personas, con tres divisiones, la primera una enramada del tamaño de la casa y baja para dormir en el verano, luego la segunda division como sala, y la tercera como alcoba, donde por el abrigo meten loa viejos y viejas, muchachitos y muchachitas, escepto los pimas que viven entro ellos, que cada familia tiene su choza aparte." These were evidently the ancestors of the Yuman Indians of Arizona.
- ↑ Fletcher, in The World Encompassed by Sir Francis Drake, p. 131, (ed. 1854) tells a similar story of some Indians whom Brake visited on the coast of California: "Yet are tho men commonly so strong of body, that that which 2 or 3 of our men could hardly beare, one of them would take upon his backe, and without grudging, carrie it easily away, up hill and downe hill an English mile together." Mota Padilla, cap. xxxii, p. 158, describes an attempt to catch one of these Indians; "Quiso el capitan [Melchior Diaz] remitir A un indio, porque el virey viese su corpulencia y hallando á un mancebo, trataron de apresario; mas hizo tal resistencia, que entre quatro españoles no pudieron amarrario, y daba tales gritos, que los obligaron á dejarlo, per no indisponer los ánimos de aquellos indios."
- ↑ Father Sedelmair, in his Relacion, mentions this custom of the Indians. (See Bandolier, Final Report, vol. i, p. 108): "Su frazada en tiempo de frio es un tizon eucendido que aplicándole á la boca del estómago caminan por las mañanas, y calentando ya el sol como á las ocho tiran los tizones, que por muchos que hayan tirado por los caminos, purden ser guias de los caminantes: de suerto que todos estos rios pueden llarmarse rios del Tizon, nombre que algunas mapas ponen á uno solo.
