TRANSLATION OF THE RELACION DEL SUCESO[1]
Account of what Happened on the Journey which Francisco Vazquez made to Discover Cibola.
When the army reached the valley of Culiacan, Francisco Vazquez divided the army ou account of the bad news which was received regarding Cibola, and because the food supply along the way was small, according to the report of Melchor Diaz, who had Just come back from seeing it. He himself took 80 horsemen and 25 foot soldiers, and a small part of the artillery, and set out from Culiacan, leaving Don Tristan de Arellano with the rest of the force, with orders to set out twenty days later, and when he reached the Valley of Hearts (Corazones) to wait there for a letter from him, which would be sent after he had reached Cibola, and had seen what was there; and this was done. The Valley of Hearts is 150 leagues from the valley of Culiacan, and the same distance from Cibola.[2]
This whole distance, up to about 50 leagues before reaching Cibola, is inhabited, although it is away from the road in some places. The population is all of the same sort of people, since the honses are all of palm mats, and some of them have low lofts. They all have corn, although not much, and in some places very little. They have melons and beaus. The best settlement of all is a valley called Señora, which is 10 leagues beyond the Hearts, where a town was afterward settled. There is some cotton among these, but deer skins are what most of them use for clothes.
Francisco Vazquez passed by all these on account of the small crops. There was no corn the whole way, except at this valley of Señora, where they collected a little, and besides this he had what he took from Culiacau, where he provided himself for eighty days. In seventy-three days we reached Cibola, although after hard labor and the loss of many horses and the death of several Indians, and after we saw it these were all doubled, although we did find corn enough. We found the natives peaceful for the whole way.
- ↑ The Spanish text of this document is printed in Buckingham Smith's Florida, p. 147, from a copy made by Muñoz, and also in Pacheco y Cardenas. Documentos do Indias, vol. xiv, p. 318, from a copy found in the Archives of the Indies at Seville. The important variations in the texts are noted in the footnotes. See page 398 iu regard to the value of this anonymous document. No date is given in the document, but there can be no doubt that it refers to Coronado's expedition. In the heading to the document in the Pacheco y Cardenas Coleccion, the date is given as 1531, and it is placed under that year in the chronologic index of the Coleccion. This translation. as well as that of the letter to Charles V, which follows, has already been printed in American History Leaflet, No. 13.
- ↑ The spelling of Cibola and Culiacan is that of the Pacheco y Cardenas copy. Buckingham Smith prints Civola and Cnluacan.
