the death of Frustrated by This vyage is appoynted to bee begunne in March in the Ferdinand in yeare next folowynge, beinge the yeare of Chryst M.D.XVI. the preceding What shall succeade, yowre [your] holynes shalbe aduerJanuary. For English claims based on Cabot's discoveries, see Contemporaries, I, No. 48. By FRANCISCO VASQUEZ CORONADO (15101542?), at this time Spanish governor of New Galicia. In his letter to the king of Spain he tells the story of the first explorations into the in terior of what is now the United tised by my letters if god graunte me lyfe [life]. Sume of the Spanyardes denye that Cabot was the fyrst fynder of the lande of Baccallaos: And affirme that he went not so farre westewarde. But it shall suffice to haue sayde thus much of the goulfes [gulfs] & strayghtes [straits], and of Cebastian Cabot. . . Peter Martyr, The Decades of the Newe Worlde or West India (translated by Richard Eden, London, 1555), Decade III, Book vi, fol. 118-119. 3. A Spanish Exploration (1541) ... OLY CATHOLIC CÆSARIAN MAJESTY: On April 20 of this year [1541] I wrote to Your Majesty from this province of Tiguex, in reply to a letter from Your Majesty dated in Madrid, June 11 a year ago. I started from this province on the 23d of last April, for the place where the Indians wanted to guide me. After nine days' march I reached some plains, so vast that I did not find their limit anywhere that I went, although I traveled over them for more than 300 leagues. And I found such a quantity of States. For cows in these [plains] . . . which they have in this country, Coronado, see Old South that it is impossible to number them, for while I was journeyLeaflets, No. 20; American ing through these plains, until I returned to where I first History Leaf- found them, there was not a day that I lost sight of them. And after seventeen days' march I came to a settlement of Indians who are called Querechos, who travel around with these cows, who do not plant, and who eat the raw flesh and drink the blood of the cows they kill, and they tan the skins of the cows, with which all the people of this country dress themselves here. They have little field tents made of the lets, No. 13. For other Spanish explorations, see Old South Leaflets, Nos. 35, 36, 39; Contempora ries, Nos. 17-25. buffalo. This is the earliest ac count of the hides of the cows, tanned and greased, very well made, in Cows = which they live while they travel around near the cows, moving with these. They have dogs which they load, which carry their tents and poles and belongings. These people have the best figures of any that I have seen in the Indies. They could not give me any account of the country where the guides were taking me. It was the Lord's pleasure that, after having journeyed across these deserts seventy-seven days, I arrived at the Indians of the plains. province they call Quivira, to which the guides were con- Now Kansas ducting me, and where they had described to me houses of stone, with many stories; and not only are they not of stone, but of straw, but the people in them are as barbarous as all those whom I have seen and passed before this; they do not have cloaks, nor cotton of which to make these, but use the skins of the cattle they kill, which they tan, because they are settled among these on a very large river. . . . The country itself is the best I have ever seen for producing all the products of Spain, for besides the land itself being very fat and black and being very well watered by the rivulets and springs and rivers, I found prunes like those of Spain and nuts and very good sweet grapes and mulberries. I have treated the natives of this province, and all the others whom I found wherever I went, as well as was possible, agreeably to what Your Majesty had commanded, and they have received no harm in any way from me or from those who went in my company. And what I am sure of is that there is not any gold nor any other metal in all that country, and the other things of which they had told me are nothing but little villages, and in many of these they do not plant anything and do not have any houses except of skins and sticks, and they wander around with the cows; so that the account they gave me was false, because they wanted to persuade me to go there with the whole force, believing that as the way was through such uninhabited deserts, and from Coronado got probably as far as eastern Kansas. In New New Spain = the lack of water, they would get us where we and our horses would die of hunger. . . . I have done all that I possibly could to serve Your Majesty and to discover a country where God Our Lord might be served and the royal patrimony of Your Majesty increased, as your loyal servant and vassal. For since I reached the province of Cibola, to which the viceroy of New Spain sent me in the name of Your Majesty, seeing that there were none of the things there of which Friar Marcos had told, I have managed to explore this country for 200 leagues and more around Cibola, and the Rio Grande. best place I have found is this river of Tiguex where I am now, and the settlements here. It would not be possible to establish a settlement here, for besides being 400 leagues from the North sea and more than 200 from the South sea, with which it is impossible to have any sort of communicarespectively. tion, the country is so cold, as I have written to Your Majesty, Pacific Ocean and Gulf of California that apparently the winter could not possibly be spent here, because there is no wood, nor cloth with which to protect the men, except the skins which the natives wear and some small amount of cotton cloaks. I send the viceroy of New Spain an account of everything I have seen in the countries where I have been, and as Don Garcia Lopez de Cardenas is going to kiss Your Majesty's hands, who has done much and has served Your Majesty very well on this expedition, and he will give Your Majesty an account of everything here, as one who has seen it himself, I give way to him. And may Our Lord protect the Holy Imperial Catholic person of Your Majesty, with increase of greater kingdoms and powers, as your loyal servants and vassals desire. From this province of Tiguex, October 20, in the year 1541. Your Majesty's humble servant and vassal, who would kiss the royal feet and hands: FRANCISCO VAZQUEZ CORONADO. Coronado's letter to the king, October 20, 1541; translated by George Parker Winship, The Coronado Expedition, 1540–1542 (Washington, 1896), 580-583 passim. 4. An English Plundering Voyage WH (1578-1579) WHEN Frances Drake had passed ye straytes [straits] of Magellan, the first land hee fell wth [with] was an Iland named Mocha, wher .. hee wth ten of his company went on shore, thincking ther to have taken in fresh water. Two of the company going far into the Iland were intercepted and cut of[f] by the Indians that inhabite the Iland ... They stayed heere but one day, but set sayle toward ye coast of Chile, wher ariving they met with an Indian in a canoa nere the shore, who thincking them to have bin [been] Spaniards, tould them that behind the [them], at a place called St. Yago, there was a Spanish schip [ship], for weh [which] good nves [news] they gave him divers trifles. The Indian being ioyfull [joyful] therof went on shore and brought them ij. [2] sheepe and a small quantyty of fish, and so they returned back againe to St. Yago to seeke the Spanish ship (for they had overshot ye place before they were ware); and when they came thither, they found the same ship and in her 3 Negros and viij. [8] Spaniards; they of the ship thincking Drakes [men] to have bin Spaniards, welcomed them with a drum, and made redy a great buttiro [butt] of wyne of Chile to have made them drinck but when Drakes men were entred, one of them, whose name was Tom Moone, strake ye Spanish pilate wth his fist of [on] the face, saying, Abassho Pirra, wch is to say in English, Go downe, dogg, and then the poore Spaniards being sore afrayde went downe into the hould of the ship, all saving one of them, who leping out at the stern of the ship swam on shore, and gave warning to them of the towne of their coming. When Drake had taken this ship and stowed the men vnder hatches, hee tooke her bote and his owne boote [boat] and manned them both wth his men, and went to set vpon k; Drake was a 20 pounds, set the towne of S. Yago . . . hee found there a chappell, wch he rifled and tooke from thence a chalice of silv' and twoo cruets of silver . . . and the altar cloth, all weh hee tooke away with him and brought them on boord [board], and gave all the spoyle of that chappell to Mr. Fletcher, his precher, at his coming on boorde . . . Drake sayle and bent his course towards a place called Arica, where he found in the haven iij small barcks, and rifling them, he found in one of the [them] 57 slabs of fine silver weing [weighing] about 20li weight eche [each] of them. These slabs were about the bignes of a brick batt eche one of them, and one of ye two other barks was set on fire by one Fuller and one Tom Marcks, and so burned to the very water. There were not in those iij barcks one prson [person], for they mistrusting no theves were all gone on shore. In this towne of Arica were about 20 howses, which Drake would have set vppon if hee had had more company with him, but wanting company of pirates he depted [departed] hence, having still with him the Grand Capitaine of St. Yago; but within one day after he was gone from this haven of Arica, he cast of [f] the Grand Capitaine, clapping her helme fast on the lee and let her drive to seaward without any creature in her. From hence hee sayled toward Lyma ... At his departure from the haven of Lyma he cut all the cables of the ships there and let them drive to seaward, and so made speed toward Payta, thincking there to have founde the Cacafoga, but she was gone before he arived there toward Panama, whom he still followed amayne, but betwene Payta and Cape St. Franc[i]s hee met with a barck laden with ropes and tackell for shipps. This ship hee rifled, and found 80 pounds, a in her about 801i weight of gould, and he tooke out of her greate quantyty of ropes to store his own ship, and so let her go. The owner of this ship was a frier. He found also in her a greate crucifix of goulde, and certaine emeralds neere as longe as a mans finger. From this robbery following still value of about $40,000. |