Page:History of Utah.djvu/56

4 a chasm only a few feet wide, but which if they might believe the natives was half a league across. In vain for several days, with their faces toward the south and west, they sought to escape from the mountains that environed them, and descend to the river, for they were suffering from thirst. At length

some. When they had marched during three or four days, the guides declared to them that it was impossible to go further, that water would not be found before four days; that when the Indians travelled on this road, they took with them women who carried calabashes filled with water, and they buried a certain part, so that they might find it when returning; and besides they made in one day as many miles as the Spaniards would in two. This was the river del Tizon. They arrived much nearer to its source than the place where Melchor Diaz and his people had crossed, and it was known later that the Indians spoken of belonged to the same nation as those seen by Diaz. The Spaniards therefore came back, and the expedition had no other result. While marching, they arrived at a cascade falling from a rock. The guides affirmed that the white crystals hanging around were salt. A quantity of it was gathered, carried away, and distributed at Cíbola, where a written account of all that had been seen was sent to the general. Garci-Lopez had taken with him a certain Pedro de Sotomayor, who was the chronicler of the expedition. All the villages of this province have remained our allies, but they have not been visited since, and no attempt at discovery has been made in that direction.

The other is from a relation by an unknown author, found in the archives of the Indies, and printed in Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc., xiv. 321–3, under title of Relacion del suceso de la Jornada que Francisco Vazquez hizo en el descubrimiento de Cíbola, and from which I give the extract covering the same incident:

'Vuelto D. Pedro de Tobar, é dada relacion de aquellos pueblos, luego despachó á D. García Lopez de Cárdenas, maestre de campo, por el mesmo camino que habia venido D. Pedro, é que pasase de aquella provincia de Tuzan, al Poniente, é para ida é vuelta de la jornada é descobrimiento, le señaló ochenta dias de término de ida é vuelta, el qual fué echado adelante de Tuzan con guias de los naturales que decian que habia adelante, poblado, aunque lejos, andadas cincuenta leguas de Tuzan al Poniente, é ochenta de Cíbola, halló una barranca de un rio que fué imposible por una parte ni otra hallarle baxada para caballo, ni aun para pié, sino por una parte muy trabaxosa, por donde tenia casi dos leguas de baxada. Estaba la barranca tan acantillada de peñas, que apenas podian ver el rio, el cual, aunque es segun dicen, tanto ó mucho mayor que el de Sevilla, de arriba aparescia un arroyo; por manera que aunque con harta diligencia se buscó pasada, é por muchas partes no se halla, en la cual estuvieron artos dias con mucha necesidad de agua, que no la hallaban, é la del rio no se podian aprovechar della aunque la vian; é á esta causa le fué forzado á don García Lopez volverse á donde hallaron; este rio venia del Nordeste é volvia al Sur Sudueste, por manera que sin falta ninguna es aquel donde llegó Melchor Diaz.'

Don Pedro de Tobar having returned, and having made a report concerning those towns, D. García Lopez de Cárdenas, maestre de campo, was ordered to take the same route by which Don Pedro had come, and to go on from the province of Tuzan to the westward. He was given 80 days in which to make the journey, from his departure until his return. He went on beyond Tuzan, accompanied by Indian guides, who told him that farther on there was a settlement. Having gone 50 leagues to the westward of Tuzan, and 80 from Cíbola, he came to the cañon of a river adown the side of which there was no descent practicable for horse, nor even for those on foot, except