The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 22, July 1918 - April, 1919 Page: 241
521 p. : ill. (some col.), ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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The First Europeans in Texas, 1528-1536
leaving their loads. These the Christians carried on their backs,
and went, by that river upward, all the rest of the day. At night
they met some Indians who took them to eight or nine ranchos,
which were placed in a craggy spot among thorns. . The
next day they departed from there and spent that night on the
road, and the day following they went to many ranchos.
A slight discrepancy in the narratives is noticeable here. Oviedo
accounts for one more day at the village near the foot of the
point of the mountain than does Cabeza de Vaca; while Cabeza. de
Vaca accounts for one more day in the journey up the river. Both
narratives distinctly state that the first day's journey after leav-
ing the white Indians was up that river. The river is not men-
tioned again, but since the women they met the first day told
them that they would find maize, tunas and people "up that
river," and no mention is made of any alternative route, it is rea-
sonable to infer that they continued in the same direction until
they turned inland as noted in the next stage of the narratives.
Cabeza de Vaca accounts, for four days journey after leaving the
white Indians before turning inland. Oviedo accounts for one
less day, but implies that the distance traveled was thirty leagues,
which is equivalent to four days journey.'"7
(b) From the Inland Turn to The Beautiful River
CABEZA DE VACA :138 Thence we turned inland for more than
fifty leagues, following the slopes of the mountains, and at the
end of them met forty dwellings. There among other things
which they gave us, Andres Dorantes got a big rattle of copper,
large, on which was represented a face. They claimed to have
brought it from the north. . . Leaving on the next day we
crossed a mountain seven leagues long, the stones of which were
iron slags [Scoriae].139 At night we came to many dwellings sit-
uated on the banks of a very beautiful river. The in-
mates of these abodes gave us a. number of pouches with marga-
ritas and powdered antimony (or lead) with which they paint
their faces, and many beads and robes of cowskins. These people
ate tunas and pine nuts; there are in that country small trees of
the sweet pine, the cones of which are like small eggs, but the
137Baskett, THE QUARTERLY, X, 273-274.
3sCabeza de Vaca, pp. 138-140.
13'As indicated by Bandelier, Cabeza de Vaca's statement that the stones
of the mountains were "Scoriae" of iron, suggests iron slag-hence, lava,
and not iron ore, as Mr. Baskett seems to imply. Mr. Frank C. Pierce of
Brownsville is our authority for the statement that lava is found in large
quantities on the slopes of the Sierra Madre in the vicinity of Monclova.241
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 22, July 1918 - April, 1919, periodical, 1919; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117156/m1/255/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.