Translation of the Traslado de Las Nuevas 336
COPY OF THE REPORTS AND DESCRIPTIONS THAT HAVE BEEN RECEIVED REGARDING THE DISCOVERY OF A CITY WHICH IS CALLED CIBOLA, SITUATED IN THE NEW COUNTRY.
His grace left the larger part of his army in the valley of Culiacan, and with only 75 companions on horseback and 30 footmen, he set out for here Thursday, April 22. The army which remained there was to start about the end of the month of May, because they could not find any sort of sustenance for the whole of the way that they had to go, as far as this province of Cibola, which is 350 long leagues, and on this account he did not dare to put the whole army on the road. As for the men he took with him, he ordered them to make provision for eighty days, which was carried on horses, each having one for himself and his followers. With very great danger of suffering hunger, and not less labor, since they had to open the way, and every day discovered waterways and rivers with bad crossings, they stood it after a fashion, and on the whole journey as far as this province there was not a peck of corn.337 He reached this province on Wednesday, the 7th of July last, with all the men whom he led from the valley very well, praise be to Our Lord, except one Spaniard who died of hunger four days from here and some negroes and Indians who also died of hunger and thirst. The Spaniard was one of those on foot, and was named Espinosa. In this way his grace spent seventy-seven days on the road before reaching here, during which God knows in what sort of a way we lived, and whether we could have eaten much more than we ate the day that his grace reached this city of Granada, for so it has been named out of regard for the viceroy, and because they say it resembles the Albaicin.338 The force he led was not received the way it should have been, because they all arrived very tired from the great labor of the journey. This, and the loading and unloading like so many muleteers, and not eating as much as they should have, left them more in need of resting several days than of fighting, although there was not a man in the army who would not have done his best in everything if the horses, who suffered the same as their masters, could have helped them.
The city was deserted by men over sixty years and under twenty, and by women and children. All who were there were the fighting p565 men who remained to defend the city, and many of them came out, about a crossbow shot, uttering loud threats. The general himself went forward with two priests and the army-master, to urge them to surrender, as is the custom in new countries. The reply that he received was from many arrows which they let fly, and they wounded Hernando Bermejo’s horse and pierced the loose flap of the frock of father Friar Luis, the former companion of the Lord Bishop of Mexico. When this was seen, taking as their advocate the Holy Saint James,339 he rushed upon them with all his force, which he had kept in very good order, and although the Indians turned their backs and tried to reach the city, they were overtaken and many of them killed before they could reach it. They killed three horses and wounded seven or eight.
When my lord the general reached the city, he saw that it was surrounded by stone walls, and the houses very high, four and five and even six stories apiece, with their flat roofs and balconies. As the Indians had made themselves secure within it, and would not let anyone come near without shooting arrows at him, and as we could not obtain anything to eat unless we captured it, his grace decided to enter the city on foot and to surround it by men on horseback, so that the Indians who were inside could not get away. As he was distinguished among them all by his gilt arms and a plume on his headpiece, all the Indians aimed at him, because he was noticeable among all, and they knocked him down to the ground twice by chance stones thrown from the flat roofs, and stunned him in spite of his headpiece, and if this had not been so good, I doubt if he would have come out alive from that enterprise, and besides all this—praised be Our Lord that he came out on his own feet—they hit him many times with stones on his head and shoulders and legs, and he received two small wounds on his face and an arrow wound in the right foot; but despite all this his grace is as sound and well as the day he left that city. And you340 may assure my lord of all this, and also that on the 19th of July last he went 4 leagues from this city to see a rock where they told him that the Indians of this province had fortified themselves,341 and he returned the same day, so that he went 8 leagues in going and returning. I think I have given you an account of everything, for it is right that I should be the authority for you and his lordship, to assure you that everything is going well with the general my lord, and without any hesitation I can assure you that he is as well and sound as the day he left the city. He is located within the city, for when the Indians saw that his grace was determined to enter the city, then they abandoned it, since they let them go with their lives. We found in it what we needed more than gold and silver, and that was much corn and beans and fowls, better than those of New Spain, and salt, the best and whitest that I have seen in all my life.
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