xtent of
fruitful and agreeable country, which was totally destitute of
inhabitants, all the Indians having fled to the mountains for fear of
the Spaniards. They came at length to the top of a hill where a great
number of Indians had withdrawn, who presented them with a vast quantity
of corn, which they gave to the poor famished natives who had escorted
them thither. Continuing their journey, they observed many indications
of Spaniards having been in the country, and they pressed onwards giving
praise to God that their long and miserable captivity seemed near a
close. One day, while Cabeza and Estevanillo were in advance,
accompanied by eleven Indians, they overtook four Spanish horsemen, who
were much astonished at being accosted in their own language by persons
in their strange garb and appearance. Cabeza requested to be conducted
to their commander, Diego de Alcaraz, who informed him they were now in
_New Galicia_, and about thirty leagues from the town of San Miguel.
Castillo and Orantes then came up, attended by above six hundred of the
Indians who had deserted their habitations from fear of the Spaniards.
By their means all the others were induced to return to their houses in
peace and to sow the land. Cabeza and his three companions having taken
leave of the Indians who accompanied them with many thanks for their
protection, travelled twenty-five leagues farther to a place called
_Culiacan_[142], where they arrived much spent with long fatigue and
after having endured much hunger and thirst during their arduous and
anxious peregrinations through the vast wilderness from Florida to New
Galicia.

[Footnote 142: Culiacan, or Hueicolhuacan, on a river of the same name
which discharges itself into the Vermilion Sea or Gulf of California, is
in lat. 24 deg. 50' N. long. 106 deg. 40' W. in the province of Cinaloa. Cabeza
de Vaca and his companions had therefore followed an oblique course from
the north-east in the south of Louisiana entirely across the continent,
to the south-west, from about the latitude of 31 deg. to 25 deg. both north; a
journey in all probability exceeding 1200 English miles in a straight
line. The beginning of their journey seems to have been to the west of
the Missisippi, as that great river is not mentioned; neither indeed do
we find any indications of the Rio Bravo del Norte, which they must
necessarily have crossed.--E.]

Melchior Diaz, who was captain and alcalde of the province, received
th