e South Sea, could not be less than two hundred
leagues[144], as they declared upon oath before a notary at San Miguel
on the 15th of May 1536, before whom likewise they subscribed a
narrative of all the incidents of their weary pilgrimage. After resting
fifteen days in San Miguel, they proceeded to the city of
Compostella[145], a distance of an hundred leagues, where Nunno de
Guzman then was, by whom they were kindly received and furnished with
clothes and all other necessaries. From thence they went to Mexico,
where they arrived on the 22d of July, and met with a courteous
reception from the viceroy, Don Antonio de Mendoza. Leaving Castillo and
Estevanillo at Mexico, Cabeza de Vaca and Orantes proceeded to Vera
Cruz, whence they passed over into Spain in 1537.

[Footnote 144: Two hundred Spanish leagues of 17-1/2 to the degree, or
about 800 English miles. It has been already stated in a former note
that the direct distance they had travelled could not be less than 1200
miles, probably 1600 allowing for deflections.--E.]

[Footnote 145: San Miguel and Compostella are both omitted in the most
recent map of New Spain by Humboldt, though both are inserted in
Governor Pownalls map of North America; in which San Miguel is placed
about 27 miles S.E. from Culiacan, and Compostella 230 miles S.S.E. from
San Miguel; all three near the western coast of New Spain, the former in
the province of Culiacan, the latter in that of Guadalaxara--E.]

We learn from Herrera[146], that Alvar Nunnez Cabeza de Vaca was sent
out in 1540 as governor of the incipient Spanish settlements on the Rio
Plata, in which expedition he was accompanied by his former companion in
distress Orantes. In the year 1545, he was made prisoner by some
mutinous officers of the colony and sent into Spain, where his conduct
was cleared by the council of the Indies, yet he was not restored to his
government.

[Footnote 146: Herrera, V. 342, 390, 402.]

SECTION IV.

_Narrative of a new attempt to Conquer Florida, by Ferdinand de
Soto_[147].

[Footnote 147: Herrera, V. 223--239.--This narrative, as will be seen by
the series of quotations from Herrera, is broken down by that writer
into detached fragments, in consequence of rigid attention to
chronological order. In the present instance these are arranged into one
unbroken journal, but with no other alteration in the text. It is one of
the most curious of our early expeditions of discovery, bearing strong