received permission to go and settle their affairs. There were many others who would have liked to go, but did not, in order not to appear faint-hearted. During this time the general endeavored to pacify scveral villages in the neighborhood which were not well disposed, and to make peace with the people at Tiguex. He tried also to procure some of the cloth of the country, because the soldiers were almost naked and poorly clothed, full of lice, which they were unable to get rid of or avoid.
The general, Francisco Vazquez Coronado, had been beloved and obeyed by his captains and soldiers as heartily as any of those who have ever started out in the Indies. Necessity knows no law, and the captains who collected the cloth divided it badly, taking the best for themselves and their friends and soldiers, and leaving the rest for the soldiers, and so there began to be some angry murmuring on account of this. Others also complained because they noticed that some favored ones were spared in the work and iu the watches and received better portions of what was divided, both of cloth and food. On this account it is thought that they began to say that there was nothing in the country of Quivira which was worth returning for, which was no slight cause of what afterward happened, as will be seen.
Chapter 2, of the general's fall, and of how the return to New Spain was ordered.
After the winter was over, the return to Quivira was announced, and the men began to prepare the things needed. Since nothing in this life is at the disposition of men, but all is under the ordination of Almighty God, it was His will that we should not accomplish this, and so it happened that one feast day the general went out on horseback to amuse himself, as usual,[1] riding with the captain Don Rodrigo Maldonado. He was on a powerful horse, and his servants had put on a new girth, which must have been rotten at the time, for it broke during the race and he fell over on the side where Don Rodrigo was, and as his horse passed over him it hit his head with its hoof, which laid him at the point of death, and his recovery was slow and doubtful.[2]
During this time, while he was in his bed,[3] Don Garcia Lopez de Car. denas, who had started to go to New Spain, came back in flight from Suya, because he had found that town deserted and the people and horses and cattle all dead. When he reached Tiguex and learned the sad news
- ↑ Or perhaps as Ternaux, p. 202, rendered it, "courir la bague."
- ↑ Mota Padilla, cap. xxxii, 6. p. 166: "así el gobernador) como los demas capítanes del ejército, debian estar tan ciegos de la pasion de la codicia de riquezas, que no trataban de radicarse poblando en aquel paraje que veian tan abastecido, ni de reducir á los indios é instruirios en algo de la fé, que es lo que debian propagar: solo trataron de engordar sus caballos para lo que se ofreciese pasado el invierno; y andando adiestrando el gobernador uno que tenia muy brioso, se le fué la silla, y dando la boca en el suelo, quedó sin sentido, y aunque despues se recobró, el juicio le quedó diminuto, con lo cual trataron todos de desistir de la empresa." Gomara, cap. ccxiii: "Cayo en Tiguex del cavallo Francisco Vazquez, y con el golpe salio de sentido, y deuaneana: loqnal vnos tuuierō por dolor, y otros por fingido, ca estauan tual con el, porque no poblaua."
- ↑ Or, During the time that he was confined to his bed,. . .
