Page:The Coronado expedition, 1540-1542.djvu/390

the left hand, which would be more to the northeast, and began to enter the plains where the cows are, although we did not find them for some four or five days, after which we began to come across bulls, of which there are great numbers, and after going on in the same direction and meeting the bulls for two or three days, we began to find ourselves in the midst of very great numbers of cows, yearlings and bulls all in together. We found Indians among these first cows, who were, on this account, called Querechos by those in the flat roof houses. They do not live in houses, but have some sots of poles which they carry with them to make some huts at the places where they stop, which serve them for houses. They tie these poles together at the top and stick the bottoms into the ground, covering them with some cowskins which they carry around, and which, as I have said, serve them for houses. From what was learned of these Indians, all their human needs are supplied by these cows, for they are fed and clothed and shod from these. They are a people who wander around here and there, wherever seems to them best. We went on for eight or ten days in the same direction, along those streams which are among the cows. The Indian who guided us from here was the one that had given us the news about Quevira and Arache (or Arahei) and about its being a very rich country with much gold and other things, and he and the other one were from that country I mentioned, to which we were going, and we found these two Indians in the flat-roof villages. It seems that, as the said Indian wanted to go to his own country, le proceeded to tell us what we found was not true, and I do not know whether it was on this account or because he was counseled to take us into other regions by confusing us on the road, although there are none in all this region except those of the cows. We understood, however, that he was leading us away from the route we ought to follow and that he wanted to lead us on to those plains where he had led us, so that we would eat up the food, and both ourselves and our horses would become weak from the lack of this, because if we should go either backward or forward in this condition we could not make any resistance to whatever they might wish to do to us. From the time when, as I said, we entered the plains and from this settlement of Querechos, he led us off more to the east, until we came to be in extreme need from the lack of food, and as the other Indian, who was his companion and also from his country, saw that he was not taking us where we ought to go, since we had always followed the guidance of the Turk, for so he was called, instead of his, he threw himself down in the way, making a sign that although we cut off his head he ought not to go that way, nor was that our direction. I believe we had been traveling twenty days or more in this direction, at the end of which we found another settlement of Indians of the same sort and way of living as those behind, among whom there was an old blind man with a beard, who gave us to understand, by signs which he made,