lived at the edge of the mountains. They said that there were many lodges and people there who would give us many things, but we did not want to go there because it was out of our way. We followed the flat land near the mountains, which we thought were not far from the coast. All the people of the coast are bad; so we thought it better to travel inland, because further inland the people are friendlier and treated us better. We thought we would certainly find a land that was more heavily populated and had more food. Furthermore, we did this so as to note the many particular things of that land, so that we could give an informative account of it if God our Lord should be pleased to lead one of us out and into a Christian land. When the Indians saw that we were determined not to go where they were leading us, they told us that there were no people there nor prickly pears or anything to eat where we wanted to travel. They asked us to stay there that day, which we did.

Then they sent two Indians to look for people along the route we wanted to take. We left the following day, taking many of them with us. The women were carrying heavy loads of water, and our authority among them was so great that no one dared drink without our permission. Two leagues from there we encountered the Indians who had gone to look for people. They told us that they had found none and were sorry and asked us again to go through the mountains. We refused to do that and when they saw our determination they sadly took leave of us and returned downriver to their dwellings. We traveled upriver and a little while later we came across two women carrying loads. When they saw us, they stopped and unloaded and brought us some of what they were carrying, which was cornmeal. They told us that further along that river we would find dwellings and many prickly pears and some cornmeal. We said goodbye to them since they were going to the other Indians from whom we had come. We traveled until sunset and reached