elchior Diaz, and the third Don Lopez
de Cardenas, who distinguished himself on the Rio Grande by particular
brutality toward the villagers. Don Rodrigo went in search of the ships
down the river to the coast from the valley of Corazones, but obtained
no information of them, though he met with giant natives and brought
back with him one very tall man as a specimen. The main army of Coronado
had not yet gone from this valley of Corazones, where the settlement
called San Hieronimo had been established, and the best man in it
reached only to the chest of this native giant.

The army moved on to another valley, where a halt was made to await
orders from the general. At length, about the middle of September,
Melchior Diaz came back from Cibola, with dispatches, accompanied by
Juan Gallegos, who bore a message for the viceroy. In their company also
was the miserable Friar Marcos, pursuing his dismal return to New Spain
by direction of the general, who considered it unsafe for him to remain
with the army now that the glorious bubble of his imagination had been
exploded. Melchior Diaz was an excellent officer, and already had an
experience in this northern region extending over some four years. It
was he, also, who had been sent, the previous November, as far as the
place called Chichilticalli, in an attempt to verify the friar's tale,
and had reported that the natives were good for nothing except to make
into Christians. The main army, which was in command of Don Tristan
de Arellano, in accordance with the orders received from Coronado, now
advanced toward Cibola. Maldonado, who had been to the coast, went with
it. Diaz retained eighty men, part of whom were to defend the settlement
of San Hieronimo, and twenty-five were to accompany him on his
expedition in search of Alarcon. He started north and then went west,
following native guides for 150 leagues (412 1/2 miles) in all, and at
length reached a country inhabited by giant natives who, in order to
keep warm in the chill autumn air, carried about with them a firebrand.
From this circumstance, Diaz called the large river he found here the
Rio del Tizon. This was the Buena Guia of Alarcon. The natives were
prodigiously strong, one man being able to lift and carry with ease on
his head a heavy log which six of the soldiers could not transport to
the camp. Here Diaz heard that boats had come up the river to a point
three days' journey below, and he went there to find out about it