Note 45 — I.

Castañeda, i. cap. x. pp. 49, 50. Melchor Diaz reached the Rio del Tizon, starting from Culhuacan and Sonora. This river emptied into the Gulf of California, and he found there traces of Fernando de Alarcon. The latter went up the Rio Colorado, and learned many details about Cibola from Indians living along the river. Relation de la Navigation et de la Découverte faite par le Capitaine Fernando Alarcon, Voyage de Cibola, Ternaux-Compans, Append, iv. cap. i. p. 302: "Nous y trouvâmes un très grand fleuve dont le courant était si rapide, qu'à peine pouvions nous nous y maintenir," cap. v. pp. 324-326; cap. vi. p. 331. Herrera, dec. vi. lib. ix. cap. xi. p. 212. Fray Juan de Torquemada, Monarchia Indiana, lib. v. cap. xi. p. 609, ed. of 1723. While Alarcon was endeavoring to meet Coronado by sailing or boating up the Colorado from its mouth, the latter sent Garci-Lopez de Cardenas to explore a river which the Indians of "Tusayan" had mentioned to Pedro de Tobar; and he reached this river after twenty days' march. It is described as follows by Castañeda (i. cap. xi. p. 62): "After these twenty days' marching, they indeed reached this river, whose shores are so high that they thought themselves at least three or four leagues up in the air. The country is covered with low and crippled pines; it is exposed to the north, and the cold is so severe that, although it was summer, it could hardly be supported. The Spaniards for three days marched along these mountains, hoping to find a place where they could reach the river, which, from above, appeared to be about one fathom in width, while the Indians said it was wider than one-half league; but it was found to be impossible," etc. This is a fair picture of the cañons of the Colorado River of the West, the only one emptying into the head of the Gulf of California; and Castañeda adds (p. 65): "This river was the del Tizon."