Note 952 — Chapter IV · (continued 2)

[The writing of his narrative, not during but after the completion of his journey, does not conduce to making the statements of the wanderer very explicit, and different interpretations of his itinerary can easily be made. In 1851 Mr. Smith made him cross the Mississippi within the southern boundary of Tennessee, and so to pass along the Arkansas and Canadian rivers to New Mexico, crossing the Rio Grande in the neighborhood of thirty-two degrees. In his second edition he tracks the traveller nearer the Gulf of Mexico, and makes him cross the Rio Grande near the mouth of the Conchos River in Texas, which he follows to the great mountain chain, and then crosses it. Mr. Bartlett, the editor of the Carter-Brown Catalogue (see vol. i. p. 188), who has himself tracked both routes, is not able to decide between them. Davis, in his Conquest of New Mexico, also follows Cabeza de Vaca’s route. H. H. Bancroft (North Mexican States, i. 63) finds no ground for the northern route, and gives (p. 67) a map of what he supposes to be the route. There is also a map in Paul Chaix’ Bassin du Mississipi au seizième siècle. Cf. also L. Bradford Prince’s New Mexico (1883), p. 89.—Ed.] The buffalo and mesquite afford a tangible means of fixing the limits of his route.