The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 10, July 1906 - April, 1907 Page: 269
ix, 354 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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A Study of the Route of Cabeza de Vaca.
269
green, or merely the leaves. These latter Cabeza says they baked,
and Oviedo says they buried them from one day to the other (to
make them "less rough") and some were boiled, [cocidas]. After
they had been on the way thirteen days, Oviedo mentions green
tunas that were beginning to ripen, and a day later, good ones.'
In about thirty-one days, according to Oviedo, they came
to a large river, which both accounts compare with the
Guadalquiver at Seville. The first day they went seven
leagues, and this distance may be taken as a day's jour-
ney, when nothing hinders them. On one other they went
"eight or nine great leagues," another only five. On the
second day out they stopped, 'and for eight days they tarried to eat
of a bitter, milky-juiced small fruit [granillos in Oviedo], noted
by both. There were large forests of the bearing 'trees. At another
place they rested fifteen days, which, deducting time lost in other
ways, would leave only about eight of actual travel. Cabeza
notes2 that they got lost one day, at the end of which they stayed in
the woods, and they must have spent much of the next finding the
trail again. Oviedo also speaks of their being lost once.
Cabeza is not so definite in this itinerary, but he has only five
days of actual travel. He places the region of mesquite east of the
large river, and has at least one day spent in a feast there. Oviedo
has it that "before sunset" they came to the river, and as it grew
dark they came to one hundred ranchos beyond. From this, the
next morning, they went a league and a half to another pueblo
where the Indians gave them mesquite meal.
However this may be, there is evidence that so far more than
six days were spent in travel, which would roundly amount to forty
leagues, or about 100 miles to the river-a distance which would
reach from the center of the Avavares, in central San Patricio
County, to the Frio River in central Frio County, north of the
jrnction with the Lena fork.
As to the character of this stream, Cabeza says:" "It may have
been as wide as the one of Sevilla, and had a swift current."
Oviedo notes4 that it seemed to them to be wider than the Guadal-
"After the full discussion of the route, this topic will be taken up anew
in detail.
2P. 115.
P. 129.
'P. 604.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 10, July 1906 - April, 1907, periodical, 1907; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101040/m1/297/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.