the lives of his men in an attempt to examine the shoals and currents
of this dangerous place. Alarcon was looking for and expecting to
meet Coronado at any time. He knew that Coronado was depending on the
supplies carried by the San Gabriel, and it would have been rank
cowardice on the part of Alarcon to have backed out at the first
difficulty. But he had no intention of retiring from the contest, for
he says:

"But because your Lordship commanded me that I should bring you the
secret of that gulf, I resolved that although I had known I should
have lost the ships, I would not have ceased for anything to have
seen the head thereof, and therefore I commanded Nicolas Zamorano,
Pilot Major, and Dominico del Castello that each of them should take
a boat, and lead in their hands, and run in among those shoals, to
see if they could find out a channel whereby the ships might enter
in; to whom it seemed that the ships might sail up higher (although
with great travail and danger), and in this sort I and he began to
follow our way which they had taken, and within a short while after
we found ourselves fast on the sands with all our three ships, in
such sort that one could not help another, neither could the boats
succour us because the current was so great that it was impossible
for one of us to come to another. Whereupon we were in such great
jeopardy that the deck of the Admiral was oftentimes under water; and
if a great surge of the sea had not come and driven our ship right up
and gave her leave, as it were, to breathe awhile, we had there been
drowned; and likewise the other two ships found themselves in very
great hazard, yet because they were lesser and drew less water their
danger was not so great as ours. Now it pleased God upon the return
of the flood that the ships came on float, and so we went forward.
And although the company would have returned back, yet for all this I