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, doubtless expecting to get on the track of
Alarcon. But the latter had departed from the mouth of the river at
least two or three weeks before; one writer says two months.* The
same writer states that Diaz reached the river thirty leagues above
the mouth, and that Alarcon went as far again above. This coincides
very well with Alarcon's estimate of eighty-five leagues, for Diaz
did not follow the windings of the stream as Alarcon was forced to do
with his boats. At the place down the river, Diaz found a tree