011r Catholic Heritage in T e:xas
130
Cotmtry visited west of tlte 1vpper Trinity. Setting out once more in the hope of establishing communication with the other Christians of whom the Indians had spoken, the worn-out band made one last effort to find them. "For twenty days," says the Gentleman of Elvas, "the march was through a very thinly peopled country, where great privation and toil were endured; the little maize there was, the Indians having buried in the stub, where the Christians, at the close of the day's march, when they were well weary, went trailing, to seek what they needed of it to eat." 32 At the end of the painful march they arrived in a province called Guasco. Where was this province? In order to determine this question it is necessary to ascertain as accurately as possible the distance traveled and the general direction of the march. It is to be noted that the Gentleman of Elvas says nothing about the direction of travel. Biedma, the royal factor of the expedition, says the march at this time was east for a few days, then south or southwest, but he observes that they had made so many turns that great confusion existed as to where they were going. 33 The matter of the direction, therefore, will ever remain a conjecture at the best. There is only one argument in favor of their going southwest rather than east or south . From the start of their wanderings, the sur- vivors of De Soto's expedition, under the leadership of Moscoso had tried, as best they could, to go west and this was no doubt the general direction they tried to follow. This assumption is borne out by a state- ment of the Gentleman of Elvas who, speaking of the entire distance traveled and the general direction of the march from the Rio Grande (here the Mississippi) to Daycao, the farthest point reached, says "From Daycao, where they were, to the Rio Grande, was a distance of one hun- dred and fifty leagues, which they had marched, toward that place, always westwardly."" When told that Spaniards had been seen among the Indians to the south of Guasco, it is natural to assume that the general westward direction followed until now, was changed by inclining to the south and going, therefore, to the southwest as far as Guasco. Having determined the approximate general direction of travel, it is necessary to find out the rate of travel. It is well to remember that Moscoso and his men had but few horses left; that the men were exhausted 32 Lewis, op. cit., 244. 33 Bourne, ed ., " Relation of the Conquest of Florida presented by Luis Hernandez de Biedma" in Narratives of the Career of H ernando de Soto, II, 36-37. 34 Lewis, op. cit., 247.
Powered by FlippingBook