I I
Our Catleolic Heritage in Texas
on the banks of the stream that night. Next day they went over some mountain roads and halted five leagues farther down on a stream which they named El Arroyo de los Alamillos, perhaps the present day Gallinas River, which joins the Pecos half way between Dilia and Colonias. Here they rested the following day, resuming the march on July 10, and traveling six more leagues in the same general direction, they halted "at a stream of water close to a small saline, where we gathered salt to season the meat." They named the place La Salinilla. "In this locality," says Luxan, "there are large holes of brackish water." They rested a day at this place and continued on their way on July 12, when they traveled four leagues "to a stream with poplars, which they named El Arroyo de las Garrochas. This land is very level, containing fine pas- tures and many water holes." They were now in the great plains but within the limits of New Mexico, evidently in the same region traveled by Jaramillo and his men on the return march from Palo Duro Canyon, where Coronado ordered the men back, while he went with a selected group to search for Quivira. 0 But although the Spaniards had found many tracks of buffalo through the country traversed, they had not seen a single beast up to this time. Resuming their march on July 13, they went six leagues to the place where another fairly good sized stream, which ran from the east to the west, joined the Pecos. This must have been near present Guadalupe. Just above this town the Pecos makes a sharp turn to the right and flows almost due west for a few miles to the point where it joins an intermittent creek about half a mile from Guadalupe. For two days they rested in camp, continuing the march on the sixteenth. They then traveled four leagues along the river and camped on its banks. Next day they moved on for six leagues and called their camp El Mosquitero because of the numerous mosquitoes that bothered them considerably that night. They did not tarry long. The following day they marched six leagues to a large mesquite grove on the river. By July 22, after traveling twenty-four more leagues downstream they came to a place they called El Salado "because the river is more salty here than before, on account of the brackish water from many springs that empty into it," says Luxan. They were now in the vicinity of Acme, a short distance from where Salt Creek joins the Pecos in Charles County. Next day they traveled only three leagues on account of the marshes
41The route as summarized above is taken from L11xnn's Narrative, I 20-121.
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