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Show LEADING 56 FACTS OF NEW HISTORY MEXICAN Espafiola of the fate of Narvaez and his companions and also a report From this report, of their own wanderings across the continent.** Oviedo.*? historian, the of narrative the prepared was undoubtedly, The relation of Alvar Nufiez Cabeza de Vaca was first printed at They also prepared a map of the region Zamora, in the year 1542.** traversed by them and left it with Mendoza.** Finally Alvar Nufiez and Dorantes determined to return to Spain, but upon the request of the viceroy, the ship upon which he had taken passage having proved unseaworthy and having returned to Vera Alvar Nufiez Cabeza de Vaca, Cruz, Dorantes remained in Mexico.*® 41 Hodge, F. W., Ibid, p. 7: ‘‘There are few Spanish narratives that are more unsatisfactory to deal with by reason of the lack of directions, distances =a Fh tuna fields, about thirty leagues inland from San to a course from the Antonio Bay, to the Rio Colorado and perhaps to the Rio Llano, westward across the lower Pecos to the Rio Grande above the junction of straight line across Chihuahua and the Conchos, thence in an Sonora to the Rio Sonora, approximately where we find Cabeza de Vaca’s Village of Hearts, which Coronaflo also visited in 1540, at or in the vicinity of the present 42 Gonzalo Fernandez Ures.’’ de Oviedo y Valdez was born in 1478. He belonged to an ancient family of the Asturias. He was early introduced at court, and was appointed page to Prince Juan, the only son of Ferdinand and Isabella, on whom the hopes of the nation rested. Oviedo was present at the siege of Granada. He entered the service of Ferdinand of Naples after the death of his royal master in 1496. In 1513 he was appointed to office in the New World by Ferdinand, the Catholic, and took service under the governor of Darien, sharing in the disastrous fortunes of that colony. In 1526 he published at Madrid his Sumario. This work he dedicated to the Emperor Charles the Fifth; it contains an account of the West Indies, the climate, geography, the races living there, and also an account of the animal and vegetable life of the islands. In 1535 Oviedo published his great work, the Historia de las Indias Occidentales. The same year he was appointed alealde of the fortress of Hispaiiiola, and for the following ten years he remained on the island prosecuting his historical studies. Upon his return to Spain he was appointed Chronicler of the Indies, which post he held until his death, at Valladolid, of his age. . in 1557, 5 in the 79th yea? 43 Winsor, Justin, Narr. and Crit. Hist. Am., vol. ii, pp. 286-499. 44 Smith, Buckingham, Relation of Alvar Nuiez Cabeza de Vaca, Tntroduction. Oviedo, Historia General y Natural de las Indias, tomo iii, lib. xxxv, ed. 1853. 45 Hodge, F. W., Spanish Explorers in the Southern United States, P8: ‘Invited to the capital by the viceroy Mendoza, Dorantes was tendered a commission to explore the northern country, but this pro ject was never carried out . . . perhaps because of the projected expedltion of Coronado, the way for which was led by Fray Marcos de Niza in 1539 with the negro Estevan as a guide. Dorantes served Mendoza in the conquest .r the clews afforded by the narrative itself, point strongly bh e>Ty om Gq — S do = ™ Pin) of Francisco . — © YIOX 1541 by the army TeRITIOISIFT ig — £40100 Pa hash aie ae . Prt ads be 5. a . 0 0177 Vasquez Coronado, on the eastern edge of the Stake Plains, and again in 1582 by Antonio de Espejo, on the Rio Grande below the present El Paso. These data, with twice crossed by later explorers —in me); ~~ C~ DcS DR Cc Y Yfo C = and other details, than that of Cabeza de Vaca; consequently there are scarcely two students of the route who agree. His line of travel through Texas was Aletece poe 6 Cs @ © Ht fed Our oo DO |