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Show COMMENTARY ON JUAN DE LA ASUNCION. 509 dition of the case leads me to believe that the journey was really made, that Fray Juan de la Asuncion was the man who performed it, and that he reached as far north as the Lower Gila, and perhaps the lower course of the Colorado of the West; and that consequently there was a discovery of Southern Arizona one year previous to that of New Mexico by Fray Marcos of Nizza. 44 The principal objection lies in the fact that the Viceroy makes no mention of the journey in his letter quoted by me. But we must not lose sight of the fact that he mentions other communications to the Emperor, the text of which I have not, and in which he says that he had sent 4 two members of the order of Saint Francis to discover the cape of the mainland that runs in the direction of the north.' This passage may refer to Fray Marcos and his companion, but it may also allude to two other monks. Furthermore, if we compare the statement of Arricivita, that the monks left Mexico in January, 1538, and the statement of Mange, that the trip lasted nine months, with the time of departure of Fray Marcos on his journey to the north, we notice that the latter left only after the two monks are supposed to have returned. At the end of November, 1538, Fray Marcos was already in New Galicia, and the others are supposed to have returned in October." It only remains for me to add that the foregoing represents nearly or quite all the known original data on the subject; and that the modern writing upon this case, having nothing to add to our information, is merely compilation or expression of opinion on these sources. n Whose or what Relacion Garces has thus cited is unknown, or at least uncertain. As the above text is obliquely constructed, for the most part, yet without due indication of what clauses are quoted and what are Garces' own, it offers some difficulty of translation. I will therefore first give the Spanish, exactly as it stands, in order that my translation may be com- |