TRANSLATION OF THE NARRATIVE OF CASTASÑEDA
Account of the Expedition to Cibola which took place in the year 1540, in which all those settlements, their ceremonies and customs, are described. Written by Pedro de Castañeda, of Najera.[1]
PREFACE
To me it seems very certain, my very noble lord, that it is a worthy ambition for great men to desire to know and wish to preserve for posterity correct information concerning the things that have happened in distant parts, about which little is known. I do not blame those inquisitive persons who, perchance with good intentions, have many times troubled me not a little with their requests that I clear up for them some doubts which they have had about different things that have been commonly related concerning the events and occurrences that took place during the expedition to Cibola, or the New Land, which the good viceroy—may he be with God in His glory[2]—Don Antonio de Mendoza, ordered and arranged, and on which he sent Francisco Vazquez de Coronado as captain-general. In truth, they have reason for wishing to know the truth, because most people very often make things of which they have heard, and about which they have perchance no knowledge, appear either greater or less than they are. They make nothing of those things that amount to something, and those that do not they make so remarkable that they appear to be something impossible to believe. This may very well have been caused by the fact that, as that country was not permanently occupied, there has not been anyone who was willing to spend his time in writing about its peculiarities, because all knowledge was lost of that which it was not the pleasure of God—He alone knows the reason—that they should enjoy. In truth, he who wishes to employ himself thus in writing out the things that happened on the expedition, and the things that were seen in those lands, and the ceremonies and customs of the natives, will have matter enough to test his judgment, and I believe that the result can not fail to be an account which, describing only the truth, will be so remarkable that it will seem incredible.
- ↑ There were several representatives of the family of Castañeda among the Spaniards in America as early as the middle of the sixteenth century, but the only possible mention of this Pedro, of the Biscayan town of Najera, which I have seen outside of the present document, is the following item from a Relacion do los pesos de oro que están señalados por indios vacos á los conquistadores de Nueva España y á sus hijos, cuyos nombres se expresan (año 1554), in Pacheco y Cardenas, Doc. de Indias, xiv, 206: "A los nueve hijos de Pero Franco, couquistador, é su mujer, que son: Maria de Acosta, madre de todos, Pero Francisco de Castañeda, Juana de Castañeda, Inés de Castañeda, Francisco de Castañeda, Lorenzo Franco, Marta de Castañeda, Anton de Vargas y Juana de Castañeda, les están señalados de entretenimiento en cada un año duzientos y setenta pesos. cclxx."
- ↑ Mendoza died in Lima, July 21, 1552.
