before the threatened rising of the rivers should stop his progress. From Aztatlan he proposed to press on to the Amazon country, reported to be ten days distant.[1]
About the middle of July it was resolved to proceed, and Gonzalo Lopez, who after Villaroel's return to Mexico had been made maestre de campo, was sent in a northerly direction to find suitable winter quarters. Passing over flooded roads, where sometimes the water reached to the stirrups, Lopez Discovered Aztatlan, the chief town of a province of that name, and with this information he returned to the camp. A few days afterward the whole army resumed the march; but instead of three days, as expected, it required nearly a week to reach Aztatlan, on account of the rainy season and the marshy nature of the soil. Several days alone were spent by the maestre de campo with the vanguard in building two bridges over swollen rivers, which otherwise it would have been impossible for the foot-soldiers to pass.[2] Aztatlan reached at last, they establish themselves in winter quarters, and remained there about five months. This province, situated on the northern bank of probably the actual Rio de Acaponeta,[3] afforded food in abundance, and at first, as long as the rains did not prevent raids for plunder, all went well.
- ↑ Carta, in Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc., xiii. 356-93, and in Ramusio, iii, 331-9. Guzman also asserts that a church was built at Omitlan.
- ↑ Sámano, Rel., 279-80, speaks of a river called Santa Ana from the day of crossing, July 26th; and says they afterward crossed another river, on which lay Aztatlan on Santiago day, or July 25th!
- ↑ It was certainly on either the Acaponeta or the Rio de las Cañas, the present boundary between Jalisco and Sinaloa. The two streams are not over 10 miles apart at their mouths. The 3a Rel. Anón., 446-7, makes the distance from Omitlan 10 leagues, and adds that when the army had forded the stream and were pursuing the foe they came to a larger river, which stopped the pursuit. It is clear that no such stream could have been found near the Cañas and north of it. The 1a Rel. Anón., 288-9, makes the distance 10 or 12 leagues from Espiritu Santo River. The statements are not definite enough for exact location in a country like this, where there are several streams, each with branches, to say nothing of possible changes within three centuries. The name Aztatlan applied in later times to a town on the Acaponeta, is considered by Ramirez, Proceso, 208-11, as worthy of notice in
