In all the villages I saw I gave something to eat to everyone who presented himself; one, two, or even three ladles full of atole. I gave them presents. I treated them with as much loving-kindness as I could so as to mould them to my ultimate purpose, which was simply their own best interest.
The names of the villages are:[15] Lucluc, 28 leagues distant from the mission, at the edge of the plain; from here I went to Thuohuala, about 9 leagues; from here to Gelecto, about 9; from here to Lihuahilame, about 19; and from there to Quihuame, about 7. At this point we could not cross a big river (the source of which we did not see) which runs from north to south, and south to north. It makes a bend in the plain some 7 leagues from Telame. Its speed and the dense brush along its banks prevented our passage. It fills the lakes of Buenavista, of Gelecto, and of Thuohuala. In all our trip we did not see a good tree, nor wood enough to cook a meal, nor a stone, nor even grass enough for the horses, more than bunch grass, or what grows in the swamps. This big river ends as such in Buenavista Lake or loses itself in ponds and swamps. Along all the border of the plain [i.e., along the river] there is a great meadow a league wide, very heavily overgrown with brush. However, the lands through which the river runs are pure sand, without grass and utterly useless for any good purpose.
In the first village, Lucluc, we found about fifty Indians with their women and children. In this place they offered to bring me a small boy, after much begging and persuasion, and after I had given his parents two blankets, some ornaments, meat, etc. In the night the Indians sent a message for the following day, and in the morning we met the Indian Gabriel, as he was called by the soldiers, for he had gone with them on all the previous expeditions. He, with six other heathen Indians, accompanied us to the village of Thuohuala, which we found deserted except for one old woman on a mat, and a paralytic, whom they could not carry into the swamps. I was here three days, sending my Indians on sorties through the tule swamps. They brought me back about ten families, together with a sick man. The latter I ordered to be taken by my Indians to his house, covered with a wrap. I gave the others atole, making it clear that they should have no fear, that my trip was only for the purpose of visiting them and offering them the facilities of San Luís Mission together with the knowledge of the True God, without which no one can live well or enjoy any good fortune. I told them they should have no fear.
With my arguments I was able to acquire some seventy men, all warriors, but noticed that those whom I had taken out of the swamp during the night had gone elsewhere. Of the seventy whom I gathered with the help of the Indian Gabriel, no one ran away again. They ate and even slept with us in our camp. I knew where the women and the others were and I expressed the displeasure caused by seeing a friendly village run away from us. They unanimously maintained that a certain Chape and other old men were to blame for having spread the rumor that we wanted to kill them all. Nevertheless he himself [i.e., Chape] gave me and the corporal a little basket and we gave him some fish. During the time I was there, I gave him, in addition to the food, some beads. After this transaction I decided to continue my journey toward the village of Gelecto, where we found no trace of people except the cemetery, because they had destroyed the village in their wars. After spending the night here I went on to Telamni. This consumed the whole day (without anyone having a meal). Furthermore I had to endure showers falling on my back four times during this period.
Since we did not try to hide ourselves, the train of horses stirred up a great dust visible for several leagues. As soon as I arrived at Telamni, they observed us from Lihuahilami the Great. At that place there had been a big riot the day previously, as a result of which some eight men had been killed, among them the grandson of Quipagueces. For this reason they were very much worried for fear the father would come to avenge the murders. The chief sent me a message to inform me of this occurrence and I answered that he should not be concerned for I did not come to do harm to anyone nor [would I] permit anyone else to hurt them. I wanted only to see them and offer them the services of the mission. This chief had me summoned to request that I place the camp close to his village, which would contain about three hundred married men. The next day I went into it and everyone received us with pleasure. I talked to them of religious matters and they said to me that [illegible][16] they were made Christians, but that it had to be there. Three of them who wanted to go with me presented themselves and they started out very happy. When we reached the village of Quihuama, the chief, who already knew I was coming, had hidden the people in the brush. While I was dismounting, he had caused them to drop their clothing and flee to the thickets. In consequence I was not able to speak to anyone.
I was now about six leagues from Telamé and was hemmed in by a big river, which afforded no transit anywhere. It runs along the northern side of the valley and forms a lake and swamps where the plain obstructs its flow. I decided to turn back, for to persist in going on to Telamé would mean a long detour. So I went back, accomplishing the operation without any event worth mentioning, as far as the village of our friends at Thuohuala, called, in the language of San Miguel, Hubal. There we found that the village had moved. Since on my first visit I had departed on such good terms with these people, I was the more astonished at their fickleness. I decided to send some Indians to let them know I was there and that I would like to see them all together. They received these poor fellows with arrows and, if the latter had not carried with them their leather shields to defend themselves, not a one would have got back to the camp (they were below Hubal at a village called Pusas). They quickly sent word to me at the camp. The corporal and six men went out but found no one there. My Indians did not use weapons against anyone and made no more resistance than to seize arrows and take bows out of the hands of those who were offending. They took three prisoners, two women and a man, who, according to the story, were all yelling “Kill the Playanos!” [Playanos, people from the coast.] The next day the village was burned and everything in it destroyed because the people in it had taken up arms against those who had treated them well. One Indian was slightly wounded in the head; two horses were hit by arrows, one rather seriously, and another stolen with the saddle, together with all those from which the riders had dismounted in order to deliver my message.[17] This village deserves severe punishment.
In all the land we have covered there is neither good water to drink nor stones nor firewood, even enough to cook a meal, except in the river bottom. The latter is overgrown with cottonwoods and willows but there is no land fit for sowing crops because everywhere is sand.
The foregoing, my respected Prelate, is the information I have to give you concerning my journey. I cannot forget that in all the time I was away there was nothing but a miserable supper at night and chocolate in the morning, that in the day I was weak and tired with traveling and in the night, no matter what protection I used, I was soaking wet till after my prayers. Nevertheless, may this all be for the greater honor and glory of God, our Lord, who, with all these labors ... [illegible] ... arrived at San Luis....
May your health..., etc.
Fr. L. de Martinez