[952] [The writing of his narrative, not during but after the completion of his journey, does not conduce to making the statements of the wanderer very explicit, and different interpretations of his itinerary can easily be made. In 1851 Mr. Smith made him cross the Mississippi within the southern boundary of Tennessee, and so to pass along the Arkansas and Canadian rivers to New Mexico, crossing the Rio Grande in the neighborhood of thirty-two degrees. In his second edition he tracks the traveller nearer the Gulf of Mexico, and makes him cross the Rio Grande near the mouth of the Conchos River in Texas, which he follows to the great mountain chain, and then crosses it. Mr. Bartlett, the editor of the Carter-Brown Catalogue (see vol. i. p. 188), who has himself tracked both routes, is not able to decide between them. Davis, in his Conquest of New Mexico, also follows Cabeza de Vaca’s route. H. H. Bancroft (North Mexican States, i. 63) finds no ground for the northern route, and gives (p. 67) a map of what he supposes to be the route. There is also a map in Paul Chaix’ Bassin du Mississipi au seizième siècle. Cf. also L. Bradford Prince’s New Mexico (1883), p. 89.—Ed.] The buffalo and mesquite afford a tangible means of fixing the limits of his route.
[953] Including the petition of Narvaez to the King and the royal memoranda from the originals at Seville (p. 207), the instructions to the factor (p. 211), the instructions to Cabeza de Vaca (p. 218), and the summons to be made by Narvaez (p. 215). Cf. French’s Historical Collections of Louisiana, second series, ii. 153; Historical Magazine, April, 1862, and January and August, 1867.
[954] Smith’s Cabeça de Vaca, p. 100; Torquemada (Monarquia Indiana, 1723, iii. 437-447) gives Lives of these friars. Barcia says Xuarez was made a bishop; but Cabeza de Vaca never calls him bishop, but simply commissary, and the portrait at Vera Cruz has no episcopal emblems. Torquemada in his sketch of Xuarez makes no allusion to his being made a bishop. and the name is not found in any list of bishops. We owe to Mr. Smith another contribution to the history of this region and this time, in a Coleccion de varios documentos para la historia de la Florida y tierras adyacentes,—only vol. i. of the contemplated work appearing at Madrid in 1857. It contained thirty-three important papers from 1516 to 1569, and five from 1618 to 1794; they are for the most part from the Simancas Archives. This volume has a portrait of Ferdinand V., which is reproduced ante, p. 85. Various manuscripts of Mr. Smith are now in the cabinet of the New York Historical Society.
[955] Oviedo’s account is translated in the Historical Magazine, xii. 141, 204, 267, 347. [H. H. Bancroft (No. Mexican States, i. 62) says that the collation of this account in Oviedo (vol. iii. pp. 582-618) with the other is very imperfectly done by Smith. He refers also to careful notes on it given by Davis in his Spanish Conquest of New Mexico, pp. 20-108. Bancroft (pp. 62, 63) gives various other references to accounts, at second hand, of this expedition. Cf. also L. P. Fisher’s paper in the Overland Monthly, x. 514. Galvano’s summarized account will be found in the Hakluyt Society’s edition, p. 170.—Ed.]
[956] Bancroft, United States, i. 27.
[957] Cabeça de Vaca, p. 58; cf. Fairbanks’s Florida, chap. ii.
[958] Cabeça de Vaca, pp. 20, 204.
[959] [Tampa is the point selected by H. H. Bancroft (No. Mexican States, i. 60); cf. Brinton’s note on the varying names of Tampa (Floridian Peninsula, p. 113).—Ed.]
[960] B. Smith’s De Soto, pp. 47, 234.
[961] Nouvelle France, iii. 473.