[156] The expressions of the journal indicate that Espence was not familiar with the Seri custom of eviscerating and quartering stolen stock, consuming the entrails at once, and transporting the more substantial pieces across the strait on their balsas. Velasco fell into still further error in assuming that the expressions relate to tracks and other indications of the presence of living stock on the island.
[157] Velasco, op. cit., p. 168.
[158] Ibid., p. 169. On the same page Espence classifies the captives as 6 oldsters (“viejos de sesenta años arriba”), 12 beldames (“viejas de cuarenta arriba”), 1 blind, 1 idiotic boy, 5 cripples male, 1 cripple female, 180 women, 160 children, and 144 men—510 in all. Andrade’s report enumerates the captives as 120 in each of two lots, with 20 or more in a third, making 260 odd (ibid., p. 180); while Velasco put the number at 200 and odd (“docientas y tantas persones”), men, women, and children, including only 30 odd oldsters and warriors combined. The discrepancies are characteristic, and of a piece with those prevailing in the same latitude and longitude today: e. g., Velasco says there are but four waters on the island, Espence says there are eight or ten, and Andrade implies that there are many; Velasco says there were 160 troops from Guaymas, while Andrade mentions only 80; Espence says that in transporting the stock (as noted above) but one mule was drowned by the strength of the current, while Andrade says that a mule and a steer were lost on account of the bad storm which prevailed during the day; yet there is such agreement between dates and facts in the independent journals of Andrade and Espence as to establish general verity despite the provincial weakness concerning details.
[159] According to Andrade (ibid., p. 182); Velasco says September 16 (ibid., p. 126).
[160] Velasco, Noticias Estadisticas, p. 127.
[161] Ibid., p. 170.
[162] Ibid., p. 128.
[163] Ibid., p. 129. This naive recital is far from unique among the chronicles of conquest over the Seri. All of the records recount victories more or less brilliant, even when there are strong indications between lines that the Caucasians were outnumbered, outfought, forced from the field, and even driven into the protection of the pueblos. The Seri side of the story has never been told.
[164] Velasco, Noticias Estadisticas, pp. 169-171.
[165] Ibid., pp. 127-128.