[4] CORN. The Indians' corn-mill was a smooth round hole worn in the rock. A stone pestle was used. The coarse meal mixed with water or tallow, or both, was then wrapped in leaves, and baked in hot ashes. [5] BURIAL PLACES. Upon finding one of these receptacles for the dead, a Franciscan of Narvaez' company, who declared the practice idolatrous, caused all the bodies to be burnt, thereby much incensing the natives. [6] GOLD. Hearing the Spaniards always asking for gold, the natives shrewdly made use of it to rid themselves of these unwelcome visitors, by sending them farther and farther away. In reality the Indians had almost none of the precious metals, but the finding of a few trinkets among them seems to have dazzled De Soto's eyes. HOW NEW MEXICO CAME TO BE EXPLORED. _"Northward, beyond the mountains we will go,_ _Where rocks lie covered with eternal snow."_ In the disasters of Narvaez and De Soto, the movement from the side of Florida towards the West had met with an untimely check. But, strangely enough, it made progress in another quarter through these very misfortunes. For while De Soto was vainly seeking for gold on that side, his countrymen were bestirring themselves in the same business in a quite different direction, as we shall see. [Illustration: ROCK INSCRIPTIONS, NEW MEXICO.] At this time it was Don Antonio de Mendoza who was the emperor's viceroy in Mexico. Now Mendoza aimed to gain distinction with his sovereign by being the first who should discover and make known to the world, all the unexplored region lying north of Mexico, which was accounted as rich as any yet known to the Spaniards. Most of all, perhaps, Mendoza wished to find the land's end in that northern direction, as by doing so he would complete the work of putting a girdle round the continent, and gain the glory of it for himself. Various efforts were making to do this both by land and sea.[1] And curiously enough these efforts came from the West. For the purpose in hand Mendoza had with him in Mexico two or three survivors[2] of Narvaez' expedition, who, in the most wonderful manner, had made their way overland through the unknown regions of the North, from Florida into Mexico. These men told the viceroy, Mendoza, that the natives who dwelt among the mountains to the north were a very rich people, who lived in great cities and had gold and silver in abundance. Mendoza also held captive some Indians whose homes were in that far-away country, which he was now meditating how to conquer.