And they say that hee is a Saint, and doe worshippe him for that yeere, and sing prayses, and Hymnes vnto him and afterward set vp his head with the rest in order within those windowes. Also they sacrifice their prisoners, whom they burn in another deeper ditch, and not with the foresayde ceremonies. The Spanyards which are in Xalisco write, that hauing good assistance, they hope that those people will become Christians. The Countrey is very good and fruitfull, and hath great store of good and wholesome waters. A Letter of Francis Vazquez de Coronado, Gouernour of Nueua Galicia, to the lord Don Antonio de Mendoça, Viceroy of Nueua Espanna. Dated in Saint Michael of Culiacan, the 8. of March, 1539. Of the hard passage from Saint Michael of Culiacan to Topira. The description of that Prouince, and of another neere vnto the same, very rich in gold and precious stones. The number, of the people which Vazquez caried with him in his iourney thither; and how greatly Frier Marcus of Niça is honoured by the Indians of Petatlan. By the help of God I meane to set forward from this City of S. Michael of Culiacan toward Topira the 10. of April: neither can I any sooner set forward, because the powder and match which your Lordship sendeth mee, cannot be brought thither, before that time, and I thinke it be now in Compostella. Besides this, I am to passe many leagues ouer mightie high mountaines which reach vp to the skyes, and ouer a Riuer, which at this present is so bigge and swollen, that it can in no place be waded ouer. And if I depart at the time aforesayde, they say wee may wade ouer it. They tolde mee that from hence to Topira was not aboue 50 leagues; and I haue learned since that it is aboue foure score leagues. I doe not remember that I haue written to your Lordshippe the information which I haue of Topira: and though I had written thereof vnto you, yet because that since that time I haue learned something more, I thinke it meete to signifie them vnto your Lordshippe in these my letters. It may please your honour therefore to vnderstand, that they tell mee, that Topira is a very populous Prouince, lying betweene two riuers, and that there are aboue 50. inhabited townes therein. And that beyond the same there is another Countrey greater then it, the name whereof the Indians could not tell mee, wherein there is great store of victuals of Maiz, French peason, Axi or Pepper, Melons, and Gourds, and great store of Hennes of the countrey. [Sidenote: These may seeme to be the Pintados mentioned by Frier Marco de Niza in his 2. Chap.] The people weare on their bodies golde, Emeralds, and other precious stones, and are serued commonly in golde and siluer, wherewith they couer their houses: and the chiefe men weare great chaines of golde well wrought, about their necks and are apparelled with paynted garments, and haue store of wilde kine; and they