The Buffalo Bison – First Impressions 
CORONADO
DeVaca’s journal is the first known European mention of the American bison. It says, quote:
Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, “La Relación… ,” trans. Fanny Bandelier, The Journey of Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca and his Companions from Florida to the Pacific, 1528-1536,” (New York: A. S. Barnes & Company, 1905), p. 94:
All over this country there are a great many deer, fowl and other animals .... Here also they come up with cows [This was the word he used for the Buffalo]; I have seen them thrice and have eaten their meat. They appear to me of the size of those in Spain. Their horns are small, like those of the Moorish cattle; the hair is very long like fine wool and like a peajacket; some are brownish and others black, and to my taste they have better and more meat than those from [Spain]. Of the small hides the Indians make blankets to cover themselves with, and of the taller ones they make shoes and targets. These cows come from the north, across the country further on, to the coast of Florida, and are found all over the land for over four hundred leagues [1200 miles]. On this whole stretch, through the valleys by which they come, people who live there descend to subsist upon their flesh. And a great quantity of hides are met with inland.