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.

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