AJ-070: Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca, Journey (1527-1536)

              


    THE JOURNEY OF

 
toil or suffering in this world comes near
 
,it.
    All over this country there
are a great
 many deer, fowl and other animals which
I
 have before enumerated. Here also they
 come up
with cows; 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 o, 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 here. 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
coun-
 try further on, to the coast of Florida,
 and
are found all over the land for over
 four hundred
leagues.    On this whole
 stretch,
through the valleys by which they
 come, people who live
there descend to sub-
 sist upon their flesh. And a great
quantity
 of hides are met with inland.30
 ""In print,
this is the earliest notice extant of
 the American
Bison, or Buffalo. The Letter to
the Audiencia does not
mention the ""cows,""
It
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