The morning after he proclaimed himself as coming from the sun, many swam out to where the boat was anchored, contending for the privilege of securing the rope with which the boat was towed.

"And we gave it to them," says Alarcon, "with a good will, thanking God for the good provision which He gave us to go up the river." The interpreter frequently addressed the natives as he went forward, and at last, on Tuesday night, a man was discovered who understood him.

This man was taken into the boat, and Alarcon, always true his trust, asked him whether he had seen or heard of any people in the country like himself, hoping to secure some clue to Coronado.

"He answered me no, saying that he had some time heard of old men that very far from that country, there were other white men, and with beards like us, and that he knew nothing else.

I asked him also whether he knew a place called Cibola and a river called Totonteac, and he answered me no." Coronado meanwhile had arrived at Cibola on July 7th (or 10th) and had therefore been among the villages of the Rio Grande del Norte nearly two months.