This black man was Estevan, who had been killed about a year before.

The news of this man and his execution had travelled rapidly, showing frequent intercourse with the pueblos beyond the mountains.

Still farther on he met another man who had been at Cibola, and who also told him of a great river in which there were crocodiles.

This was the Mississippi, of course, and the crocodiles were alligators.

As Alarcon had never seen an alligator he took the description to mean crocodile.