Spanish Explorers in the Southern United States, 1528-1543.
by active 16th century Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca · English · Gutenberg #42841 · 929,580 chars · public domain (US)
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Title: Spanish Explorers in the Southern United States, 1528-1543.
Author: active 16th century Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca
active 16th century Pedro de Castañeda de Nájera
Knight of Elvas
Editor: Jameson J. Franklin
Frederick Webb Hodge
Theodore Hayes Lewis
Release date: May 29, 2013 [eBook #42841]
Most recently updated: October 23, 2024
Language: English
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/42841
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SPANISH EXPLORERS IN THE SOUTHERN UNITED STATES, 1528-1543. ***
ORIGINAL NARRATIVES
OF EARLY AMERICAN HISTORY
REPRODUCED UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE
AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
GENERAL EDITOR, J. FRANKLIN JAMESON, PH.D., LL.D., LITT.D.
DIRECTOR OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH IN THE
CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON
NARRATIVES OF EARLY VIRGINIA
BRADFORD'S HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH PLANTATION
WINTHROP'S JOURNAL "HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND" (2 vols.)
NARRATIVES OF EARLY CAROLINA
NARRATIVES OF EARLY MARYLAND
NARRATIVES OF EARLY PENNSYLVANIA, WEST NEW JERSEY, AND DELAWARE
NARRATIVES OF NEW NETHERLAND
EARLY ENGLISH AND FRENCH VOYAGES
VOYAGES OF SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN
SPANISH EXPLORERS IN THE SOUTHERN UNITED STATES
SPANISH EXPLORATION IN THE SOUTHWEST
NARRATIVES OF THE INSURRECTIONS
NARRATIVES OF THE INDIAN WARS
JOHNSON'S WONDER-WORKING PROVIDENCE
THE JOURNAL OF JASPAR DANCKAERTS
NARRATIVES OF THE NORTHWEST
NARRATIVES OF THE WITCHCRAFT CASES
THE NORTHMEN, COLUMBUS, AND CABOT
_ORIGINAL NARRATIVES
OF EARLY AMERICAN HISTORY_
SPANISH EXPLORERS
IN THE
SOUTHERN UNITED STATES
1528-1543
THE NARRATIVE OF ALVAR NUÑEZ
CABEÇA DE VACA
EDITED BY
FREDERICK W. HODGE
OF THE BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
THE NARRATIVE OF THE EXPEDITION OF
HERNANDO DE SOTO
BY THE GENTLEMAN OF ELVAS
EDITED BY
THEODORE H. LEWIS
HONORARY MEMBER OF THE MISSISSIPPI HISTORICAL SOCIETY
THE NARRATIVE OF THE EXPEDITION OF
CORONADO, BY PEDRO DE CASTAÑEDA
EDITED BY
FREDERICK W. HODGE
_New York_
BARNES & NOBLE, INC.
COPYRIGHT, 1907
BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
ALL RIGHTS ASSIGNED TO BARNES & NOBLE, INC., 1946
_All rights reserved_
REPRINTED, 1965
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
NOTE
Although, in the narrative of the Gentleman of Elvas, the translation
by Buckingham Smith has been followed, some corrections have been
made in the text, and pains have been taken to set right, in
accordance with the Portuguese original at the Lenox Library, the
native proper names, on whose interpretation in the Indian languages
the identification of localities in many cases depends. If variations
from page to page in the spelling of some such names are observed by
the reader, they may be assumed to exist in the original.
The three narratives printed in this book are but a small selection
from among many scores; for the narratives of Spanish explorers in
the southern United States constitute an extensive literature. But if
interest and historical importance are both taken into account, it is
believed that these three hold an undisputed preëminence among such
"relations."
J. F. J.
CONTENTS
THE NARRATIVE OF ALVAR NUÑEZ CABEÇA DE VACA
EDITED BY FREDERICK W. HODGE
PAGE
THE NARRATIVE OF ALVAR NUÑEZ CABEÇA DE VACA 1
INTRODUCTION 3
Proem 12
Chapter 1. In which is told when the Armada sailed, and of the
Officers and Persons who went in it 14
Chapter 2. The Coming of the Governor to the Port of Xagua and
with a Pilot 18
Chapter 3. Our Arrival in Florida 19
Chapter 4. Our Entrance into the Country 20
Chapter 5. The Governor leaves the Ships 24
Chapter 6. Our Arrival at Apalache 28
Chapter 7. The Character of the Country 29
Chapter 8. We go from Aute 33
Chapter 9. We leave the Bay of Horses 37
Chapter 10. The Assault from the Indians 40
Chapter 11. Of what befell Lope de Oviedo with the Indians 44
Chapter 12. The Indians bring us Food 45
Chapter 13. We hear of other Christians 48
Chapter 14. The Departure of four Christians 49
Chapter 15. What befell us among the People of Malhado 52
Chapter 16. The Christians leave the Island of Malhado 55
Chapter 17. The Coming of Indians with André's Dorantes,
Castillo, and Estevanico 59
Chapter 18. The Story Figueroa recounted from Esquivel 63
Extract from the Letter of the Survivors 68
Chapter 19. Our Separation by the Indians 70
Chapter 20. Of our Escape 72
Chapter 21. Our Cure of some of the Afflicted 74
Chapter 22. The Coming of other Sick to us the next Day 76
Chapter 23. Of our Departure after having eaten the Dogs 82
Chapter 24. Customs of the Indians of that Country 83
Chapter 25. Vigilance of the Indians in War 85
Chapter 26. Of the Nations and Tongues 86
Chapter 27. We moved away and were well received 88
Chapter 28. Of another strange Custom 91
Chapter 29. The Indians plunder each other 94
Chapter 30. The Fashion of receiving us changes 99
Chapter 31. Of our taking the Way to the Maize 105
Chapter 32. The Indians give us the Hearts of Deer 108
Chapter 33. We see Traces of Christians 112
Chapter 34. Of sending for the Christians 113
Chapter 35. The Chief Alcalde receives us kindly the Night we
arrive 116
Chapter 36. Of building Churches in that Land 119
Chapter 37. Of what occurred when I wished to return 121
Chapter 38. Of what became of the Others who went to Indias 123
THE NARRATIVE OF THE EXPEDITION OF HERNANDO
DE SOTO, BY THE GENTLEMAN OF ELVAS
EDITED BY THEODORE H. LEWIS
THE NARRATIVE OF THE EXPEDITION OF HERNANDO DE SOTO, BY
THE GENTLEMAN OF ELVAS 127
INTRODUCTION 129
Epigram of Silveira 133
Prefatory Note by the Printer 134
Chapter 1. Who Soto was, and how he came to get the Government
of Florida 135
Chapter 2. How Cabeça de Vaca arrived at Court, and gave
Account of the Country of Florida; and of the
Persons who assembled at Seville to accompany
Don Hernando de Soto 136
Chapter 3. How the Portuguese went to Seville, and thence to
Sanlúcar; and how the Captains were appointed
over the Ships, and the People distributed among
them 138
Chapter 4. How the Adelantado with his People left Spain
going to the Canary Islands, and afterward
arrived in the Antillas 139
Chapter 5. Of the Inhabitants there are in the City of
Santiago and other Towns of the Island, the
Character of the Soil, and of the Fruit 140
Chapter 6. How the Governor sent Doña Ysabel with the Ships
from Santiago to Havana, while he with some of
the Men went thither by land 142
Chapter 7. How we left Havana and came to Florida, and what
other Matters took place 145
Chapter 8. Of some Inroads that were made, and how a Christian
was found who had been a long time in the
possession of a Cacique 148
Chapter 9. How the Christian came to the Land of Florida, who
he was, and of what passed at his Interview with
the Governor 149
Chapter 10. How the Governor, having sent the Ships to Cuba,
marched Inland, leaving one hundred Men at the
Port 153
Chapter 11. How the Governor arrived at Caliquen, and thence,
taking the Cacique with him, came to Napetaca,
where the Indians, attempting to rescue him,
had many of their Number killed and captured 156
Chapter 12. How the Governor arrived at Palache, and was
informed that there was much Gold inland 160
Chapter 13. How the Governor went from Apalache in quest of
Yupaha, and what befell him 164
Chapter 14. How the Governor left the Province of Patofa,
marching into a Desert Country, where he, with
his People, became exposed to great Peril, and
underwent severe Privation 169
Chapter 15. How the Governor went from Cutifachiqui in quest
of Coça, and what occurred to him on the Journey 175
Chapter 16. How the Governor left Chiaha, and, having run a
Hazard of falling by the Hands of the Indians
at Acoste, escaped by his Address: what occurred
to him on the Route, and how he came to Coça 181
Chapter 17. Of how the Governor went from Coça to Tascaluça 185
Chapter 18. How the Indians rose upon the Governor, and what
followed upon that Rising 190
Chapter 19. How the Governor set his Men in order of Battle, and
entered the town of Mauilla 192
Chapter 20. How the Governor set out from Mauilla to go to
Chicaça, and what befell him 194
Chapter 21. How the Indians returned to attack the Christians,
and how the Governor went to Alimamu, and they
tarried to give him Battle in the Way 199
Chapter 22. How the Governor went from Quizquiz, and thence to
the River Grande 201
Chapter 23. How the Governor went from Aquixo to Casqui, and
thence to Pacaha; and how this Country differs
from the other 205
Chapter 24. How the Cacique of Pacaha came in Peace, and he of
Casqui, having absented himself, returned to
excuse his Conduct; and how the Governor made
Friendship between the Chiefs 209
Chapter 25. How the Governor went from Pacaha to Aquiguate and
to Coligoa, and came to Cayas 213
Chapter 26. How the Governor went to visit the Province of
Tulla, and what happened to him 217
Chapter 27. How the Governor went from Tulla to Autiamque,
where he passed the Winter 221
Chapter 28. How the Governor went from Autiamque to Nilco, and
thence to Guachoya 224
Chapter 29. The Message sent to Quigaltam, and the Answer
brought back to the Governor, and what occurred
the while 228
Chapter 30. The Death of the Adelantado, Don Hernando de Soto,
and how Luys Moscoso de Alvarado was chosen
Governor 232
Chapter 31. How the Governor Luys de Moscoso left Guachoya and
went to Chaguete, and thence to Aguacay 235
Chapter 32. How the Governor went from Aguacay to Naguatex,
and what happened to him 238
Chapter 33. How the Cacique of Naguatex came to visit the
Governor, and how the Governor went thence, and
arrived at Nondacao 240
Chapter 34. How the Governor marched from Nondacao to
Soacatino and Guasco, passing through a
Wilderness, whence, for want of a Guide and
Interpreter, he retired to Nilco 243
Chapter 35. How the Christians returned to Nilco, and thence
went to Minoya, where they prepared to build
Vessels in which to leave Florida 246
Chapter 36. How Seven Brigantines were built, and the
Christians took their Departure from Aminoya 250
Chapter 37. How the Christians, on their Voyage, were attacked
in the River, by the Indians of Quigualtam, and
what happened 254
Chapter 38. How the Christians were Pursued by the Indians 257
Chapter 39. How the Christians came to the Sea, what occurred
then, and what befell them on the Voyage 259
Chapter 40. How the Brigantines lost Sight of each other in a
Storm, and afterwards came together at a Kay 262
Chapter 41. How the Christians arrived at the River Panico 264
Chapter 42. How the Christians came to Panico, and of their
Reception by the Inhabitants 266
Chapter 43. The Favor the People found in the Viceroy and
Residents of Mexico 268
Chapter 44. Which sets forth some of the Diversities and
Peculiarities of Florida; and the Fruit, Birds,
and Beasts of the Country 270
THE NARRATIVE OF THE EXPEDITION OF CORONADO,
BY PEDRO DE CASTAÑEDA
EDITED BY FREDERICK W. HODGE
THE NARRATIVE OF THE EXPEDITION OF CORONADO, BY PEDRO DE
CASTAÑEDA 273
INTRODUCTION 275
Preface 281
FIRST PART
Chapter 1. Which treats of the Way we first came to know about
the Seven Cities, and of how Nuño de Guzman made
an Expedition to discover them 285
Chapter 2. Of how Francisco Vazquez Coronado came to be
Governor, and the second Account which Cabeza
de Vaca gave 287
Chapter 3. Of how they killed the Negro Estevan at Cibola, and
Friar Marcos returned in Flight 289
Chapter 4. Of how the noble Don Antonio de Mendoza made an
Expedition to discover Cibola 290
Chapter 5. Concerning the Captains who went to Cibola 292
Chapter 6. Of how all the Companies collected in Compostela and
set off on the Journey in good Order 293
Chapter 7. Of how the Army reached Chiametla, and the Killing
of the Army-Master, and the other things that
happened up to the Arrival at Culiacan 295
Chapter 8. Of how the Army entered the Town of Culiacan and
the Reception it received, and other things
which happened before the Departure 297
Chapter 9. Of how the Army started from Culiacan and the
Arrival of the General at Cibola, and of the
Army at Señora and of other things that happened 298
Chapter 10. Of how the Army started from the Town of Señora,
leaving it inhabited, and how it reached Cibola,
and of what happened to Captain Melchior Diaz on
his Expedition in Search of the Ships and how he
discovered the Tison (Firebrand) River 302
Chapter 11. Of how Don Pedro de Tovar discovered Tusayan or
Tutahaco and Don Garcia Lopez de Cardenas saw
the Firebrand River, and the other things that
had happened 306
Chapter 12. Of how people came from Cicuye to Cibola to see
the Christians, and how Hernando de Alvarado went
to see the Cows 310
Chapter 13. Of how the General went toward Tutahaco with a few
Men and left the Army with Don Tristan, who took
it to Tiguex 313
Chapter 14. Of how the Army went from Cibola to Tiguex and
what happened to them on the way, on account of
the Snow 315
Chapter 15. Of why Tiguex revolted, and how they were
punished, without being to Blame for it 317
Chapter 16. Of how they besieged Tiguex and took it and of
what happened during the Siege 320
Chapter 17. Of how Messengers reached the Army from the Valley
of Señora, and how Captain Melchior Diaz died on
the Expedition to the Firebrand River 324
Chapter 18. Of how the General managed to leave the Country in
Peace so as to go in Search of Quivira, where the
Turk said there was the most Wealth 327
Chapter 19. Of how they started in Search of Quivira and of
what happened on the Way 329
Chapter 20. Of how great Stones fell in the Camp, and how they
discovered another Ravine, where the Army was
divided into two Parts 333
Chapter 21. Of how the Army returned to Tiguex and the General
reached Quivira 335
Chapter 22. Of how the General returned from Quivira and of
other Expeditions toward the North 339
SECOND PART
WHICH TREATS OF THE HIGH VILLAGES AND PROVINCES AND OF
THEIR HABITS AND CUSTOMS, AS COLLECTED BY PEDRO DE
CASTAÑEDA, NATIVE OF THE CITY OF NAJARA
Chapter 1. Of the Province of Culiacan and of its Habits and
Customs 344
Chapter 2. Of the Province of Petlatlan and all the Inhabited
Country as far as Chichilticalli 346
Chapter 3. Of Chichilticalli and the Desert, of Cibola, its
Customs and Habits, and of other things 349
Chapter 4. Of how they live at Tiguex, and of the Province of
Tiguex and its Neighborhood 352
Chapter 5. Of Cicuye and the Villages in its Neighborhood, and
of how some People came to conquer this Country 355
Chapter 6. Which gives the Number of Villages which were seen
in the Country of the Terraced Houses, and their
Population 358
Chapter 7. Which treats of the Plains that were crossed, of
the Cows, and of the People who inhabit them 361
Chapter 8. Of Quivira, of where it is and some Information
about it 364
THIRD PART
WHICH DESCRIBES WHAT HAPPENED TO FRANCISCO VAZQUEZ
CORONADO DURING THE WINTER, AND HOW HE GAVE UP THE
EXPEDITION AND RETURNED TO NEW SPAIN
Chapter 1. Of how Don Pedro de Tovar came from Señora with
some Men, and Don Garcia Lopez de Cardenas
started back to New Spain 366
Chapter 2. Of the General's Fall, and of how the Return to
New Spain was ordered 368
Chapter 3. Of the Rebellion at Suya and the Reasons the
Settlers gave for it 370
Chapter 4. Of how Friar Juan de Padilla and Friar Luis
remained in the Country and the Army prepared
to return to Mexico 372
Chapter 5. Of how the Army left the Settlements and marched
to Culiacan, and of what happened on the Way 375
Chapter 6. Of how the General started from Culiacan to give the
Viceroy an Account of the Army with which he had
been intrusted 377
Chapter 7. Of the Adventures of Captain Juan Gallego while he
was bringing Reënforcements through the Revolted
Country 379
Chapter 8. Which describes some remarkable things that were
seen on the Plains, with a Description of the
Bulls 381
Chapter 9. Which treats of the Direction which the Army took,
and of how another more direct Way might be found,
if anyone was to return to that Country 384
SPANISH EXPLORERS IN THE SOUTHERN UNITED STATES
THE NARRATIVE OF ALVAR NUÑEZ CABEZA DE VACA
INTRODUCTION
In some respects the journey of Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca and his
three companions overland from coast to coast during the eight years
from 1528 to 1536 is the most remarkable in the record of American
exploration, and as a narrative of suffering and privation the
relation here presented perhaps has no equal in the annals of the
northern continent.
The author of the narrative was a native of Jeréz de la Frontera,
in the province of Cadiz, in southern Spain, but the date of his
birth is not known. His father was Francisco de Vera, son of Pedro
de Vera, conqueror of the Grand Canary in 1483; his mother, Teresa
Cabeza de Vaca, who also was born in Jeréz. Why Alvar Nuñez assumed
the matronymic is not known, unless it was with a sense of pride that
he desired to perpetuate the name that had been bestowed by the King
of Navarre on his maternal ancestor, a shepherd named Martin Alhaja,
for guiding the army through a pass that he marked with the skull
of a cow (_cabeza de vaca_, literally "cow's head"), thus leading
the Spanish army to success in the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa, in
July, 1212, which led up to the final conquest of the Moors in Spain.
Having returned to Spain after many years of service in the New World
for the Crown, Pámfilo de Narvaez petitioned for a grant; and in
consequence the right to conquer and colonize the country between the
Rio de las Palmas, in eastern Mexico, and Florida was accorded him.
The expedition, consisting of six hundred colonists and soldiers,
set sail in five vessels from San Lucar de Barrameda, June 17, 1527,
and after various vicissitudes, including the wreck of two ships and
the loss of sixty men in a hurricane on the southern coast of Cuba,
was finally driven northward by storm, and landed, in April, 1528,
at St. Clements Point, near the entrance to Tampa Bay, on the west
coast of Florida. Despite the protest of Cabeza de Vaca, who had been
appointed treasurer of Rio de las Palmas by the King, Narvaez ordered
his ships to skirt the coast in an endeavor to find Pánuco, while
the expedition, now reduced to three hundred men by desertions in
Santo Domingo, death in the Cuban storm, and the return of those in
charge of the ships, started inland in a generally northern course.
The fleet searched for the expedition for a year and then sailed to
Mexico.
Among the members of the force, in addition to Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de
Vaca, were Andrés Dorantes de Carrança, son of Pablo, a native of
Béjar del Castañar, in Estremadura, who had received a commission as
captain of infantry on the recommendation of Don Alvaro de Zúñiga,
Duke of Béjar; Captain Alonzo del Castillo Maldonado, of Salamanca,
the son of Doctor Castillo and Aldonza Maldonado; and Estévan, or
Estévanico, a blackamoor of Asemmur, or Azamor, on the west coast
of Morocco, the slave of Dorantes. With the exception of those who
returned with the ships, these four men were the only ones of the
entire expedition who ever again entered a civilized community.
Pursuing a generally northerly course, harassed by Indians, and beset
with hunger, illness, and treachery in their ranks, Narvaez's party
finally reached the head of Appalachee Bay, in the country of the
Indians after whom this arm of the Gulf of Mexico takes its name.
Looking now to the sea as his only means of escape; Narvaez the
incompetent, with neither the proper materials nor the mechanics,
set about to build boats to conduct his men out of their trap--craft
that were expected to weather such tropical storms as they had
already so poorly buffeted with their stouter ships. Every object
of metal that the expedition afforded, even to stirrups and spurs,
was requisitioned for the manufacture of nails and necessary tools;
a rude forge was constructed, with bellows of wood and deer-skins;
the native palm supplied tow and covering; the horses were killed
and their hides used for water-bottles, while their flesh served the
Spaniards for food as the work went on; even the shirts from the very
backs of the men were fashioned into sails. Picturing the character
of the five boats, laden almost to the gunwales with nearly fifty men
each, besides such provisions as could be stowed away, and the untold
hardship from thirst after the decay of the horse-hide canteens, the
chief wonder is that the motley fleet survived long enough to reach
Pensacola Bay. As it passed the mouth of the Mississippi, the current
was so swift that fresh water was dipped from the gulf, and the wind
so strong that the boats were carried beyond sight of land for three
days, and for a time lost sight of each other. For four days more,
two of the boats, including that in which was Cabeza de Vaca, drifted
within view of each other; but another storm arose, again they were
lost to sight, and one by one the occupants succumbed to exhaustion
and cast themselves into the bottom of the boat, until Cabeza de Vaca
alone was left to steer the flimsy craft in its unknown course. Night
came on and the author of our narrative lay down to rest. The next
morning, November 6, 1528, the boat was cast ashore on a long narrow
island, inhabited by savages, on the Texas coast.
On this "Island of Misfortune" Cabeza de Vaca's party was soon
joined by that of one of the other boats, including Dorantes, so
that altogether the island harbored about eighty Spaniards. Four men
later attempted to reach Pánuco, but all perished but one. During
the following winter disease raged among the little colony, reducing
it to fifteen. Then the Spaniards became separated, Dorantes and his
slave Estévan, now both the slaves of the Indians, were taken to
the mainland, whither Cabeza de Vaca, weary of root-digging on the
island shore, also escaped, becoming a trader among the Indians,
journeying far inland and along the coast from tribe to tribe, for
forty or fifty leagues. Every year during the five years that he
plied his trade as a dealer in shells, sea-beads, medicine-beans,
skins, ochre, and the like, he returned to Malhado, where Lope de
Oviedo, and Alvarez, a sick companion, still remained. Finally the
latter died, and Cabeza de Vaca and Oviedo again sought the main in
the hope of reaching Christian people. Journeying southward along the
coast, they crossed the Brazos and other rivers, and finally reached
San Antonio Bay. Here Oviedo, owing to ill-treatment by the Indians,
deserted Cabeza de Vaca, who shortly after also stole away from the
savages and joined Dorantes, Castillo Maldonado, and the Moor (the
sole survivors of the party of twelve who had left Malhado years
before), whose Indian masters had come down the river, evidently the
San Antonio, to gather walnuts.
Once more together, the Christians planned to escape six months
hence, when all the Indians from the surrounding country gathered on
the southern Texas plains to eat prickly pears. But again were they
doomed to disappointment, for although the savages assembled in the
tuna fields, a quarrel arose among them (there was "a woman in the
case"), which caused the Spaniards to be separated for another year.
Their escape was finally accomplished in the manner they had planned;
but their departure for the Christian land was not at once effected,
by reason of the inhospitable character of the country, which
compelled them to sojourn among other Indians until the beginning of
another prickly-pear season.
While among the Avavares, with whom the Spaniards lived for eight
months, they resumed the treatment of the sick, a practice that had
first been forced on them, by the natives of Malhado Island, under
threat of starvation. With such success did the Spaniards, and
especially Cabeza de Vaca, meet, that their reputation as healers
was sounded far and wide among the tribes, thousands of the natives
following them from place to place and showering gifts upon them.
There are few Spanish narratives that are more unsatisfactory to
deal with by reason of the lack of directions, distances, and other
details, than that of Cabeza de Vaca; consequently there are scarcely
two students of the route who agree. His line of travel through
Texas was twice crossed by later explorers,--in 1541 by the army of
Francisco Vazquez Coronado, on the eastern edge of the Stake Plains,
and again in 1582 by Antonio de Espejo, on the Rio Grande below the
present El Paso. These data, with the clews afforded by the narrative
itself, point strongly to a course from the tuna fields, about
thirty leagues inland from San Antonio Bay, to the Rio Colorado and
perhaps to the Rio Llano, westward across the lower Pecos to the Rio
Grande above the junction of the Conchos, thence in an approximately
straight line across Chihuahua and Sonora to the Rio Sonora, where
we find Cabeza de Vaca's Village of the Hearts, which Coronado also
visited in 1540, at or in the vicinity of the present Ures. Soon
after he reached this point traces of the first Christians were seen,
and shortly after the Spaniards themselves, in the form of a military
body of slave-hunters.
As to the character of our chronicler, he seems to have been an
honest, modest, and humane man, who underestimated rather than
exaggerated the many strange things that came under his notice, if we
except the account of his marvellous healings, even to the revival
of the dead. The expedition of Narvaez was in itself a disastrous
and dismal failure, reaching "an end alike forlorn and fatal"; but
viewed from the standpoint of present-day civilization, the commander
deserved his fate. On the other hand, while one might well hesitate
to say that the accomplishment of Cabeza de Vaca and his three
companions compensated their untold sufferings, the world eventually
became the wiser in more ways than one. The northern continent had
been penetrated from shore to shore; the waters of the Mississippi
and the bison of the plains were now first seen by white men; and
some knowledge of the savage tribes had been gleaned for the benefit
of those who should come after. There is no blatant announcement of
great mineral wealth--a mountain with scoria of iron, some small bags
of mica, a quantity of galena, with which the Indians painted their
faces, a little turquoise, a few emeralds, and a small copper bell
were all. Yet the effect of the remarkable overland journey was to
inspire the expedition of Coronado in 1540; and it is not improbable
that De Soto, who endeavored to enlist the services of Cabeza de
Vaca, may likewise have been stimulated to action.
After the three Spaniards returned to Mexico they united in a report
to the Audiencia of Española (Santo Domingo), which is printed in
Oviedo's _Historia General y Natural de las Indias_ (tomo III., lib.
XXXV., ed. 1853). In April, 1537, they embarked for Spain, but the
ship in which Dorantes set sail proved to be unseaworthy and returned
to Vera Cruz. Invited to the capital by the Viceroy Mendoza, Dorantes
was tendered a commission to explore the northern country, but this
project was never carried out.
Cabeza de Vaca, in reward for his services, was appointed governor,
captain-general, and adelantado of the provinces of Rio de la Plata.
Sailing from Cadiz in November, 1540, he reached Brazil in March
of the following year. Here he remained seven months, when he sent
his vessels ahead to Buenos Ayres and started overland to Asuncion,
which he reached in March, 1542, after a remarkable experience in
the tropical forests. But the province seems to have needed a man of
sterner stuff than Alvar Nuñez, for he soon became the subject of
animosity and intrigue, which finally resulted in open rebellion,
and his arrest in April, 1543. He was kept under close guard for
about two years, when he was sent to Spain, and in 1551 was sentenced
to banishment in Africa for eight years--a judgment that does not
seem to have been carried out, for after serving probably a year or
so in mild captivity at Seville, he was acquitted. He died in 1557.
Of the subsequent career of Castillo little is known. He returned to
New Spain, became a citizen of the City of Mexico, married a widow,
and was granted half the rents of the Indian town of Tehuacan.
Dorantes, as has been stated, for some reason did not carry out
the plan of exploring the north, perhaps because of the projected
expedition of Coronado, the way for which was led by Fray Marcos
de Niza in 1539 with the negro Estévan as a guide. Dorantes served
Mendoza in the conquest of Jalisco, and married Doña María de la
Torre, a widow, by whom he had a large family. One of his sons,
Balthasar, sometime king's treasurer of Vera Cruz, was born about the
middle of the century, and on the death of his father inherited an
_encomienda_ that produced an income of five thousand pesos a year.
Another son, Gaspar, inherited the _encomienda_ of the pueblos of
Ocava; and another, Melchior, "an _encomienda_ of Indians and of very
good rents."
Of Estévan there is somewhat more definite information. Well on the
road toward the north in 1539, he was sent ahead by Fray Marcos to
report the character of the country and its people, and with rattle
in hand and accompanied by many Indians of the present Gila River
region, entered Háwikuh, the first of the Seven Cities of Cibola.
Here Estévan and most of his Indian followers were put to death by
the Zuñis; those who escaped fled to Fray Marcos, whose life was
threatened but who saved himself by regaling the natives with the
contents of his pack.
There was another survivor of the inland expedition of Narvaez--Juan
Ortiz by name. This Spaniard, who had been enticed ashore by the
Indians of Florida, led practically the life of a slave, like his
countrymen on the Texas main, until 1539, when he was rescued by De
Soto, but he died before the expedition returned to civilization.
The _Relación_ of Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca was first printed
at Zamora in 1542, and with slight changes was reprinted, with
the first edition of the _Comentarios_ on the Rio de la Plata, at
Valladolid, in 1555. The _editio princeps_ was translated into
Italian by Ramusio, in the third volume of his _Navigationi et
Viaggi_ (Venice, 1556), and this was paraphrased into English by
Samuel Purchas in volume IV. of _Purchas His Pilgrimes_ (London,
1613, pt. IV., lib. VIII., cap. 1). The _Naufragios_ (or _Relacion_)
and _Comentarios_ were reprinted at Madrid in 1736, preceded by the
_Exámen Apologético_ of Antonio Ardoino, who seemed to feel it his
duty to reply to an Austrian monk named Caspar Plautus, who, in
1621, under the name Philoponus, published a treatise in which he
maintained that laymen like Cabeza de Vaca should not be permitted to
perform miracles. This edition of the narration of Cabeza de Vaca is
included in volume I. of Barcia's _Historiadores Primitivos de las
Indias Occidentales_, published at Madrid in 1749. The _Naufragios_
of Alvar Nuñez, from the edition of 1555, appears in volume I. of
Vedia's _Historiadores Primitivos de Indias_ (Madrid, ed. 1852). The
letter to the Audiencia of Española, "edited" by Oviedo, has already
been alluded to. A "Capitulacion que se tomó con Alvar Nuñez Cabeza
de Vaca," dated Madrid, 18 Marzo, 1540, is found in the _Colección de
Documentos Inéditos del Archivo de Indias_ (tomo XXIII., pp. 8-33,
1875). A _Relación_ by Cabeza de Vaca, briefly narrating the story
of the expedition until the arrival of its survivors in Espíritu
Santo Bay, with his instructions as treasurer, is printed in the
_Colección de Documentos de Indias_, XIV. 265-279 (Madrid, 1870). The
most recent Spanish edition of the more famous _Relacion_ reprinted
in the following pages forms a part of volume V. of the _Colección
de Libros y Documentos referentes á la Historia de América_ (Madrid,
1906), which also contains the _Comentarios_.
The single French translation was published as volume VII. of Henri
Ternaux-Compans's _Voyages_ (Paris, 1837), from the edition of 1555,
while the _Commentaires_ form volume VI.
In 1851 a translation of the edition of 1555 into English, by
(Thomas) Buckingham Smith, under the title The _Narrative of Alvar
Nuñez Cabeça de Vaca_, was published privately at Washington by
George W. Riggs; and shortly after Mr. Smith's death, in 1871,
another edition, with many additions, was published in New York under
the editorial supervision of John Gilmary Shea and at the expense of
Henry C. Murphy. It is this edition of the _Narrative_ that is here
reprinted. A paraphrase of the 1851 edition of Smith's translation
appears in Henry Kingsley's _Tales of Old Travels_ (London, 1869).
The first fourteen chapters of W. W. H. Davis's _Spanish Conquest
of New Mexico_ (Doylestown, Pa., 1869) are also a paraphrase of
the same work. Chapters XXX.-XXXVI. of the 1871 edition of Smith,
somewhat abridged, were printed in an _Old South Leaflet_ (Gen.
Ser., No. 39, Boston, 1893). A "Relation of what Befel the Persons
who Escaped from the Disasters that Attended the Armament of Captain
Pamphilo de Narvaez on the Shores and in the countries of the North,"
translated and condensed from the letter published by Oviedo, is
printed in _The Historical Magazine_ (vol. XII., pp. 141, 204, 267,
347; September-December, 1867). The most recent English edition of
the Cabeza de Vaca _Relation_, translated from the very rare imprint
of 1542 by Mrs. Fanny Bandelier, and edited, with an introduction,
by her husband Ad. F. Bandelier, was published in New York, in 1905,
under the title, _The Journey of Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca_, as one
of the volumes of the "Trail Makers" series.
F. W. HODGE.
THE NARRATIVE OF CABEZA DE VACA
_Relation that Alvar Nuñez Cabeça de Vaca gave of what befell
the armament in the Indies whither Pánfilo de Narváez went for
Governor from the year 1527 to the year 1536 [1537] when with
three comrades he returned and came to Sevilla._[1]
[1] This heading is taken from the title-page of the edition of
1542. The edition of 1555, generally followed in this book, has a
title-page so phrased as to cover both the North American and the
South American narratives of the author. The return really took
place in 1537.
PROEM
SACRED CAESARIAN CATHOLIC MAJESTY:
Among the many who have held sway, I think no prince can be found
whose service has been attended with the ardor and emulation shown
for that of your Highness[2] at this time. The inducement is evident
and powerful: men do not pursue together the same career without
motive, and strangers are observed to strive with those who are
equally impelled by religion and loyalty.
[2] The Emperor Charles V.
Although ambition and love of action are common to all, as to the
advantages that each may gain, there are great inequalities of
fortune, the result not of conduct, but only accident, nor caused by
the fault of any one, but coming in the providence of God and solely
by His will. Hence to one arises deeds more signal than he thought to
achieve; to another the opposite in every way occurs, so that he can
show no higher proof of purpose than his effort, and at times even
this is so concealed that it cannot of itself appear.
As for me, I can say in undertaking the march I made on the main
by the royal authority, I firmly trusted that my conduct and
services would be as evident and distinguished as were those of my
ancestors[3] and that I should not have to speak in order to be
reckoned among those who for diligence and fidelity in affairs your
Majesty honors. Yet, as neither my counsel nor my constancy availed
to gain aught for which we set out, agreeably to your interests, for
our sins, no one of the many armaments that have gone into those
parts has been permitted to find itself in straits great like ours,
or come to an end alike forlorn and fatal. To me, one only duty
remains, to present a relation of what was seen and heard in the ten
years[4] I wandered lost and in privation through many and remote
lands. Not merely a statement of positions and distances, animals
and vegetation, but of the diverse customs of the many and very
barbarous people with whom I talked and dwelt, as well as all other
matters I could hear of and discern, that in some way I may avail
your Highness. My hope of going out from among those nations was
always small, still my care and diligence were none the less to keep
in particular remembrance everything, that if at any time God our
Lord should will to bring me where I now am, it might testify to my
exertion in the royal behalf.
[3] He doubtless refers particularly to the services of his
grandfather, Pedro de Vera, conqueror of the Canaries, to whom he
refers at the close of this work. See the Introduction.
[4] He arrived in Florida with the Narvaez expedition in April,
1528, and reached New Spain overland in April, 1536--eight years
later.
As the narrative is in my opinion of no trivial value to those who in
your name go to subdue those countries and bring them to a knowledge
of the true faith and true Lord, and under the imperial dominion,
I have written this with much exactness; and although in it may be
read things very novel and for some persons difficult to believe,
nevertheless they may without hesitation credit me as strictly
faithful. Better than to exaggerate, I have lessened in all things,
and it is sufficient to say the relation is offered to your Majesty
for truth. I beg it may be received in the name of homage, since it
is the most that one could bring who returned thence naked.
Chapter 1
_In which is told when the Armada sailed, and of the officers and
persons who went in it._
On the seventeenth day[5] of June, in the year fifteen hundred and
twenty-seven, the Governor Pánphilo de Narváez left the port of San
Lúcar de Barrameda,[6] authorized and commanded by your Majesty
to conquer and govern the provinces of the main, extending from
the River Palmas[7] to the cape of Florida. The fleet he took was
five ships, in which went six hundred men, a few more or less; the
officers (for we shall have to speak of them), were these, with their
rank: Cabeça de Vaca, treasurer and high-sheriff; Alonso Enrriquez,
comptroller; Alonso de Solis, distributor to your Majesty and
assessor; Juan Xuarez,[8] a friar of Saint Francis, commissary, and
four more friars of the same order.
[5] The Spanish edition of 1542 has the date June 27.
[6] At the mouth of the Guadalquivir, in the province of Cadiz,
Spain; noted as the point of debarkation of Fernão Magalhães, or
Magellan, September 20, 1519.
[7] Probably the Rio de Santander, which enters the Gulf of
Mexico one hundred miles north of Tampico. The name was later
applied to the province that joined the province of Pánuco on the
north. The latter was, in general terms, the region drained by
the streams that empty into the Gulf about Tampico.
[8] The edition of 1542 has "Juan Gutierrez."
We arrived at the island of Santo Domingo, where we tarried near
forty-five days, engaged in procuring for ourselves some necessary
material, particularly horses. Here we lost from our fleet more than
one hundred and forty men, who wished to remain, seduced by the
partidos,[9] and advantages held out to them by the people of that
country.
[9] A term often used to designate one of the districts or
territories into which a Spanish province was divided for
purposes of administration, and having a head pueblo or village;
but here employed to signify the favorable proposals which the
colonists made to the deserters from the fleet.
We sailed from the island and arrived at Santiago,[10] a port of
Cuba, where, during some days that we remained, the Governor supplied
himself further with men, also with arms and horses. It happened
there that a gentleman, Vasco Porcallo[11] of Trinidad, which is also
on the island,[12] offered to give the Governor some provisions which
he had in the town, a hundred leagues from the port of Santiago.
Accordingly the Governor set out with all the fleet for Trinidad; but
coming to a port half way, called Cabo de Santa Cruz,[13] he thought
it well to wait there, and send a vessel to bring the stores. To this
end he ordered that a Captain Pantoja[14] should go for them with
his ship, and for greater security, that I should accompany him with
another. The Governor remained with four ships, having bought one at
the island of Santo Domingo.
[10] In southeastern Cuba, the Santiago de Cuba that was
surrendered to the American forces in the summer of 1898.
[11] Vasco Porcallo de Figueroa afterward became De Soto's
lieutenant-general in Florida, but returned to Cuba early in the
history of the expedition.
[12] On the southern coast, longitude 80°.
[13] Now Cabo Cruz, longitude 77° 40'.
[14] One Juan Pantoja, captain of crossbowmen and Lord of
Ixtlahuaca, accompanied Narvaez on his first expedition to
Mexico. If the same as the present Pantoja, which seems likely,
he was killed by Sotomayor in a quarrel. See ch. 17.
We having arrived with the two vessels at the port of Trinidad,
Captain Pantoja went with Vasco Porcalle (_sic_) to the town, a
league off, to receive the provisions, while I remained at sea with
the pilots, who said we ought to go thence with the greatest despatch
possible, for it was a very bad port in which many vessels were lost.
As what there occurred to us was very remarkable, it appears to me
not foreign to the purpose with which I write this, to relate it here.
The next morning began to give signs of bad weather; rain commenced
falling, and the sea ran so high, that, although I gave the men
permission to go on shore, many of them returned to the ship to avoid
exposure to the wet and cold, and because the town was a league away.
In this time a canoe came off, bringing me a letter from a resident
of the place, asking me to come for the needed provisions that were
there; from which request I excused myself, saying that I could not
leave the ships. At noon the canoe returned with another letter, in
which I was solicited again with much urging, and a horse was brought
for me to ride. I gave the same answer as before, that I could not
leave the ships; but the pilots and the people entreated me to go, so
that I might hasten the provisions as fast as possible, and we might
join the fleet where it lay, for they had great fear lest remaining
long in this port, the ships should be lost. For these reasons,
I determined to go to the town; but first I left orders with the
pilots, that if the south wind, which often wrecks vessels there,
came on to blow, and they should find themselves in much danger, to
put the ships on shore at some place where the men and horses could
be saved. I wished to take some of the men with me for company; but
they said the weather was too rainy and cold, and the town too far
off; that to-morrow, which was Sunday, they would come, with God's
help, and hear mass.
An hour after I left, the sea began to rise very high, and the north
wind was so violent that neither the boats dared come to land, nor
could the vessels be let drive on shore, because of the head wind,
so that the people remained severely laboring against the adverse
weather, and under a heavy fall of water all that day and Sunday
until dark. At this time, the rain and the tempest had increased to
such a degree, there was no less agitation in the town than on the
sea; for all the houses and churches fell, and it was necessary in
order to move upright, that we should go seven or eight holding on
to each other that the wind might not blow us away; and walking in
the groves, we had no less fear of the trees than of the houses, as
they too were falling and might kill us under them. In this tempest
and danger we wandered all night, without finding place or spot where
we could remain a half-hour in safety. During the time, particularly
from midnight forward, we heard much tumult and great clamor of
voices, the sound of timbrels, flutes, and tambourines, as well as
other instruments, which lasted until the morning, when the tempest
ceased. Nothing so terrible as this storm had been seen in those
parts before. I drew up an authenticated account of it, and sent the
testimony to your Majesty.
On Monday morning we went down to the harbor, but did not find the
ships. The buoys belonging to them were floating on the water; whence
we knew the ships were lost, and we walked along the shore to see
if any thing could be found of them. As nothing was discovered, we
struck into the woods, and, having travelled about a quarter of a
league in water, we found the little boat of a ship lodged upon some
trees. Ten leagues thence, along the coast, two bodies were found,
belonging to my ship, and some lids of boxes; but the persons were
so disfigured by beating against the rocks that they could not be
recognized. A cloak too was seen, also a coverlet rent in pieces,
and nothing more. Sixty persons were lost in the ships, and twenty
horses. Those who had gone on shore the day of our arrival, who may
have been as many as thirty, were all the survivors of both ships.
During some days we were struggling with much hardship and hunger;
for the provisions and subsistence were destroyed, and some herds.
The country was left in a condition piteous to behold; the trees
prostrate, the woods parched, there being neither grass nor leaf.
Thus we lived until the fifth of November, when the Governor arrived
with four ships, which had lived through the great storm, having run
into a place of safety in good time. The people who came in them,
as well as those on shore, were so intimidated by what had passed,
that they feared to go on board in the winter, and they besought the
Governor to spend it there. Seeing their desire and that it was also
the wish of the townspeople, he staid through the season. He gave the
ships and people into my charge, that I might go with them to pass
the winter at the port of Xagua,[15] twelve leagues thence, where I
remained until the twentieth day of February.
[15] The present Jagua, at the entrance to the bay of Cienfuegos.
Chapter 2
_The coming of the Governor to the Port of Xagua and with a pilot._
At this time, the Governor arrived with a brigantine bought in
Trinidad, and brought with him a pilot named Miruelo, who was
employed because he said he knew the position of the River Palmas,
and had been there, and was a thorough pilot for all the coast of
the North. The Governor had also purchased and left on the shore
of Havana another vessel, of which Alvaro de la Cerda remained in
charge, with forty infantry and twelve cavalry.
The second day after arrival the Governor set sail with four hundred
men and eighty horses, in four ships and a brigantine. The pilot
being again on board, put the vessels among the shoals they call
Canarreo,[16] and on the day following we struck: thus we were
situated fifteen days, the keels of our vessels frequently touching
bottom. At the end of this time, a tempest from the south threw
so much water upon the shoals that we could get off, although not
without danger. We left this place and arrived at Guaniguanico, where
another storm overtook us, in which we were at one time near being
lost. At Cape Corrientes[17] we had still another, which detained
us three days. These places being passed, we doubled Cape Sant
Anton,[18] and sailed with head winds until we were within twelve
leagues of Havana. Standing in the next day to enter the harbor, a
wind came from the south which drove us from the land towards the
coast of Florida. We came in sight on Tuesday, the twelfth day of
April, and sailed along the coast. On Holy Thursday we anchored near
the shore in the mouth of a bay[19] at the head of which we saw some
houses or habitations of Indians.[20]
[16] Evidently one of the numerous keys between Xagua Bank and
the Isle of Pines.
[17] Southwestern Cuba.
[18] The westernmost point of the island.
[19] The place of landing is identified as having been about
St. Clement's Point, on the peninsula west of Tampa Bay, on
the western coast of Florida. See Woodbury Lowery, _Spanish
Settlements_, 1513-1561 (New York, 1901), p. 177, and App. J.
[20] These were Indians belonging to the Timuquanan, or Timucuan
family, now entirely extinct. The Seminoles were comparatively
recent intruders in the peninsula, except in the extreme northern
part.
Chapter 3
_Our arrival in Florida._
On the same day[21] the comptroller, Alonzo Enrriquez, landed on an
island in the bay. He called to the Indians, who came and remained
with him some time; and in barter gave him fish and several pieces of
venison. The day following, which was Good Friday,[22] the governor
debarked with as many of the people as the boats he brought could
contain. When we came to the _buhíos_,[23] or houses that we had
seen, we found them vacant and abandoned, the inhabitants having fled
at night in their canoes. One of the buhíos was very large; it could
hold more than three hundred persons. The others were smaller. We
found a tinklet of gold among some fish nets.
[21] April 14, 1528.
[22] April 15, 1528
[23] An Arawak term for house, referring specifically to a
dwelling with an open shed attached. The Spaniards became
acquainted with the word in Santo Domingo. For descriptions of
these habitations see Fewkes, "The Aborigines of Porto Rico and
Neighboring Islands," _Twenty-fifth Annual Report of the Bureau
of American Ethnology_, 1906.
The next day[24] the Governor raised ensigns for your Majesty, and
took possession of the country in your royal name.[25] He made known
his authority, and was obeyed as governor, as your Majesty had
commanded. At the same time we laid our commissions before him, and
he acknowledged them according to their tenor. Then he ordered that
the rest of the people and the horses should land. Of the beasts
there were only forty-two; by reason of the great storms and the
length of time passed at sea, the rest were dead. These few remaining
were so lean and fatigued that for the time we could have little
service from them. The following day the Indians of the town came and
spoke to us; but as we had no interpreter we could not understand
what they meant. They made many signs and menaces, and appeared to
say we must go away from the country. With this they left us and went
off, offering no interruption.
[24] April 16, 1528.
[25] For the interesting if farcical formula used in taking
possession of a country in the name of Spain, see Buckingham
Smith, _Relation of Alvar Nuñez Cabeça de Vaca_ (ed. 1871), App.
III., 215-217, and Lowery, _op. cit._, pp. 178-180.
Chapter 4
_Our entrance into the country._
The day following, the Governor resolved to make an incursion to
explore the land, and see what it might contain. With him went the
commissary, the assessor, and myself, with forty men, among them six
cavalry, of which we could make little use. We took our way towards
the north,[26] until the hour of vespers, when we arrived at a very
large bay that appeared to stretch far inland.[27] We remained there
that night, and the next day we returned to the place where were our
ships and people. The Governor ordered that the brigantine should
sail along the coast of Florida and search for the harbor that
Miruelo, the pilot, said he knew (though as yet he had failed to find
it, and could not tell in what place we were, or where was the port),
and that if it were not found, she should steer for Havana and seek
the ship of which Alvaro de la Cerda was in command,[28] and, taking
provisions, together, they should come to look for us.
[26] Really northeast.
[27] The western arm of Tampa Bay, known as Old Tampa Bay.
[28] With forty men and a dozen horses.
After the brigantine left, the same party, with some persons more,
returned to enter the land. We kept along the shores of the bay we
had found, and, having gone four leagues, we captured four Indians.
We showed them maize, to see if they had knowledge of it, for up to
that time we had seen no indication of any. They said they could take
us where there was some; so they brought us to their town near by,
at the head of the bay, and showed us a little corn not yet fit for
gathering.
There we saw many cases, such as are used to contain the merchandise
of Castile, in each of them a dead man, and the bodies were covered
with painted deer-skins. This appeared to the commissary to be a kind
of idolatry, and he burned the cases with the bodies. We also found
pieces of linen and of woollen cloth, and bunches of feathers which
appeared like those of New Spain.[29] There were likewise traces of
gold. Having by signs asked the Indians whence these things came,
they motioned to us that very far from there, was a province called
Apalachen,[30] where was much gold, and so the same abundance in
Palachen[31] of everything that we at all cared for.
[29] In the letter addressed by the survivors to the Audiencia
of Santo Domingo (Oviedo, _Historia General y Natural de las
Indias_, III., cap. i. 583, Madrid, 1853), it is stated that when
the natives were asked whence came these intrusive articles,
which included also some pieces of shoes, canvas, broadcloth,
and iron, they replied by signs that they had taken them from a
vessel that had been wrecked in the bay. Compare also cap. VII.
615. It has been suggested that possibly the objects may have
come from the vessel which Lucas Vazquez de Ayllon lost in 1526,
but as this wreck occurred at the mouth of Cape Fear River, on
the southern coast of North Carolina, it does not seem likely
that they could have been derived from this source. That natives
of the West Indies had intercourse by canoe with Florida, and
that an Arawakan colony was early established on the southwest
coast of the peninsula, is now well established.
[30] The Apalachee were one of the Muskhogean tribes that
occupied northwestern Florida from the vicinity of Pensacola
eastward to Ocilla River, their chief seats being in the
vicinity of Tallahassee and St. Marks. In 1655 they numbered six
or eight thousand, but about the beginning of the eighteenth
century they were warred against by the Creeks, instigated by
the English of Carolina, and in 1703 and 1704 expeditions by
English troops, reinforced by Creek warriors, resulted in the
capture and enslavement of about fourteen hundred Apalachee
and in practically exterminating the remainder. The town of
Apalachicola, on the Savannah River, was inhabited by Apalachee
refugees colonized later by the Carolina government, but these
were finally merged with the Creeks. Appalachee Bay and the
Appalachian Mountains derive their names from this tribe.
[31] "Apalachen," as above, in the edition of 1542 (Bandelier
translation).
Taking these Indians for guides, we departed, and travelling ten or
twelve leagues[32] we came to a town of fifteen houses. Here a large
piece of ground was cultivated in maize then ripe, and we likewise
found some already dry. After staying there two days, we returned to
where the comptroller tarried with the men and ships, and related to
him and the pilots what we had seen, and the information the natives
had given.
[32] The Spanish league varied greatly, but in these early
narratives the judicial league, equivalent to 2.634 English
miles, is usually meant. Distances, however, while sometimes
paced, were generally loose guesses, as is often shown by the
great disparity in the figures given by two or more chroniclers
of the same journey.
The next day, the first of May, the Governor called aside the
commissary, the comptroller, the assessor, myself, a sailor named
Bartolomé Fernandez, and a notary, Hieronymo Alaniz.[33] Being
together he said that he desired to penetrate the interior, and that
the ships ought to go along the coast until they should come to the
port which the pilots believed was very near on the way to the River
Palmas. He asked us for our views.
[33] "Jerónimo de Albaniz" in the edition of 1542 (Bandelier
translation).
I said it appeared to me that under no circumstances ought we to
leave the vessels until they were in a secure and peopled harbor;
that he should observe the pilots were not confident, and did not
agree in any particular, neither did they know where we were; that,
more than this, the horses were in no condition to serve us in such
exigencies as might occur. Above all, that we were going without
being able to communicate with the Indians by use of speech and
without an interpreter, and we could but poorly understand ourselves
with them, or learn what we desired to know of the land; that we
were about entering a country of which we had no account, and had
no knowledge of its character, of what there was in it, or by what
people inhabited, neither did we know in what part of it we were; and
beside all this, we had not food to sustain us in wandering we knew
not whither; that with regard to the stores in the ships, rations
could not be given to each man for such a journey, more than a pound
of biscuit and another of bacon; that my opinion was, we should
embark and seek a harbor and a soil better than this to occupy, since
what we had seen of it was desert and poor, such as had never before
been discovered in those parts.
To the commissary[34] every thing appeared otherwise. He thought we
ought not to embark; but that, always keeping the coast, we should
go in search of the harbor, which the pilots stated was only ten or
fifteen leagues from there, on the way to Pánuco; and that it was not
possible, marching ever by the shore, we should fail to come upon
it, because they said it stretched up into the land a dozen leagues;
that whichever might first find it should wait for the other; that
to embark would be to brave the Almighty after so many adversities
encountered since leaving Spain, so many storms, and so great losses
of men and ships sustained before reaching there; that for these
reasons we should march along the coast until we reached the harbor,
and those in the ships should take a like direction until they
arrived at the same place.
[34] Fray Juan Xuarez.
This plan seemed the best to adopt, to the rest who were present,
except the notary, who said that when the ships should be abandoned
they ought to be in a known, safe haven, a place with inhabitants;
that this done the Governor might advance inland and do what might
seem to him proper.
The Governor followed his own judgment and the counsel of others.
Seeing his determination, I required him in behalf of your Majesty,
not to quit the ships before putting them in port and making them
secure; and accordingly I asked a certificate of this under the hand
of the notary. The Governor responded that he did but abide by the
judgment of the commissary, and of the majority of the officers, and
that I had no right to make these requirements of him. He then asked
the notary to give him a certificate, that inasmuch as there was no
subsistence in that country for the maintenance of a colony, nor
haven for the ships, he broke up the settlement he had placed there,
taking its inhabitants in quest of a port and land that should be
better. He then ordered the people who were to go with him to be
mustered, that they might be victualled with what was needed for the
journey. After they had been provided for, he said to me, in the
hearing of those present, that since I so much discouraged and feared
entering the land, I should sail in charge of the ships and people in
them, and form a settlement, should I arrive at the port before him;
but from this proposal I excused myself.
After we had separated, the same evening, having said that it did
not appear to him that he could entrust the command to any one else,
he sent to me to say that he begged I would take it; but finding,
notwithstanding he so greatly importuned me, that I still refused,
he asked me the cause of my reluctance. I answered that I rejected
the responsibility, as I felt certain and knew that he was never more
to find the ships, nor the ships him, which might be foreseen in the
slender outfit we had for entering the country; that I desired rather
to expose myself to the danger which he and the others adventured,
and to pass with them what he and they might go through, than to
take charge of the ships and give occasion for it to be said I had
opposed the invasion and remained behind from timidity, and thus my
courage be called in question. I chose rather to risk my life than
put my honor in such position. Seeing that what he said to me availed
nothing, he begged many persons to reason with me on the subject
and entreat me. I answered them in the same way I had him; so he
appointed for his lieutenant of the ships an alcalde he had brought
with him, whose name was Caravallo.
Chapter 5
_The Governor leaves the ships._
On Saturday,[35] first of May, the date of this occurrence, the
Governor ordered to each man going with him, two pounds of biscuit
and half a pound of bacon; and thus victualled we took up our march
into the country. The whole number of men was three hundred:[36]
among them went the commissary, Friar Juan Xuarez, and another
friar, Juan de Palos, three clergymen and the officers. We of the
mounted men consisted of forty. We travelled on the allowance we had
received fifteen days, without finding any other thing to eat than
palmitos,[37] which are like those of Andalusia. In all that time
we saw not an Indian, and found neither village nor house. Finally
we came to a river,[38] which we passed with great difficulty, by
swimming and on rafts. It detained us a day to cross because of the
very strong current. Arrived on the other side, there appeared as
many as two hundred natives, more or less. The Governor met them,
and conversing by signs, they so insulted us with their gestures,
that we were forced to break with them.[39] We seized upon five or
six, and they took us to their houses half a league off. Near by we
found a large quantity of maize in a fit state to be gathered. We
gave infinite thanks to our Lord for having succored us in this great
extremity, for we were yet young in trials, and besides the weariness
in which we came, we were exhausted from hunger.
[35] Buckingham Smith has "Sunday," translating _Sábado_
("Sabbath") literally; the Christian Sabbath is the Spanish
_Domingo_.
[36] The Letter (Oviedo, 584) says two hundred and sixty men
afoot and forty horsemen. References to the Letter to the
Audiencia of Santo Domingo will henceforth be cited simply as
Oviedo, in whose work it appears (see the Introduction).
[37] Buckingham Smith says: "This is the dwarf fan-palm, not
the cabbage-palm, to which we often inadvertently apply the
diminutive termination _ito_, mispelled _etto_." Smith lived in
Florida for many years.
[38] Evidently the Withlacoochee, which enters the Gulf at
latitude 29°.
[39] The Spaniards were still among the Timucuan tribes.
On the third day after our arrival, the comptroller, the assessor,
the commissary and I met, and together besought the Governor to
send to look for the sea, that if possible we might find a port,
as the Indians stated there was one not a very great way off. He
said that we should cease to speak of the sea, for it was remote;
but as I chiefly importuned him, he told me to go and look for it,
and seek a harbor, to take forty men and to travel on foot. So the
next day[40] I left with Captain Alonzo del Castello[41] and forty
men of his company. We marched until noon, when we arrived at some
sea sands that appeared to lie a good ways inland. Along this sand
we walked for a league and a half,[42] with the water half way up
the leg, treading on oysters, which cut our feet badly and made us
much trouble, until we reached the river[43] we had before crossed,
emptying into this bay. As we could not cross it by reason of our
slim outfit for such purpose, we returned to camp and reported what
we had discovered. To find out if there was a port and examine the
outlet well, it was necessary to repass the river at the place where
we had first gone over; so the next day the Governor ordered a
captain, Valençuela by name, with sixty men[44] and six cavalry, to
cross, and following the river down to the sea, ascertain if there
was a harbor. He returned after an absence of two days, and said he
had explored the bay, that it was not deeper any where than to the
knee, and that he found no harbor. He had seen five or six canoes of
Indians passing from one shore to the other, wearing many plumes.
[40] May 18, 1528.
[41] Castillo.
[42] Two leagues, according to Oviedo, _op. cit._, 585.
[43] The Withlacoochee.
[44] Forty men according to Oviedo, 585.
With this information, we left the next day, going ever in quest
of Apalache, the country of which the Indians told us, having for
our guides those we had taken. We travelled without seeing any
natives who would venture to await our coming up with them until the
seventeenth day of June, when a chief approached, borne on the back
of another Indian, and covered with a painted deer-skin. A great many
people attended him, some walking in advance, playing on flutes of
reed.[45] In this manner he came to where the Governor stood, and
spent an hour with him. By signs we gave him to understand that we
were going to Apalachen, and it appeared to us by those he made that
he was an enemy to the people of Apalachen, and would go to assist us
against them. We gave him beads and hawk-bells, with other articles
of barter; and he having presented the Governor with the skin he
wore, went back, when we followed in the road he took.
[45] When Hernando de Soto passed through this country eleven
years later he also was met by Indians playing flutes.
That night we came to a wide and deep river with a very rapid
current.[46] As we would not venture to cross on rafts, we made a
canoe for the purpose, and spent a day in getting over. Had the
Indians desired to oppose us, they could well have disputed our
passage; for even with their help we had great difficulty in making
it. One of the mounted men, Juan Velazquez by name, a native of
Cuellar, impatient of detention, entered the river, when the violence
of the current casting him from his horse, he grasped the reins of
the bridle, and both were drowned. The people of that chief, whose
name was Dulchanchellin, found the body of the beast; and having told
us about where in the stream below we should find the corpse, it was
sought for. This death caused us much regret, for until now not a man
had been lost. The horse afforded supper to many that night.
[46] The Suwannee.
Leaving that spot, the next day we arrived at the town of the chief,
where he sent us maize. During the night one of our men was shot at
in a place where we got water, but it pleased God that he should not
be hit. The next day we departed, not one of the natives making his
appearance, as all had fled. While going on our way a number came in
sight, prepared for battle; and though we called to them, they would
not return nor await our arrival, but retired following us on the
road. The Governor left some cavalry in ambush, which sallying as the
natives were about to pass, seized three or four, who thenceforth
served as guides. They conducted us through a country very difficult
to travel and wonderful to look upon. In it are vast forests, the
trees being astonishingly high. So many were fallen on the ground
as to obstruct our way in such a manner that we could not advance
without much going about and a considerable increase of toil. Many
of the standing trees were riven from top to bottom by bolts of
lightning which fall in that country of frequent storms and tempests.
We labored on through these impediments until the day after
Saint John's,[47] when we came in view of Apalachen, without the
inhabitants being aware of our approach. We gave many thanks to God,
at seeing ourselves so near, believing true what had been told us
of the land, and that there would be an end to our great hardships,
caused as much by the length and badness of the way as by our
excessive hunger; for although we sometimes found maize, we oftener
travelled seven and eight leagues without seeing any; and besides
this and the great fatigue, many had galled shoulders from carrying
armor on the back; and even more than these we endured. Yet, having
come to the place desired, and where we had been informed were much
food and gold, it appeared to us that we had already recovered in
part from our sufferings and fatigue.
[47] Saint John the Baptist's Day, June 24. They had been
travelling through the jungle for four or five days.
Chapter 6
_Our arrival at Apalache._
When we came in view of Apalachen, the Governor ordered that I should
take nine cavalry with fifty infantry and enter the town. Accordingly
the assessor[48] and I assailed it; and having got in, we found only
women and boys there, the men being absent; however these returned
to its support, after a little time, while we were walking about,
and began discharging arrows at us. They killed the horse of the
assessor, and at last taking to flight, they left us.
[48] The assessor, or inspector, it will be recalled, was Alonzo
de Solis.
We found a large quantity of maize fit for plucking, and much dry
that was housed; also many deer-skins, and among them some mantelets
of thread, small and poor, with which the women partially cover their
persons. There were numerous mortars for cracking maize. The town
consisted of forty small houses, made low, and set up in sheltered
places because of the frequent storms. The material was thatch. They
were surrounded by very dense woods, large groves and many bodies
of fresh water, in which so many and so large trees are fallen, that
they form obstructions rendering travel difficult and dangerous.
Chapter 7
_The character of the country._
The country where we came on shore to this town and region of
Apalachen is for the most part level, the ground of sand and stiff
earth. Throughout are immense trees and open woods, in which are
walnut, laurel, and another tree called liquid-amber,[49] cedars,
savins, evergreen oaks, pines, red-oaks, and palmitos like those of
Spain. There are many lakes, great and small, over every part of it;
some troublesome of fording, on account of depth and the great number
of trees lying throughout them. Their beds are sand. The lakes in
the country of Apalachen are much larger than those we found before
coming there.[50]
[49] The sweet-gum, copalm, or alligator tree (_Liquidambar
styraciflua_).
[50] Seemingly the lake country in the northern part of Leon and
Jefferson counties, Florida. "Apalachen" town was perhaps on
Miccosukee Lake.
In this province are many maize fields; and the houses are scattered
as are those of the Gelves. There are deer of three kinds, rabbits,
hares, bears, lions, and other wild beasts. Among them we saw an
animal with a pocket on its belly,[51] in which it carries its
young until they know how to seek food, and if it happen that they
should be out feeding and any one come near, the mother will not
run until she has gathered them in together. The country is very
cold.[52] It has fine pastures for herds. Birds are of various kinds.
Geese in great numbers. Ducks, mallards, royal-ducks, fly-catchers,
night-herons and partridges abound. We saw many falcons, gerfalcons,
sparrow-hawks, merlins, and numerous other fowl.[53]
[51] The opossum. This is probably the first allusion to this
animal. The name is derived from the Algonquian language of
Virginia, having first been recorded by Captain John Smith.
[52] As it was now late in June, this is not explicable, unless
the season was an unusual one.
[53] Buckingham Smith thinks it strange that the turkey and the
alligator are not particularly mentioned among the fauna of the
region.
Two hours after our arrival at Apalachen, the Indians who had fled
from there came in peace to us, asking for their women and children,
whom we released; but the detention of a cacique by the Governor
produced great excitement, in consequence of which they returned for
battle early the next day, and attacked us with such promptness and
alacrity that they succeeded in setting fire to the houses in which
we were. As we sallied they fled to the lakes near by, because of
which and the large maize fields we could do them no injury, save in
the single instance of one Indian, whom we killed. The day following,
others came against us from a town on the opposite side of the lake,
and attacked us as the first had done, escaping in the same way,
except one who was also slain.
We were in the town twenty-five days, in which time we made three
incursions, and found the country very thinly peopled and difficult
to travel for the bad passages, the woods and lakes. We inquired of
the cacique we kept and the natives we brought with us, who were
the neighbors and enemies of these Indians, as to the nature of the
country, the character and condition of the inhabitants, of the
food and all other matters concerning it. Each answered apart from
the rest, that the largest town in all that region was Apalachen;
the people beyond were less numerous and poorer, the land little
occupied, and the inhabitants much scattered; that thenceforward
were great lakes, dense forests, immense deserts and solitudes. We
then asked touching the region towards the south, as to the towns
and subsistence in it. They said that in keeping such a direction,
journeying nine days, there was a town called Aute,[54] the
inhabitants whereof had much maize, beans, and pumpkins, and being
near the sea they had fish, and that those people were their friends.
[54] Most authorities agree that this place was at or near the
site of St. Marks, south-southeast of Tallahassee, although the
distance seems too short for nine days' travel, as will be seen.
In view of the poverty of the land, the unfavorable accounts of
the population and of everything else we heard, the Indians making
continual war upon us, wounding our people and horses at the places
where they went to drink, shooting from the lakes with such safety to
themselves that we could not retaliate, killing a lord of Tescuco,
named Don Pedro,[55] whom the commissary brought with him, we
determined to leave that place and go in quest of the sea, and the
town of Aute of which we were told.
[55] See Buckingham Smith, _Relation of Alvar Nuñez Cabeça de
Vaca_, 1871, p. 42, note 7, regarding this Aztec prince of the
blood.
At the termination of the twenty-five days[56] after our arrival
we departed,[57] and on the first day got through those lakes and
passages without seeing any one, and on the second day we came to a
lake difficult of crossing, the water reaching to the paps, and in it
were numerous logs. On reaching the middle of it we were attacked by
many Indians from behind trees, who thus covered themselves that we
might not get sight of them, and others were on the fallen timbers.
They drove their arrows with such effect that they wounded many men
and horses, and before we got through the lake they took our guide.
They now followed, endeavoring to contest the passage; but our coming
out afforded no relief, nor gave us any better position; for when
we wished to fight them they retired immediately into the lake,
whence they continued to wound our men and beasts. The Governor,
seeing this, commanded the cavalry to dismount and charge the Indians
on foot. Accordingly the comptroller[58] alighting with the rest,
attacked them, when they all turned and ran into the lake at hand,
and thus the passage was gained.
[56] "Twenty-six days." Oviedo, 586. The edition of 1542
(Bandelier trans., p. 30) says: "And so we left, arriving there
five days after. The first day we travelled across lagunes and
trails without seeing a single Indian."
[57] July 19-20, 1528.
[58] Alonzo Enrriquez.
Some of our men were wounded in this conflict, for whom the good
armor they wore did not avail. There were those this day who swore
that they had seen two red oaks, each the thickness of the lower part
of the leg, pierced through from side to side by arrows; and this is
not so much to be wondered at, considering the power and skill with
which the Indians are able to project them. I myself saw an arrow
that had entered the butt of an elm to the depth of a span.
The Indians we had so far seen in Florida are all archers. They go
naked, are large of body, and appear at a distance like giants. They
are of admirable proportions, very spare and of great activity and
strength. The bows they use are as thick as the arm, of eleven or
twelve palms in length, which they will discharge at two hundred
paces with so great precision that they miss nothing.
Having got through this passage, at the end of a league we arrived
at another of the same character, but worse, as it was longer, being
half a league in extent. This we crossed freely, without interruption
from the Indians, who, as they had spent on the former occasion their
store of arrows, had nought with which they dared venture to engage
us. Going through a similar passage the next day, I discovered the
trail of persons ahead, of which I gave notice to the Governor, who
was in the rear-guard, so that though the Indians came upon us, as
we were prepared they did no harm. After emerging upon the plain
they followed us, and we went back on them in two directions. Two we
killed, and they wounded me and two or three others. Coming to woods
we could do them no more injury, nor make them further trouble.
In this manner we travelled eight days. After that occurrence we were
not again beset until within a league of the place to which I have
said we were going. There, while on our way, the Indians came about
us without our suspicion, and fell upon the rear-guard. A hidalgo,
named Avellaneda, hearing the cries of his serving boy, went back
to give assistance, when he was struck by an arrow near the edge of
his cuirass; and so severe was the wound, the shaft having passed
almost entirely through his neck, that he presently died. The corpse
was carried to Aute, where we arrived at the end of nine days'[59]
travel from Apalache. We found all the inhabitants gone and the
houses burned. Maize, beans, and pumpkins were in great plenty,
all beginning to be fit for gathering. Having rested two days, the
Governor begged me to go and look for the sea, as the Indians said
it was near; and we had before discovered it, while on the way, from
a very large stream, to which we had given the name of River of the
Magdalena.[60]
[59] "Eight or nine days." Oviedo, 587.
[60] St. Marks River, which flows into St. Marks Bay, at the head
of which Aute was situated.
Accordingly, I set out the next day after, in company with the
commissary, Captain Castillo, Andrés Dorantes, seven more on
horseback, and fifty on foot. We travelled until the hour of vespers,
when we arrived at a road or entrance of the sea. Oysters were
abundant, over which the men rejoiced, and we gave thanks to God that
he had brought us there. The following morning[61] I sent twenty men
to explore the coast and ascertain its direction. They returned the
night after, reporting that those creeks and bays were large, and lay
so far inland as made it difficult to examine them agreeably to our
desires, and that the sea shore was very distant.
These tidings obtained, seeing our slender means, and condition for
exploring the coast, I went back to the Governor. On our arrival we
found him and many others sick. The Indians had assaulted them the
night before, and because of the malady that had come upon them, they
had been pushed to extremity. One of the horses had been killed. I
gave a report of what I had done, and of the embarrassing nature of
the country. We remained there that day.
[61] August 1, 1528.
Chapter 8
_We go from Aute._
The next morning[62] we left Aute, and travelled all day before
coming to the place I had visited. The journey was extremely
arduous. There were not horses enough to carry the sick, who went on
increasing in numbers day by day, and we knew of no cure. It was
piteous and painful to witness our perplexity and distress. We saw
on our arrival how small were the means for advancing farther. There
was not anywhere to go; and if there had been, the people were unable
to move forward, the greater part being ill, and those were few who
could be on duty. I cease here to relate more of this, because any
one may suppose what would occur in a country so remote and malign,
so destitute of all resource, whereby either to live in it or go out
of it; but most certain assistance is in God, our Lord, on whom we
never failed to place reliance. One thing occurred, more afflicting
to us than all the rest, which was, that of the persons mounted, the
greater part commenced secretly to plot, hoping to secure a better
fate for themselves by abandoning the Governor and the sick, who were
in a state of weakness and prostration. But, as among them were many
hidalgos and persons of gentle condition, they would not permit this
to go on, without informing the Governor and the officers of your
Majesty; and as we showed them the deformity of their purpose, and
placed before them the moment when they should desert their captain,
and those who were ill and feeble, and above all the disobedience
to the orders of your Majesty, they determined to remain, and that
whatever might happen to one should be the lot of all, without any
forsaking the rest.
[62] August 3, 1528.
After the accomplishment of this, the Governor called them all to
him, and of each apart he asked advice as to what he should do to get
out of a country so miserable, and seek that assistance elsewhere
which could not here be found, a third part of the people being
very sick, and the number increasing every hour; for we regarded it
as certain that we should all become so, and could pass out of it
only through death, which from its coming in such a place was to us
all the more terrible. These, with many other embarrassments being
considered, and entertaining many plans, we coincided in one great
project extremely difficult to put in operation, and that was to
build vessels in which we might go away. This appeared impossible to
every one; we knew not how to construct, nor were there tools, nor
iron, nor forge, nor tow, nor resin, nor rigging; finally, no one
thing of so many that are necessary, nor any man who had a knowledge
of their manufacture; and, above all, there was nothing to eat,
while building, for those who should labor. Reflecting on all this,
we agreed to think of the subject with more deliberation, and the
conversation dropped from that day, each going his way, commending
our course to God, our Lord, that he would direct it as should best
serve Him.
The next day it was His will that one of the company should come
saying that he could make some pipes out of wood, which with
deer-skins might be made into bellows; and, as we lived in a time
when anything that had the semblance of relief appeared well, we
told him to set himself to work. We assented to the making of nails,
saws, axes, and other tools of which there was such need, from the
stirrups, spurs, crossbows, and the other things of iron there were;
and we laid out for support, while the work was going on, that we
would make four entries into Aute, with all the horses and men that
were able to go, and that on every third day a horse should be killed
to be divided among those who labored in the work of the boats and
the sick. The incursions were made with the people and horses that
were available, and in them were brought back as many as four hundred
fanegas[63] of maize; but these were not got without quarrels and
contentions with the Indians. We caused many palmitos to be collected
for the woof or covering, twisting and preparing it for use in the
place of tow for the boats.
[63] About six hundred and forty bushels.
We commenced to build on the fourth, with the only carpenter in
the company, and we proceeded with so great diligence that on the
twentieth day of September five boats were finished, twenty-two
cubits in length, each caulked with the fibre of the palmito. We
pitched them with a certain resin, made from pine trees by a Greek,
named Don Theodoro; from the same husk of the palmito, and from
the tails and manes of the horses we made ropes and rigging, from
our shirts, sails, and from the savins growing there we made the
oars that appeared to us requisite. Such was the country into which
our sins had cast us, that only by very great search could we find
stone for ballast and anchors, since in it all we had not seen one.
We flayed the horses, taking the skin from their legs entire, and
tanning them to make bottles wherein to carry water.
During this time some went gathering shell-fish in the coves and
creeks of the sea, at which employment the Indians twice attacked
them and killed ten men in sight of the camp, without our being able
to afford succor. We found their corpses traversed from side to side
with arrows; and for all some had on good armor, it did not give
adequate protection or security against the nice and powerful archery
of which I have spoken. According to the declaration of our pilots
under oath, from the entrance to which we had given the name Bahía de
la Cruz[64] to this place, we had travelled two hundred and eighty
leagues[65] or thereabout. Over all that region we had not seen a
single mountain, and had no information of any whatsoever.
[64] Tampa Bay.
[65] In reality they could not have travelled much more than as
many miles in a straight line from Tampa Bay.
Before we embarked there died more than forty men of disease and
hunger, without enumerating those destroyed by the Indians. By
the twenty-second of the month of September, the horses had been
consumed, one only remaining; and on that day we embarked in the
following order: In the boat of the Governor went forty-nine men; in
another, which he gave to the comptroller and the commissary, went
as many others; the third, he gave to Captain Alonzo del Castillo
and Andrés Dorantes, with forty-eight men; and another he gave to
two captains, Tellez and Peñalosa, with forty-seven men. The last
was given to the assessor and myself, with forty-nine men. After the
provisions and clothes had been taken in, not over a span of the
gunwales remained above water; and more than this, the boats were so
crowded that we could not move: so much can necessity do, which drove
us to hazard our lives in this manner, running into a turbulent sea,
not a single one who went having a knowledge of navigation.[66]
[66] Consult Garcilasso de la Vega, _La Florida_, 78, 1723, for
the finding of the relics of Narvaez by De Soto's expedition in
1539, and see the De Soto narration of the Gentleman of Elvas,
later in the present volume.
Chapter 9
_We leave the Bay of Horses._
The haven we left bears the name of Bahía de Caballos.[67] We passed
waist deep in water through sounds without seeing any sign of the
coast, and at the close of the seventh day, we came to an island
near the main. My boat went first, and from her we saw Indians
approaching in five canoes, which they abandoned and left in our
hands, finding that we were coming after them. The other boats passed
ahead, and stopped at some houses on the island, where we found many
dried mullet and roes, which were a great relief in our distress.
After taking these we went on, and two leagues thence, we discovered
a strait the island makes with the land,[68] which we named Sant
Miguel, for having passed through it on his day.[69] Coming out we
went to the coast, where with the canoes I had taken, we somewhat
improved the boats, making waist-boards and securing them, so that
the sides rose two palms above the water. This done we returned to
move along the coast in the direction of the River Palmas,[70] our
hunger and thirst continually increasing; for our scant subsistence
was getting near the end, the water was out, and the bottles made
from the legs of the horses having soon rotted, were useless.
Sometimes we entered coves and creeks that lay far in, and found them
all shallow and dangerous. Thus we journeyed along them thirty days,
finding occasionally Indian fishermen, a poor and miserable lot.
[67] "Bay of Horses": St. Marks Bay of Appalachee Bay.
[68] The conditions are applicable to the mouth of St. Marks Bay,
the two small islands, and the strait between them and the coast.
[69] St. Michael's Day, September 29, 1528.
[70] That is, in a southwesterly direction.
At the end of this time, while the want of water was great, going
near the coast at night we heard the approach of a canoe, for which,
so soon as it was in sight, we paused; but it would not meet us,
and, although we called, it would neither come nor wait for us. As
the night was dark, we did not follow, and kept on our way. When the
sun rose we saw a small island, and went to it to find water; but
our labor was vain, as it had none. Lying there at anchor, a heavy
storm came on, that detained us six days, we not daring to go to sea;
and as it was now five days since we had drunk, our thirst was so
excessive that it put us to the extremity of swallowing salt water,
by which some of the men became so crazed that three or four suddenly
died. I state this so briefly, because I do not believe there is any
necessity for particularly relating the sufferings and toils amidst
which we found ourselves; since, considering the place where we were,
and the little hope we had of relief, every one may conceive much of
what must have passed.
Although the storm had not ceased, as our thirst increased and
the water killed us, we resolved to commend ourselves to God our
Lord, and adventure the peril of the sea rather than await the end
which thirst made certain. Accordingly we went out by the way we
had observed the canoe go the night we came. On this day we were
ourselves many times overwhelmed by the waves, and in such jeopardy
that there was not one who did not suppose his death inevitable.
Thanks be to Him, that in the greatest dangers, He was wont to show
us his favor; for at sunset doubling a point made by the land, we
found shelter with much calm.[71]
[71] Pensacola Bay. The Indians were Choctaws or a closely
related tribe.
Many canoes came off with Indians who spoke with us and returned,
not being disposed to await our arrival. They were of large stature
and well formed: they had no bows and arrows. We followed them to
their houses near by, at the edge of the water, and jumped on shore.
Before their dwellings were many clay pitchers with water, and a
large quantity of cooked fish, which the chief of these territories
offered to the Governor and then took him to his house. Their
dwellings were made of mats, and so far as we observed, were not
movable. On entering the house the cacique gave us fish, and we gave
him of the maize we brought, which the people ate in our presence.
They asked for more and received it, and the Governor presented the
cacique with many trinkets. While in the house with him, at the
middle hour of night, the Indians fell suddenly upon us, and on those
who were very sick, scattered along the shore.[72] They also beset
the house in which the Governor was, and with a stone struck him
in the face. Those of our comrades present seized the cacique; but
his people being near liberated him, leaving in our hands a robe of
civet-marten.
[72] "Killing three men." Oviedo, p. 589.
These skins are the best, I think, that can be found; they have a
fragrance that can be equalled by amber and musk alone, and even at a
distance is strongly perceptible. We saw there other skins, but none
comparable to these.
Those of us around, finding the Governor wounded, put him into
his boat; and we caused others of our people to betake themselves
likewise to their boats, some fifty remaining to withstand the
natives. They attacked us thrice that night, and with so great
impetuosity, that on each occasion they made us retire more than a
stone's cast. Not one among us escaped injury: I was wounded in the
face. They had not many arrows, but had they been further provided,
doubtless they would have done us much harm. In the last onset, the
Captains Dorantes, Peñalosa, and Tellez put themselves in ambuscade
with fifteen men, and fell upon the rear in such manner that the
Indians desisted and fled.
The next morning[73] I broke up more than thirty canoes, which were
serviceable for fuel in a north wind in which we were kept all day
suffering severe cold, without daring to go to sea, because of the
rough weather upon it. This having subsided, we again embarked,
and navigated three days.[74] As we brought little water and the
vessels were few, we were reduced to the last extremity. Following
our course, we entered an estuary, and being there we saw Indians
approaching in a canoe. We called to them and they came. The
Governor, at whose boat they first arrived, asked for water, which
they assented to give, asking for something in which they might bring
it, when Dorotheo Theodoro, a Greek spoken of before, said that he
wished to go with them. The Governor tried to dissuade him, and so
did others, but were unable; he was determined to go whatever might
betide. Accordingly he went, taking with him a negro, the natives
leaving two of their number as hostages. At night the Indians
returned with the vessels empty and without the Christians; and when
those we held were spoken to by them, they tried to plunge into the
sea. Being detained by the men, the Indians in the canoe thereupon
fled, leaving us sorrowful and much dejected for our loss.[75]
[73] October 28, 1528.
[74] "Three or four days." Oviedo, p. 589.
[75] Biedma's Narrative (_Publications of the Hakluyt Society_,
IX. 1-83, 1851) says of the De Soto expedition in 1539: "Having
set out for this village [Mavila, Mauvila, Mobile], we found a
large river which we supposed to be that which falls into the
bay of Chuse [Pensacola Bay]; we learned that the vessels of
Narvaez had arrived there in want of water, and that a Christian
named Teodoro and an Indian had remained among these Indians: at
the same time they showed us a dagger which had belonged to the
Christian."
Chapter 10
_The assault from the Indians._
The morning having come, many natives arrived in canoes who
asked us for the two that had remained in the boat. The Governor
replied that he would give up the hostages when they should
bring the Christians they had taken. With the Indians had come
five or six chiefs,[76] who appeared to us to be the most comely
persons, and of more authority and condition than any we had
hitherto seen, although not so large as some others of whom we
have spoken. They wore the hair loose and very long, and were
covered with robes of marten such as we had before taken. Some
of the robes were made up after a strange fashion, with wrought
ties of lion skin, making a brave show. They entreated us to go
with them, and said they would give us the Christians, water, and
many other things. They continued to collect about us in canoes,
attempting in them to take possession of the mouth of that
entrance; in consequence, and because it was hazardous to stay
near the land, we went to sea, where they remained by us until
about mid-day. As they would not deliver our people, we would not
give up theirs; so they began to hurl clubs at us and to throw
stones with slings, making threats of shooting arrows, although
we had not seen among them all more than three or four bows.
While thus engaged, the wind beginning to freshen, they left us
and went back.
[76] "Three or four," according to the Letter (Oviedo, p. 589),
which also gives the number of canoes as twenty.
We sailed that day until the middle of the afternoon, when my boat,
which was the first, discovered a point made by the land, and against
a cape opposite, passed a broad river.[77] I cast anchor near a
little island forming the point, to await the arrival of the other
boats. The Governor did not choose to come up, and entered a bay near
by in which were a great many islets. We came together there, and
took fresh water from the sea, the stream entering it in freshet.[78]
To parch some of the maize we brought with us, since we had eaten
it raw for two days, we went on an island; but finding no wood we
agreed to go to the river beyond the point, one league off. By no
effort could we get there, so violent was the current on the way,
which drove us out, while we contended and strove to gain the land.
The north wind, which came from the shore, began to blow so strongly
that it forced us to sea without our being able to overcome it. We
sounded half a league out, and found with thirty fathoms[79] we could
not get bottom; but we were unable to satisfy ourselves that the
current was not the cause of failure. Toiling in this manner to fetch
the land, we navigated three days, and at the end of this time, a
little before the sun rose, we saw smoke in several places along the
shore. Attempting to reach them, we found ourselves in three fathoms
of water, and in the darkness we dared not come to land; for as we
had seen so many smokes, some surprise might lie in wait, and the
obscurity leave us at a loss how to act. We determined therefore to
stop until morning.
[77] According to the Letter they travelled two days more before
reaching this point of land.
[78] The Mississippi, the waters of which were now seen by white
men fourteen years before the "discovery" of the stream by De
Soto.
[79] The present normal depth at this distance from the delta is
about sixty feet.
When day came, the boats had lost sight of each other. I found myself
in thirty fathoms. Keeping my course until the hour of vespers,
I observed two boats, and drawing near I found that the first I
approached was that of the Governor. He asked me what I thought
we should do. I told him we ought to join the boat which went in
advance, and by no means to leave her; and, the three being together,
we must keep on our way to where God should be pleased to lead. He
answered saying that could not be done, because the boat was far to
sea and he wished to reach the shore; that if I wished to follow him,
I should order the persons of my boat to take the oars and work, as
it was only by strength of arm that the land could be gained. He
was advised to this course by a captain with him named Pantoja, who
said that if he did not fetch land that day, in six days more they
would not reach it, and in that time they must inevitably famish.
Discovering his will I took my oar, and so did every one his, in my
boat, to obey it. We rowed until near sunset; but the Governor having
in his boat the healthiest of all the men, we could not by any means
hold with or follow her. Seeing this, I asked him to give me a rope
from his boat, that I might be enabled to keep up with him; but he
answered me that he would do much, if they, as they were, should be
able to reach the land that night. I said to him, that since he saw
the feeble strength we had to follow him, and do what he ordered,
he must tell me how he would that I should act. He answered that it
was no longer a time in which one should command another; but that
each should do what he thought best to save his own life; that he so
intended to act; and saying this, he departed with his boat.[80]
[80] The selfishness and incompetence of Narvaez, shown
throughout the narration, are here further exemplified. His
life had more than once been spared through the self-sacrifice
of his men, yet he now thought more of saving himself, with the
aid of his hardy crew, than of lending a hand to his weakened
companions.
As I could not follow him, I steered to the other boat at sea,
which waited for me, and having come up, I found her to be the one
commanded by the Captains Peñalosa and Tellez.
Thus we continued in company, eating a daily allowance of half a
handful of raw maize, until the end of four days, when we lost
sight of each other in a storm; and such was the weather that only
by God's favor we did not all go down. Because of winter and its
inclemency, the many days we had suffered hunger, and the heavy
beating of the waves, the people began next day to despair in such a
manner that when the sun sank, all who were in my boat were fallen
one on another, so near to death that there were few among them in a
state of sensibility. Of the whole number at this time not five men
were on their feet; and when night came, only the master and myself
were left, who could work the boat. Two hours after dark, he said
to me that I must take charge of her as he was in such condition he
believed he should die that night. So I took the paddle, and going
after midnight to see if the master was alive he said to me he was
rather better, and would take the charge until day. I declare in that
hour I would more willingly have died than seen so many people before
me in such condition. After the master took the direction of the
boat, I lay down a little while; but without repose, for nothing at
that time was farther from me than sleep.
Near the dawn of day, it seemed to me I heard the tumbling of the
sea; for as the coast was low, it roared loudly. Surprised at this,
I called to the master, who answered me that he believed we were
near the land. We sounded and found ourselves in seven fathoms. He
advised that we should keep to sea until sunrise; accordingly I took
an oar and pulled on the land side, until we were a league distant,
when we gave her stern to the sea. Near the shore a wave took us,
that knocked the boat out of water the distance of the throw of a
crowbar,[81] and from the violence with which she struck, nearly all
the people who were in her like dead, were roused to consciousness.
Finding themselves near the shore, they began to move on hands and
feet, crawling to land into some ravines. There we made fire, parched
some of the maize we brought, and found rain water. From the warmth
of the fire the people recovered their faculties, and began somewhat
to exert themselves. The day on which we arrived was the sixth of
November [1528].
[81] _Juego de herradura_, a game played with an iron bar, often
a crowbar, which is grasped at the middle and cast as far as
possible.
Chapter 11
_Of what befell Lope de Oviedo with the Indians._
After the people had eaten, I ordered Lope de Oviedo, who had more
strength and was stouter than any of the rest, to go to some trees
that were near by, and climbing into one of them to look about and
try to gain knowledge of the country. He did as I bade, and made out
that we were on an island.[82] He saw that the land was pawed up in
the manner that ground is wont to be where cattle range, whence it
appeared to him that this should be a country of Christians; and thus
he reported to us. I ordered him to return and examine much more
particularly, and see if there were any roads that were worn, but
without going far, because there might be danger.
[82] See p. 57, note 2.
He went, and coming to a path, took it for the distance of half a
league, and found some huts, without tenants, they having gone into
the field.[83] He took from these an earthen pot, a little dog,
some few mullets, and returned. As it appeared to us he was gone a
long time, we sent two men that they should look to see what might
have happened. They met him near by, and saw that three Indians
with bows and arrows followed and were calling to him, while he,
in the same way, was beckoning them on. Thus he arrived where we
were, the natives remaining a little way back, seated on the shore.
Half an hour after, they were supported by one hundred other Indian
bowmen,[84] who if they were not large, our fears made giants of
them. They stopped near us with the first three. It were idle to
think that any among us could make defence, for it would have been
difficult to find six that could rise from the ground. The assessor
and I went out and called to them, and they came to us. We endeavored
the best we could to encourage them and secure their favor. We gave
them beads and hawk-bells, and each of them gave me an arrow, which
is a pledge of friendship. They told us by signs that they would
return in the morning and bring us something to eat, as at that time
they had nothing.[85]
[83] As this was the root-digging season, the word _campo_ in the
original evidently refers to the digging "grounds" in the shoal
water, and not to "woods" as Mr. Smith interpreted it.
[84] "Two hundred archers with holes in their ears in which were
joints of cane." Oviedo, p. 590.
[85] For an account of these Indians, see ch. 14, p. 50, 51.
Chapter 12
_The Indians bring us food._
At sunrise the next day, the time the Indians appointed, they came
according to their promise, and brought us a large quantity of fish
with certain roots, some a little larger than walnuts, others a
trifle smaller, the greater part got from under the water and with
much labor. In the evening they returned and brought us more fish
and roots. They sent their women and children to look at us, who
went back rich with the hawk-bells and beads given them, and they
came afterwards on other days, returning as before. Finding that we
had provision, fish, roots, water, and other things we asked for, we
determined to embark again and pursue our course. Having dug out our
boat from the sand in which it was buried, it became necessary that
we should strip, and go through great exertion to launch her, we
being in such a state that things very much lighter sufficed to make
us great labor.
Thus embarked, at the distance of two crossbow shots in the sea
we shipped a wave that entirely wet us. As we were naked, and the
cold was very great, the oars loosened in our hands, and the next
blow the sea struck us, capsized the boat. The assessor[86] and two
others held fast to her for preservation, but it happened to be far
otherwise; the boat carried them over, and they were drowned under
her. As the surf near the shore was very high, a single roll of the
sea threw the rest into the waves and half drowned upon the shore
of the island, without our losing any more than those the boat took
down. The survivors escaped naked as they were born, with the loss
of all they had; and although the whole was of little value, at that
time it was worth much, as we were then in November, the cold was
severe, and our bodies were so emaciated the bones might be counted
with little difficulty, having become the perfect figures of death.
For myself I can say that from the month of May passed, I had eaten
no other thing than maize, and sometimes I found myself obliged to
eat it unparched; for although the beasts were slaughtered while the
boats were building, I could never eat their flesh, and I did not
eat fish ten times. I state this to avoid giving excuses, and that
every one may judge in what condition we were. Besides all these
misfortunes, came a north wind upon us, from which we were nearer
to death than life. Thanks be to our Lord that, looking among the
brands we had used there, we found sparks from which we made great
fires. And thus were we asking mercy of Him and pardon for our
transgressions, shedding many tears, and each regretting not his own
fate alone, but that of his comrades about him.
[86] Alonzo de Solis.
At sunset, the Indians thinking that we had not gone, came to seek
us and bring us food; but when they saw us thus, in a plight so
different from what it was before, and so extraordinary, they were
alarmed and turned back. I went toward them and called, when they
returned much frightened. I gave them to understand by signs that
our boat had sunk and three of our number had been drowned. There,
before them, they saw two of the departed, and we who remained were
near joining them. The Indians, at sight of what had befallen us,
and our state of suffering and melancholy destitution, sat down
among us, and from the sorrow and pity they felt, they all began to
lament so earnestly that they might have been heard at a distance,
and continued so doing more than half an hour. It was strange to
see these men, wild and untaught, howling like brutes over our
misfortunes. It caused in me as in others, an increase of feeling and
a livelier sense of our calamity.
The cries having ceased, I talked with the Christians, and said that
if it appeared well to them, I would beg these Indians to take us to
their houses. Some, who had been in New Spain, replied that we ought
not to think of it; for if they should do so, they would sacrifice
us to their idols. But seeing no better course, and that any other
led to a nearer and more certain death, I disregarded what was
said, and besought the Indians to take us to their dwellings. They
signified that it would give them delight, and that we should tarry
a little, that they might do what we asked. Presently thirty men
loaded themselves with wood and started for their houses, which were
far off,[87] and we remained with the others until near night, when,
holding us up, they carried us with all haste. Because of the extreme
coldness of the weather, lest any one should die or fail by the way,
they caused four or five very large fires to be placed at intervals,
and at each they warmed us; and when they saw that we had regained
some heat and strength, they took us to the next so swiftly that they
hardly let us touch our feet to the ground. In this manner we went as
far as their habitations, where we found that they had made a house
for us with many fires in it. An hour after our arrival, they began
to dance and hold great rejoicing, which lasted all night, although
for us there was no joy, festivity nor sleep, awaiting the hour they
should make us victims. In the morning they again gave us fish and
roots, showing us such hospitality that we were reassured, and lost
somewhat the fear of sacrifice.
[87] As he does not speak of crossing water, the dwellings of
these Indians were doubtless those seen by Lope de Oviedo on
the island, where they lived from October until March, for the
purpose of obtaining the roots from the shoal water, as well as
fish and oysters.
Chapter 13
_We hear of other Christians._
This day I saw a native with an article of traffic I knew was not
one we had bestowed; and asking whence it came, I was told by signs
that it had been given by men like ourselves who were behind. Hearing
this I sent two Indians, and with them two Christians to be shown
those persons. They met near by,[88] as the men were coming to look
after us; for the Indians of the place where they were, gave them
information concerning us. They were Captains Andrés Dorantes and
Alonzo del Castillo, with all the persons of their boat. Having come
up they were surprised at seeing us in the condition we were, and
very much pained at having nothing to give us, as they had brought no
other clothes than what they had on.
[88] This would seem to indicate that Dorantes' boat was cast
ashore on the same island.
Thus together again, they related that on the fifth day of that
month,[89] their boat had capsized a league and a half[90] from
there, and they escaped without losing any thing. We all agreed to
refit their [our] boat, that those of us might go in her who had
vigor sufficient and disposition to do so, and the rest should remain
until they became well enough to go, as they best might, along the
coast until God our Lord should be pleased to conduct us alike to a
land of Christians. Directly as we arranged this, we set ourselves
to work. Before we threw the boat out into the water, Tavera, a
gentleman of our company, died; and the boat, which we thought to
use, came to its end, sinking from unfitness to float.
[89] November, 1528. Dorantes' boat was therefore cast ashore the
day before the landing of Cabeza de Vaca's party.
[90] About four miles.
As we were in the condition I have mentioned, the greater number of
us naked, and the weather boisterous for travel, and to cross rivers
and bays by swimming, and we being entirely without provisions or
the means of carrying any, we yielded obedience to what necessity
required, to pass the winter in the place where we were. We also
agreed that four men of the most robust should go on to Panunco,[91]
which we believed to be near, and if, by Divine favor, they should
reach there, they could give information of our remaining on that
island, and of our sorrows and destitution. These men were excellent
swimmers. One of them was Alvaro Fernandez, a Portuguese sailor and
carpenter, the second was named Mendez, the third Figueroa, who was a
native of Toledo, and the fourth Astudillo, a native of Çafra. They
took with them an Indian of the island of Auia.[92]
[91] Pánuco, previously referred to.
[92] The edition of 1542 omits the last two words. _Auia_ has
been regarded as the native name of Malhado Island, but this
is seemingly an error, otherwise Cabeza de Vaca would in all
probability have mentioned the nativity of the Indian in later
speaking (ch. 17) of his death from cold and hunger. Herrera
says: "the island of Cuba," which seems more probable.
Chapter 14
_The departure of four Christians._
The four Christians being gone, after a few days such cold and
tempestuous weather succeeded that the Indians could not pull up
roots, the cane weirs in which they took fish no longer yielded any
thing, and the houses being very open, our people began to die.
Five Christians, of a mess [quartered] on the coast, came to
such extremity that they ate their dead; the body of the last one
only was found unconsumed. Their names were Sierra, Diego Lopez,
Corral, Palacios and Gonçalo Ruiz. This produced great commotion
among the Indians giving rise to so much censure that had they known
it in season to have done so, doubtless they would have destroyed
any survivor, and we should have found ourselves in the utmost
perplexity. Finally, of eighty men who arrived in the two instances,
fifteen only remained alive.
After this, the natives were visited by a disease of the bowels, of
which half their number died. They conceived that we had destroyed
them,[93] and believing it firmly, they concerted among themselves to
dispatch those of us who survived. When they were about to execute
their purpose, an Indian who had charge of me, told them not to
believe we were the cause of those deaths, since if we had such power
we should also have averted the fatality from so many of our people,
whom they had seen die without our being able to minister relief,
already very few of us remaining, and none doing hurt or wrong, and
that it would be better to leave us unharmed. God our Lord willed
that the others should heed this opinion and counsel, and be hindered
in their design.
[93] That is, the Indians believed the Christians to be sorcerers.
To this island we gave the name Malhado.[94] The people[95] we found
there are large and well formed; they have no other arms than bows
and arrows, in the use of which they are very dexterous. The men
have one of their nipples bored from side to side, and some have
both, wearing a cane in each, the length of two palms and a half, and
the thickness of two fingers. They have the under lip also bored,
and wear in it a piece of cane the breadth of half a finger. Their
women are accustomed to great toil. The stay they make on the island
is from October to the end of February. Their subsistence then is
the root I have spoken of, got from under the water in November and
December. They have weirs of cane and take fish only in this season;
afterwards they live on the roots. At the end of February, they go
into other parts to seek food; for then the root is beginning to grow
and is not food.
[94] "Misfortune," "ill-fate."
[95] The Capoques, or Cahoques, and the Hans. See ch. 26.
Those people love their offspring the most of any in the world, and
treat them with the greatest mildness.[96] When it occurs that a son
dies, the parents and kindred weep as does everybody; the wailing
continuing for him a whole year. They begin before dawn every day,
the parents first and after them the whole town. They do the same at
noon and at sunset. After a year of mourning has passed, the rites
of the dead are performed; then they wash and purify themselves from
the stain of smoke. They lament all the deceased in this manner,
except the aged, for whom they show no regret, as they say that
their season has passed, they having no enjoyment, and that living
they would occupy the earth and take aliment from the young. Their
custom is to bury the dead, unless it be those among them who have
been physicians. These they burn. While the fire kindles they are all
dancing and making high festivity, until the bones become powder.
After the lapse of a year the funeral honors are celebrated, every
one taking part in them, when that dust is presented in water for the
relatives to drink.[97]
[96] This is characteristic of all Indians, who punish their
children very rarely.
[97] Nevertheless these same people were so horrified by the
uncanny action of the Spaniards who ate their dead companions
that they sought to put them to death. It should be noted that
the Attacapan and probably the Karankawan tribes of the Texas
coast, to which the people of Malhado Island may have belonged,
were reputed to be cannibals.
Every man has an acknowledged wife. The physicians are allowed more
freedom: they may have two or three wives, among whom exist the
greatest friendship and harmony. From the time a daughter marries,
all that he who takes her to wife kills in hunting or catches in
fishing, the woman brings to the house of her father, without daring
to eat or take any part of it, and thence victuals are taken to the
husband. From that time neither her father nor mother enters his
house, nor can he enter theirs, nor the houses of their children; and
if by chance they are in the direction of meeting, they turn aside,
and pass the distance of a crossbow shot from each other, carrying
the head low the while, the eyes cast on the ground; for they hold
it improper to see or to speak to each other.[98] But the woman has
liberty to converse and communicate with the parents and relatives of
her husband. The custom exists from this island the distance of more
than fifty leagues inland.
[98] Tabu of the mother-in-law by a young man is quite common
among the Indians, but refusal to see or to speak to the wife's
father is very rare.
There is another custom, which is, when a son or brother dies, at the
house where the death takes place they do not go after food for three
months, but sooner famish, their relatives and neighbors providing
what they eat. As in the time we were there a great number of the
natives died, in most houses there was very great hunger, because
of the keeping of this their custom and observance; for although
they who sought after food worked hard, yet from the severity of the
season they could get but little; in consequence, the Indians who
kept me, left the island, and passed over in canoes to the main,
into some bays where are many oysters. For three months in the year
they eat nothing besides these, and drink very bad water.[99] There
is great want of wood: mosquitos are in great plenty. The houses are
of mats, set up on masses of oyster shells, which they sleep upon,
and in skins, should they accidentally possess them. In this way we
lived until April [1529], when we went to the seashore, where we ate
blackberries all the month, during which time the Indians did not
omit to observe their _areitos_[100] and festivities.
[99] On their food, compare Oviedo, p. 592.
[100] An _areito_, or _areyto_, was a dance ceremony of the
Arawak Indians of the West Indies in which their traditions were
recounted in chants. Like _buhío_, previously mentioned, the word
was now carried to the continent.
Chapter 15
_What befell us among the people of Malhado._
On an island of which I have spoken, they wished to make us
physicians without examination or inquiring for diplomas. They cure
by blowing upon the sick, and with that breath and the imposing of
hands they cast out infirmity. They ordered that we also should do
this, and be of use to them in some way. We laughed at what they
did, telling them it was folly, that we knew not how to heal. In
consequence, they withheld food from us until we should practise
what they required. Seeing our persistence, an Indian told me I knew
not what I uttered, in saying that what he knew availed nothing; for
stones and other matters growing about in the fields have virtue,
and that passing a pebble along the stomach would take away pain and
restore health, and certainly then we who were extraordinary men must
possess power and efficacy over all other things. At last, finding
ourselves in great want we were constrained to obey; but without fear
lest we should be blamed for any failure or success.
Their custom is, on finding themselves sick to send for a physician,
and after he has applied the cure, they give him not only all
they have, but seek among their relatives for more to give. The
practitioner scarifies over the seat of pain, and then sucks about
the wound. They make cauteries with fire, a remedy among them in
high repute, which I have tried on myself and found benefit from it.
They afterwards blow on the spot, and having finished, the patient
considers that he is relieved.
Our method was to bless the sick, breathing upon them, and recite
a Pater-noster and an Ave-Maria, praying with all earnestness to
God our Lord that he would give health and influence them to make
us some good return. In his clemency he willed that all those for
whom we supplicated, should tell the others that they were sound
and in health, directly after we made the sign of the blessed cross
over them. For this the Indians treated us kindly; they deprived
themselves of food that they might give to us, and presented us with
skins and some trifles.
So protracted was the hunger we there experienced, that many times I
was three days without eating. The natives also endured as much; and
it appeared to me a thing impossible that life could be so prolonged,
although afterwards I found myself in greater hunger and necessity,
which I shall speak of farther on.
The Indians who had Alonzo del Castillo, Andrés Dorantes, and the
others that remained alive, were of a different tongue and ancestry
from these,[101] and went to the opposite shore of the main to eat
oysters, where they staid until the first day of April, when they
returned. The distance is two leagues in the widest part. The island
is half a league in breadth and five leagues in length.[102]
[101] These were evidently the Hans, of whom he speaks later.
[102] See p. 57, note 2.
The inhabitants of all this region go naked. The women alone have
any part of their persons covered, and it is with a wool[103] that
grows on trees. The damsels dress themselves in deer-skin. The people
are generous to each other of what they possess. They have no chief.
All that are of a lineage keep together. They speak two languages;
those of one are called Capoques, those of the other, Han.[104] They
have a custom when they meet, or from time to time when they visit,
of remaining half an hour before they speak, weeping;[105] and, this
over, he that is visited first rises and gives the other all he has,
which is received, and after a little while he carries it away, and
often goes without saying a word. They have other strange customs;
but I have told the principal of them, and the most remarkable, that
I may pass on and further relate what befell us.
[103] Spanish moss.
[104] Important as it is in affording evidence of the route of
Cabeza de Vaca and his companions, it is not possible, with our
present knowledge of the former tribes of the coast region of
Texas, to identify with certainty the various Indians mentioned
by the narrator. Whether the names given by him are those
which the natives applied to themselves or are those given
by other tribes is unknown, and as no remnant of this once
considerable coast population now exists, the only hope of the
ultimate determination of these Indians lies in the historical
archives of Texas, Mexico, and Spain. The two languages and
stocks represented on the island of Malhado--the Capoque and
the Han--would seem to apply to the Karankawan and Attacapan
families respectively. The Capoques (called Cahoques on p. 87)
are seemingly identical with the Cocos who lived with the Mayayes
on the coast between the Brazos and Colorado Rivers in 1778, and
with the Cokés, who as late as 1850 are described as a branch of
the Koronks (Karankawa). Of the Han people nothing more definite
is known than that which is here recorded.
[105] Compare Barcia, _Ensayo_, 263, 1723, and Gatschet in
_Archaeological and Ethnological Papers of the Peabody Museum_,
Harvard University, 1891, for references to these "weepers."
Chapter 16
_The Christians leave the island of Malhado._
After Dorantes and Castillo returned to the island, they brought
together the Christians, who were somewhat separated, and found them
in all to be fourteen. As I have said, I was opposite on the main,
where my Indians had taken me, and where so great sickness had come
upon me, that if anything before had given me hopes of life, this
were enough to have entirely bereft me of them.
When the Christians heard of my condition, they gave an Indian the
cloak of marten skins we had taken from the cacique, as before
related, to pass them over to where I was that they might visit
me. Twelve of them crossed; for two were so feeble that their
comrades could not venture to bring them. The names of those who
came were Alonzo del Castillo, Andrés Dorantes, Diego Dorantes,
Valdevieso,[106] Estrada, Tostado, Chaves, Gutierrez, Asturiano a
clergyman, Diego de Huelva, Estevanico the black, and Benitez; and
when they reached the main land, they found another, who was one of
our company, named Francisco de Leon. The thirteen together followed
along the coast. So soon as they had come over, my Indians informed
me of it, and that Hieronymo de Alvaniz[107] and Lope de Oviedo
remained on the island. But sickness prevented me from going with my
companions or even seeing them.
[106] Diego Dorantes and Pedro de Valdivieso were cousins of
Andrés Dorantes. See p. 69.
[107] Called also Alaniz--the notary.
I was obliged to remain with the people belonging to the island[108]
more than a year, and because of the hard work they put upon me and
the harsh treatment, I resolved to flee from them and go to those of
Charruco, who inhabit the forests and country of the main, the life I
led being insupportable. Besides much other labor, I had to get out
roots from below the water, and from among the cane where they grew
in the ground. From this employment I had my fingers so worn that
did a straw but touch them they would bleed. Many of the canes are
broken, so they often tore my flesh, and I had to go in the midst of
them with only the clothing on I have mentioned.
[108] The Capoques.
Accordingly, I put myself to contriving how I might get over to the
other Indians, among whom matters turned somewhat more favorably for
me. I set to trafficking, and strove to make my employment profitable
in the ways I could best contrive, and by that means I got food and
good treatment. The Indians would beg me to go from one quarter
to another for things of which they have need; for in consequence
of incessant hostilities, they cannot traverse the country, nor
make many exchanges. With my merchandise and trade I went into the
interior as far as I pleased, and travelled along the coast forty
or fifty leagues. The principal wares were cones and other pieces
of sea-snail, conchs used for cutting, and fruit like a bean of the
highest value among them, which they use as a medicine and employ in
their dances and festivities. Among other matters were sea-beads.
Such were what I carried into the interior; and in barter I got
and brought back skins, ochre with which they rub and color the
face, hard canes of which to make arrows, sinews, cement and flint
for the heads, and tassels of the hair of deer that by dyeing they
make red. This occupation suited me well; for the travel allowed me
liberty to go where I wished, I was not obliged to work, and was not
a slave. Wherever I went I received fair treatment, and the Indians
gave me to eat out of regard to my commodities. My leading object,
while journeying in this business, was to find out the way by which
I should go forward, and I became well known. The inhabitants were
pleased when they saw me, and I had brought them what they wanted;
and those who did not know me sought and desired the acquaintance,
for my reputation. The hardships that I underwent in this were long
to tell, as well of peril and privation as of storms and cold.
Oftentimes they overtook me alone and in the wilderness; but I came
forth from them all by the great mercy of God our Lord. Because of
them I avoided pursuing the business in winter, a season in which
the natives themselves retire to their huts and ranches, torpid and
incapable of exertion.
I was in this country nearly six years,[109] alone among the Indians,
and naked like them. The reason why I remained so long, was that I
might take with me the Christian, Lope de Oviedo, from the island;
Alaniz, his companion, who had been left with him by Alonzo del
Castillo, and by Andrés Dorantes, and the rest, died soon after
their departure; and to get the survivor out from there, I went over
to the island every year, and entreated him that we should go, in
the best way we could contrive, in quest of Christians. He put me
off every year, saying in the next coming we would start. At last I
got him off, crossing him over the bay, and over four rivers in the
coast,[110] as he could not swim. In this way we went on with some
Indians, until coming to a bay a league in width, and everywhere
deep. From the appearance we supposed it to be that which is called
Espiritu Sancto. We met some Indians on the other side of it, coming
to visit ours, who told us that beyond them were three men like us,
and gave their names. We asked for the others, and were told that
they were all dead of cold and hunger; that the Indians farther on,
of whom they were, for their diversion had killed Diego Dorantes,
Valdevieso, and Diego de Huelva,[111] because they left one house for
another; and that other Indians, their neighbors with whom Captain
Dorantes now was, had in consequence of a dream, killed Esquivel
and Mendez.[112] We asked how the living were situated, and they
answered that they were very ill used, the boys and some of the
Indian men being very idle, out of cruelty gave them many kicks,
cuffs, and blows with sticks; that such was the life they led.
[109] From 1528 to 1533.
[110] The identification of Malhado Island is a difficult
problem. On general principles Galveston Island would seem to
supply the conditions, in that it more likely would have been
inhabited by two distinct tribes, perhaps representing distinct
linguistic families, as it is known to have been occupied by
Indians (the Karankawa) at a later period, besides having the
smaller island or islands behind it. But its size and the other
conditions are not in favor of the identification, for its
length is at least twice as great as that of Malhado, as given
in the narrative, and it is also more than two leagues from
its nearest end to the first stream that the Spaniards crossed
after departing from the island (Oviedo, p. 593). Mr. James
Newton Baskett suggests that the so-called Velasco Island, next
south of Galveston Island, better fulfils the requirements, as
indeed it does topographically, except for the fact that it
is really a peninsula. Aside from this, it possesses all the
physical features,--length and width, distance from the first
stream to the southward, and having the necessary island or
islands (Mud and San Luis) off its northern shore. Accepting
Mr. Baskett's determination, it is not difficult to account for
the four streams, "very large and of rapid current," one of
which flowed directly into the gulf. Following the journey of
the Spaniards from the island, down the coast, in April, when
the streams were swollen by flood, the first river was crossed
in two leagues after they had reached the mainland. This was
evidently Oyster Creek. Three leagues farther was another river,
running so powerfully that one of the rafts was driven to sea
more than a league. This fully agrees with the Brazos, which
indeed is the only large stream of the landlocked Texas coast
that flows directly into the gulf. Four leagues still farther
they reached another river, where the boat of the comptroller and
the commissary was found. From this fact it may be assumed that
this stream also flowed into the open gulf, a condition satisfied
by Caney Creek. The San Bernardo may well have escaped notice in
travelling near the coast, from the fact that it flows into Cedar
Lake. Five or six leagues more brought them to another large
river (the Colorado), which the Indians carried them across in a
canoe; and in four days they reached the bay of Espíritu Santo
(La Vaca Bay?). "The bay was broad, nearly a league across. The
side toward Pánuco [the south] forms a point running out nearly
a quarter of a league, having on it some large white sand-stacks
which it is reasonable to suppose can be descried from a distance
at sea, and were consequently thought to mark the River Espíritu
Santo." After two days of exertion they succeeded in crossing the
bay in a broken canoe; and at the end of twelve leagues they came
to a small bay not more than the breadth of a river. Here they
found Figueroa, the only survivor of the four who had attempted
to return to Mexico. The distance from Malhado Island is given as
sixty leagues, consequently the journey from the Colorado to the
bay now reached, which seems to be no other than San Antonio Bay,
covered thirty-two to thirty-three leagues. Lofty sand dunes,
such as those seen on what we regard as perhaps La Vaca Bay,
occur on San Antonio Bay. See _United States Coast Survey Report_
for 1859, p. 325. The western shore of the bay is a bluff or bank
of twenty feet. "At one place on this side, a singular range of
sand-hills, known as the Sand-mounds, approaches the shore. The
highest peak is about seventy-five feet above the bay."
[111] These were all members of Dorantes' party who visited
Cabeza de Vaca when he was ill on the mainland. See p. 55.
[112] Esquivel was one of the party under Enrriquez the
comptroller; Mendez was one of the good swimmers who started from
the island in the hope of reaching Pánuco.
We desired to be informed of the country ahead, and of the
subsistence: they said there was nothing to eat, and that it was thin
of people, who suffered of cold, having no skins or other things
to cover them. They told us also if we wished to see those three
Christians, two days from that time the Indians who had them would
come to eat walnuts a league from there on the margin of that river;
and that we might know what they told us of the ill usage to be
true, they slapped my companion and beat him with a stick, and I was
not left without my portion. Many times they threw lumps of mud at
us, and every day they put their arrows to our hearts, saying that
they were inclined to kill us in the way that they had destroyed
our friends. Lope Oviedo, my comrade, in fear said that he wished
to go back with the women of those who had crossed the bay with us,
the men having remained some distance behind. I contended strongly
against his returning, and urged my objections; but in no way could I
keep him. So he went back, and I remained alone with those savages.
They are called Quevenes,[113] and those with whom he returned,
Deaguanes.[114]
[113] _Guevenes_ in the edition of 1542 (Bandelier translation).
There is reason to believe that these people may have been
identical with the Cohani, who lived west of the Colorado River
of Texas in the first quarter of the nineteenth century.
[114] _Doguenes_ in ch. 26.
Chapter 17
_The coming of Indians with Andrés Dorantes, Castillo, and
Estevanico._
Two days after Lope de Oviedo left, the Indians who had Alonzo del
Castillo and Andrés Dorantes, came to the place of which we had been
told, to eat walnuts. These are ground with a kind of small grain,
and this is the subsistence of the people two months in the year
without any other thing; but even the nuts they do not have every
season, as the tree produces in alternate years. The fruit is the
size of that in Galicia; the trees are very large and numerous.
An Indian told me of the arrival of the Christians, and that if I
wished to see them I must steal away and flee to the point of a wood
to which he directed me, and that as he and others, kindred of his,
should pass by there to visit those Indians, they would take me with
them to the spot where the Christians were. I determined to attempt
this and trust to them, as they spoke a language distinct from that
of the others. I did so, and the next day they left, and found me in
the place that had been pointed out, and accordingly took me with
them.
When I arrived near their abode, Andrés Dorantes came out to see
who it could be, for the Indians had told him that a Christian was
coming. His astonishment was great when he saw me, as they had for
many a day considered me dead, and the natives had said that I was.
We gave many thanks at seeing ourselves together, and this was a day
to us of the greatest pleasure we had enjoyed in life. Having come
to where Castillo was, they inquired of me where I was going. I told
them my purpose was to reach the land of Christians, I being then in
search and pursuit of it. Andrés Dorantes said that for a long time
he had entreated Castillo and Estevanico to go forward; but that they
dared not venture, because they knew not how to swim, and greatly
dreaded the rivers and bays they should have to cross, there being
many in that country. Thus the Almighty had been pleased to preserve
me through many trials and diseases, conducting me in the end to the
fellowship of those who had abandoned me, that I might lead them over
the bays and rivers that obstructed our progress. They advised me on
no account to let the natives know or have a suspicion of my desire
to go on, else they would destroy me; and that for success it would
be necessary for me to remain quiet until the end of six months, when
comes the season in which these Indians go to another part of the
country to eat prickly pears.[115] People would arrive from parts
farther on, bringing bows to barter and for exchange, with whom,
after making our escape, we should be able to go on their return.
Having consented to this course, I remained. The prickly pear is the
size of a hen's egg, vermillion and black in color, and of agreeable
flavor. The natives live on it three months in the year, having
nothing beside.
[115] The fruit of the _Opuntia_ cactus, of which there are about
two hundred species.
I was given as a slave to an Indian, with whom was Dorantes. He
was blind of one eye, as were also his wife and sons, and likewise
another who was with him; so that of a fashion they were all blind.
These are called Marians;[116] Castillo was with another neighboring
people, called Yguases.[117]
[116] _Mariames_ in ch. 26, and in the edition of 1542. These
people are not identified. They were possibly of Karankawan or
Coahuiltecan affinity, but there is no direct evidence of this.
[117] _Iguaces_ in the edition of 1542.
While here the Christians related to me how they had left the
island of Malhado, and found the boat in which the comptroller and
the friars had sailed, bottom up on the seashore; and that going
along crossing the rivers, which are four,[118] very large and of
rapid current, their boats[119] were swept away and carried to sea,
where four of their number were drowned; that thus they proceeded
until they crossed the bay, getting over it with great difficulty,
and fifteen leagues thence they came to another. By the time they
reached this, they had lost two companions in the sixty leagues they
travelled, and those remaining were nearly dead, in all the while
having eaten nothing but crabs and rockweed.[120] Arrived at this
bay, they found Indians eating mulberries, who, when they saw them,
went to a cape opposite. While contriving and seeking for some means
to cross the bay, there came over to them an Indian, and a Christian
whom they recognized to be Figueroa, one of the four we had sent
forward from the island of Malhado. He there recounted how he and
his companions had got as far as that place, when two of them and
an Indian[121] died of cold and hunger, being exposed in the most
inclement of seasons. He and Mendez were taken by the Indians, and
while with them his associate fled, going as well as he could in the
direction of Pánuco, and the natives pursuing, put him to death.
[118] See p. 57, note 2.
[119] Rafts built for the purpose of crossing the streams.
[120] _Yerba pedrera_: "Of which glass is made in Spain." Oviedo,
p. 593. Doubtless kelp. It was burned and from the product glass
and soap were formerly manufactured. It is still a source of
manufacture of carbonate of soda and iodine.
[121] Alvaro Fernandez, the Portuguese sailor and carpenter;
Astudillo, the native of Zafra; and the Indian from the island of
"Auia" (Cuba).
While living with these Indians, Figueroa learned from them that
there was a Christian among the Mariames, who had come over from the
opposite side, and he found him among the Quevenes. This was Hernando
de Esquivel, a native of Badajoz, who had come in company with the
commissary. From him Figueroa learned the end to which the Governor,
the comptroller, and the others had come. Esquivel told him that the
comptroller and the friars had upset their boat at the confluence
of the rivers,[122] and that the boat of the Governor, moving along
the coast, came with its people to land. Narváez went in the boat
until arriving at that great bay, where he took in the people, and,
crossing them to the opposite point, returned for the comptroller,
the friars, and the rest. And he related that being disembarked, the
Governor had recalled the commission the comptroller held as his
lieutenant, assigning the duties to a captain with him named Pantoja:
that Narváez stayed the night in his boat, not wishing to come on
shore, having a cockswain with him and a page who was unwell, there
being no water nor anything to eat on board; that at midnight, the
boat having only a stone for anchor, the north wind blowing strongly
took her unobserved to sea, and they never knew more of their
commander.
[122] The Mississippi delta.
The others then went along the coast, and as they were arrested by a
wide extent of water, they made rafts with much labor, on which they
crossed to the opposite shore. Going on, they arrived at a point of
woods on the banks of the water where were Indians, who, as they saw
them coming, put their houses[123] into their canoes and went over to
the opposite side. The Christians, in consideration of the season,
for it was now the month of November, stopped at this wood, where
they found water and fuel, some crabs and shell-fish. They began, one
by one, to die of cold and hunger; and, more than this, Pantoja, who
was Lieutenant-Governor, used them severely, which Soto-Mayor (the
brother of Vasco Porcallo, of the island of Cuba), who had come with
the armament as camp-master, not being able to bear, had a struggle
with him, and, giving him a blow with a club, Pantoja was instantly
killed.
[123] Doubtless consisting of mats fastened to a framework.
Thus did the number go on diminishing. The living dried the flesh of
them that died; and the last that died was Soto-Mayor, when Esquivel
preserved his flesh, and, feeding on it, sustained existence until
the first of March, when an Indian of those that had fled, coming to
see if they were alive, took Esquivel with him. While he was in the
possession of the native, Figueroa saw him, and learned all that had
been related. He besought Esquivel to come with him, that together
they might pursue the way to Pánuco; to which Esquivel would not
consent, saying that he had understood from the friars that Pánuco
had been left behind:[124] so he remained there and Figueroa went to
the coast where he was accustomed to live.
[124] That is, he supposed that he was then somewhere on the
coast of central Mexico.
Chapter 18
_The story Figueroa recounted from Esquivel._
This account was all given by Figueroa, according to the relation he
received from Esquivel, and from him through the others it came to
me; whence may be seen and understood the fate of the armament, and
the individual fortunes of the greater part of the people. Figueroa
said, moreover, that if the Christians should at any time go in that
direction, it were possible they might see Esquivel, for he knew that
he had fled from the Indian with whom he was, to the Mariames, who
were neighbors. After Figueroa had finished telling the story, he and
the Asturian made an attempt to go to other Indians farther on; but
as soon as they who had the Christians discovered it, they followed,
and beating them severely, stripped the Asturian and shot an arrow
through his arm. They finally escaped by flight.
The other Christians remained, and prevailed on the Indians to
receive them as slaves. In their service they were abused as slaves
never were, nor men in any condition have ever been. Not content with
frequently buffeting them, striking them with sticks, and pulling
out their beard for amusement, they killed three of the six for only
going from one house to another. These were the persons I have named
before: Diego Dorantes, Valdivieso, and Diego de Huelva: and the
three that remained looked forward to the same fate. Not to endure
this life, Andrés Dorantes fled, and passed to the Mariames, the
people among whom Esquivel tarried. They told him that having had
Esquivel there, he wished to run away because a woman dreamed that a
son of hers would kill him; and that they followed after, and slew
him. They showed Dorantes his sword, beads, and book, with other
things that had been his.[125]
[125] See the extracts from the letter of the survivors
(preserved by Oviedo) appended to this chapter.
Thus in obedience to their custom they take life, destroying even
their male children on account of dreams. They cast away their
daughters at birth, and cause them to be eaten by dogs. The reason of
their doing this, as they state, is because all the nations of the
country are their foes; and as they have unceasing war with them,
if they were to marry away their daughters, they would so greatly
multiply their enemies that they must be overcome and made slaves;
thus they prefer to destroy all, rather than that from them should
come a single enemy. We asked why they did not themselves marry
them; and they said it would be a disgustful thing to marry among
relatives, and far better to kill than to give them either to their
kindred or to their foes.
This is likewise the practice of their neighbors the Yguazes, but of
no other people of that country. When the men would marry, they buy
the women of their enemies: the price paid for a wife is a bow, the
best that can be got, with two arrows: if it happens that the suitor
should have no bow, then a net a fathom in length and another in
breadth. They kill their male children, and buy those of strangers.
The marriage state continues no longer than while the parties are
satisfied, and they separate for the slightest cause. Dorantes was
among this people, and after a few days escaped.
Castillo and Estevanico went inland to the Yguazes. This people are
universally good archers and of a fine symmetry, although not so
large as those we left. They have a nipple and a lip bored.[126]
Their support is principally roots, of two or three kinds, and they
look for them over the face of all the country. The food is poor
and gripes the persons who eat it. The roots require roasting two
days: many are very bitter, and withal difficult to be dug. They are
sought the distance of two or three leagues, and so great is the
want these people experience, that they cannot get through the year
without them. Occasionally they kill deer, and at times take fish;
but the quantity is so small and the famine so great, that they eat
spiders and the eggs of ants, worms, lizards, salamanders, snakes,
and vipers that kill whom they strike; and they eat earth and wood,
and all that there is, the dung of deer, and other things that I omit
to mention; and I honestly believe that were there stones in that
land they would eat them. They save the bones of the fishes they
consume, of snakes and other animals, that they may afterwards beat
them together and eat the powder. The men bear no burthens, nor carry
anything of weight; such are borne by women and old men who are of
the least esteem. They have not so great love for their children as
those we have before spoken of.[127] Some among them are accustomed
to sin against nature. The women work very hard, and do a great deal;
of the twenty-four hours they have only six of repose; the rest of
the night they pass in heating the ovens to bake those roots they
eat. At daybreak they begin to dig them, to bring wood and water to
their houses and get in readiness other things that may be necessary.
The majority of the people are great thieves; for though they are
free to divide with each other, on turning the head, even a son or a
father will take what he can. They are great liars, and also great
drunkards, which they became from the use of a certain liquor.[128]
[126] Evidently for the insertion of canes, as was the custom of
the Capoques and Hans of the island of Malhado.
[127] The Capoques of Malhado Island.
[128] It is not improbable that the liquor was made from the
peyote, or mescal button, still used by the Kiowa, Comanche, and
others to produce stupefaction. See Mooney in _Seventeenth Report
of the Bureau of American Ethnology_, 1898.
These Indians are so accustomed to running, that without rest or
fatigue they follow a deer from morning to night. In this way they
kill many. They pursue them until tired down, and sometimes overtake
them in the race. Their houses are of matting, placed upon four
hoops. They carry them on the back, and remove every two or three
days in search of food. Nothing is planted for support. They are a
merry people, considering the hunger they suffer; for they never
cease, notwithstanding, to observe their festivities and _areytos_.
To them the happiest part of the year is the season of eating prickly
pears; they have hunger then no longer, pass all the time in dancing,
and eat day and night. While these last, they squeeze out the juice,
open and set them to dry, and when dry they are put in hampers like
figs. These they keep to eat on their way back. The peel is beaten to
powder.
It occurred to us many times while we were among this people, and
there was no food, to be three or four days without eating, when
they, to revive our spirits, would tell us not to be sad, that soon
there would be prickly pears when we should eat a plenty and drink
of the juice, when our bellies would be very big and we should be
content and joyful, having no hunger. From the time they first told
us this, to that at which the earliest were ripe enough to be eaten,
was an interval of five or six months; so having tarried until the
lapse of this period, and the season had come, we went to eat the
fruit.
We found mosquitos of three sorts, and all of them abundant in every
part of the country. They poison and inflame, and during the greater
part of the summer gave us great annoyance. As a protection we made
fires, encircling the people with them, burning rotten and wet wood
to produce smoke without flame. The remedy brought another trouble,
and the night long we did little else than shed tears from the smoke
that came into our eyes, besides feeling intense heat from the many
fires, and if at any time we went out for repose to the seaside and
fell asleep, we were reminded with blows to make up the fires. The
Indians of the interior have a different method, as intolerable, and
worse even than the one I have spoken of, which is to go with brands
in the hand firing the plains and forests within their reach, that
the mosquitos may fly away, and at the same time to drive out lizards
and other like things from the earth for them to eat.
They are accustomed also to kill deer by encircling them with fires.
The pasturage is taken from the cattle by burning, that necessity may
drive them to seek it in places where it is desired they should go.
They encamp only where there are wood and water; and sometimes all
carry loads of these when they go to hunt deer, which are usually
found where neither is to be got. On the day of their arrival, they
kill the deer and other animals which they can, and consume all the
water and all the wood in cooking and on the fires they make to
relieve them of mosquitos. They remain the next day to get something
to sustain them on their return; and when they go, such is their
state from those insects that they appear to have the affliction
of holy Lazarus. In this way do they appease their hunger, two or
three times in the year, at the cost I have mentioned. From my own
experience, I can state there is no torment known in this world that
can equal it.
Inland are many deer, birds, and beasts other than those I have
spoken of. Cattle[129] come as far as here. Three times I have seen
them and eaten of their meat. I think they are about the size of
those in Spain. They have small horns like the cows of Morocco; the
hair is very long and flocky like the merino's. Some are tawny,
others black. To my judgment the flesh is finer and fatter than that
of this country. Of the skins of those not full grown the Indians
make blankets, and of the larger they make shoes and bucklers. They
come as far as the sea-coast of Florida, from a northerly direction,
ranging through a tract of more than four hundred leagues; and
throughout the whole region over which they run, the people who
inhabit near, descend and live upon them, distributing a vast many
hides into the interior country.
[129] This is the first printed reference to the bison.
* * * * *
[Buckingham Smith introduces the following translation from the
_Letter_ (Oviedo, pp. 594-598) as throwing important light on the
occurrences related in the foregoing chapter. F. W. H.]
"Thus ended the account of Figueroa, without his being able
to add more to it, than that Esquivel was about there in the
possession of some natives, and they might see him in a little
while; but a month afterwards, it was known that he no longer
lived, for having gone from the natives, they had followed after
and put him to death. Figueroa tarried a few moments, long
enough to relate the sad news. The Indian who brought him would
not permit him to remain. Asturiano, the clergyman, and a young
man being the only ones who could swim, accompanied them for
the purpose of returning with fish which they were promised, as
likewise that they should be brought back over that bay; but
when the Indians found them at their houses, they would neither
bring them nor let them return; on the contrary, they put their
houses into their canoes and took the two Christians with them,
saying that they would soon come back....
"The eight companions remained that day to appease their hunger,
and the next morning they saw two Indians of a rancho coming
over the water to place their dwellings on the hither side. The
purpose was to live on blackberries that grow in some places
along the coast, which they seek at a season they know full
well, and although precarious, they promise a food that supports
life. They called to the Indians, who came as to persons they
thought lightly of, taking some part of what they possessed
almost by force. The Christians besought the natives to set them
over, which they did in a canoe, taking them to their houses
near by, and at dark gave them a small quantity of fish. They
went out the next day for more, and returned at night, giving
them a part of what they had caught. The day following they
moved off with the Christians and never after were the two seen
whom the other Indians had taken away.
"At last the natives, weary of seeking food for their guests,
turned away five, that they should go to some Indians who they
said were to be found in another bay, six leagues farther on.
Alonzo del Castillo went there with Pedro de Valdivieso, cousin
of Andrés Dorantes, and another, Diego de Huelva, where they
remained a long time; the two others went down near the coast,
seeking relief, where they died, as Dorantes states, who found
the bodies, one of whom, Diego Dorantes, was his cousin. The two
hidalgos and the negro remaining in that rancho, sufficed for
the use of the natives, to bring back-loads of wood and water as
slaves. After three or four days however, these likewise were
turned off, when for some time they wandered about lost, without
hope of relief; and going naked among marshes, having been
previously despoiled one night of their clothing, they came upon
those dead.
"They continued the route until they found some Indians, with
whom Andrés Dorantes remained. A cousin of his, one of the three
who had gone on to the bay where they stopped, came over from
the opposite shore, and told him that the swimmers who went
from them had passed in that direction, having their clothes
taken from them and they much bruised about the head with sticks
because they would not remain; still though beaten and stripped,
they had gone on for the sake of the oath they had taken, never
to stop even if death stood in the path, before coming to a
country of Christians. Dorantes states that he saw in the rancho
where he was, the clothes belonging to the clergyman and to one
of the swimmers, with a breviary or prayer book. Valdivieso
returned, and a couple of days afterwards was killed, because he
wished to flee, and likewise in a little time Diego de Huelva,
because he forsook one lodge-house for another.
"The Christians were there made slaves, forced with more cruelty
to serve than the Moor would have used. Besides going stark
naked and bare-footed over the coast burning in summer like
fire, their continual occupation was bringing wood and water on
the back, or whatever the Indians needed, and dragging canoes
over inundated grounds in hot weather.
"These natives eat nothing the year round but fish, and of
that not much. They experience far less hunger however, than
the inhabitants inland among whom the Spaniards afterwards
lived. The food often fails, causing frequent removals, or
otherwise they starve.... They have finger nails that for any
ordinary purpose are knives, and are their principal arms among
themselves....
"The Spaniards lived here fourteen months, from May to the May
ensuing of the year 1530, and to the middle of the month of
August, when Andrés Dorantes, being at a point that appeared
most favorable for going, commended himself to God, and went off
at mid-day.... Castillo tarried among that hard people a year
and a half later, until an opportunity presented for starting;
but on arriving he found only the negro; Dorantes, finding these
Indians unbearably cruel, had gone back more than twenty leagues
to a river near the bay of Espíritu Sancto, among those who had
killed Esquivel, the solitary one that had escaped from the
boats of the Governor and Alonzo Enrriques, slain, as they were
told, because a woman had dreamed some absurdity. The people of
this country have belief in dreams, their only superstition. On
account of them they will even kill their children; and this
hidalgo Dorantes states, that in the course of four years he
had been a witness to the killing or burying alive of eleven or
twelve young males, and rarely do they let a girl live....
"Andrés Dorantes passed ten months among this people, enduring
much privation with continual labor, and in fear of being
killed...."
Chapter 19
_Our separation by the Indians._
When the six months were over, I had to spend with the Christians to
put in execution the plan we had concerted, the Indians went after
prickly pears, the place at which they grew being thirty leagues
off;[130] and when we approached the point of flight, those among
whom we were, quarrelled about a woman. After striking with fists,
beating with sticks and bruising heads in great anger, each took
his lodge and went his way, whence it became necessary that the
Christians should also separate, and in no way could we come together
until another year.
[130] In an article on the wanderings of Cabeza de Vaca, by
Ponton and McFarland (_Texas Historical Association Quarterly_,
I. 176, map, 1898), the northern limit of the cactus belt is
placed on a line extending irregularly westward from the mouth of
the Colorado River of Texas.
In this time I passed a hard life, caused as much by hunger as ill
usage. Three times I was obliged to run from my masters, and each
time they went in pursuit and endeavored to slay me; but God our Lord
in his mercy chose to protect and preserve me; and when the season
of prickly pears returned, we again came together in the same place.
After we had arranged our escape, and appointed a time, that very day
the Indians separated and all went back. I told my comrades I would
wait for them among the prickly-pear plants until the moon should be
full. This day was the first of September,[131] and the first of the
moon; and I said that if in this time they did not come as we had
agreed, I would leave and go alone. So we parted, each going with his
Indians. I remained with mine until the thirteenth day of the moon,
having determined to flee to others when it should be full.
[131] 1534. Cabeza de Vaca had evidently lost his reckoning
(perhaps during his illness), as the date of the new moon in this
year was September 8.
At this time Andrés Dorantes arrived with Estevanico and informed
me that they had left Castillo with other Indians near by, called
Lanegados;[132] that they had encountered great obstacles and
wandered about lost; that the next day the Indians, among whom we
were, would move to where Castillo was, and were going to unite with
those who held him and become friends, having been at war until then,
and that in this way we should recover Castillo.
[132] _Anagados_ in the 1542 edition. The tribe cannot be
identified, although it may be well known under some other name.
_Anegado_ is Spanish for "overflowed," "inundated," but it is by
no means certain that the Spaniards applied this name to them.
Buckingham Smith suggests that they may have been the Nacadoch
(Nacogdoches), but this does not seem probable, as the latter
tribe lived very far to the northeast of the point where the
Spaniards now were, that is, some thirty leagues inland from the
coast between latitude 28° and 29°. The name sounds more like
_N[)a]dáko_, the designation which the Anadarcos give themselves.
This Caddoan tribe, when first known, lived high up on the Brazos
and the Trinity, but in 1812 their village was on the Sabine.
They are now incorporated with the Caddo in Oklahoma.
We had thirst all the time we ate the pears, which we quenched with
their juice. We caught it in a hole made in the earth, and when it
was full we drank until satisfied. It is sweet, and the color of
must. In this manner they collect it for lack of vessels. There are
many kinds of prickly pears, among them some very good, although they
all appeared to me to be so, hunger never having given me leisure to
choose, nor to reflect upon which were the best.
Nearly all these people drink rain-water, which lies about in
spots. Although there are rivers, as the Indians never have fixed
habitations, there are no familiar or known places for getting water.
Throughout the country are extensive and beautiful plains with good
pasturage; and I think it would be a very fruitful region were it
worked and inhabited by civilized men. We nowhere saw mountains.
These Indians told us that there was another people next in advance
of us, called Camones,[133] living towards the coast, and that they
had killed the people who came in the boat of Peñalosa and Tellez,
who arrived so feeble that even while being slain they could offer no
resistance, and were all destroyed. We were shown their clothes and
arms, and were told that the boat lay there stranded. This, the fifth
boat, had remained till then unaccounted for. We have already stated
how the boat of the Governor had been carried out to sea, and that of
the comptroller and the friars had been cast away on the coast, of
which Esquevel[134] narrated the fate of the men. We have once told
how the two boats in which Castillo, I, and Dorantes came, foundered
near the Island of Malhado.
[133] _Camoles_ in ch. 26. They evidently lived toward the
northeast, north of Malhado Island; unidentified.
[134] Esquivel.
Chapter 20
_Of our escape._
The second day after we had moved, we commended ourselves to God and
set forth with speed, trusting, for all the lateness of the season
and that the prickly pears were about ending, with the mast which
remained in the woods [field], we might still be enabled to travel
over a large territory. Hurrying on that day in great dread lest
the Indians should overtake us, we saw some smokes, and going in
the direction of them we arrived there after vespers, and found an
Indian. He ran as he discovered us coming, not being willing to wait
for us. We sent the negro[135] after him, when he stopped, seeing him
alone. The negro told him we were seeking the people who made those
fires. He answered that their houses were near by, and he would guide
us to them. So we followed him. He ran to make known our approach,
and at sunset we saw the houses. Before our arrival, at the distance
of two crossbow shots from them, we found four Indians, who waited
for us and received us well. We said in the language of the Mariames,
that we were coming to look for them. They were evidently pleased
with our company, and took us to their dwellings. Dorantes and the
negro were lodged in the house of a physician,[136] Castillo and
myself in that of another.
[135] Estévanico.
[136] A shaman, or "medicine-man."
These people speak a different language, and are called
Avavares.[137] They are the same that carried bows to those with whom
we formerly lived,[138] going to traffic with them, and although
they are of a different nation and tongue, they understand the other
language. They arrived that day with their lodges, at the place where
we found them. The community directly brought us a great many prickly
pears, having heard of us before, of our cures, and of the wonders
our Lord worked by us, which, although there had been no others,
were adequate to open ways for us through a country poor like this,
to afford us people where oftentimes there are none, and to lead us
through immediate dangers, not permitting us to be killed, sustaining
us under great want, and putting into those nations the heart of
kindness, as we shall relate hereafter.
[137] _Chavavares_ in ch. 26, in which it is said that they
joined the Mariames. Their affinity is unknown. The statement
that the Spaniards are again among these tribes suggests that
they were now pursuing a northerly direction.
[138] The Mariames. See note to ch. 26, respecting these tribes.
Chapter 21
_Our cure of some of the afflicted._
That same night of our arrival, some Indians came to Castillo and
told him that they had great pain in the head, begging him to cure
them. After he made over them the sign of the cross, and commended
them to God, they instantly said that all the pain had left, and went
to their houses bringing us prickly pears, with a piece of venison,
a thing to us little known. As the report of Castillo's performances
spread, many came to us that night sick, that we should heal them,
each bringing a piece of venison, until the quantity became so great
we knew not where to dispose of it. We gave many thanks to God, for
every day went on increasing his compassion and his gifts. After
the sick were attended to, they began to dance and sing, making
themselves festive, until sunrise; and because of our arrival, the
rejoicing was continued for three days.
When these were ended, we asked the Indians about the country farther
on, the people we should find in it, and of the subsistence there.
They answered us, that throughout all the region prickly-pear plants
abounded; but the fruit was now gathered and all the people had gone
back to their houses. They said the country was very cold, and there
were few skins. Reflecting on this, and that it was already winter,
we resolved to pass the season with these Indians.
Five days after our arrival, all the Indians went off, taking us with
them to gather more prickly pears, where there were other peoples
speaking different tongues. After walking five days in great hunger,
since on the way was no manner of fruit, we came to a river[139]
and put up our houses. We then went to seek the product of certain
trees, which is like peas. As there are no paths in the country, I
was detained some time. The others returned, and coming to look for
them in the dark I got lost. Thank God I found a burning tree, and
in the warmth of it I passed the cold of that night. In the morning,
loading myself with sticks, and taking two brands with me, I returned
to seek them. In this manner I wandered five days, ever with my fire
and load; for if the wood had failed me where none could be found,
as many parts are without any, though I might have sought sticks
elsewhere, there would have been no fire to kindle them. This was all
the protection I had against cold, while walking naked as I was born.
Going to the low woods near the rivers, I prepared myself for the
night, stopping in them before sunset. I made a hole in the ground
and threw in fuel which the trees abundantly afforded, collected in
good quantity from those that were fallen and dry. About the whole
I made four fires, in the form of a cross, which I watched and made
up from time to time. I also gathered some bundles of the coarse
straw that there abounds, with which I covered myself in the hole. In
this way I was sheltered at night from cold. On one occasion while
I slept, the fire fell upon the straw, when it began to blaze so
rapidly that notwithstanding the haste I made to get out of it, I
carried some marks on my hair of the danger to which I was exposed.
All this while I tasted not a mouthful, nor did I find anything
I could eat. My feet were bare and bled a good deal. Through the
mercy of God, the wind did not blow from the north in all this time,
otherwise I should have died.
[139] This may have been the San Antonio or the San
Marcos-Guadalupe.
At the end of the fifth day I arrived on the margin of a river,[140]
where I found the Indians, who with the Christians, had considered me
dead, supposing that I had been stung by a viper. All were rejoiced
to see me, and most so were my companions. They said that up to that
time they had struggled with great hunger, which was the cause of
their not having sought me. At night, all gave me of their prickly
pears, and the next morning we set out for a place where they were
in large quantity, with which we satisfied our great craving, the
Christians rendering thanks to our Lord that He had ever given us His
aid.
[140] Presumably the river last mentioned, where they had erected
their shelters.
Chapter 22
_The coming of other sick to us the next day._
The next day morning, many Indians came, and brought five persons
who had cramps and were very unwell. They came that Castillo might
cure them. Each offered his bow and arrows, which Castillo received.
At sunset he blessed them, commending them to God our Lord, and we
all prayed to Him the best we could to send health; for that He knew
there was no other means, than through Him, by which this people
would aid us, so we could come forth from this unhappy existence.
He bestowed it so mercifully, that, the morning having come, all
got up well and sound, and were as strong as though they never had
a disorder. It caused great admiration, and inclined us to render
many thanks to God our Lord, whose goodness we now clearly beheld,
giving us firm hopes that He would liberate and bring us to where we
might serve Him. For myself I can say that I ever had trust in His
providence that He would lead me out from that captivity, and thus I
always spoke of it to my companions.
The Indians having gone and taken their friends with them in health,
we departed for a place at which others were eating prickly pears.
These people are called Cuthalchuches[141] and Malicones, who speak
different tongues. Adjoining them were others called Coayos and
Susolas, who were on the opposite side, others called Atayos,[142]
who were at war with the Susolas, exchanging arrow shots daily. As
through all the country they talked only of the wonders which God our
Lord worked through us, persons came from many parts to seek us that
we might cure them. At the end of the second day after our arrival,
some of the Susolas came to us and besought Castillo that he would go
to cure one wounded and others sick, and they said that among them
was one very near his end. Castillo was a timid practitioner, most
so in serious and dangerous cases, believing that his sins would
weigh, and some day hinder him in performing cures. The Indians told
me to go and heal them, as they liked me; they remembered that I
had ministered to them in the walnut grove when they gave us nuts
and skins, which occurred when I first joined the Christians. So I
had to go with them, and Dorantes accompanied me with Estevanico.
Coming near their huts, I perceived that the sick man we went to heal
was dead. Many persons were around him weeping, and his house was
prostrate, a sign that the one who dwelt in it is no more.[143] When
I arrived I found his eyes rolled up, and the pulse gone, he having
all the appearances of death, as they seemed to me and as Dorantes
said. I removed a mat with which he was covered, and supplicated our
Lord as fervently as I could, that He would be pleased to give health
to him, and to the rest that might have need of it. After he had been
blessed and breathed upon many times, they brought me his bow, and
gave me a basket of pounded prickly pears.
[141] Cultalchulches in ch. 26 (q. v.), and in the edition of
1542.
[142] These were possibly the Adai, or Adaize, although their
country was in northeastern Texas, about Red River and the
Sabine; nevertheless they may have wandered very far during the
prickly-pear season. There is evidence that in 1792, fourteen
families of the Adai migrated to a region south of San Antonio de
Béjar, where they were merged with the tribes living thereabout.
The main body, although greatly reduced, did not leave their old
home until the nineteenth century, when the remnant, who had been
missionized, were incorporated with their kindred the Caddo.
[143] It is not uncommon for all the possessions of an Indian,
including his dwelling, to be destroyed at the time of his death.
In recent times this custom has had the tendency, as among the
Navahos, for example, to cause them to adhere to their simple
aboriginal form of dwellings instead of to go to the trouble of
erecting substantial houses that might have to be demolished.
The natives took me to cure many others who were sick of a stupor,
and presented me two more baskets of prickly pears, which I gave to
the Indians who accompanied us. We then went back to our lodgings.
Those to whom we gave the fruit tarried, and returned at night to
their houses, reporting that he who had been dead and for whom I
wrought before them, had got up whole and walked, had eaten and
spoken with them and that all to whom I had ministered were well and
much pleased. This caused great wonder and fear, and throughout the
land the people talked of nothing else. All to whom the fame of it
reached, came to seek us that we should cure them and bless their
children.
When the Cuthalchuches, who were in company with our Indians, were
about to return to their own country, they left us all the prickly
pears they had, without keeping one: they gave us flints of very
high value there, a palm and a half in length, with which they cut.
They begged that we would remember them and pray to God that they
might always be well, and we promised to do so. They left, the most
satisfied beings in the world, having given us the best of all they
had.
We remained with the Avavares eight months, reckoned by the number
of moons. In all this time people came to seek us from many parts,
and they said that most truly we were children of the sun. Dorantes
and the negro to this time had not attempted to practise; but because
of the great solicitation made by those coming from different parts
to find us, we all became physicians, although in being venturous
and bold to attempt the performance of any cure, I was the most
remarkable. No one whom we treated, but told us he was left well;
and so great was the confidence that they would become healed if we
administered to them, they even believed that whilst we remained none
of them could die. These and the rest of the people behind, related
an extraordinary circumstance, and by the way they counted, there
appeared to be fifteen or sixteen years since it occurred.
They said that a man wandered through the country whom they called
Badthing; he was small of body and wore beard, and they never
distinctly saw his features. When he came to the house where they
lived, their hair stood up and they trembled. Presently a blazing
torch shone at the door, when he entered and seized whom he chose,
and giving him three great gashes in the side with a very sharp
flint, the width of the hand and two palms in length, he put his
hand through them, drawing forth the entrails, from one of which
he would cut off a portion more or less, the length of a palm, and
throw it on the embers. Then he would give three gashes to an arm,
the second cut on the inside of an elbow, and would sever the limb.
A little after this, he would begin to unite it, and putting his
hands on the wounds, these would instantly become healed. They said
that frequently in the dance he appeared among them, sometimes in the
dress of a woman, at others in that of a man; that when it pleased
him he would take a buhío,[144] or house, and lifting it high, after
a little he would come down with it in a heavy fall. They also stated
that many times they offered him victuals, but that he never ate:
they asked him whence he came and where was his abiding place, and
he showed them a fissure in the earth and said that his house was
there below. These things they told us of, we much laughed at and
ridiculed; and they seeing our incredulity, brought to us many of
those they said he had seized; and we saw the marks of the gashes
made in the places according to the manner they had described. We
told them he was an evil one, and in the best way we could, gave
them to understand, that if they would believe in God our Lord, and
become Christians like us, they need have no fear of him, nor would
he dare to come and inflict those injuries, and they might be certain
he would not venture to appear while we remained in the land. At this
they were delighted and lost much of their dread. They told us that
they had seen the Asturian and Figueroa with people farther along the
coast, whom we had called those of the figs.[145]
[144] See page 19, note 5.
[145] See chap. 26.
They are all ignorant of time, either by the sun or moon, nor do they
reckon by the month or year; they better know and understand the
differences of the seasons, when the fruits come to ripen, where the
fish resort,[146] and the position of the stars, at which they are
ready and practised. By these we were ever well treated. We dug our
own food and brought our loads of wood and water. Their houses and
also the things we ate, are like those of the nation from which we
came, but they suffer far greater want, having neither maize, acorns,
nor nuts. We always went naked like them, and covered ourselves at
night with deer-skins.
[146] Buckingham Smith prefers this meaning for _i en tiempo que
muere el Pescado_ to "by the time when the fish die," or "at
times at which the fishes die."
Of the eight months we were among this people, six we supported in
great want, for fish are not to be found where they are. At the
expiration of the time, the prickly pears began to ripen,[147] and
I and the negro went, without these Indians knowing it, to others
farther on, a day's journey distant, called Maliacones.[148] At
the end of three days, I sent him to bring Castillo and Dorantes,
and they having arrived, we all set out with the Indians who
were going to get the small fruit of certain trees on which they
support themselves ten or twelve days whilst the prickly pears are
maturing. They joined others called Arbadaos,[149] whom we found to
be very weak, lank, and swollen, so much so as to cause us great
astonishment. We told those with whom we came, that we wished to stop
with these people, at which they showed regret and went back by the
way they came; so we remained in the field near the houses of the
Indians, which when they observed, after talking among themselves
they came up together, and each of them taking one of us by the hand,
led us to their dwellings. Among them we underwent greater hunger
than with the others; we ate daily not more than two handfuls of the
prickly pears, which were green and so milky they burned our mouths.
As there was lack of water, those who ate suffered great thirst. In
our extreme want we bought two dogs, giving in exchange some nets,
with other things, and a skin I used to cover myself.
[147] That is, until the summer of 1535.
[148] See ch. 27: "By the coast live those called Quitoks, and in
front inward on the main are the Chavavares, to whom adjoin the
Maliacones, the Cultalchulches and others called Susolas and the
Comos." This would seem to indicate that he was journeying in a
generally northward or north-westward direction.
[149] The name suggests the Bidai, a Caddoan tribe that lived at
a later period west of the Trinity, about latitude 31°, but this
locality does not agree with the narrative.
I have already stated that throughout all this country we went naked,
and as we were unaccustomed to being so, twice a year we cast our
skins like serpents. The sun and air produced great sores on our
breasts and shoulders, giving us sharp pain; and the large loads we
had, being very heavy, caused the cords to cut into our arms. The
country is so broken and thickset, that often after getting our wood
in the forests, the blood flowed from us in many places, caused by
the obstruction of thorns and shrubs that tore our flesh wherever
we went. At times, when my turn came to get wood, after it had cost
me much blood, I could not bring it out either on my back or by
dragging. In these labors my only solace and relief were in thinking
of the sufferings of our Redeemer, Jesus Christ, and in the blood
He shed for me, in considering how much greater must have been the
torment He sustained from the thorns, than that I there received.
I bartered with these Indians in combs that I made for them and
in bows, arrows, and nets. We made mats, which are their houses,
that they have great necessity for; and although they know how to
make them, they wish to give their full time to getting food, since
when otherwise employed they are pinched with hunger. Sometimes the
Indians would set me to scraping and softening skins; and the days of
my greatest prosperity there, were those in which they gave me skins
to dress. I would scrape them a very great deal and eat the scraps,
which would sustain me two or three days. When it happened among
these people, as it had likewise among others whom we left behind,
that a piece of meat was given us, we ate it raw; for if we had put
it to roast, the first native that should come along would have taken
it off and devoured it; and it appeared to us not well to expose it
to this risk; besides we were in such condition it would have given
us pain to eat it roasted, and we could not have digested it so well
as raw. Such was the life we spent there; and the meagre subsistence
we earned by the matters of traffic which were the work of our hands.
Chapter 23
_Of our departure after having eaten the dogs._
After eating the dogs, it seemed to us we had some strength to go
forward; and so commending ourselves to God our Lord, that He would
guide us, we took our leave of the Indians. They showed us the way
to others, near by, who spoke their language. While on our journey,
rain fell, and we travelled the day in wet. We lost our way and went
to stop in an extensive wood. We pulled many leaves of the prickly
pear, which we put at night in an oven we made, and giving them much
heat, by the morning they were in readiness. After eating, we put
ourselves under the care of the Almighty and started. We discovered
the way we had lost. Having passed the wood, we found other houses,
and coming up to them, we saw two women with some boys walking in the
forest, who were frightened at the sight of us and fled, running into
the woods to call the men. These arriving, stopped behind trees to
look at us. We called to them, and they came up with much timidity.
After some conversation they told us that food was very scarce with
them; that near by were many houses of their people to which they
would guide us. We came at night where were fifty dwellings. The
inhabitants were astonished at our appearance, showing much fear.
After becoming somewhat accustomed to us, they reached their hands to
our faces and bodies, and passed them in like manner over their own.
We stayed there that night, and in the morning the Indians brought us
their sick, beseeching us that we would bless them. They gave us of
what they had to eat, the leaves of the prickly pear and the green
fruit roasted. As they did this with kindness and good will, and were
happy to be without anything to eat, that they might have food to
give us, we tarried some days. While there, others came from beyond,
and when they were about to depart, we told our entertainers that we
wished to go with those people. They felt much uneasiness at this,
and pressed us warmly to stay: however, we took our leave in the
midst of their weeping, for our departure weighed heavily upon them.
Chapter 24
_Customs of the Indians of that country._
From the Island of Malhado to this land, all the Indians whom we saw
have the custom from the time in which their wives find themselves
pregnant, of not sleeping with them until two years after they have
given birth. The children are suckled until the age of twelve years,
when they are old enough to get support for themselves. We asked
why they reared them in this manner; and they said because of the
great poverty of the land, it happened many times, as we witnessed,
that they were two or three days without eating, sometimes four, and
consequently, in seasons of scarcity, the children were allowed to
suckle, that they might not famish; otherwise those who lived would
be delicate, having little strength.
If any one chance to fall sick in the desert, and cannot keep up
with the rest, the Indians leave him to perish, unless it be a son
or a brother; him they will assist, even to carrying on their back.
It is common among them all to leave their wives when there is no
conformity, and directly they connect themselves with whom they
please. This is the course of the men who are childless; those who
have children remain with their wives and never abandon them. When
they dispute and quarrel in their towns, they strike each other with
the fists, fighting until exhausted, and then separate. Sometimes
they are parted by the women going between them; the men never
interfere. For no disaffection that arises do they resort to bows and
arrows. After they have fought, or had out their dispute, they take
their dwellings and go into the woods, living apart from each other
until their heat has subsided. When no longer offended and their
anger is gone, they return. From that time they are friends as if
nothing had happened; nor is it necessary that any one should mend
their friendships, as they in this way again unite them. If those
that quarrel are single, they go to some neighboring people, and
although these should be enemies, they receive them well and welcome
them warmly, giving them so largely of what they have, that when
their animosity cools, and they return to their town, they go rich.
They are all warlike, and have as much strategy for protecting
themselves against enemies as they could have were they reared in
Italy in continual feuds. When they are in a part of the country
where their enemies may attack them, they place their houses on the
skirt of a wood, the thickest and most tangled they can find, and
near it make a ditch in which they sleep. The warriors are covered
by small pieces of stick through which are loop-holes; these hide
them and present so false an appearance, that if come upon they
are not discovered. They open a very narrow way, entering into the
midst of the wood, where a spot is prepared on which the women and
children sleep. When night comes they kindle fires in their lodges,
that should spies be about, they may think to find them there; and
before daybreak they again light those fires. If the enemy comes to
assault the houses, they who are in the ditch make a sally; and from
their trenches do much injury without those who are outside seeing
or being able to find them. When there is no wood in which they can
take shelter in this way, and make their ambuscades, they settle on
open ground at a place they select, which they invest with trenches
covered with broken sticks, having apertures whence to discharge
arrows. These arrangements are made for night.
While I was among the Aguenes,[150] their enemies coming suddenly
at midnight, fell upon them, killed three and wounded many, so that
they ran from their houses to the fields before them. As soon as
these ascertained that their assailants had withdrawn, they returned
to pick up all the arrows the others had shot, and following after
them in the most stealthy manner possible, came that night to their
dwellings without their presence being suspected. At four o'clock
in the morning the Aguenes attacked them, killed five, and wounded
numerous others, and made them flee from their houses, leaving their
bows with all they possessed. In a little while came the wives of the
Quevenes[151] to them and formed a treaty whereby the parties became
friends. The women, however, are sometimes the cause of war. All
these nations, when they have personal enmities, and are not of one
family, assassinate at night, waylay, and inflict gross barbarities
on each other.
[150] Elsewhere called Doguenes.
[151] Guevenes in the edition of 1542.
Chapter 25
_Vigilance of the Indians in war._
They are the most watchful in danger of any people I ever knew. If
they fear an enemy they are awake the ni
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