The Journey of Alvar Nuñez Cabeza De Vaca - Part 2



Then the natives fell sick from the stomach, so that one-half of them died 
also, and they, believing we had killed them, and holding it to be 
certain, they agreed among themselves to kill those of us who survived. 

But when they came to execute it an Indian who kept me told them not to 
believe we were the cause of their dying, for if we had so much power we 
would not have suffered so many of our own people to perish without being 
able to remedy it ourselves. He also told them there remained but very few 
of us, and none of them did any harm or injury, so that the best was to 
let us alone. It pleased Our Lord they should listen to his advice and 
counsel and give up their idea.

To this island we gave the name of the Island of Ill-Fate. The people on 
it are tall and well formed; they have no other weapons than bows and 
arrows with which they are most dexterous. The men have one of their 
nipples perforated from side to side and sometimes both; through this hole 
is thrust a reed as long as two and a half hands and as thick as two 
fingers; they also have the under lip perforated and a piece of cane in it 
as thin as the half of a finger. The women do the hard work. People stay 
on this island from October till the end of February, feeding on the roots 
I have mentioned, taken from under the water in November and December. 
They have channels made of reeds and get fish only during that time; 
afterwards they subsist on roots. At the end of February they remove to 
other parts in search of food, because the roots begin to sprout and are 
not good any more.

Of all the people in the world, they are those who most love their 
children and treat them best, and should the child of one of them happen 
to die, parents and relatives bewail it, and the whole settlement, the 
lament lasting a full year, day after day. Before sunrise the parents 
begin to weep, after them the tribe, and the same they do at noon and at 
dawn. At the end of the year of mourning they celebrate the anniversary 
and wash and cleanse themselves of all their paint. They mourn all their 
dead in this manner, old people excepted, to whom they do not pay any 
attention, saying that these have had their time and are no longer of any 
use, but only take space, and food from the children.

Their custom as to bury the dead, except those who are medicine men among 
them, whom they burn, and while the fire is burning, all dance and make a 
big festival, grinding the bones to powder. At the end of the year, when 
they celebrate the anniversary, they scarify themselves and give to the 
relatives the pulverized bones to drink in water. Every man has a 
recognized wife, but the medicine men enjoy greater privileges, since they 
may have two or three, and among these wives there is great friendship and 
harmony.

When one takes a woman for his wife, from the day he marries her, whatever 
he may hunt or fish, she has to fetch it to the home of her father, 
without daring to touch or eat of it, and from the home of the father-in-
law they bring the food to the husband. All the while neither the wife's 
father nor her mother enter his abode, nor is he allowed to go to theirs, 
or to the homes of his brothers-in-law, and should they happen to meet 
they go out of each other's way a crossbow's shot or so, with bowed heads 
and eyes cast to the ground, holding it to be an evil thing to look at 
each other or speak. The women are free to communicate with their parents-
in-law or relatives and speak to them. This custom prevails from that 
island as far as about fifty leagues inland.

There is another custom, that when a son or brother dies no food is 
gathered by those of his household for three months, preferring rather to 
starve, but the relatives and neighbors provide them with victuals. Now, 
as during the time we were there so many of them died, there was great 
starvation in most of the lodges, due to their customs and ceremonials, as 
well as to the weather, which was so rough that such as could go out after 
food brought in but very little, withal working hard for it. Therefore the 
Indians by whom I was kept forsook the island and in several canoes went 
over to the mainland to some bays where there were a great many oysters 
and during three months of the year they do not eat anything else and 
drink very bad water. There is lack of firewood, but great abundance of 
mosquitoes. Their lodges are made of matting and built on oyster shells, 
upon which they sleep in hides, which they only get by chance. There we 
remained to the end of April, when we went to the seashore, where we ate 
blackberries for a whole month, during which time they danced and 
celebrated incessantly.

On the island I have spoken of they wanted to make medicine men of us 
without any examination or asking for our diplomas, because they cure 
diseases by breathing on the sick, and with that breath and their hands 
they drive the ailment away. So they summoned us to do the same in order 
to be at least of some use. We laughed, taking it for a jest, and said 
that we did not understand how to cure.

Thereupon they withheld our food to compel us to do what they wanted. 
Seeing our obstinacy, an Indian told me that I did not know what I said by 
claiming that what he knew was useless, because stones and things growing 
out in the field have their virtues, and he, with a heated stone, placing 
it on the stomach, could cure and take away pain, so that we, who were 
wiser men, surely had greater power and virtue.

At last we found ourselves in such stress as to have to do it, without 
risking any punishment. Their manner of curing is as follows: When one is 
ill they call in a medicine man, and after they are well again not only do 
they give him all they have, but even things they strive to obtain from 
their relatives. All the medicine man does is to make a few cuts where the 
pain is located and then suck the skin around the incisions. They 
cauterize with fire, thinking it very effective, and I found it to be so 
by my own experience. Then they breathe on the spot where the pain is and 
believe that with this the disease goes away.

The way we treated the sick was to make over them the sign of the cross 
while breathing on them, recite a Pater noster and Ave Maria, and pray to 
God, Our Lord, as best we could to give them good health and inspire them 
to do us some favors. Thanks to His will and the mercy He had upon us, all 
those for whom we prayed, as soon as we crossed them, told the others that 
they were cured and felt well again. For this they gave us good cheer, and 
would rather be without food themselves so as to give it to us, and they 
gave us hides and other small things. So great was the lack of food then 
that I often remained without eating anything whatsoever for three days, 
and they were in the same plight, so that it seemed to me impossible for 
life to last, although I afterwards suffered still greater privations and 
much more distress, as I shall tell further on. 

The Indians that kept Alonso del Castillo, Andres Dorantes and the others, 
who were still alive, being of another language and stock, had gone to 
feed on oysters at another point of the mainland, where they remained 
until the first day of the month of April. Then they came back to the 
island, which was from there nearly two leagues off, where the channel is 
broadest. The island is half a league wide and five long.

All the people of this country go naked; only the women cover part of 
their bodies with a kind of wool that grows on trees. The girls go about 
in deer skins. They are very liberal towards each other with what they 
have. There is no ruler among them. All who are of the same descendancy 
cluster together. There are two distinct languages spoken on the island; 
those of one language are called Capoques, those of the other Han. They 
have the custom, when they know each other and meet from time to time, 
before they speak, to weep for half an hour. After they have wept the one 
who receives the visit rises and gives to the other all he has. The other 
takes it, and in a little while goes away with everything. Even sometimes, 
after having given and obtained all, they part without having uttered a 
word. There are other very queer customs, but having told the principal 
ones and the most striking, I must now proceed to relate what further 
happened to us.

After Dorantes and Castillo had come back to the island, they gathered 
together all the Christians, who were somewhat scattered, and there were 
in all fourteen. I, as told, was in another place, on the mainland, 
whither my Indians had taken me and where I suffered from such a severe 
illness that, although I might otherwise have entertained some hope for 
life, this was enough to take it away from me completely. When the 
Christians learned of it they gave an Indian the robe of marten we had 
taken from the cacique, as stated, in order that he should guide them to 
where I was, to see me, and so twelve of them came, two having become so 
feeble that they did not dare to take them along.

The names of those who came are: Alonso del Castillo, Andres Dorantes and 
Diego Dorantes, Valdivieso, Estrada, Tostado, Chaves, Gutierrez, an 
Asturian priest; Diego de Huelva, Estevanico, the negro Benitez, and as 
they reached the mainland they found still another of our men named 
Francisco de Leon, and the thirteen went along the coast. After they had 
gone by, the Indians with whom I was told me of it, and how Hieronimo de 
Alaniz and Lope de Oviedo had been left on the island.

My sickness prevented me from following or seeing them. I had to remain 
with those same Indians of the island for more than one year, and as they 
made me work so much and treated me so badly I determined to flee and go 
to those who live in the woods on the mainland, and who are called those 
from (of) Charruco. 

I could no longer stand the life I was compelled to lead. Among many other 
troubles I had to pull the eatable roots out of the water and from among 
the canes where they were buried in the ground, and from this my fingers 
had become so tender that the mere touch of a straw caused them to bleed. 
The reeds would cut me in many places, because many were broken and I had 
to go in among them with the clothing I had on, of which I have told. This 
is why I went to work and joined the other Indians. Among these I improved 
my condition a little by becoming a trader, doing the best in it I could, 
and they gave me food and treated me well.

They entreated me to go about from one part to another to get the things 
they needed, as on account of constant warfare there is neither travel nor 
barter in the land.

So, trading along with my wares I penetrated inland as far as I cared to 
go and along the coast as much as forty or fifty leagues. My stock 
consisted mainly of pieces of seashells and cockles, and shells with which 
they cut a fruit which is like a bean, used by them for healing and in 
their dances and feasts. This is of greatest value among them, besides 
shell-beads and other objects. These things I carried inland, and in 
exchange brought back hides and red ochre with which they rub and dye 
their faces and hair; flint for arrow points, glue and hard canes where-
with to make them, and tassels made of the hair of deer, which they dye 
red. This trade suited me well because it gave me liberty to go wherever I 
pleased; I was not bound to do anything and no longer a slave. Wherever I 
went they treated me well, and gave me to eat for the sake of my wares. My 
principal object in doing it, however, was to find out in what manner I 
might get further away. I became well known among them; they rejoiced 
greatly when seeing me and I would bring them what they needed, and those 
who did not know me would desire and endeavor to meet me for the sake of 
my fame.

My sufferings, while trading thus, it would take long to tell; danger, 
hunger, storms and frost overtaking me often in the open field and alone, 
and from which through the mercy of God, Our Lord, I escaped. For this 
reason I did not go out trading in winter, it being the time when the 
Indians themselves remain in their huts and abodes, unable to go out or 
assist each other.

Nearly six years I spent thus in the country, alone among them and naked, 
as they all were themselves.

The reason for remaining so long was that I wished to take with me a 
Christian called Lope de Oviedo, who still lingered on the island. The 
other companion, Alaniz, who remained with him after Alonso del Castillo 
and Andres Dorantes and all the others had gone, soon died, and in order 
to get him (Oviedo) out of there, I went over to the island every year, 
entreating him to leave with me and go, as well as we could, in search of 
Christians. But year after year he put it off to the year that was to 
follow. In the end I got him to come, took him away, and carried him 
across the inlets and through four rivers on the coast, since he could not 
swim. Thence we proceeded, together with several Indians, to an inlet one 
league wide, very deep everywhere and which seemed to us, from what we 
saw, to be the one called of the Holy Ghost.

On the opposite shore we saw Indians who had come to meet those in our 
company. They informed us that further on there were three men like 
ourselves and told us their names. Upon being asked about the rest of the 
party, they answered that all had died from cold and hunger and that the 
Indians beyond had killed Diego Dorantes, Valdivieso and Diego de Huelva 
willfully, only because these had gone from one house to another, and 
their neighbors with whom was now the Captain Dorantes, had, in 
consequence of some dream dreamt by these Indians, killed Esquivel and 
Mendez also. We asked them about those who remained alive, and they said 
they were in a very sorry condition, as the boys and other Indians, idlers 
and roughs, kicked them, slapped their faces and beat them with sticks, 
and such was the life they had to lead.

We inquired about the country further on and the sustenance that might be 
found in it. They said it was very thinly settled, with nothing to eat, 
and the people dying from cold, as they had neither hides nor anything 
else to protect their bodies. They also told us that, if we wished to meet 
the three Christians about two days hence, the Indians would come to a 
place about a league from there on the shore of that river to feed on 
nuts. And to show us that what they said of the ill-treatment of our 
people was true the Indians with whom we were kicked and beat my 
companion. Neither did I remain without my share of it. They threw mud at 
us, and put arrows to our chests every day, saying they would kill us in 
the same way as our companions. And fearing this, Lope de Oviedo, my 
companion, said he preferred to go back, with some women of the Indians in 
whose company we had forded the cove and who had remained behind. I 
insisted he should not go and did all I could to prevail upon him to 
remain, but it was in vain. He went back and I remained alone among these 
Indians, who are named Guevenes, whereas those with whom he went away were 
called Deaguanes.

Two days after Lope de Oviedo had gone the Indians who kept Alonso del 
Castillo and Andres Dorantes came to the very spot we had been told of to 
eat the nuts upon which they subsist for two months in the year, grinding 
certain small grains with them, without eating anything else. Even of that 
they do not always have, since one year there may be some and the next 
year not. They (the nuts) are of the size of those of Galicia, and the 
trees are very big and numerous.

An Indian told me that the Christians had come and that if I wished to see 
them I should run away to hide on the edge of a grove to which he pointed, 
as he and some of his relatives were to visit these Indians and would take 
me along to the Christians. I confided in them and determined to do it 
because they spoke a different language from that of my Indians. So the 
next day they took me along. When I got near the site where they had their 
lodges, Andres Dorantes came out to look who it was, because the Indians 
had informed him also that a Christian was coming, and when he saw me he 
was much frightened, as for many days they believed me to be dead, the 
Indians having told them so. We gave many thanks to God for being together 
again, and that day was one of the happiest we enjoyed in our time, and 
going to where was Castillo they asked me whither I went. I told him my 
purpose was to go to a country of Christians and that I followed this 
direction and trail. Andres Dorantes said that for many days he had been 
urging Castillo and Estevanico to go further on, but they did not risk it, 
being unable to swim and afraid of the rivers and inlets that had to be 
crossed so often in that country.

Still, as it pleased God, Our Lord, to spare me after all my sufferings 
and sickness and finally let me rejoin them, they at last determined upon 
fleeing, as I would take them safely across the rivers and bays we might 
meet. But they advised me to keep it secret from the Indians (as well as 
my own departure) lest they would kill me forthwith, and that to avoid 
this it was necessary to remain with them for six months longer, after 
which time they would remove to another section in order to eat prickly 
pears. These are a fruit of the size of eggs, red and black, and taste 
very good. For three months they subsist upon them exclusively, eating 
nothing else.

Now, at the time they pluck this fruit, other Indians from beyond come to 
them with bows for barter and exchange, and when those turn back we 
thought of joining them and escaping in this way. With this understanding 
I remained, and they gave me as a slave to an Indian with whom Dorantes 
stayed. This Indian, his wife, their son and another Indian who was with 
them were all cross-eyed. These are called Mariames, and Castillo was with 
others, who were their neighbors, called Iguaces.

And so, being here with them, they told me that after leaving the Island 
of Ill-Fate they met on the coast the boat in which the purser and the 
monks were going adrift, and that crossing the rivers, of which there were 
four, all very large and very swift, the barges in which they crossed were 
swept out into the sea, where four of their number were drowned. Thus they 
went ahead until they had crossed the inlet, which they did by dint of 
great efforts. Fifteen leagues from there they met another of our parties, 
and when they reached there, already two of their companions had died in 
sixty leagues of travel. The survivors also were very near death. On the 
whole trip they ate nothing but crawfish and yerba pedrera. 

At this, the last cove, they said they saw Indians eating blackberries, 
who, upon perceiving the Christians, went away to another promontory. 
While seeking a way to cross the cove an Indian and a Christian came 
towards them, and they recognized Figueroa, one of the four we had sent 
ahead from the Island of Ill-Fate, who there told them how he and his 
companions had gotten to that place, where two of their number and one 
Indian had died from cold and hunger, because they had come and remained 
in the worst weather known. He also said the Indians took him and Mendez. 

While with them Mendez fled, going in the direction of Panuco as best he 
might, but the Indians pursued and killed him. So, as he (Figueroa) was 
with these same Indians he learned (from them) that with the Mariames 
there was a Christian who had come over from the other side and had met 
him with those called Guevenes, and that this Christian was Hernando de 
Esquivel, from Badajoz, a companion of the commissary. From Esquivel he 
learned how the Governor, the purser and the others had ended.

The purser, with the friars, had stranded with their barge among the 
rivers, and, while they were proceeding along the coast, the barge of the 
Governor and his men came to land also. He (the Governor) then went with 
his barge as far as the big cove, whence he returned and took his men 
across to the other side, then came back for the purser, the monks and the 
rest. He further told him that after disembarking, the Governor revoked 
the powers he had given to the purser as his lieutenant, giving the office 
to a captain that was with him called Pantoja.

The Governor did not land that night, but remained on his barge with a 
pilot and a page who was sick. They had neither water nor anything to eat 
aboard, and at midnight a northerner set in with such violence that it 
carried the barge out into the sea, without anybody noticing it. They had 
for an anchor only a stone, and never more did they hear of him. Thereupon 
the people who had remained on land proceeded along the coast, and, being 
much impeded by water, built rafts with great trouble, in which they 
passed to the other side.

Going ahead, they reached a point of timber on the beach, where they found 
Indians, who, upon seeing them approach, placed their lodges on the canoes 
and crossed over to the other side of the coast, and the Christians, in 
view of the season and weather, since it was in the month of November, 
remained in this timber, because they found water and firewood, some 
crawfish and other sea-food, but from cold and hunger they began to die.

Moreover, Pantoja, who remained as lieutenant, ill-treated them. On this 
Sotomayor, brother of Vasco Porcallo (the one from the Island of Cuba, who 
had come in the fleet as Maestro de Campo), unable to stand it longer, 
quarreled with Pantoja and struck him a blow with a stick, of which he 
died. Thus they perished one after another, the survivors slicing the dead 
for meat. The last one to die was Sotomayor, and Esquivel cut him up and 
fed on his body until the first of March, when an Indian, of those who had 
taken to flight previously, came to look if they were dead and took 
Esquivel along with him.

Once in the hands of this Indian, Figueroa spoke to Esquivel, learning 
from him what we have told here, and he entreated him to go in his company 
towards Panuco. But Esquivel refused, saying he had heard from the monks 
that Panuco was in their rear, and so he remained, while Figueroa went 
back to the coast where he formerly had been.

All this account Figueroa gave after Esquivel's narrative, and thus, from 
one to the other, it came to me. Through it the fate of the whole fleet 
will be learned and known, and what happened to every one in particular. 
And he said furthermore that if the Christians would go about there for 
some time they might possibly meet Esquivel, because he knew that he had 
run away from the Indian with whom he was and gone to others called 
Mariames,who were their neighbors. And, as I have just said, he and the 
Asturian wished to go to other Indians further on, but when those with 
whom they were found it out, they beat them severely, undressed the 
Asturian and pierced one of his arms with an arrow.

At last the Christians escaped through flight, and remained with the other 
Indians, whose slaves they agreed to become. But, although serving them, 
they were so ill-treated, that no slaves, nor men in any condition of 
life, were ever so abused. Not content with cuffing and beating them and 
pulling out their beards for mere pastime, they killed three out of the 
six only because they went from one lodge to another. These were Diego 
Dorantes, Valdivieso and Diego de Huelva. The three remaining ones 
expected to meet the same fate in the end.

To escape from that life Andres Dorantes fled to the Mariames, and they 
were the ones with whom Esquivel had been. They told him how Esquivel 
stayed with them and how he fled because a woman dreamt he would kill her 
son, and the Indians pursued and killed him. They also showed Andres 
Dorantes his sword, his rosary, his prayer book and other things of his.

It is a custom of theirs to kill even their own children for the sake of 
dreams, and the girls when newly born they throw away to be eaten by dogs. 
The reason why they do it is (as they say) that all the others of that 
country are their enemies with whom they are always at war, and should 
they marry their daughters they might multiply so much as to be able to 
overcome them and reduce them to slavery. Hence they prefer to kill the 
girls rather than see them give birth to children who would become their 
foes.

We asked them why they did not wed the girls among themselves. They 
replied it was bad to marry them to their own kin, and much better to do 
away with their daughters than to leave them to relatives or to enemies. 
This custom they have in common with their neighbors, the Iguaces, and no 
other tribe of that country has it. When they want to get married they buy 
their wives from their enemies. The price paid for a woman is a bow, the 
best to be had, with two arrows, and if he has no bow he gives a net as 
much as a fathom in width and one in length. They kill their own children 
and buy those of strangers. Marriage only lasts as long as they please. 
For a mere nothing they break up wedlock.

Dorantes remained only a few days with those Indians and then escaped. 
Castillo and Estevanico went inland to the Iguaces. All those people are 
archers and well built, although not as tall as those we had left behind 
us, and they have the nipple and lip perforated. Their principal food are 
two or three kinds of roots, which they hunt for all over the land; they 
are very unhealthy, inflating, and it takes two days to roast them. Many 
are very bitter, and with all that they are gathered with difficulty. But 
those people are so much exposed to starvation that these roots are to 
them indispensable and they walk two and three leagues to obtain them. Now 
and then they kill deer and at times get a fish, but this is so little and 
their hunger so great that they eat spiders and ant eggs, worms, lizards 
and salamanders and serpents, also vipers the bite of which is deadly. 
They swallow earth and wood, and all they can get, the dung of deer and 
more things I do not mention; and I verily believe, from what I saw, that 
if there were any stones in the country they would eat them also. They 
preserve the bones of the fish they eat, of snakes and other animals, to 
pulverize them and eat the powder.

The men do not carry burdens or loads, the women and old men have to do 
it, for those are the people they least esteem. They have not as much love 
for their children as those spoken of before. Some among them are given to 
unnatural vices. The women are compelled to do very hard work and in a 
great many ways, for out of twenty-four hours of day and night they get 
only six hours' rest. They spend most of the night in stirring the fire to 
dry those roots which they eat, and at daybreak they begin to dig and 
carry firewood and water to their houses and attend to other necessary 
matters. Most of these Indians are great thieves, for, although very 
liberal towards each other, as soon as one turns his heads his own son or 
the father grabs what he can. They are great liars and drunkards and take 
something in order to become intoxicated. They are so accustomed to 
running that, without resting or getting tired, they run from morning till 
night in pursuit of a deer, and kill a great many, because they follow 
until the game is worn out, sometimes catching it alive. Their huts are of 
matting placed over four arches. They carry them on their back and move 
every two or three days in quest of food; they plant nothing that would be 
of any use.

They are a very merry people, and even when famished do not cease to dance 
and celebrate their feasts and ceremonials. Their best times are when 
"tunas" (prickly pears) are ripe, because then they have plenty to eat and 
spend the time in dancing and eating day and night. As long as these tunas 
last they squeeze and open them and set them to dry. When dried they are 
put in baskets like figs and kept to be eaten on the way. The peelings 
they grind and pulverize.

While with them it happened many times that we were three or four days 
without food. Then, in order to cheer us, they would tell us not to 
despair, since we would have tunas very soon and eat much and drink their 
juice and get big stomachs and be merry, contented and without hunger. But 
from the day they said it to the season of the tunas there would still 
elapse five or six months, and we had to wait that long.

When the time came, and we went to eat tunas, there were a great many 
mosquitoes of three kinds, all very bad and troublesome, which during most 
of the summer persecuted us. In order to protect ourselves we built, all 
around our camps, big fires of damp and rotten wood, that gave no flame 
but much smoke, and this was the cause of further trouble to us, for the 
whole night we did not do anything but weep from the smoke that went to 
our eyes, and the heat from the fires was so insufferable that we would go 
to the shore for rest. And when, sometimes, we were able to sleep, the 
Indians roused us again with blows to go and kindle the fires.

Those from further inland have another remedy, just as bad and even worse, 
which is to go about with a firebrand, setting fire to the plains and 
timber so as to drive off the mosquitoes, and also to get lizards and 
similar things which they eat, to come out of the soil. In the same manner 
they kill deer, encircling them with fires, and they do it also to deprive 
the animals of pasture, compelling them to go for food where the Indians 
want. For never they build their abodes except where there are wood and 
water, and sometimes load themselves with the requisites and go in quest 
of deer, which are found mostly where there is neither water nor wood.

On the very day they arrive they kill deer and whatever else can be had 
and use all the water and wood to cook their food with and build fires 
against the mosquitoes. They wait for another day to get something to take 
along on the road, and when they leave they are so badly bitten by 
mosquitoes as to appear like lepers. In this manner they satisfy their 
hunger twice or thrice a year and at such great sacrifice as I have told. 
Having been with them I can say that no toil or suffering in this world 
comes near it.

All over this country there are a great many deer, fowl and other animals 
which I have before enumerated. Here also they come up with cows; I have 
seen them thrice and have eaten their meat. They appear to me of the size 
of those in Spain. Their horns are small, like those of the Moorish 
cattle; the hair is very long, like fine wool and like a peajacket; some 
are brownish and others black, and to my taste they have better and more 
meat than those from here. Of the small hides the Indians make blankets to 
cover themselves with, and of the taller ones they make shoes and targets. 
These cows come from the north, across the country further on, to the 
coast of Florida, and are found all over the land for over four hundred 
leagues. On this whole stretch, through the valleys by which they come, 
people who live there descend to subsist upon their flesh. And a great 
quantity of hides are met with inland.

When I had been with the Christians for six months, waiting to execute our 
plans, the Indians went for "tunas," at a distance of thirty leagues from 
there, and as we were about to flee the Indians began fighting among 
themselves over a woman and cuffed and struck and hurt each other, and in 
great rage each one took his lodge and went his own way. So we Christians 
had to part, and in no manner could we get together again until the year 
following. During that time I fared very badly, as well from lack of food 
as from the abuse the Indians gave me. So badly was I treated that I had 
to flee three times from my masters, and they all went in my pursuit ready 
to kill me. But God, Our Lord, in His infinite goodness, protected and 
saved my life.

When the time for the tunas came we found each other again on the same 
spot. We had already agreed to escape and appointed a day for it, when on 
that very day the Indians separated us, sending each one to a different 
place, and I told my companions that I would wait for them at the tunas 
until full moon. It was the first of September and the first day of the 
new moon, and I told them that if at the time set they did not appear I 
would go on alone without them. We parted, each one going off with his 
Indians.

I remained with mine until the thirteenth of the moon, determined to 
escape to other Indians as soon as the moon would be full, and on that day 
there came to where I was Andres Dorantes and Estevanico. They told me 
they had left Castillo with other people nearby, called Anagados, and how 
they had suffered many hardships and been lost. On the following day our 
Indians moved towards where Castillo was and were going to join those who 
kept him, making friends with them, as until then they had been at war. So 
we got Castillo also.

During all the time we ate tunas we felt thirsty. To allay our thirst we 
drank the juice of the fruit, pouring it first into a pit which we dug in 
the soil, and when that was full we drank to satisfaction. The Indians do 
it in that way, out of lack of vessels. The juice is sweet and has the 
color of must. There are many kinds of tunas, and some very good ones, 
although to me all tasted well alike, hunger never leaving me time to 
select, or stop to think which ones were better. Most of the people drink 
rainwater that collects here and there, for, as they never have a fixed 
abode, they know no springs nor established watering places, although 
there are rivers.

All over the land are vast and handsome pastures, with good grass for 
cattle, and it strikes me the soil would be very fertile were the country 
inhabited and improved by reasonable people. We saw no mountains as long 
as we were in this country. These Indians told us that further on there 
were others called Cajoles, who live nearer the coast, and that they were 
those who killed all the people that came in the barge of Penalosa and 
Tellez. They had been so emaciated and feeble that when being killed they 
offered no resistance. So the Indians finished with all of them, and 
showed us some of their clothes and weapons and said the barge was still 
there stranded. This is the fifth of the missing ones. That of the 
Governor we already said had been swept out into the sea, the one of the 
purser and the monks was seen stranded on the beach and Esquivel told us 
of their end. Of the two in which Castillo, I and Dorantes were I have 
told how they sank close to the Isle of Ill-Fate.

Two days after moving we recommended ourselves to God, Our Lord, and fled, 
hoping that, although it was late in the season and the fruits of the 
tunas were giving out, by remaining in the field we might still get over a 
good portion of the land. As we proceeded that day, in great fear lest the 
Indians would follow us, we descried smoke, and, going towards it, reached 
the place after sundown, where we found an Indian who, when he saw us 
coming, did not wait, but ran away. We sent the negro after him, and as 
the Indian saw him approach alone he waited. The negro told him that we 
were going in search of the people that had raised the smoke. He answered 
that the dwellings were nearby and that he would guide us, and we 
followed. He hurried ahead to tell of our coming. At sunset we came in 
sight of the lodges, and two crossbow shots before reaching them met four 
Indians waiting for us, and they received us well. We told them in the 
language of the Mariames that we had come to see them. They appeared to be 
pleased with our company and took us to their homes. They lodged Dorantes 
and the negro at the house of a medicine man, and me and Castillo at that 
of another. These Indians speak another language and are called Avavares. 
They were those who used to fetch bows to ours and barter with them, and, 
although of another nation and speech, they understand the idiom of those 
with whom we formerly were and had arrived there on that very day with 
their lodges. Forthwith they offered us many tunas, because they had heard 
of us and of how we cured and of the miracles Our Lord worked through us. 
And surely, even if there had been no other tokens, it was wonderful how 
He prepared the way for us through a country so scantily inhabited, 
causing us to meet people where for a long time there had been none, 
saving us from so many dangers, not permitting us to be killed, 
maintaining us through starvation and distress and moving the hearts of 
the people to treat us well, as we shall tell further on.

On the night we arrived there some Indians came to Castillo complaining 
that their heads felt very sore and begging him for relief. As soon as he 
had made the sign of the cross over them and recommended them to God, at 
that very moment the Indians said that all the pain was gone. They went 
back to their abodes and brought us many tunas and a piece of venison, 
something we did not know any more what it was, and as the news spread 
that same night there came many other sick people for him to cure, and 
each brought a piece of venison, and so many there were that we did not 
know where to store the meat. We thanked God for His daily increasing 
mercy and kindness, and after they were all well they began to dance and 
celebrate and feast until sunrise of the day following.

They celebrated our coming for three days, at the end of which we asked 
them about the land further on, the people and the food that there might 
be obtained. They replied there were plenty of tunas all through that 
country, but that the season was over and nobody there, because all had 
gone to their abodes after gathering tunas; also that the country was very 
cold and very few hides in it. Hearing this, and as winter and cold 
weather were setting in, we determined to spend it with those Indians. 
Five days after our arrival they left to get more tunas at a place where 
people of a different nation and language lived, and having travelled five 
days, suffering greatly from hunger, as on the way there were neither 
tunas nor any kind of fruit, we came to a river, where we pitched our 
lodges.

As soon as we were settled we went out to hunt for the fruit of certain 
trees, which are like spring bittervetch (orobus), and as through all that 
country there are no trails, I lost too much time in hunting for them. The 
people returned without me, and starting to rejoin them that night I went 
astray and got lost. It pleased God to let me find a burning tree, by the 
fire of which I spent that very cold night, and in the morning loaded 
myself with wood, took two burning sticks and continued my journey. Thus I 
went on for five days, always with my firebrands and load of wood, so that 
in case the fire went out where there was no timber, as in many parts 
there is none, I always would have wherewith to make other torches and not 
be without firewood. It was my only protection against the cold, for I 
went as naked as a newborn child. For the night I used the following 
artifice:

I went to the brush in the timber near the rivers and stopped in it every 
evening before sunset. Then I scratched a hole in the ground and threw in 
it much firewood from the numerous trees. I also picked up dry wood that 
had fallen and built around the hole four fires crosswise, being very 
careful to stir them from time to time. Of the long grass that grows there 
I made bundles, with which I covered myself in that hole and so was 
protected from the night cold. But one night fire fell on the straw with 
which I was covered, and while I was asleep in the hole it began to burn 
so rapidly that, although I hurried out as quick as possible, I still have 
marks on my hair from this dangerous accident. During all that time I did 
not eat a mouthful, nor could I find anything to eat, and my feet, being 
bare, bled a great deal. God had mercy upon me, that in all this time 
there was no norther; otherwise I could not have survived. 

At the end of five days I reached the shores of a river and there met my 
Indians. They, as well as the Christians, had given me up for dead, 
thinking that perhaps some snake had bitten me. They all were greatly 
pleased to see me, the Christians especially, and told me that thus far 
they had wandered about famishing, and therefore had not hunted for me, 
and that night they gave me of their tunas. On the next day we left and 
went where we found a great many of that fruit with which all appeased 
their hunger, and we gave many thanks to Our Lord, whose help to us never 
failed.

Early the next day many Indians came and brought five people who were 
paralyzed and very ill, and they came for Castillo to cure them. Every one 
of the patients offered him his bow and arrows, which he accepted, and by 
sunset he made the sign of the cross over each of the sick, recommending 
them to God, Our Lord, and we all prayed to Him as well as we could to 
restore them to health. And He, seeing there was no other way of getting 
those people to help us so that we might be saved from our miserable 
existence, had mercy upon us, and in the morning all woke up well and 
hearty and went away in such good health as if they never had had any 
ailment whatever. This caused them great admiration and moved us to thanks 
to Our Lord and to greater faith in His goodness and the hope that He 
would save us, guiding us to where we could serve Him. For myself I may 
say that I always had full faith in His mercy and in that He would 
liberate me from captivity, and always told my companions so.

When the Indians had gone and taken along those recently cured, we removed 
to others that were eating tunas also, called Cultalchuches and Malicones, 
which speak a different language, and with them were others, called Coayos 
and Susolas, and on another side those called Atayos, who were at war with 
the Susolas, and exchanging arrow shots with them every day.

Nothing was talked about in this whole country but of the wonderful cures 
which God, Our Lord, performed through us, and so they came from many 
places to be cured, and after having been with us two days some Indians of 
the Susolas begged Castillo to go and attend to a man who had been 
wounded, as well as to others that were sick and among whom, they said, 
was one on the point of death. Castillo was very timid, especially in 
difficult and dangerous cases, and always afraid that his sins might 
interfere and prevent the cures from being effective. Therefore the 
Indians told me to go and perform the cure. They liked me, remembering 
that I had relieved them while they were out gathering nuts, for which 
they had given us nuts and hides. This had happened at the time I was 
coming to join the Christians. So I had to go, and Dorantes and Estevanico 
went with me.

When I came close to their ranches I saw that the dying man we had been 
called to cure was dead, for there were many people around him weeping and 
his lodge was torn down, which is a sign that the owner has died. I found 
the Indian with eyes up turned, without pulse and with all the marks of 
lifelessness. At least so it seemed to me, and Dorantes said the same. I 
removed a mat with which he was covered, and as best I could prayed to Our 
Lord to restore his health, as well as that of all the others who might be 
in need of it, and after having made the sign of the cross and breathed on 
him many times they brought his bow and presented it to me, and a basket 
of ground tunas, and took me to many others who were suffering from 
vertigo. They gave me two more baskets of tunas, which I left to the 
Indians that had come with us. Then we returned to our quarters.

Our Indians to whom I had given the tunas remained there, and at night 
returned telling, that the dead man whom I attended to in their presence 
had resuscitated, rising from his bed, had walked about, eaten and talked 
to them, and that all those treated by me were well and in very good 
spirits. This caused great surprise and awe, and all over the land nothing 
else was spoken of. All who heard it came to us that we might cure them 
and bless their children, and when the Indians in our company ( who were 
the Cultalchulches) had to return to their country, before parting they 
offered us all the tunas they had for their journey, not keeping a single 
one, and gave us flint stones as long as one and a-half palms, with which 
they cut and that are greatly prized among them. They begged us to 
remember them and pray to God to keep them always healthy, which we 
promised to do, and so they left, the happiest people upon earth, having 
given us the very best they had. 

We remained with the Avavares Indians for eight months, according to our 
reckoning of the moons. During that time they came for us from many places 
and said that verily we were children of the sun. Until then Dorantes and 
the negro had not made any cures, but we found ourselves so pressed by the 
Indians coming from all sides, that all of us had to become medicine men. 
I was the most daring and reckless of all in undertaking cures. We never 
treated anyone that did not afterwards say he was well, and they had such 
confidence in our skill as to believe that none of them would die as long 
as we were among them.

These Indians and the ones we left behind told us a very strange tale. 
From their account it may have occurred fifteen or sixteen years ago. They 
said there wandered then about the country a man, whom they called "Bad 
Thing," of small stature and with a beard, although they never could see 
his features clearly, and whenever he would approach their dwellings their 
hair would stand on end and they began to tremble. In the doorway of the 
lodge there would then appear a firebrand. That man thereupon came in and 
took hold of anyone he chose, and with a sharp knife of flint, as broad as 
a hand and two palms in length, he cut their side, and, thrusting his hand 
through the gash, took out the entrails, cutting off a piece one palm 
long, which he threw into the fire. Afterwards he made three cuts in one 
of the arms, the second one at the place where people are usually bled, 
and twisted the arm, but reset it soon afterwards. Then he placed his 
hands on the wounds, and they told us that they closed at once. Many times 
he appeared among them while they were dancing, sometimes in the dress of 
a woman and again as a man, and whenever he took a notion to do it he 
would seize the hut or lodge, take it up into the air and come down with 
it again with a great crash. They also told us how, many a time, they set 
food before him, but he never would partake of it, and when they asked him 
where he came from and where he had his home, he pointed to a rent in the 
earth and said his house was down below.

We laughed very much at those stories, making fun of them, and then, 
seeing our incredulity they brought to us many of those whom, they said, 
he had taken, and we saw the scars of his slashes in the places and as 
they told. We told them he was a demon and explained as best we could that 
if they would believe in God, Our Lord, and be Christians like ourselves, 
they would not have to fear that man, nor would he come and do such things 
unto them, and they might be sure that as long as we were in this country 
he would not dare to appear again. At this they were greatly pleased and 
lost much of their apprehension.

The same Indians told us they had seen the Asturian and Figueroa with 
other Indians further along on the coast, which we had named of the figs. 
All those people had no reckoning by either sun or moon, nor do they count 
by months and years; they judge of the seasons by the ripening of fruits, 
by the time when fish die and by the appearance of the stars, in all of 
which they are very clever and expert. While with them we were always well 
treated, although our food was never too plentiful, and we had to carry 
our own water and wood. Their dwellings and their food are like those of 
the others, but they are much more exposed to starvation, having neither 
maize nor acorns or nuts. We always went about naked like they and covered 
ourselves at night with deer skins.

During six of the eighteen months we were with them we suffered much from 
hunger, because they do not have fish either. At the end of that time the 
tunas began to ripen, and without their noticing it we left and went to 
other Indians further ahead called Maliacones, at a distance of one day's 
travel. Three days after I and the negro reached there I sent him back to 
get Castillo and Dorantes, and after they rejoined me we all departed in 
company of the Indians, who went to eat a small fruit of some trees. On 
this fruit they subsist for ten or twelve days until the tunas are fully 
ripe. There they joined other Indians called Arbadaos, whom we found to be 
so sick, emaciated and swollen that we were greatly astonished. The 
Indians with whom we had come went back on the same trail, and we told 
them that we wished to remain with the others, at which they showed grief. 
So we remained with the others in the field near their dwellings.

When the Indians saw us they clustered together, after having talked among 
themselves, and each one of them took the one of us whom he claimed by the 
hand and they led us to their homes. While with those we suffered more 
from hunger than among any of the others. In the course of a whole day we 
did not eat more than two handfuls of the fruit, which was green and 
contained so much milky juice that our mouths were burnt by it. As water 
was very scarce, whoever ate of them became very thirsty. And we finally 
grew so hungry that we purchased two dogs, in exchange for nets and other 
things, and a hide with which I used to cover myself. I have said already 
that through all that country we went naked, and not being accustomed to 
it, like snakes we shed our skin twice a year. Exposure to the sun and air 
covered our chests and backs with big sores that made it very painful to 
carry the big and heavy loads, the ropes of which cut into the flesh of 
our arms.

The country is so rough and overgrown that often after we had gathered 
firewood in the timber and dragged it out, we would bleed freely from the 
thorns and spines which cut and slashed us wherever they touched. 
Sometimes it happened that I was unable to carry or drag out the firewood 
after I had gathered it with much loss of blood. In all that trouble my 
only relief or consolation was to remember the passion of our Saviour, 
Jesus Christ, and the blood He shed for me, and to ponder how much greater 
His sufferings had been from the thorns, than those I was then enduring. I 
made a contract with the Indians to make combs, arrows, bows and nets for 
them. Also we made matting of which their lodges are constructed and of 
which they are in very great need, for, although they know how to make it, 
they do not like to do any work, in order to be able to go in quest of 
food. Whenever they work they suffer greatly from hunger. 

Again, they would make me scrape skins and tan them, and the greatest 
luxury I enjoyed was on the day they would give me a skin to scrape, 
because I scraped it very deep in order to eat the parings, which would 
last me two or three days. It also happened to us, while being with these 
Indians and those before mentioned, that we would eat a piece of meat 
which they gave us, raw, because if we broiled it the first Indian coming 
along would snatch and eat it; it seemed useless to take any pains, in 
view of what we might expect; neither were we particular to go to any 
trouble in order to have it broiled and might just as well eat it raw. 
Such was the life we led there, and even that scanty maintenance we had to 
earn through the objects made by our own hands for barter.

After we had eaten the dogs it seemed to us that we had enough strength to 
go further on, so we commended ourselves to the guidance of God, Our Lord, 
took leave of these Indians, and they put us on the track of others of 
their language who were nearby. While on our way it began to rain and 
rained the whole day. We lost the trail and found ourselves in a big 
forest, where we gathered plenty of leaves of tunas which we roasted that 
same night in an oven made by ourselves, and so much heat did we give them 
that in the morning they were fit to be eaten. After eating them we 
recommended ourselves to God again, and left, and struck the trail we had 
lost.

Issuing from the timber, we met other Indian dwellings, where we saw two 
women and some boys, who were so frightened at the sight of us that they 
fled to the forest to call the men that were in the woods. When these came 
they hid behind trees to peep at us. We called them and they approached in 
great fear. After we addressed them they told us they were very hungry and 
that nearby were many of their own lodges, and they would take us to them. 
So that night we reached a site where there were fifty dwellings, and the 
people were stupefied at seeing us and showed much fear. After they had 
recovered from their astonishment they approached and put their hands to 
our faces and bodies also. We stayed there that night, and in the morning 
they brought their sick people, begging us to cross them, and gave us of 
what they had to eat, which were leaves of tunas and green tunas baked.

For the sake of this good treatment, giving us all they had, content with 
being without anything for our sake, we remained with them several days, 
and during that time others came from further on. When those were about to 
leave we told the first ones that we intended to accompany them. This made 
them very sad, and they begged us on their knees not to go. But we went 
and left them in tears at our departure, as it pained them greatly.

From the Island of Ill-Fate on, all the Indians whom we met as far as to 
here have the custom of not cohabiting with their wives when these are 
pregnant, and until the child is two years old.

Children are nursed to the age of twelve years, when they are old enough 
to gather their own food. We asked them why they brought their children up 
in that way and they replied, it was owing to the great scarcity of food 
all over that country, since it was common (as we saw) to be without it 
two or three days, and even four, and for that reason they nursed the 
little ones so long to preserve them from perishing through hunger. And 
even if they should survive, they would be very delicate and weak. When 
one falls sick he is left to die in the field unless he be somebody's 
child. Other invalids, if unable to travel, are abandoned; but a son or 
brother is taken along.

There is also a custom for husbands to leave their wives if they do not 
agree, and to remarry whom they please; this applies to the young men, but 
after they have had children they stay with their women and do not leave 
them.

When, in any village, they quarrel among themselves, they strike and beat 
each other until worn out, and only then do they separate. Sometimes their 
women step in and separate them, but men never interfere in these brawls. 
Nor do they ever use bow and arrow, and after they have fought and settled 
the question, they take their lodges and women and go out into the field 
to live apart from the others till their anger is over, and when they are 
no longer angry and their resentment has passed away they return to the 
village and are as friendly again as if nothing had happened. There is no 
need of mediation. When the quarrel is between unmarried people they go to 
some of the neighbors, who, even if they be enemies, will receive them 
well, with great festivities and gifts of what they have, so that, when 
pacified, they return to their village wealthy. 

They all are warriors and so astute in guarding themselves from an enemy 
as if trained in continuous wars and in Italy. When in places where their 
enemies can offend them, they set their lodges on the edge of the roughest 
and densest timber and dig a trench close to it in which they sleep. The 
men at arms are hidden by brushwood and have their loopholes, and are so 
well covered and concealed that even at close range they cannot be seen.

To the densest part of the forest they open a very narrow trail and there 
arrange a sleeping place for their women and children. As night sets in 
they build fires in the lodges, so that if there should be spies about, 
these would think the people to sleep there. And before sunrise they light 
the same fires again. Now, ditches, without being seen or discovered.

In case there are no forests wherein they can hide thus and prepare their 
ambushes, they settle on the plain wherever it appears most appropriate, 
surrounding the place with trenches protected by brushwood. In these they 
open loopholes through which they can reach the enemy with arrows, and 
those parapets they build for the night. While I was with the Aguenes and 
these not on their guard, their enemies surprised them at midnight, 
killing three and wounding a number, so that they fled from their houses 
to the forest. As soon, however, as they noticed that the others had gone 
they went back, picked up all the arrows the others had spent and left and 
followed them as stealthily as possible. That same night they reached the 
others' dwellings unnoticed, and at sunrise attacked, killing five, 
besides wounding a great many. The rest made their escape, leaving homes 
and bows behind, with all their other belongings.

A short time after this the women of those calling themselves Guevenes 
came, held a parley and made them friends again, but sometimes women are 
also the cause of war. All those people when they have personal questions 
and are not of one family, kill each other in a treacherous way and deal 
most cruelly with one another.

Those Indians are the readiest people with their weapons of all I have 
seen in the world, for when they suspect the approach of an enemy they lie 
awake all night with their bows within reach and a dozen of arrows, and 
before one goes to sleep he tries his bow, and should the string not be to 
his liking he arranges it until it suits him. Often they crawl out of 
their dwellings so as not to be seen and look and spy in every direction 
after danger, and if they detect anything, in less than no time are they 
all out in the field with their bows and arrows. Thus they remain until 
daybreak, running hither and thither whenever they see danger or suspect 
their enemies might approach. When day comes they unstring their bows 
until they go hunting.

The strings of their bows are made of deer sinews. They fight in a 
crouching posture, and while shooting at each other talk and dart from one 
side to the other to dodge the arrows of the foe. In this way they receive 
little damage from our crossbows and muskets. On the contrary, the Indians 
laugh at those weapons, because they are not dangerous to them on the 
plains over which they roam. They are only good in narrows and in swamps.

Horses are what the Indians dread most, and by means of which they will be 
overcome.

Whoever has to fight Indians must take great care not to let them think he 
is disheartened or that he covets what they own; in war they must be 
treated very harshly, for should they notice either fear or greed, they 
are the people who know how to abide their time for revenge and to take 
courage from the fears of their enemy. After spending all their arrows, 
they part, going each their own way, and without attempting pursuit, 
although one side might have more men than the other; such is their custom.

Many times they are shot through and through with arrows, but do not die 
from the wounds as long as the bowels or heart are not touched; on the 
contrary, they recover quickly. Their eyesight, hearing and senses in 
general are better, I believe, than those of any other men upon earth. 
They can stand, and have to stand, much hunger, thirst and cold, being 
more accustomed and used to it than others. This I wished to state here, 
since, besides that all men are curious to know the habits and devices of 
others, such as might come in contact with those people should be informed 
of their customs and deeds, which will be of no small profit to them.

I also do wish to tell of the nations and languages met with from the 
Island of Ill-Fate to the last ones, the Cuchendados. On the Island of Ill-
Fate two languages are spoken, the ones they call Capoques, the others 
Han. On the mainland, facing the island, are others, called of Charruco, 
who take their name from the woods in which they live. Further on, along 
the seashore, are others, who call themselves Deguenes, and in front of 
them others named those of Mendica. Further on, on the coast, are the 
Quevenes, in front further inland the Mariames, and following the coast we 
come to the Guaycones, and in front of them inland the Yeguaces. After 
those come the Atayos, and behind them others, called Decubadaos, of whom 
there are a great many further on in this direction. On the coast live the 
Quitoles, and in front of them, inland, the Chauauares. These are joined 
by the Maliacones and the Cultalchulches and others called Susola and 
Comos, ahead on the coast are the Camolas, and further on those whom we 
call the people of the figs.

All those people have homes and villages and speak different languages. 
Among them is a language wherein they call men mira aca, arraca, and dogs 
xo.

In this whole country they make themselves drunk by a certain smoke for 
which they give all they have. They also drink something which they 
extract from leaves of trees, like unto water-oak, toasting them on the 
fire in a vessel like a low-necked bottle. When the leaves are toasted 
they fill the vessel with water and hold it over the fire so long until it 
has thrice boiled; then they pour the liquid into a bowl made of a gourd 
cut in twain. As soon as there is much foam on it they drink it as hot as 
they can stand, and from the time they take it out of the first vessel 
until they drink they shout, "Who wants to drink ?" When the women hear 
this they stand still at once, and although they carry a very heavy load 
do not dare to move. Should one of them stir, she is dishonored and 
beaten. In a great rage they spill the liquid they have prepared and spit 
out what they drank, easily and without pain. The reason for this custom, 
they say, is that when they want to drink that water and the women stir 
from the spot where they first hear the shouts, an evil substance gets 
into the liquid that penetrates their bodies, causing them to die before 
long. All the time the water boils the vessel must be kept covered. Should 
it be uncovered while a woman comes along they pour it out and do not 
drink of it. It is yellow and they drink it for three days without 
partaking of any food, each consuming an arroba and a half every day.

When the women are ill they only seek food for themselves, because nobody 
else eats of what they bring.