ALVAR NUNEZ
CABEZA DE VACA
FIRST ACROSS
THE CONTINENT
1528-1536
#■%&
(Xyyi/\y\
THE JOURNEY OF
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
The Trail Makers
A Library of History and Exploration
Prof. John Bach Mac Master, Consulting Editor
With Introductions, Illustrations, and Maps.
13 vols. Each i2ino. $1.00, net per vol.
The Journey of Alviir Nunez Cabeza tie Vaca, and
his companions from Florida to the Pacific,
1528-1536.
Translated by Fanny liandclier. Edited with an Introduc-
tion by Ad. F. Bandelier.
Narratives of the Career of Hernando de Soto in the
Conquest of Florida, 1539-1542, as told by a
gentleman of Elvas, by Lnyi Hernandez de ISied-
ma and hy Rodrigo Ranjel.
Edited with an Introduction by Prof. Edward Gayiord
Bourne, of Yale University. In two volumes.
The Journey of Coronado, 1540-43. From the City
of Mexico to the Buffalo Plains of Kansas and
Nebraska.
Translated and Edited, wi h an Introduction by George
Parker Winship.
Voyages from Montreal Through the Continent of
North America to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans
In 1789 and 1793.
Bu Alexander Mackenzie. In tiro volume! .
History of the Expedition "Under the Command of
Captains Lewis and Clark to the Sources of the
Missouri. Across the Ro<-kv Mountains Dow n
the Columbia River to the Pacific In 1S04-4J.
With an account of the Louisiana Pun- ase, Inj Prof. John
Bach MacMaster, and an Introduction Identifying Hie route.
In three volumes.
A History of the Five Indian Nations of Canada
Which Are Depemleitt Upon the Province of
New York.
By Cadwallader ('olden. Surveyor-General of trie Colony of
New York. In two volumes.
A Journal of Voyages and Travels in the Interior
of North America.
By Daniel Williams Harmon, a partner in the Northwest
Company, {beginning in 1600).
The Wild Northland. The Story of a Winter
Journey With Hogs Across Northern North
America. 1872-:*.
By Gen. Sir Wm. Francis Butter, K. 0. B.
A. S. BARNES & CO.
NEW YORK
t
o
IT
SUGGESTION OF THE
EINE OF TRAVEE OF
CABEZA DE VACA
AND HIS COMPANIONS
Cabeza de Vaca ami his companions ■■■■ mb ^ ■
Probable route of Father Marcos of Nizza
THE JOURNEY
OF ALVAR NUNEZ
CABEZA de'vACA
AND HIS COMPANIONS FROM FLORIDA
TO THE PACIFIC
1528-1536
TRANSLATED FROM
HIS OWN NARRATIVE
By FANNY BANDELIER
TOGETHER WITH THE REPORT OF FATHER
MARCOS OF NIZZA AND A LETTER FROM
THE VICEROY MENDOZA
EDITED WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
AD. F. BANDELIER
NEW YORK
A. S. BARNES & COMPANY
1905
Copyright, 1905
BY
A. S. BARNES & CO.
fXa rdacfonqueotoBfoarnu*
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cnla armada oonde tua po: gouernade* #§
pfcito oc narbac5^t>efdc d ano^e vejmie
t fiete bafta d aiio tf trcynta y feys
quebolirio a Sem!la^5inr?»
cefucompam'a^
TITLE PAGE OF EDITION OF 1542.
Reduced fac-simile from the original in the Lenox
Branch of N. Y. Public Library.
INTRODUCTION
THIS volume offers the original nar-
rative of the first white man to cross
North America. The remarkable
journey of Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca,
Andres Dorantes, Alonso del Castillo Mal-
donado, and the Moor Estevanico, from
Florida to Northwestern Mexico (Sonora
and Sinaloa), near the Pacific coast, ante-
dates the expeditions of Coronado and De
Soto, whose histories have already been pub-
lished in The Trail-Makers. Nevertheless,
it is proper to publish his narrative later.
Compared with either of them, the journey
of Cabeza de Vaca and his companions is an
episode, important, but an incident brought
about by a disastrous failure. This history
describes the only — and comparatively
meagre — results of the expedition under-
taken by Pamfilo de Narvaez in 1527, and
an outcome which had nothing more to do
with Narvaez and his ill-conducted scheme.
INTRODUCTION
Yet it is certain that the appearance of Ca-
beza de Vaca and his fellow-sufferers at
Culiacan, and their statements, directed the
attention of the Spanish authorities at the
young city of Mexico to the North more
than the reports about the Seven Cities and
the raids which Nuno de Guzman had made
in that direction. Nevertheless, the impor-
tance of the story of Cabeza de Vaca must
not be overestimated. A perusal of the nar-
rative shows that the forlorn wanderers
were not — as it has long been admitted —
the ''discoverers of New Mexico." They
never saw, nor do they claim to have seen,
any of the so-called "Pueblos. " They only
heard of them, in a more or less confused
manner. On the other hand, more precise
than their information on this point is what
they said about the plains, their Indians;
and it seems above all doubt that the first
knowledge of the American Bison, or Buf-
falo, is due to their descriptions.
On the minds of the Spanish occupants of
Mexico, especially on what may be called
the floating population (proportionately
large at the time, as everywhere in newly
INTRODUCTION
occupied countries), the impression of the
feat performed by the travellers and the tale
of their unequalled sufferings produced a
much greater effect than on the authorities.
The people saw in their reports an outline
for a possible advance into the unknown be-
yond. The picture of the country traversed
was, in the main, not enticing, but the allu-
sion to permanent settlements beyond the
unprepossessing plains was looked upon as
full of promise. The outcome was a mod-
erate "excitement" among the adventurous
and the idle, and this excitement was ably
taken advantage of by the Viceroy of New
Spain, Don Antonio de Mendoza.
This high functionary, as sagacious as he
was cautious, regarded the real merits of
Cabeza de Vaca (who is the representative
figure in the whole episode) with reserve.
On February nth (old style), 1537, he
wrote to the Empress recommending Cabeza
de Vaca and Dorantes (the letter mentions
Dorantes, but it was Castillo who went to
Spain with Cabeza de Vaca) to the benevo-
lence of the monarch, in consideration of
"what they have done in it [this country]
INTRODUCTION
and suffered, and their disposition to con-
tinue there and here, wherever they may
be sent." He does not seem to attach
more than a modest importance to the prac-
tical results of their adventures. In that
same letter he states that the wanderers had
already made a report to him on their jour-
ney, which report he had sent to the Empress
previously. It cannot be the one contained
in Oviedo's Historia General y Natural de
Jndias (Edition of 1850, Vol. Ill, Lib.
XXXV), since the latter was directed to the
Audiencia of Santo Domingo. There is a
fragment of a Relation attributed to Cabeza
de Vaca alone, without date, in Vol. XIV
of the Documentos Ineditos de Indian. It
reads like a resume, or condensation, of the
narrative presented in this volume. This
fragment terminates abruptly at the time
when a meeting of Cabeza de Vaca and Do-
rantes was being prepared. It is entitled,
"Relacion de Cabeza de Vaca, tesorero que
fue en la c&nquista" and preceded by a
truncated copy of the directions which the
King issued to Cabeza de Vaca as "Factor"
of the expedition. Whether this document
INTRODUCTION
(noticed in the Index under a very mislead-
ing title) is perhaps the first report men-
tioned in the letter of Mendoza from Febru-
ary, 1537, I am unable to decide thus far,
but there are some indications favoring the
supposition.
The influence which the return and re-
ports of Cabeza de Vaca and companions
may have had upon the subsequent enter-
prise of Hernando de Soto was, if any, but
slight. The contract made with the latter
by the Crown on April 20, 1537 (Documen-
tos de Indias, Vol. XXII, pp. 534 to 546:
Capitulacion que se tomo con Hernando de
Soto, para conquistar y poblar desde el Rio
de las P almas Imsta la Florida) does not per-
mit any conclusion on this point. The first
report of the outcasts had probably reached
Spain before that time, but on* August 15,
of the same year, Cabeza de Vaca was still
at Lisbon. The statements of other sur-
vivors of the expedition of Narvaez (men-
tioned at the close of our narrative as having
been met by Cabeza de Vaca in Mexico and
in Spain) cannot have been very encourag-
ing to a fresh attempt at penetrating Florida,
ix
INTRODUCTION
Still, Soto tried to enlist the services of
Cabeza de Vaca, but failed.
Of the biography of Cabeza de Vaca only
such portions are well known as relate to
his career in America. It is also known
that he was born in Jerez de la Frontera,
in Spain, and hence was an Andalusian.
His father — according to Oviedo — was
Francisco de Vera, son of the Spanish Con-
queror of the Canaries, Pedro de Vera. His
mother was Teresa Cabeza de Vaca, a native
of Jerez. Why he assumed the name of his
mother in place of his paternal appellative
I am unable to state. The family of Cabeza
de Vaca bore, originally, the name Alhaja.
They were simple peasants until after the
battle of Las Navas de Tolosa, on July 1 1,
1212, which the Kings of Castile, Aragon
and Navarra gained over the Moors. A few
days before the battle, a shepherd by the
name of Alhaja offered to show the Chris-
tian forces a path by which they might cir-
cumvent the mountain-passes held by the
Moors in strong force. To indicate it,
he placed at the entrance of the defile the
skull of a cow. In recompense for this emi-
INTRODUCTION
nent service, Martin Alhaja, until then a
humble shepherd, .was ennobled, and he
changed his name into that of Cabeza de
Vaca (head of a cow, literally) in memory
of the origin of his improved social condi-
tion. Several of his descendants held com-
paratively high positions, among them Don
Pero Fernandez Cabeza de Vaca, elected
grand master of the order of Knights of St.
James in 1383.
The career of Alvar Nunez Cabeza de
Vaca in America was particularly unfortu-
nate. After the disastrous termination of
Narvaez's expedition and his (almost mirac-
ulous) return to Spain, he obtained as a re-
ward for his sufferings the position of Gov-
ernor of the settlements on the La Plata
river, vacant since the death of Pedro de
Mendoza. Reaching his post in 1541, he
soon became the object of sinister intrigues
on the part of his subordinates. The ani-
mosity against him broke out, in 1543, in
open revolt. He was seized and sent to
Spain as a prisoner. His (mild) captivity
there lasted eight years. It is asserted that
he lived in Sevilla to an advanced age, and
zi
INTRODUCTION
occupied, up to his demise (the date of
which I have not yet been* able to find), an
honorable and fairly lucrative position.
Concerning the conduct of Cabeza de
Vaca as Governqr on the La Plata, or
Parana, the opinions of eye-witnesses are
divided. Some speak in his favor; others,
like the German Ulrich (or Huldreich)
Schmiedel, of Straubing, accused him of
haughty demeanor towards his men and
cruelty. Oviedo, who knew him personally
and conversed with him on the matter, is
non-committal. It seems likely that Cabeza
de Vaca was an honest and well-intentioned
man, and he may have been a good sub-
altern but unfit for superior command.
Hence he proved a failure as soon as raised
to a position above the scope of his abilities.
Of the three companions of Cabeza de
Vaca little is known. Andres Dorantes,
who had been a captain with Narvaez, was
the son of Pablo Dorantes, a native of Gib-
raleon, Castilla. Maldonado was from Sala-
manca, and the son of Doctor Castillo and
Aldonza Maldonado. He is said to have
remained in Spain, whereas Dorantes stayed
xii
INTRODUCTION
in Mexico, and entered, in 1538, into an
agreement with the Viceroy for a journey of
exploration to the north or Sinaloa. It was
never carried out. Lastly the "negro,"
Estevanico was an Arab Moor, from the
town of Azamor, on the Atlantic coast of
Morocco. It is therefore not unlikely that
he was not a- negro proper, but from one or
the other of the tribes of the desert. His
subsequent fate is well known. As guide
and advance scout of Father Marcos, of
Nizza, he became the victim of his own
imprudence, or lafck of understanding of
the differences in customs and beliefs be-
tween Indian tribes far distant from each
other.
It is well known that Cabeza de Vaca
wrote two principal works, both of which
were published at Valladolid in 1555 by
Francisco Fernandez de Cordova. The first
one of these two books is a second issue of
the one translated here. The other gives an
account of his vicissitudes in Paraguay and
what is now the Argentine Republic, and
bears the title of Comentarios de Alvar
N lines Cabeza de VacU, Adelantado y Gob-
xiii
INTRODUCTION
ernador del Rio de la Plata. The print from
1555 is the earliest known of the Cotnen-
tario's. Of the Naufragios here translated
an earlier issue has been foundr. Only two
copies of it are known : One, which is per-
fect, is at the Lenox branch of the Public
Library of New York ; the other, somewhat
damaged, at the British Museum. This old-
est print of the Naufragios is from 1542 and
was published at Zamora. Its text has been
followed exclusively in this translation. The
(reduced) photographic reproductions of
the title-pages of both editions and of the
kolophon of the first edition give an idea of
the appearance of both of these books, the
extreme rarity of which makes it difficult
for the general reader to see them. Both
are small quartos. The 1542 edition has no
headings for chapters, and this has been fol-
lowed here.
Oviedo, who gives the text in full of the
Letter handed to the Audiencia of Santo
Domingo by Cabeza de Vaca and Castillo
when they touched that port on their return
to Spain, in 1537, has used the 1542 print
for comparison with that letter. The second
INTRODUCTION
edition appeared two years before his death
(which occurred in 1557), but it is manifest
that he did not use it.
Comparing the Letter to the Audiencia
with the book of Cabeza de Vaca, Oviedo in-
clines in favor of the former. He remarks :
''But in a certain way I hold the report of
the three to be good and more clear than
the other one, which a single man made and
has had printed," &c. But Cabeza de Vaca
was one of the three who framed the Letter
to the Audiencia, and this document is
merely a more concise narration than his
book, and does not, on important points,
conflict with it. The latter was written in
Spain, when the author had leisure to recol-
lect and to write. In a foot-note I have al-
luded to the statement, made in the book,
about little bags filled with silver, which,
Oviedo says, contained only mica. This,
however, he distinctly attributes to a mis-
print, not to a misstatement by the author.
On the whole, the difference between the
two documents is so slight that there has
been no occasion to publish the Letter to the
Audiencia also.
xv
INTRODUCTION
Oviedo mentions Andres Dorantes among
the signers of the Letter, which was, as he
states, sent to the Audiencia at Santo Do-
mingo from Havana. Cabeza de Vaca af-
firms Dorantes remained at Vera Cruz, and
thence went back to Mexico. This is fully
established by the communications of the
Viceroy, Mendoza, notwithstanding Her-
rera says he returned to Spain with his
companions. The objection may be re-
moved, however, by supposing, as is very
likely, that the Letter was writen in Mex-
ico, when the three wrere still together.
A very serious objection to the credibility
of the three narratives, however, arises from
the fact that all are based upon recollections
only, and not upon journals or field-notes of
any kind. It was, of course, impossible for
the outcasts, shifted and shifting from tribe
to tribe, to keep any written record of their
trip. Many of their descriptions are not,
therefore, expected to be fully accurate.
At the end of the eight years of constant
misfortune and suffering, memory clings
most to personal vicissitudes, and the narra-
tive of these does not appear exaggerated,
xvi
INTRODUCTION
The descriptions of the countries traversed,
superficial as they must be, still leave some
recognizable data, and so do the descriptions
of plants and animals. It is acknowledged
that through Cabeza de Vaca the first knowl-
edge of the buffalo reached Europe, and his
description of the hunchbacked cows, while
very brief, is quite accurate.
Descriptions of customs and habits of In-
dian tribes or bands, especially of such as
lived east of the Rio Grande, must of course
be accepted with proper reserve. Still, many
may yet prove to be of ethnologic value.
The general picture of the condition of these
tribes is very likely to be exact, while, on
the other hand, many details are probably
misstated, through having been misunder-
stood or superficially observed. It might be
worth while to make a special study of these
ethnographic data and compare them with
whatever material of the kind has been
placed on record by subsequent explorers
and narrators.
In the statements regarding the "faith
cures" which the travellers claim to have
performed, and to which they attribute the
INTRODUCTION
success of their desperate attempt to cross
the continent, there is truth as well as hon-
est delusion. Indian medicine itself bases
largely upon conceptions of the kind, and
empirical hypnotism plays a part in the per-
formances of their medicine-men. Cabeza
de Vaca, unconsciously and by distinct
methods, imitated the Indian Shamans and
probably succeeded, in at least many cases,
since the procedure was new and striking.
That they attributed their success to the di-
rect aid of divine power was in strict accord-
ance with the spirit of the times and by no
means to their discredit. On the contrary,
there is a commendable modesty in their dis-
claimer of merits of their own. It should
also not be forgotten that men in their ex-
ceptional situation, without reasonable hope
of salvation, relentlessly persecuted by mis-
fortune and the worst hardships for many
years, have their imagination finally raised
to the higest pitch, and exaggerations and
misconceptions become therefore excusable.
There is no doubt that they sincerely be-
lieved their own statements. Not only the
times must be taken into account when
xviii
INTRODUCTION
judgment is passed, but also the violent
strain under which they labored for such a
long period.
In regard to the route followed by the
outcasts, there are but very few ascertained
points. Opinions vary so much that I shall
not attempt to trace the course of their wan-
derings except by referring to the sketch-
map appended. The route traced is a mere
suggestion of possible approximations, as
stated on it. It will certainly be modified
by the results of investigations in the coun-
tries themselves, which I have not been and
am not able to carry on* myself. It seems,
however, that the overland journey of the
four began at some point west of the Missis-
sippi, and that they successively traversed
the State of Texas and the northern part of
the Mexican Republic into central Sonora.
It is not likely they touched New Mexico,
and they certainly never saw the New Mexi-
can pueblos, but heard of them in Sonora.
Cabeza de Vaca therefore but confirmed the
few vague notions extant at his time about
the sedentary Indians of New Mexico, but
was not the real discoverer of that country.
INTRODUCTION
The bibliography of the book of Cabeza
de Vaca is soon told. In addition to the two
issues often mentioned— the Editio Princeps
from 1542, and the second of 1555 — there
are two more Spanish publications of it
known. The earliest is in Volume II of the
Collection by Andres Gonzales Barcia, Hts-
toriades primitivos de Indias, 1749. Its title
is : Naufragios y relation de la Jornada que
hizo a la Florida, con Pdniilo de Narvaez.
The other is found in Volume II of the
Historiadores primitivos de Indias, by Eii-
riqae de Vedia. The title of this (the text
of which was taken from the Edition* of
1555) reads: Naufragios de Alvar Nunez
Cabeza de Vaca y Relation de la Jornada
que hizo a la Florida con el Adelantado Pdn-
iilo de Narvaez. It is well known that the
two volumes of Vedia's reprints of older
narratives and histories touching upon
America form a part of the voluminous col-
lection entitled, Biblioteca de Autores Espa-
iioles, published at Madrid, and thaft the two
volumes of Vedia were printed in 1852.
An Italian version, under the title of Re-
lation che fece Alvaro Nvnez detto Capo di
xx
INTRODUCTION
Vacca, di quell o ch' intervenne nell India
all' armata, della qual era gouernatore Pam-
philo Naruaez, dell anno 1527 Uno all 1536,
che ritorno in Sibilla con tu soli suoi com-
pagni, is contained in Volume II of the cele-
brated collection of travels and voyages by
Gian Battista Ramusio, Delle Navigatione e
Viaggi, 1556, Venice. '
Of English translations there have ap-
peared thus far three : In Samuel Purchas :
His Pilgrimage, London, 1625- 1626, Vol-
ume IX : Relation of the fleet in India,
whereof Pamphilus Naruaez was gouemor.
The Narrative of Alva Nunez Cabeza de
Vaca*, translated by Buckingham Smith,
Washington, 1851. This translation is just-
ly prized. A second edition of it appeared
at New York in 1871, edited by the late John
Gilmary Shea. Finally there is a paraphrase
of the book in Tcdes of Old Travels, Nar-
rated by H. Kingsley, London, 1869.
In the French language there is the well-
known translation by H. Ternaux Compans
in the first series of his collection : Voyages,
Relations et Memoires originanx pour servir
d I'Histoire de la Decouverte de I'Ameriqae.
xxi
INTRODUCTION
Date of publication, 1837. Title: Relation
Vaca, Adelantade et Gouverneur du Rio de
la Plata.
A word yet touching the translation here
given. The narrative of Cabeza de Vaca is
very difficult to translate for the reason, thai
the criticism by Oviedo about its lack
of clearness is too well founded. Many
parts of chapters and also whole chap-
ters are so confused that it is impos-
sible to follow the original more than re-
motely, and paraphrasing had to be resorted
to. Even then, in several instances, the
meaning remains possibly somewhat ob-
scure. It is as if the author, in consequence
of long isolation and constant intercourse
with people of another speech, had lost touch
with his native tongue. There is less of this
in his later work, the Comentarios, written
after a number of years of uninterrupted in-
tercourse with his countrymen.
AD. F. BANDELIER.
New York City, March 28, 1905.
xxii
C £a rclacion p comcntarioo oel gouerna
do^Bluar nuncjcabcca fce vaea, cc to acacfado cnlaa
Cos jojifad as que bi'50 a taa Jndi as.
Con pa'uflcgio.
4 E fit ciffkU^r k» «e** :«:t rtt&i oen O <*&» Y *» m*
TITLE PAGE OF EDITION OF 1555.
Reduced from original in Lenox Branch of
N. Y. Public Library.
The Journey of Alvar Nunez
Cabeza De Vaca
ON the 27th day of the month of June,
1527,1 the Governor Panfilo de Nar-
vaez departed from the port of
San Lucar de Barrameda, with authority
and orders from Your Majesty to conquer
and govern the provinces that extend from
the river of the Palms to the Cape of the
Florida, these provinces being on the main
land. The fleet he took along consisted of
five vessels, in which went about 600 men.
The officials he had with him (since they
must be mentioned) were those here named :
Cabeza de Vaca, treasurer and alguacil
mayor ; Alonso Enriquez, purser ; Alonso de
Solis, factor of Your Majesty and inspector.
A friar of the order of Saint Francis, called
Fray Juan Gutierrez,2 went as commissary,
1A\\ the dates are old style, of course.
2The edition of 1555 and subsequent publications
have Fray Juan Suarez, which the first edition
from 1542 also has, as will be seen subsequently,
so that the name of this Commissary of the Fran-
ciscans must have been Suarez, or (as it is also
written) Xuarez.
I
THE JOURNEY OF
with four other monks of the order. We
arrived at the Island of Santo Domingo,
where we remained nearly forty-five days,
supplying ourselves with necessary things,
especially horses. Here more than 140 men
of our army forsook us, who wished to re-
main, on account of the proposals and prom-
ises made them by the people of the country.
From there we started and arrived at San-
tiago (a port in the Island of Cuba) where,
in the few days that we remained the Gov-
ernor supplied himself again with people,
arms and horses. It happened there that a
gentleman called Vasco Porcallo, a resi-
dent of la Trinidad (which is on the same
island), offered to give the Governor
certain stores he had at a distance of
100 leagues from the said harbor of San-
tiago.
The Governor, with the whole fleet, sailed
for that place, but midways, at a port
named Cape Santa Cruz, he thought best to
stop and send a single vessel to load and
bring these stores. Therefore he ordered a
certain Captain Pantoja to go thither with
his craft and directed me to accompany him
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
for the sake of control, while he remained
with four ships, having purchased one on
the Island of Santo Domingo. Arrived at
the port of Trinidad with these two vessels,
Captain Pantoja went with Vasco Porcallo
to the town (which is one league from
there) in order to take possession of the
supplies. I remained on board with the
pilots, who told us that we should leave as
soon as possible, since the harbor was very
unsafe and many vessels had been lost in it.
Now, since what happened to us there was
very remarkable, it appeared to me not un-
suitable, for the aims and ends of this, my
narrative, to tell it here.
The next morning the weather looked
ominous. It began to rain, and the sea
roughened so that, although I allowed the
men to land, when they saw the weather
and that the town was one league away,
many came back to the ship so as not to be
out in the wet and cold. At the same time
there came a canoe from the town convey-
ing a letter from a person residing there,
begging me to come, and they would give
me the stores and whatever else might be
3
THE JOURNEY OF
necessary. But I excused myself, stating
that I could not leave the ships.
At noon the canoe came again with an-
other letter, repeating the request with
much insistency, and there was also a horse
for me to go on. I gave the same reply
as the first time, saying that I could not
leave the vessels. But the pilots and the
people begged me so much to leave and
hasten the transportation of the stores to
the ships, in order to be able to sail soon,
from a place where they were in great
fear the ships would be lost in case they had
to remain long. So I determined upon go-
ing, although before I went I left the pilots
well instructed and with orders in case the
south wind (which often wrecked the ship-
ping) should rise, and they found them-
selves in great danger, to run the vessels
ashore, when men and horses might be
saved. So I left, wishing for some of them
to accompany me, but they refused, alleging
the hard rain, the cold and that the town
was far away.
On the next day, which was Sunday, they
promised to come, God helping, to hear
4
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
mass. One hour after my departure the
sea became very rough and the north wind
blew so fiercely that neither did the boats
dare to land, nor could they beach the ves-
sels, since the wind was blowing from the
shore. They spent that day and Sunday
greatly distressed by two contrary storms
and much rain, until nightfall. Then the
rain and storm increased in violence at the
village, as well as on the sea, and all the
houses and the churches fell down, and we
had to go about, seven or eight men locking
arms at a time, to prevent the wind from
carrying us off, and under the trees it was
not less dangerous than among the houses,
for as they also were blown down we were
in danger of being killed beneath them. In
this tempest and peril we wandered about
all night, without finding any part or place
where we might feel safe for half an hour.
In this plight we heard, all night long and
especially after midnight, a great uproar, the
sound of many voices, the tinkling of little
bells, also flutes and tambourines and other
instruments, the most of which noise lasted
until morning, when the storm ceased.
5
THE JOURNEY OF
Never has such a fearful thing been wit-
nessed in those parts. I took testimony con-
cerning it, and sent it, certified, to Your
Majesty. On Monday morning we went
down to the harbor, but did not find the ves-
sels. We saw the buoys in the water, and
from this knew that the ships were lost. So
we followed the shore, looking for wreck-
age, and not finding any turned into the for-
est. Walking through it we saw, a fourth
of a league from water, the little boat of one
of the vessels on the top of trees, and ten
leagues further, on the coast, were two men
of my crew and certain covers of boxes.
The bodies were so disfigured by striking
against the rocks as to be unrecognizable.
There were also found a cape and a tattered
quilt, nothing else. Sixty people and twenty
horses perished on the ships. Those who
went on land the day we arrived, some thirty
men, were all who survived of the crews of
both vessels.
We remained thus for several days in
great need and distress, for the food and
stores at the village had been ruined also,
as well as some cattle. The country was
6
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
pitiable to look at. The trees had fallen
and the woods were blighted, and there was
neither foliage nor grass. In this condition
we were until the 5th day of the month of
November, when the Governor, with his
four vessels, arrived. They also had weath-
ered a great storm and had escaped by be-
taking themselves to a safe place in time.
The people on board of the ships and those
he found were so terrified by* what had hap-
pened that they were afraid to set to sea
again in winter and begged the Governor
to remain there for that season, and he, see-
ing their good will and that of the inhabi-
tants, wintered at that place. He put into
my charge the vessels and their crews, and
I was to go with them to the port of Xagua,
twelve leagues distant, where I remained
until the 20th day of February.
A T that time the Governor came with
/A a brig he had bought at Trinidad,
and with him a pilot called Miruelo.
That man he had taken because he said
he knew the way and had been on the
7
THE JOURNEY OF
river of the Palms and was a very good
pilot for the whole northern coast. The
Governor left, on the coast of Habana, an-
other vessel that he had bought there, on
which there remained, as captain, Alvaro de
Cerda, with forty people and twelve horse-
men. Two days after the Governor ar-
rived he went aboard. The people he took
along were 400 men and eighty horses, on
four vessels and one brigantine. The pilot
we had taken ran the vessels aground on the
sands called "of Canarreo," so that the next
day we were stranded and remained strand-
ed for fifteen days, the keels often touching
bottom. Then a storm from the south drove
so much water on the shoals that we could
get off, though not without much danger.
Departing from there and arrived at
Guaniguanico, another tempest came up in
which we nearly perished. At Cape Cor-
rientes we had another, which lasted three
days. Afterward we doubled the Cape of
Sant Anton and sailed with contrary winds
as far as twelve leagues off Habana, and
when, on the following day, we attempted to
enter, a southerly storm drove us away, so
8
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
that we crossed to the coast of Florida,
sighting land on Tuesday, the 12th day of
the month of April.3 We coasted the way
of Florida, and on Holy Thursday cast an-
chor at the mouth of a bay, at the head of
which we saw certain houses and habita-
tions of Indians.
ON that same day the clerk, Alonso
Enriquez, left and went to an island
in the bay and called the Indians,
who came and were with him a good while,
and by way of exchange they gave him fish
and some venison. The day following
(which was Good Friday) the Governor
disembarked, with as many men as his little
boats would hold, and as we arrived at the
huts or houses of the Indians we had seen,
we found them abandoned and deserted, the
8Same date in Oviedo (Historia general y nat-
ural de Indias, Vol. Ill, p. 582. But the details
of the stay on the coast and in the ports of Cuba
are only found in Cabeza de Vaca's book, and in
his Relacion (Documentos de Indias, Vol. XIV,
p. 289), where he mentions two tempests: the
great hurricane and one that nearly wrecked them
near Cape Corrientes. That Relacion seems like
an abridgement of the Naufragios.
9
THE JOURNEY OF
people having left that same night in their
canoes. One of those houses was so large
that it could hold more than 300 people.
The others were smaller, and we found a
golden rattle among the nets. The next day
the Governor hoisted flags in behalf of Your
Majesty and took possession of the country
in Your Royal name, exhibited his creden-
tials, and was acknowledged as Governor
according to Your Majesty's commands.
We likewise presented our titles to him,
and he complied as they required. He
then ordered the remainder of the men to
disembark, also the forty-two horses left
(the others having perished on account of
the great storms and the long time they had
been on sea), and these few that remained
were so thin and weak that they could be of
little use for the time. The next day the
Indians of that village came, and, although
they spoke to us, as we had no interpreters
we did not understand them ; but they made
many gestures and threats, and it seemed as
if they beckoned to us to leave the country.
Afterward, without offering any molesta-
tion, they went away.
10
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
AFTER another day the Governor re-
solved to penetrate inland to ex-
plore the country and see what it
contained. We went with him — the com-
missary, the inspector and myself, with
forty men, among them six horsemen, who
seemed likely to be of but little use. We
took the direction of the north, and at the
hour of vespers reached a very large bay,
which appeared to sweep far inland. After
remaining there that night and the next
day, we returned to the place where the ves-
sels and the men were. The Governor or-
dered the brigantine to coast towards Flor-
ida in search of the port which Miruelo, the
pilot, had said he knew, but he had missed
it and did not know where we were, nor
where the port was. So word was sent to
the brigantine, in case it were not found to
cross over to Habana in quest of the vessel
of Alvaro de la Cerda, and, after taking in
some supplies, to come after us again.
After the brigantine left we again pene-
trated inland, the same persons as before,
with some more men. We followed the
ii
THE JOURNEY OF
shore of the bay, and, after a march of four
leagues, captured four Indians, to whom we
showed maize in order to find out if they
knew it, for until then we had seen no trace
of it. They told us that they would take us
to a place where there was maize and they
led us to their village, at the end of the bay
nearby, and there they showed us some that
was not yet fit to be gathered. There we
found many boxes for merchandize from
Castilla. In every one of them was a corpse
covered with painted deer hides. The com-
missary thought this to be some idolatrous
practice, so he burnt the boxes with the
corpses. We also found pieces of linen and
cloth, and feather head dresses that seemed
to be from New Spain, and samples of gold.
We inquired of the Indians (by signs)
whence they had obtained these things and
they gave us to understand that, very far
from there, was a province called Apalachen
in which there was much gold.4 They also
*There is a discrepancy here between the state-
ment of Cabeza de Vaca and the Letter to the
Audiencia. The latter says {Historia, &c, III,
P- 583) : "And there they found some large boxes
from Castilla, and in each of them a dead man,
and the corpses covered with painted hides. It
12
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
signified to us that in that province we
would find everything we held in esteem.
They said that in Apalachen there was
plenty.
So, taking them as guides, we started, and
after walking ten or twelve leagues, came
tc another village of fifteen houses, where
there was a large cultivated patch of corn
appeared to the Commissary and friars that these
were idolatries, so the Governor had them burnt.
There were also found pieces of shoes and canvas
(liemo), of cloth and some iron, and inquiring
of the Indians they told us by signs that they had
found it in a vessel that had been lost on this
coast and in that bay."
The text of Oviedo discriminates between the
origin of these objects and that of the gold, which
it says the Indians declared that there was none
in the country, but at Apalache, very far away.
The first edition always has either Apalachen or
Palachen. Oviedo (p. 615) justly blames the
friars for having burnt the bodies: "Since the
boxes and other indications might have led them
to think that they were the bodies of Christians,
and so it is stated in the second relation, that they
learned from Indians that these dead people had
been Christians." The Relation (p. 270) men-
tions briefly the bodies, and also states that gold
was found in the province of Apalache.
The shipwreck mentioned may allude to the
loss, in 1526, of one of the two vessels in which
Lucas Vazquez de Ayllon made his unlucky
voyage to Chicora. This vessel was lost at the
mouth of the "Rio Jordon" Herrera (Historia
general, &c, 1726. Vol. II. p. 242, Decada III,
Lib. VII, Cap. XIII). Still, this is conjectural
and requires special investigation, which does not
enter into the scope of these notes.
x3
THE JOURNEY OF
nearly ready for harvest, and also some
that was already ripe. After staying there
two days, we returned to the place where we
had left the purser, the men and the vessels,
and told the purser and pilots what we saw
and the news the Indians had given us.
The next day, which was the 1st of May,
the Governor took aside the commissary, the
purser, the inspector, myself, a sailor called
Bartolome Fernandez and a notary by the
name of Jeronimo de Albaniz, and told us
that he had in mind to penetrate inland,
while the vessels should follow the coast as
far as the harbor; since the pilots said and
believed that, if they went in the direction
of the Palms they would reach it soon. On
this he asked us to give our opinions.
I replied that it seemed to me in no man-
ner advisable to forsake the ships until they
were in a safe port, held and occupied by
us. I told him to consider that the pilots
were at a loss, disagreeing among them-
selves, undecided as to what course to pur-
sue. Moreover, the horses would not Be
with us in case we needed them, and, fur-
thermore, we had no interpreter to make
14
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
ourselves understood by the natives ; hence
we could have no parley with them. Neither
did we know what to expect from the land
we were entering, having no knowledge of
what it was, what it might contain and by
what kind of people it was inhabited, nor
in what part of it we were ; finally, that we
had not the supplies required for penetrating
into an unknown country, for of the stores
left in the ships not more than one pound of
biscuit and one of bacon could be given as
rations to each man for the journey, so that,
in my opinion, we should re-embark and
sail in quest of a land and harbor better
adapted to settlement, since the country
which we had seen was the most deserted
and the poorest ever found in those parts.
The commissary was of the contrary
opinion saying, that we should not embark,
but follow the coast in search of a harbor, as
the pilots asserted that the way to Panuco
was not more than ten or fifteen leagues dis-
tant and that by following along the coast it
was impossible to miss it, since the coast
bent inland for twelve leagues. The first
ones who came there should wait for the
i5
THE JOURNEY OF
others. As to embarking, he said it would
be to tempt God, after all the vicissitudes of
storms, losses of men and vessels and hard-
ships we had suffered since leaving Spain,
and until we came to that place. So his ad-
vice would be to move along the coast as far
as the harbor, while the vessels with the
other men would follow to the same port.
To all the others this seemed to be the
best, except to the notary, who said that be-
fore leaving the ships they should be put
into a harbor well known, safe and in a set-
tled country, after which we might go in-
land and do as we liked.
The Governor clung to his own idea and
to the suggestions of the others.
Seeing his determination, I required him,
on the part of Your Majesty, not to forsake
the vessels until they were in a secure port,
and I asked the notary present to testify to
what I said. The Governor replied that he
approved the opinion of the other officials
and of the commissary; that I had no au-
thority for making such demands, and he
asked the notary to give him a certified
statement as to how, there not being in the
16
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
country the means for supporting a settle-
ment, nor any harbor for the ships, he broke
up the village he had founded, and went in
search of the port and of a better land. So
he forthwith ordered the people who were to
go with him to get ready, providing them-
selves with what was necessary for the jour-
ney. After this he turned to me, and told
me in the presence of all who were there
that, since I so much opposed the expedition
into the interior and was afraid of it, I
should take charge of the vessels and men
remaining, and, in case I reached the port
before him, I should settle there. This I
declined.
After the meeting was over he, on that
same evening, saying that it seemed to him
as if he could not trust anybody, sent me
word that he begged me to take charge of
that part of the expedition, and as, in spite
of his insistency, I declined, he asked for the
reasons of my refusal, I then told him that I
refused to accept, because I felt sure he
would never see the ships again, or be seen
by their crews any more ; that, seeing how
utterly unprepared he was for moving in-
i7
THE JOURNEY OF
land, I preferred to share the risk with him
and his people, and suffer what they would
have to suffer, rather than take charge of
the vessels and thus give occasion for say-
ing that I opposed the journey and remained
out of fear, which would place my honor in
jeopardy. So that I would much rather ex-
pose of my life than, under these circum-
stances, my good name.
Seeing that he could not change my de-
termination, he had others approach me
about it with entreaties. But I gave the
same answer to them as to him, and he
finally provided for his lieutenant to take
command of the vessels, an* alcalde named
Caravallo.
ON Saturday, the 1st of May, the day
on which all this had happened, he
ordered that they should give to
each one of those who had to go with him,
two pounds of ship-biscuit and one-half
pound of bacon, and thus we set out upon our
journey inland. The number of people we
18
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
took along was three hundred,5 among them
the commissary, Father Juan Xuarez, another
friar called Father Juan de Palos and three
priests, the officers, and forty horsemen. We
marched for fifteen days, living on the sup-
plies we had taken with us, without finding
anything else to eat but palmettos like those
of Andalusia. In all this time we did not
meet a soul, nor did we see a house or vil-
lage, and finally reached a river, which we
crossed with much trouble, by swimming
and on rafts. It took us a day to ford the
river on account of the swiftness of its cur-
rent. When we got across, there came to-
wards us some two hundred Indians, more
or less; the Governor went to meet them,
and after he talked to them by signs they
acted in such a manner that we were obliged
to set upon them and seize five or six, who
took us to their houses, about half a league
from there, where we found a large quan-
tity of corn ready for harvest. We gave
infinite thanks to our Lord for having help-
6Oviedo (Historia, III, p. 584) says, following
the Letter to the Audiencia, 260 foot and forty
horse. The Relacion (p. 270) three hundred men
and forty men on horseback ("trescientos
hombres y quarenta hombres de a caballo").
19
THE JOURNEY OF
ed us in such great need, for, as we were
not used to such exposures, we felt greatly
exhausted, and were much weakened by
hunger.
On the third day that we were at this
place the purser, the inspector, the com-
missary and myself jointly begged the Gov-
ernor to send out in search of a harbor, as
the Indians told us the sea was not very far
away. He forbade us to speak of it, saying
it was at a great distance, and I being the
one who most insisted, he bade me to go on
a journey of discovery and search of a port,
and said I should go on foot with forty peo-
ple. So the next day I started with the Cap-
tain Alonso del Castillo and forty men of his
company. At noon we reached sandy patches
that seemed to extend far inland. For about
one and a half leagues we walked, with the
water up to the knee, and stepping on shells
that cut our feet badly. All this gave us
much trouble, until we reached the river
which we had crossed first, and which
emptied through the same inlet, and then, as
we were too ill-provided for crossing it,
we turned back to camp and told the Gov-
20
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
ernor what we had found and how it was
necessary to ford the river again at our first
crossing in order to explore the inlet thor-
oughly and find out if there was a harbor.
The next day he sent a captain called
Valenzuela with sixty footmen and six
horsemen to cross the river and follow its
course to the sea in search of a port. After
two days he came back, reporting that he
had discovered the inlet, which was a shal-
low bay, with water to the knees, but it had
there no harbor. He saw five or six canoes
crossing from one side to the other, with
Indians who wore many feather bushes.
Hearing this, we left the next day, al-
ways in quest of the province called Apa-
la.chen by the Indians, taking as guides
those whom we had captured, and marched
until the 17th of June without finding
an Indian who would dare to wait for us.
Finally there came to us a chief, whom
an Indian carried on his shoulders. He
wore a painted deerskin, and many people
followed him, and he was preceded by many
players on flutes made of reeds. He came
to the place where the Governor was and
21
THE JOURNEY OF
stayed an hour. We gave him to under-
stand by signs that our aim was to reach
Apalachen, but from his gestures it seemed
to us that he was an enemy of the Apalachen
people and that he would go and help us
against them. We gave him beads and little
bells and other trinkets, while he presented
the Governor with the hide he wore. Then
he turned back and we followed him.
That night" we reached a broad and deep
river, the current of which was very strong
and as we* did not dare to cross it, we built a
canoe out of rafts and were a whole day in
getting across. If the Indians had wished
to oppose us, they could have easily impeded
our passage, for even with their help we had
much trouble. One horseman, whose name
was Juan Velazquez, a native of Cuellar,
not willing to wait, rode into the stream,
and the strong current swept him from the
horse and he took hold of the reins, and
was drowned with the animal. The Indians
of that chief (whose name was Dulchan-
chellin) discovered the horse and told us
that we would find him lower down the
stream. So they went after the man, and
22
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
his death caused us much grief, since until
then we had not lost anybody. The' horse
made a supper for many on that night. Be-
yond there, and on the following day, we
reached the chief's village, whither he sent
us corn.
That same night, as they went for water,
an arrow was shot at one of the Chris-
tians, but God willed that he was not
hurt. The day after we left this place, with-
out any of the natives having appeared, be-
cause all had fled, but further on some In-
dians were seen who showed signs of hos-
tility, and although we called them they
would neither come back nor wait, but with-
drew and followed in our rear. The Gov-
ernor placed a few horsemen in ambush
near the trail, who as they (the Indians)
passed, surprised them* and took three or
four Indians, whom we kept as guides
thereafter. These led us into a country diffi-
cult to traverse and strange to look at, for it
had very great forests, the trees being won-
derfully tall and so many of them fallen that
they obstructed our way so that we had to
make long detours and with great trouble.
23
THE JOURNEY OF
Of the trees standing many were rent from
top to bottom by thunderbolts, which strike
very often in that country, where storms and
tempests are always frequent.
With such efforts we travelled until the
day after St. John's Day, when we came
in sight of Apalachen, without having been
noticed by the Indians of the land. We gave
many thanks to God for being so near it,
believing what we had been told about the
country to be true, and that now our suffer-
ings would come to an end after the long
and weary march over bad trails. We had
also suffered greatly from hunger, for, al-
though we found corn occasionally, most of
the time we marched seven or eight leagues
without any. And many there were among
us who besides suffering great fatigue and
hunger, had their backs covered with
wounds from the weight of the armor and
other things they had to carry as occasion
required. But to find ourselves at last where
we wished to be and where we had been
assured so much food and gold would be
had, made us forget a great deal of our
hardships and weariness.
24
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
ONCE in sight of Apalachen,6 the
Go.vernor commanded me to enter
the village with nine horsemen and
fifty foot. So the inspector and I undertook
this. Upon penetrating into the village we
found only women and boys. The men were
not there at the time, but soon, while we
were walking about, they came and began to
fight, shooting arrows at us. They killed
the inspector's horse, but finally fled and
left us. We found there plenty of ripe
maize ready to be gathered and much dry
corn already housed. We also found many
deer skins and among them mantles made of
thread and of poor quality, with which the
women cover parts of their bodies. They
had many vessels for grinding maize.7 The
village contained forty small and low
"This Indian village seems to have been situated
west of the peninsula of Florida, not far from the
coast. Without presuming to insist upon its loca-
tion, I would only remark that it might have been
on or near what is now the Apalachicola river.
At least, the French map accompanying the His-
torical Collections of Louisiana (Part II, 185,
1850) has : "Apalaches. lei etaient ci-devant les
Apalaches."
7The text says : "Tenian muchos vasos para
moler maiz." This seems to indicate mortars.
25
THE JOURNEY OF
houses,8 reared in sheltered places, out of
fear of the great storms that continuously
occur in the country. The buildings are of
straw, and they are surrounded by dense
timber, tall trees and numerous water-pools,
where there were so many fallen trees and
of such size as to greatly obstruct and im-
pede circulation.
THE country between our landing
place and the village and country of
Apalachen is mostly level; the soil
is sand and earth. All throughout it there
are very large trees and open forests con-
taining nut trees, laurels and others of the
kind called resinous, cedar, juniper, water-
oak, pines, oak and low palmetto, like those
of Castilla.9 Everywhere there are many
8I use the word "house" here, but I shall here-
after prefer the term of "lodge." It is more in
harmony with the character of the frail construc-
tions which he describes. Later on, when Cabeza
de Vaca alludes to more substantial structures, I
shall again employ the term "house." In general,
"casa" in Spanish means house, dwelling, home,
abode, &c.
The original has : "Donde hay nogales y lau-
reles y otros que se llaman liquid-dmbares,
cedros sabinos y encinas y pinos y robles, palmitos
bajos, de la mancra de los de Castilla." Luquid-
dmbar is the product of a species of the Mexican
pine, besides being amber proper.
26
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
lagunes, large and small, some very difficult
to cross, partly because they are so deep,
partly because they are covered with fallen
trees. Their bottom is sandy, and in the
province of Apalachen the lagunes are much
larger than those we found previously.
There is much maize in this province and
the houses are scattered all over the country
as much as those of the Gelves. The ani-
mals we saw there were three kinds of deer,
rabbits and hares, bears and lions and other
wild beasts, among them one that carries its
young in a pouch on its belly as long as the
young are small, until they are able to look
for their sustenance, and even then, when
they are out after food and people come, the
mother does not move until her little ones
are in the pouch again. The country is very
cold ;10 it has good pasture for cattle ; there
are birds of many kinds in large numbers :
geese, ducks, wild ducks, muscovy ducks,
Ibis, small white herons (Egrets), herons
and partridges. We saw many fal-
cons, marsh-hawks, sparrow-hawks, pigeon-
10It is somewhat puzzling to read this, since it
was midsummer when Narvaez reached Apa-
lachen,
27
THE JOURNEY OF
hawks and many other birds.11 Two hours
after we arrived at Apalachen the Indians
that had fled came back peaceably, begging
us to give back to them their women and
children, which we did.12 The Governor,
however, kept with him one of their ca-
ciques, at which they became so angry as to
attack us the following day. They did it so
swiftly and with so much audacity as to set
fire to the lodges we occupied, but when we
sallied forth they fled to the lagunes nearby,
on account of which and of the big corn
patches, we could not do them any harm
beyond killing one Indian. The day after,
Indians from a village on the other side
came and attacked us in the same manner,
escaping in the same way, with the loss of
a single man.
We remained at this village for twenty-
lu'Hay aves de muchas maneras, ansares en
gran cantidad, pasos, dnades, patos reales, dorales
y garzotas y garzas, perdices; vimcs muchos hal-
cones, neblis, gavilanes, esmorejanes, y otras
muchas aves." The "dorales" are ibis, the "ne-
bli" corresponds to the marsh-hawk, and the
nearest approach to the "esmorejan" might be
the pigeon-hawk, perhaps. The "garzota" is the
egret.
12To return the non-combatants to the Indians
was not very wise, and shows that Narvaez and
his officers had little knowledge of Indian nature.
28
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
five days, making three excursions dur-
ing the j time. We found the country
very thinly inhabited and difficult to march
through, owing to bad places, timber
and lagunes. We inquired of the cacique
whom we had retained and of the other In-
dians with us (who were neighbors and
enemies of them) about the condition and
settlements of the land, the quality of its
people, about supplies and everything else.
They answered, each one for himself, that
Apalachen was the largest town of all ; that
further in less people were met with, who
were very much poorer than those here, and
that the country was thinly settled, the in-
habitants greatly scattered, and also that
further inland big lakes, dense forests, great
deserts and wastes were met with.
Then we asked about the land to the south,
its villages and resources. They said that in
that direction and nine days' march towards
the sea was a village called Aute,13 where
the Indians had plenty of corn and also
beans and melons, and that, being so near
13On the map in Louisiana historical collections,
already mentioned, Aute, is placed near the mouth
of the Apalachicola river.
29
THE JOURNEY OF
the sea, they obtained fish, and that those
were their friends. Seeing how poor the
country was, taking into account the un-
favorable reports about its population and
everything else, and that the Indians made
constant war upon us, wounding men and
horses whenever they went for water
(which they could do from the lagunes
where we could not reach them) by shoot-
ing arrows at us; that they had killed a
chief of Tezcuco called Don Pedro, whom
the commissary had taken along with him,
we agreed to depart and go in search of the
sea, and of the village of Aute, which they
had mentioned. And so we left, arriving
there five days after. The first day we
travelled across lagunes and trails without
seeing a single Indian.
On the second day, however, we reached
a lake very difficult to cross, the water
reaching to the chest, and there were a great
many fallen trees. Once in the middle of
it, a number of Indians assailed us from
behind trees that concealed them from our
sight, while others were on fallen trees, and
they began to shower arrows upon us, so
30
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
that many men and horses were wounded,
and before we could get out of the lagune
our guide was captured by them. After we
had got out, they pressed us very hard, in-
tending to cut us off, and it was useless to
turn upon them, for they would hide in the
lake and from there wound both men and
horses.
So the Governor ordered the horsemen
to dismount and attack them on foot. The
pursuer dismounted also, and our people at-
tacked them. Again they fled to a lagune,
and we succeeded in holding the trail. In
this fight some of our people were wounded,
in spite of their good armor. There were
men that day who swore they had seen two
oak trees, each as thick as the calf of a leg,
shot through and through by arrows, which
is not surprising if we consider the force
and dexterity with which they shoot. I
myself saw an arrow that had penetrated
the base of a poplar tree for half a foot in
length. All the many Indians from Florida
we saw were archers, and, being very tall
and naked, at a distance they appear giants.
Those people are wonderfully built, very
31
THE JOURNEY OF
gaunt and of great strength and agility.
Their bows are as thick as an arm, from
eleven to twelve spans long, shooting an ar-
row at 200 paces with unerring aim. From
that crossing we went to another similar
one, a league away, but while it was half a
league in length it was also much more diffi-
cult. There we crossed without opposition,
for the Indians, having spent all their ar-
rows at the first place, had nothing where-
with they would dare attack us. The next
day, while crossing a similar place, I saw
the tracks of people who went ahead of us,
and I notified the Governor, who was in the
rear, so that, although the Indians turned
upon us, as we were on our guard, they
could do us no harm. Once on open ground
they pursued us still. We attacked them
twice, killing two, while they wounded me
and two or three other Christians, and en-
tered the forest again, where we could no
longer injure them.
In this manner we marched for eight
days, without meeting any more natives,
until one league from the site to which
I said we were going. There, as we
32
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
were marching along, Indians crept up un-
seen and fell upon our rear. A boy be-
longing to a nobleman, called Avellaneda,
who was in the rear guard, gave the alarm.
Avellaneda turned back to assist, and the
Indians hit him with an arrow on the edge
of the cuirass, piercing his neck nearly
through and through, so that he died on the
spot, and we carried him to Aute. It took
us nine days from Apalachen to the place
where we stopped.14 And then we found
that all the people had left and the lodges
were burnt. But there was plenty of maize,
squash and beans, all nearly ripe and ready
for harvest. We rested there for two
days.
After this the Governor entreated me to
go in search of the sea, as the Indians said
it was so near by, and we had, on this
march, already suspected its proximity from
a great river to which we had given the
name of the Rio de la Magdalena.15 I left
"Oviedo, p. 587, has eight or nine days. On
p. 586 he says they stayed 26 days at Apalachen,
instead of 25, as Cabeza de Vaca.
"This may have been the Apalachicola, accord-
ing to the French map.
33
THE JOURNEY OF
on the following day in search of it, accom-
panied by the commissary, the captain Cas-
tillo, Andres Dorantes, seven horsemen and
fifty foot. We marched until sunset, reach-
ing an inlet or arm of the sea, where we
found plenty of oysters on which the peo-
ple feasted, and we gave many thanks to
God for bringing us there.
The next day I sent twenty men to
reconnoiter the coast and explore it, who
returned on the day following at night-
fall, saying that these inlets and bays
were very large and went so far in-
land as greatly to impede our investiga-
tions, and that the coast was still at a great
distance. Hearing this and considering
how ill-prepared we were for the task, I re-
turned to where the Governor was. We
found him sick, together with many others.
The night before, Indians had made an at-
tack, putting them in great stress, owing to
their enfeebled condition. The Indians had
also killed one of their horses. I reported
upon my journey and on the bad condition
of the country. That day we remained
there.
34
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
ON the next day we left Aute and
marched (all day) to the spot I had
visited on my last exploration. Our
march was extremely difficult, for neither
had we horses enough to carry the sick, nor
did we know how to relieve them. They
became worse every day, and our sufferings
were afflicting. There it became manifest
how few resources we had for going fur-
ther, and even in case we had been provided
we did not know where to go ; our men were
mostly sick and too much out of condition
to be of any use whatever. I refrain from
making a long story of it. Any one can
imagine what might be experienced in a
land so strange and so utterly without re-
sources of any kind, either for stay or for
an escape. Nevertheless, since the surest
aid was God, Our Lord, and since we never
doubted of it, something happened that put
us in a worse plight yet.
Most of the horsemen began to leave
in secret, hoping thus to save them-
35
THE JOURNEY OF
selves, forsaking the Governor and the
sick, who were helpless.16 Still, as among
them were many of good families and
of rank, they would not suffer this to
happen unbeknown, to the Governor and
Your Majesty's officials, so that, when we
remonstrated, showing at what an unseason-
able time they were leaving their captain
and the sick and, above all, forsaking Your
Majesty's service, they concluded to stay,
and share the fate of all, without abandon-
ing one another. The Governor thereupon
called them to his presence all together, and
each one in particular, asking their opinion
about this dismal country, so as to be able to
get out of it and seek relief, for in that land
there was none.
One-third of our people were danger-
ously ill, getting worse hourly, and we
felt sure of meeting the same fate,
with death as our only prospect, which in
such a country was much worse yet. And
considering these and many other incon-
veniences and that we had tried many ex-
pedients, we finally resorted to a very diffi-
"Of this planned desertion Oviedo says nothing.
36
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
cult one, which was to build some craft in
which to leave the land. It seemed impossi-
ble, as none of us knew how to construct
ships. We had no tools, no iron, no smith-
ery, no oakum, no pitch, no tackling ; finally,
nothing of what was indispensable. Neither
was there anybody to instruct us in ship-
building, and, above all, there was nothing
to eat, while the work was going on, for
those who would have to perform the task.
Considering all this, we agreed to think it
over. Our parley ceased for that day, and
everyone went off, leaving it to God, Our
Lord, to put him on the right road accord-
ing to His pleasure.
The next day God provided that one
of the men should come, saying that he
would make wooden flues, and bellows
of deerskin, and as we were in such
a state that anything appearing like relief
seemed acceptable, we told him to go to
work, and agreed to make of our stirrups,
spurs, cross-bows and other iron imple-
ments the nails, saws and hatchets and
other tools we so greatly needed for our
purpose.
37
THE JOURNEY OF
In order to obtain food while the work pro-
posed was in progress we determined upon
four successive raids into Aute, with all the
horses and men that were fit for service, and
that on every third day a horse should be
killed and the meat distributed among those
who worked at the barges and among the
sick. The raids were executed with such
people and horses as were able, and they
brought as many as four hundred fanegas of
maize, although not without armed opposi-
tion from the Indians. We gathered plenty of
palmettos, using their fibre and husk, twist-
ing and preparing it in place of oakum for
the barges. The work on these was done by
the only carpenter we had, and progressed so
rapidly that, beginning on the fourth day
of August, on the twentieth day of the
month of September17 five barges of twenty-
two elbow lengths each were ready, caulked
with palmetto oakum and tarred with pitch,
which a Greek called Don Teodoro made
from certain pines. Of the husk of pal-
"The latter date is also in Oviedo (p. 588),
but not in Relation; but the estimate of the dis-
tances is of little importance. It is a computation
of the length of the line of march, not the dis-
tance between two points.
38
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
mettos, and of the tails and manes of the
horses we made ropes and tackles, of
our shirts sails, and of the junipers that
grew there we made the oars, which we
thought were necessary, and such was
the stress in which our sins had placed us
that only with very great trouble could
we find stones for ballast and anchors
of the barges, for we had not seen a
stone in the whole country. We flayed
the legs of the horses and tanned the skin
to make leather pouches for carrying
water.
During that time some of. the party went
to the coves and inlets for sea-food, and
the Indians surprised them twice, kill-
ing ten of our men in plain view of the
camp, without our being able to prevent it.
We found them shot through and through
with arrows, for, although several wore
good armor, it was not sufficient to protect
them, since, as I said before, they shot their
arrows with such force and precision. Ac-
cording to the sworn statements of our
pilots, we had travelled from the bay, to
which we gave the name of the Cross, to
39
THE JOURNEY OF
this place, two hundred and eighty leagues,
more or less.
In all these parts we saw no mountains
nor heard of any, and before embarking we
had lost over forty men through sickness
and hunger, besides those killed by Indians.
On the twenty-second day of the month
of September we had eaten up all the
horses but one. We embarked in the
following order: In the barge of the
Governor there were forty-nine men, and
as many in the one entrusted to the
purser and the commissary. The third
barge he placed in charge of Captain Alonso
del Castillo and of Andres Dorantes, with
forty-eight men ; in another he placed two
captains, named Tellez and Penalosa, with
forty-seven men. The last one he gave to
the inspector and to me, with forty-nine
men, and, after clothing and supplies were
put on board, the sides of the barges only
rose half a foot above the water. Besides,
we were so crowded as to be unable to stir.
So great is the power of need that it
brought us to venture out into such a trou-
blesome sea in this manner, and without
40
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
any one among us having the least knowl-
edge of the art of navigation.
THAT bay from which we started is
called the Bay of the Horses. We
sailed seven days among those in-
lets, in the water waist deep, without signs
of anything like the coast. At the end of
this time we reached an island near the
shore. My barge went ahead, and from it
we saw five Indian canoes coming. The
Indians abandoned them and left them in
our hands, when they saw that we approach-
ed. The other barges went on and saw
some lodges on the same island, where we
found plenty of ruffs and their eggs, dried,
and that was a very great relief in our needy
condition. Having taken them, we went
further, and two leagues beyond found a
strait between the island and the coast,
which strait we christened Sant Miguel, it
being the day of that saint. Issuing from
it we reached the coast, where by means of
the five canoes I had taken from the Indians
we mended somewhat the barges, making
4i
THE JOURNEY OF
washboards and adding to them and raising
the sides two hands above water.
Then we set out to sea again, coast-
ing towards the River of Palms.19 Every
day our thirst and hunger increased be-
cause our supplies were giving out, as
well as the water supply, for the pouches
we had made from the legs of our
horses soon became rotten and useless.
From time to time we would enter some
inlet or cove that reached very far inland,
but we found them all shallow and danger-
ous, and so we navigated through them for
thirty days, meeting sometimes Indians who
fished and were poor and wretched people.
At the end of these thirty days, and when
we were in extreme need of water and hug-
ging the coast, we heard one night a canoe
approaching. When we saw it we stopped
10This "Rio de las Palmas" is frequently men-
tioned in the oldest sources on Florida and north-
eastern Mexico. (See, concerning it, the expe-
dition of De Soto in "Trail-Makers") The map
by Brevoort identifies the "Rio de las Palmas"
with the Rio Grande. The mouth of the Palmas
is stated to have been sixty leagues above (north)
of that of the Panuco river. This, as well as the
statement repeatedly found in older documents,
that from the river of Palms the coast turns to
the south, whereas from Florida on it ran from
east to west, favors the assumption.
42
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
and waited, but it would not come to us,
and, although we called out, it would neither
turn back nor wait. It being night, we did
not follow the canoe, but proceeded. At
dawn we saw a small island, where we
touched to search for water, but in vain, as
there was none. While at anchor a great
storm overtook us. We remained there six
days without venturing to leave, and it be-
ing five days since we had drank anything
our thirst was so great as to compel us to
drink salt water, and several of us took such
an excess of it that we lost suddenly five
men.
I tell this briefly, not thinking it necessary
to relate in particular all the distress and
hardships we bore. Moreover, if one takes
into account the place we were in and the
slight chances of relief he may imagine
what we suffered. Seeing that our thirst
was increasing and the water was killing us,
while the storm did not abate, we agreed to
trust to God, Our Lord, and rather risk the
perils of the sea than wait there for certain
death from thirst. So we left in the direc-
tion we had seen the canoe going on the
43
THE JOURNEY OF
night we came here. During this day we
found ourselves often on the verge of
drowning and so forlorn that there was
none in our company who did not expect to
die at any moment.
It was Our Lord's pleasure, who many
a time shows His favor in the hour
of greatest distress, that at sunset we
turned a point of land and found there
shelter and much improvement. Many
canoes came and the Indians in them spoke
to us, but turned back without waiting.
They were tall and well built, and carried
neither bows nor arrows. We followed
them to their lodges, which were nearly
along the inlet, and landed, and in front of
the lodges we saw many jars with water,
and great quantities of cooked fish. The
chief of that land offered all to the Governor
and led him to his abode. The dwellings
were of matting and seemed to be perma-
nent. When we entered the home of the
chief he gave us plenty of fish, while we
gave him of our maize, which they ate in
our presence, asking for more. So we gave
more to them, and the Governor presented
44
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
him with some trinkets. While with the
cacique at his lodge, half an hour after sun-
set, the Indians suddenly fell upon us and
upon our sick people on the beach.
They also attacked the house of the cacique,
where the Governor was, wounding him in
the face with a stone. Those who were with
him seized the cacique, but as his people
were so near he escaped, leaving in our
hands a robe of marten-ermine skin, which,
I believe, are the finest in the world and
give out an odor like amber and musk. A
single one can be smelt so far off that it
seems as if there were a great many. We
saw more of that kind, but none like these.
Those of us who were there, seeing the
Governor hurt, placed him aboard the barge
and provided that most of the men should
follow him to the boats. Some fifty of us
remained on land to face the Indians, who
attacked thrice that night, and so furiously
as to drive us back every time further than
a strone's throw.
Not one of us escaped unhurt. I was
wounded in the face, and if they had
had more arrows (for only a few were
45
THE JOURNEY OF
found) without any doubt they would have
done us great harm. At the last onset
the Captains Dorantes, Penalosa and Tellez,
with fifteen men, placed themselves in am-
bush and attacked them from the rear, caus-
ing them to flee and leave us. The next
morning I destroyed more than thirty of
their canoes, which served to protect us
against a northern wind then blowing, on
account of which we had to stay there, in
the severe cold, not venturing out to sea on
account of the heavy storm. After this we
again embarked and navigated for three
days, having taken along but a small supply
of water, the vessels we had for it being
few. So we found ourselves in the same
plight as before.
Continuing onward, we entered a firth
and there saw a canoe with Indians ap-
proaching. As we hailed them they came,
and the Governor, whose barge they neared
first, asked them for water. They offered
to get some, provided we gave them
something in which to carry it, and a
Christian Greek, called Doroteo Teodoro
(who has already been mentioned), said he
46
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
would go with them. The Governor and
others vainly tried to dissuade him, but he
insisted upon going and went, taking along
a negro, while the Indians left two of their
number as hostages. At night the Indians
returned and brought back our vessels, but
without water; neither did the Christians
return with them. Those that had remained
as hostages, when their people spoke to
them, attempted to throw themselves into
the water. But our men in the barge held
them backj and so the other Indians forsook
their canoe, leaving us very despondent and
sad for the loss of those two Christians.
IN the morning many canoes of Indians
came, demanding their two compan-
ions, who had remained in the barge
as hostages. The Governor answered that
he would give them up, provided they re-
turned the two Christians. With those peo-
ple there came five or six chiefs, who seemed
to us to be of better appearance, greater
authority and manner of composure than
any we had yet seen, although not as tall as
47
THE JOURNEY OF
those of whom we have before spoken. They
wore the hair loose and very long, and were
clothed in robes of marten, of the kind we
had obtained previously, some of them done
up in a very strange fashion, because they
showed patterns of fawn-colored furs that
looked very well.
They entreated us to go with them, and
said that they would give us the Christians,
water and many other things, and more
canoes kept coming towards us, trying to
block the mouth of that inlet, and for this
reason, as well as because the land appeared
very dangerous to remain in, we took again
to sea, where we stayed with them till noon.
And as they would not return the Giris-
tians, and for that reason neither would we
give up the Indians, they began to throw
stones at us with slings, and darts, threaten-
ing to shoot arrows, although we did not see
more than three or four bows.
While thus engaged the wind freshened
and they turned about and left us. We navi-
gated that day until nightfall, when my
bark, which was the foremost, discovered a
promontory made by the coast. At the other
48
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
end was a very large river, and at a small
island on the point I anchored to wait for
the other barges.
The Governor did not want to touch, but
entered a bay close by, where there
were many small islands. There we got
together and took fresh water out of the
sea, because the river emptied into it like a
torrent.
For two days we had eaten the corn
raw, and now, in order to toast it, we
went ashore on that island, but not find-
ing any firewood, agreed to go to the river,
which was one league from there behind the
point. However, the current was so strong
that it in no way allowed us to land, but
rather carried us away from the shore
against all our efforts. The north wind that
blew off shore freshened so much that it
drove us back to the high sea, without our
being able to do anything against it, and at
about one-half league from shore we sound-
ed and found no bottom even at thirty fath-
oms. Without being able to understand it,
it was the current that disturbed our sound-
ings. We navigated two days yet, trying
49
THE JOURNEY OF
hard to reach the shore. On the third day,
a little before sunrise, we saw many col-
umns of smoke rising on the coast. Work-
ing towards these, we found ourselves
in three fathoms of water, but it being
night did not dare to land because, as
we had seen so much smoke, we believed
that greater danger might be in wait
for us there. We were unable to see,
owing to the darkness, what we should
do. So we determined to wait until
morning.
When it dawned the barges had been
driven apart from each other. I found
myself in thirty fathoms and, drifting
along at the hour of vespers, I descried
two barges, and as I approached saw
that the first one was that of the Gov-
ernor, who asked me what I thought we
should do. I told him that we ought to re-
join the other barge, which was ahead of us,
and in no manner forsake her, and the three
together should continue our way whither
God might take us. He replied it was im-
possible, since the barge was drifting far
away into the sea, whereas he wanted to
So
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
land, but that if I wished to follow I should
put the people of my barge at the oars and
work hard, as only by the strength of our
arms the land could be reached. In this he
had been advised by a captain he had along,
whose name was Pantoja, who told him that
if he did not land that day he would not in
six days more, during which time we would
of necessity starve.
Seeing his determination, I took to my
own oar and the other oarsmen in my
craft did the same, and thus we rowed
until nearly sunset. But as the Governor
had with him the healthiest and strong-
est men, in no way could we follow or
keep up with him. Seeing this, I asked him
to give me a rope from his barge to be able
to follow, but he answered that it was no
small effort on their part alone to reach the
shore on that night. I told him that since it
was barely possible for us to follow and do
what he had ordained, he should tell me
what he commanded me to do. He an-
swered that this was no time for orders;
that each one should do the best he could to
save himself ; that he intended to do it that
5i
THE JOURNEY OF
way, and with this he went on with his
craft20
As I could not follow him, I went after
the other barge, which was out at sea and
waited for me, and reaching it I found it
was the one of the Captains Penalosa and
Tellez. We travelled together for four days,
our daily ration being half a handful of
raw maize. At the end of these four days
a storm overtook us, in which the other
barge was lost.21 God's great mercy pre-
served us from being drowned in that
weather.
It being winter and the cold very great,
and as we had been suffering so many days
from hunger and from the injuries we re-
ceived from the waves, that the next day
people began to break down, so that when
20The conduct of Narvaez is justly criticised by
Oviedo (Vol. Ill, p. 590) • The Letter to the
Audiencia mentions it, and Relacion (p. 275) al-
ludes to it simply.
21Relacion (p. 275) mentions the loss of the
barge of Tellez and Penalosa. The text of Ovi-
edo (III, p. 590) is quite different. What Cabeza
de Vaca states happened four days after the meet-
ing ; the Letter to the Audiencia refers to the day
immediately after. It barely alludes to the loss
of the barge of Penalosa, &c. This discrepancy
seems to have escaped Oviedo himself, since he
does not speak of it in Chapter VII (p. 614, &c).
52
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
the sun set all those aboard of my barge had
fallen in a heap and were so near dying that
few remained conscious, and not five men
kept on their feet.
When night came the skipper and I were
the only ones able to manage the barge.
Two hours after nightfall the skipper told
me to steer the craft alone, since he felt that
he would die that same night. Thereupon
I stood at the helm, and after midnight went
to see if the skipper was dead, but he said
that, on the contrary, he felt better and
would steer till daybreak. On that occasion
I would have hailed death with delight
rather than to see so many people around
me in such a condition. After the skipper
had taken the barge under his control I
went to rest, very much without resting, for
I thought of anything else but sleep.
Near daybreak I fancied to hear the sound
of breakers, for as the coast was low, their
noise was greater. Surprised at it, I called
the skipper, who said he thought we were
near the shore. Sounding, we found seven
fathoms, and he was of the opinion that we
should keep off shore till dawn. So I took
53
THE JOURNEY OF
the oar and rowed along the coast, from
which we were one league away, and turned
the stern to seaward.
Close to shore a wave took us and
hurled the barge a horse's length out of
water. With the violent shock nearly all
the people who lay in the boat like
dead came to themselves, and, seeing we
were close to land, began to crawl out on all
fours. As they took to some rocks, we built
a fire and toasted some of our maize. We
found rain water, and with the warmth of
the fire people revived and began to cheer
up. The day we arrived there was the sixth
of the month of November.
AFTER the people had eaten I sent
Lope de Oviedo, who was the
strongest and heartiest of all, to go
to some trees nearby and climb to the top
of one, examine the surroundings and the
country in which we were. He did so and
found we were on an island, and that the
ground was hollowed out, as if cattle had
gone over it, from which it seemed to him
54
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
that the land belonged to Christians, and so
he told us. I sent him again to look and
examine more closely if there were any
worn trails, and not to go too far so as not
to run into danger. He went, found a foot-
path, followed it for about one-half league,
and saw several Indian huts which stood
empty because the Indians had gone out into
the field.22
He took away a cooking pot, a little dag
and a few ruffs and turned back, but as he
seemed to delay I sent two other Christians
to look for him and find out what had hap-
pened.
They met him nearby and saw that
three Indians, with bows and arrows, were
following and calling to him, while he did
the same to them by signs. So he
came to where we were, the Indians re-
maining behind, seated on the beach. Half
an hour after a hundred Indian archers
joined them, and our fright was such that,
whether tall or little, it made them appear
"The word "campo" means literally field, but
in the present instance may as well apply to the
surrounding country in general, whether level or
accidented, wooded or a grassy plain. The idea
of cultivated land is, of course excluded.
55
THE JOURNEY OF
giants to us. They stood still close to the
first ones, near where we were.
We could not defend ourselves, as there
were scarcely three of us who could stand on
their feet. The inspector and I stepped for-
ward and called them. They came, and we
tried to quiet them the best we could and
save ourselves, giving them beads and bells.
Each one of them gave me an arrow in token
of friendship, and by signs they gave us to
understand that on the following morning
they would come back with food, as then
they had none.
THE next day, at sunrise, which was
the hour the Indians had given us
to understand, they came as prom-
ised and brought us plenty of fish and some
roots which they eat that taste like nuts,
some bigger, some smaller, most of which
are taken out of the water with much
trouble.
In the evening they returned and brought
us more fish and some of the same roots,
56
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
and they brought their women and children
to look at us. They thought themselves
very rich with the little bells and beads we
gave them, and thereafter visited us daily
with the same things as before. As we saw
ourselves provided with fish, roots, water
and the other things we had asked for, we
concluded to embark again and continue our
voyage.
We lifted the barge out of the sand into
which it had sunk (for which purpose
we all had to take off our clothes) and had
great work to set her afloat, as our condi-
tion was such that much lighter things
would have given us trouble.
Then we embarked. Two crossbow shots
from shore a wave swept over us, we all got
wet, and being naked and the cold very
great, the oars dropped out of our hands.
The next wave overturned the barge. The
inspector and two others clung to her to
save themselves, but the contrary happened ;
they got underneath the barge and were
drowned.
The shore being very rough, the sea took
the others and thrust them, half dead, on the
57
THE JOURNEY OF
beach of the same island again, less the three
that had perished underneath the barge.
The rest of us, as naked as we had been
born, had lost everything, and while it was
not worth much, to us it meant a great
deai. it was in November, bitterly cold,
and we in such a state that every bone
could easily be counted, and we looked like
death itself. Of myself I can say that since
the month of May I had not tasted anything
but toasted maize, and even sometimes had
been obliged to eat it raw. Although the
horses were killed during the time the
barges were built, I never could eat of them,
and not ten times did I taste fish. This I
say in order to explain and that any one
might guess how we were off. On top of
all this, a north wind arose, so that we were
nearer death than life. It pleased Our Lord
that, searching for the remnants of our for-
mer fire, we found wood with which we
built big fires and then with many tears
begged Our Lord for mercy and forgiveness
of our sins. Every one of us pitied not only
himself, but all the others whom he saw in
the same condition.
58
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
At sunset the Indians, thinking we had
not left, came to bring us food, but
when they saw us in such a different
attire from before and so strange-looking,
they were so frightened as to turn back.
I went to call them, and in great fear
they came. I then gave them to understand
by signs how we had lost a barge and three
of our men had been drowned, while before
them there lay two of our men dead, with
the others about to go the same way.
Upon seeing the disaster we had suffered,
our misery and distress, the Indians sat
down with us and all began to weep out of
compassion for our misfortune, and for
more than half an hour they wept so loud
and so sincerely that it could be heard far
away.
Verily, to see beings so devoid of reason,
untutored, so like unto brutes, yet so deeply
moved by pity for us, it increased my feel-
ings and those of others in my company for
our own misfortune. When the lament was
over, I spoke to the Christians and asked
them if they would like me to beg the In-
dians to take us to their homes. Some of
59
THE JOURNEY OF
the men, who had been to New Spain, an-
swered that it would be unwise, as, once at
their abode, they might sacrifice us to their
idols.
Still, seeing there was no remedy and
that in any other way death was surer and
nearer, I did not mind what they said,
but begged the Indians to take us to their
dwellings, at which they showed great
pleasure, telling us to tarry yet a little, but
that they would do what we wished. Soon
thirty of them loaded themselves with fire-
wood and went to their lodges, which were
far away, while we stayed with the others
until it was almost dark. Then they took
hold of us and carried us along hurriedly to
where they lived.
Against the cold, and lest on the way
some one of us might faint or die, they had
provided four or five big fires on the road,
at each one of which they warmed us. As
soon as they saw we had regained a little
warmth and strength they would carry us
to the next fire with such haste that our feet
barely touched the ground.
So we got to their dwellings, where we
60
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
saw they had built a hut for us with many
fires in it. About one hour after our arrival
they began to dance and to make a great cel-
ebration (which lasted the whole night), al-
though there was neither pleasure, feast nor
sleep in it for us, since we expected to-be sac-
rificed. In the morning they again gave us
fish and roots, and treated us so well that
we became reassured, losing somewhat our
apprehension of being butchered.
THAT same day I saw on one of the
Indians a trinket he had not gotten
from us, and asking from where
they had obtained it they answered, by signs,
that other men like ourselves and who were
still in our rear, had given it to them. Hear-
ing this, I sent two Christians with two In-
dians to guide them to those people. Very
near by they met them, and they also were
looking for us, as the Indians had told them
of our presence in the neighborhood. These
were the Captains Andres Dorantes and
Alonso del Castillo, with all of their crew.
When they came near us they were much
THE JOURNEY OF
frightened at our appearance and grieved at
being unable to give us anything, since they
had nothing but their clothes. And they
stayed with us there, telling how, on the
fifth of that same month, their barge strand-
ed a league and a half from there, and they
escaped without anything being lost.
All together, we agreed upon repairing
their barge, and that those who had strength
and inclination should proceed in it, while
the others should remain until completely re-
stored and then go as best they could along
the coast, following it till God would be
pleased to get us all together to a land of
Christians.
So we set to work, but ere the barge
was afloat Tavera, a gentleman in our com-
pany, died, while the barge proved not to
be seaworthy and soon sank. Now, being
in the condition which I have stated — that
is, most of us naked and the weather so un-
favorable for walking and for swimming
across rivers and coves, and we had neither
food nor any way to carry it, we determined
upon submitting to necessity and upon win-
tering there, and we also agreed that four
62
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
men, who were the most able-bodied, should
go toPanuco,whichwe believed to be nearby,
and that, if it was God, Our Lord's will to
take them there, they should tell of our re-
maining on the island and of our distress.
One of them was a Portuguese, called Al-
varo Fernandez, a carpenter and sailor ; the
second was Mendez; the third, Figueroa, a
native of Toledo; the fourth, Astudillo,
from Zafra. They were all good swimmers
and took with them an Indian from the
island.
A FEW days after these four Chris-
tians had left, the weather became
so cold and tempestuous that the
Indians could no longer pull roots, and the
canebrake in which they used to fish yielded
nothing more. As the lodges afforded so
little shelter, people began to die, and five
Christians, quartered on the coast, were
driven to such an extremity that they ate
each other up until but one remained, who
being left alone, there was nobody to eat
him. Their names are: Sierra, Diego,
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THE JOURNEY OF
Lopez, Corral, Palacios and Gonzalo Ruiz.
At this the Indians were so startled, and
there was such an uproar among them, that
I verily believe if they had seen this at the
beginning they would have killed them, and
we all would have been in great danger.
After a very short time, out of eighty men
who had come there in our two parties only
fifteen remained alive.
Then the natives fell sick from the stom-
ach, so that one-half of them died also, and
they, believing we had killed them, and hold-
ing it to be certain, they agreed among them-
selves 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.
64
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
To this island we gave the name of the
Island of III Fate.2* The people on it are
tall and well formed; they have no other
weapons than bows and arrows with which
they are most dextrous. 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 men-
tioned, taken from under the water in No-
vember 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
• 23In Relacion (p. 277) Cabeza de Vaca says
the island was called by them "Mai Fondo,"
which seems a misprint.
65
THE JOURNEY OF
them best, and should the child of one of
them happen to die, parents and relatives
bewail it, and the whole settlement, the la-
ment/lasting a full year, day after day. Be-
fore 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 is to bury the dead, ex-
cept those who are medicine men among
them, whom they burn, and while the fire
is burning, all dance and make a big fes-
tival, 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,
66
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
and among these wives there is great friend-
ship 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, prefer-
ring rather to starve, but the relatives and
neighbors provide them with victuals. Now,
as during the time we were there so many
67
THE JOURNEY OF
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 mos-
quitoes. 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, dur-
ing 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 ask-
ing for our diplomas, because they cure dis-
68
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
eases 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, sure-
ly had greater power and virtue.
At last we found ourselves in such
stress as to have to do it, without risk-
ing any punishment. Thefr 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
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THE JOURNEY OF
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.24
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
"Jacques le Moyne de Morgues, Brevis Nar-
ratio corvm qua in Florida America Provicia
Gallis acciderunt (1591, in De Bry), says of the
"Mode of treating the sick" {Narrative of Le
Moyne, Illustration 20, p. 9) : "Cutting into the
skin of the forehead with a sharp shell, they suck
out blood with their mouths." The remainder of
the ceremony, as described, differs from that re-
lated by Cabeza de Vaca.
70
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
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, al-
though I afterwards suffered still greater
privations and much more distress, as I
shall tell further on.
The Indians that kept Alonso del Cas-
tillo, 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 broad-
est. 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 np ruler among them.
All who are of the same descendancy clus-
ter together. There are two distinct lan-
7i
THE JOURNEY OF
guages 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 gath-
ered 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
72
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
life, this was enough to take it away from
me completely. When the Christians learn-
ed 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
73
THE JOURNEY OF
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 main-
74
ALVAR NUNEZ GABEZA DE VACA
ly 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 lib-
erty 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 need-
ed, 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
75
THE JOURNEY OF
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 coun-
try, 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 Chris-
tian called Lope de Oviedo, who still lin-
gered on the island. The other compan-
ion, 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, entreat-
ing him to leave with me and go, as well as
we could, in search of Christians. Eut 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,
76
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
since he could not swim. Thence we pro-
ceeded, 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.25
On the opposite shore we saw Indians
who had come to meet those in our com-
pany. 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 wilfully,
only because these had gone from one house
to another, and their neighbors with whom
was now the Captain Dorantes, had, in con-
sequence of some dream dreamt by these
Indians, killed Esquivel and Mendez also.
25"Espiritu Santo." This was the name given
to a bay, and probably to the mouth of a large
river. The Letter to the Audiencia, Oviedo (p.
593), describes it as follows: "This inlet (or
bay) was wide, almost a league across, and it
makes a point toward the direction of Panuco,
that juts out into the sea nearly a quarter of a
league, with some great dunes of white sand vis-
ible at a great distance from the sea; and from
this they suspected that it must have been the
Espiritu Santo river."
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THE JOURNEY OF
We asked them about those who remained
alive, and they said they were in a very
sorry condition, as the boys and other In-
dians, 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 set-
tled, 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 other companions.
And fearing this, Lope de Oviedo, my com-
78
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
panion, said he preferred to go back, with
some women of the Indians in whose com-
pany 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 Gnevenes, 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 any-
thing else. Even of that they do not al-
ways 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
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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 In-
dians. 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 com-
ing, 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
1 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
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ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
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 deter-
mined 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 de-
parture) 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 an-
other 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 Dor-
antes stayed. This Indian, his wife, their
81
THE JOURNEY OF
son and another Indian who was with them
were all cross-eyed. These are called Mari-
ames, 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, whic.i 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.26
At this, the last cove, they said they saw
Indians eating blackberries, who, upon per-
ceiving the Christians, went away to an-
"I have been unable to find, as yet, any refer-
ence that might serve to explain this term.
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ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
other 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 got-
ten to that place, where two of their num-
ber and one Indian had died from cold and
hunger, because they had come and re-
mained 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
him27 with those called Guevenes; and that
this Christian was Hernando de Esquivel,
from Badajoz, a companion of the commis-
sary. From Esquivel he learned how the
Governor, the purser and the others had
ended.
"Thus in original, although it seems unclear.
I do not venture to make or suggest a change.
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THE JOURNEY OF
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 Gov-
ernor 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. There-
upon the people who had remained on land
proceeded along the coast, and, being much
impeded by water, built rafts with great
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ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
trouble, in which they passed to the other
side.
Going ahead, they reached a point of tim-
ber 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 Chris-
tians, in view of the season and weather,
since it was in the month of November, re-
mained 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 lieu-
tenant, 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, quarrelled 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
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THE JOURNEY OF
look if they were dead and took Esquivel
along with him.
Once in the hands of this Indian, Fi-
gueroa 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.28
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 fur-
thermore that if the Christians would go
about there for some time they might possi-
bly 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
"This is substantially corroborated in Oviedo.
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ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
just said, he and the Ashman wished to go
to other Indians further on, but when
those with whom they were found it out,
they beat them severely, undressed the As-
turian 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 con-
dition 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 orte lodge to another. These
were Diego Dorantes, Valdivieso and Diego
de Huelva. The three remaining ones ex-
pected 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 Dor-
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antes 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 com-
mon 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,
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
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 chil-
dren 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 starva-
tion that these roots are to them indispensa-
ble 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,29 worms, lizards and
^The pupas.
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THE JOURNEY OF
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 men-
tion ; 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 mat-
ters. Most of these Indians are great
thieves, for, although very liberal towards
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ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
each other, as soon as one turns his head,
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 catch-
ing 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
the squeeze and open them and set them to
dry. When dried they are put in baskets
like7 figs and kept to be eaten on the way.
The peelings they grind and pulverize.
While with them it happened many times
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THE JOURNEY OF
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 perse-
cuted 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 In-
dians roused us again with blows to go and
kindle the fires.
Those from further inland have another
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ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
remedy, just as bad and even worse, which
is to go about with a firebrand, set-
ting 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 them-
selves 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
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THE JOURNEY OF
toil or suffering in this world comes near
it.
All over this country there are a great
many deer, fowl and other animals which I
have before enumerated. Here also they
come up with cows ; I have seen them thrice
and have eaten their meat. They appear to
me of the size of those in Spain. Their horns
are small, like those 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 coun-
try further on, to the coast of Florida,
and are found all over the land for over
four hundred leagues. On this whole
stretch, through the valleys by which they
come, people who live there descend to sub-
sist upon their flesh. And a great quantity
of hides are met with inland.30
80In print, this is the earliest notice extant of
the American Bison, or Buffalo. The Letter to
the Audiencia does not mention the "cows,'* It
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ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
WHEN I had been with the Chris-
tians 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 them-
selves 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.
is probable, however, that the first report, sent
to Spain by Mendoza, contained a reference to
it. The Relation does not reach beyond the time
when they arrived at the bay, or river, of Espiritu
Santo. Oviedo speaks of the cows after the book
of 1542.
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We had already agreed to escape and ap-
pointed a day for it, when on that very day
the Indians separated us, sending each one
to a different place, and I told my compan-
ions that I would wait for them at the tunas
until full moon. It was the first of Septem-
ber 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
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ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
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 rain-
water 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 Camones, 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
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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 recom-
mended ourselves to God, Our
Lord, and fled, hoping that, al-
though it was late in the season and the
fruits of the tunas were giving out, by re-
maining 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
98
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
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 ar-
rived there on that very day with their
lodges. Forthwith they offered us many
tunas, because they had heard of us and of
99
THE JOURNEY 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 won-
derful 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 fur-
ther on.
ON the night we arrived there some
Indians came to Castillo complain-
ing 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
ioo
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
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 in-
creasing mercy and kindness, and after they
were all well they began to dance and cele-
brate and feast until sunrise of the day fol-
lowing.
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 In-
dians. 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
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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 protec-
tion against the cold, for I went as naked
as a new-born 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 be-
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ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
fore 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 acci-
dent. 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,
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and told me that thus far they had wan-
dered 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 hun-
ger, 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
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ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
ailment whatever. This caused them great
admiration and moved us to thanks to Our
Lord and to greater faith in His good-
ness 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
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and among whom, they said, was one on the
point of death. Castillo was very timid, es-
pecially 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, remem-
bering 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 Chris-
tians. 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
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ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
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 re-
turned telling, that the dead man whom
I attended to in their presence had resus-
citated, 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 sur-
prise and awe, and all over the land noth-
ing 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 Cultal-
chulches) had to return to their country, be-
fore 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
107
THE JOURNEY OF
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 hap-
piest people upon earth, having given us the
very best they had.
We remained with the Avavares Indians
for eight months, according to our reckon-
ing 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 be-
hind told us a very strange tale. From their
account it may have occurred fifteen or six-
teen years ago. They said there wandered
then about the country a man, whom they
108
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
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
109
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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.31
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 In-
dians further along on the coast, which we
"There is no mention of this story in Oviedo.
What may be the basis for it is impossible to
conjecture. It may have been a tradition, but
completely misunderstood, hence misreported, by
the Spaniards.
no
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
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 appear-
ance 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 dwell-
ings 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
THE JOURNEY O-F
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 swol-
len 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 dwell-
ings.
When the Indians saw us they clustered
together, after having talked among them-
selves, 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, who-
ever ate of them became very thirsty. And
we finally grew so hungry that we pur-
112
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
chased 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
Ihorns, than those I was then enduring. I
made a contract with the Indians to make
combs, arrows, bows and nets for them.
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THE JOURNEY OF
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 en-
joyed 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, be-
cause 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 broil-
ed 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
baiter.
114
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
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
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THE JOURNEY OF
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 and afterwards to their
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, giv-
ing us all they had, content with being with-
out 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.
116
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
FROM the Island of Ill-Fate on, all the
Indians whom we met as far as to
here have the custom of not cohabit-
ing with their wives when these are preg-
nant, and until the child is two years old.32
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 scar-
city 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 aban-
doned; but a son or brother is taken
along.
There is also a custom- for husbands to
"Not in Oviedo. He mentions it, however (on
p. 617), as stated by Cabeza de Vaca in his book.
The same in regard to the following sentences.
117
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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 chil-
dren 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 sepa-
rate. 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.
118
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
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 ar-
range 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 dis-
covered.
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
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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 Agitenes and these
not on their guard, their enemies surprised
them at midnight, killing three and wound-
ing 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, be-
sides wounding a great many. The rest
made their escape, leaving homes and
bows behind, with all their other belong-
ings.
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 per-
sonal questions and are not of one family,
kill each other in a treacherous way and deal
most cruelly with one another.
120
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
THOSE Indians are the readiest peo-
ple 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 when-
ever they see danger or suspect their ene-
mies might approach. When day comes
they unstring their bows until they go hunt-
ing.
The strings of their bows are made of
deer sinews. They fight in a crouching pos-
ture, 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 re-
ceive little damage from our crossbows and
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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 over-
come.
Whoever has to fight Indians must take
great care not to let them think he is dis-
heartened 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 spend-
ing all their arrows, they part, going each
their own way, and without attempting pur-
suit, 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 re-
cover quickly. Their eyesight, hearing and
senses in general are better, I believe, than
122
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
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 Is-
land 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 main-
land, facing the island, are others, called of
Charrnco, 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 Quevcnes, in front fur-
ther inland the Mariames, and following
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the coast we come to the Guaycones, and in
front of them inland the Yeguajces. After
those come the Atayos, and behind them
others, called Decubadaos, of whom there
are a great many further on in this direc-
tion. On the coast live the Quitoles, and in
front of them, inland, the Chauauares.
These are joined by the Maliacones and the
Cultalchiilches and others called Susolas
and Comos, ahead on the coast are the
Camolas, and further on those whom we call
the people of the figs.33
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 them-
selves drunk by a certain smoke for which
they give all they have. They also drink
something which they extract from leaves of
83Oviedo gives no names of tribes. How far
they may be reliable is extremely problematic. In
the first place, it is very doubtful if Cabeza de
Vaca understood as much of the language of the
different tribes as he insinuates ; and next, even
if they are really names of distinct tribes or bands,
we cannot determine whether they were those
which they gave to themselves or those given to
them by others, which is always a great dif-
ference.
124
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
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 al-
though 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
125
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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.34
During the time I was among them I saw
something very repulsive, namely, a man
married to another. Such are impotent and
womanish beings, who dress like women and
perform the office of women, but use the
bow and- carry big loads. Among these In-
dians we saw many of them ; they are more
robust than the other men, taller, and can
bear heavy burthens.
A'fter parting from those we had left in
tears, we went with the others to their homes
and were very well received. They brought
us their children to touch, and gave us much
mezquite-meal. This mezquiquez36 is a fruit
"Not in Letter to Audiencia, but Oviedo men-
tions it as contained in Cabeza de Vaca.
3GThe well-known Mesquite tree. The report
in Oviedo does not make mention of it, but in
Chapter VII, of Book XXXV, Vol. Ill, p. 617,
Oviedo copies almost literally this passage rela-
tive to Mesquite,
126
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
which, while on the tree, is very bitter and
like the carob bean. It is eaten with earth
and then becomes sweet and very palatable.
The way they prepare it is to dig a hole in
the ground, of the depth it suits them, and
after the fruit is put in that hole, with a
piece of wood, the thickness of a leg and one
and a half fathoms long they pound it to a
meal, and to the earth that mixes with it in
the hole they add several handfuls and
pound again for a while. After that they
empty it into a vessel, like a small, round
basket, and pour in enough water to cover it
fully, so that there is water on top. Then
the one who has done the pounding tastes
it, and if it appears to him not sweet enough
he calls for more earth to add, and this he
does until it suits his taste. Then all squat
around and every one reaches out with his
hand and takes as much as he can. The
seeds and peelings they set apart on hides,
and the one who has done the pounding
throws them back into the vessel, pouring
water over them again. They squeeze out
the juice and water, and the husks and seeds
they again put on hides, repeating the opera-
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tion three or four times at every pounding.
Those who take part in that banquet, which
is for them a great occasion, get very big
bellies from the earth and water they
swallow.
Now, of this, the Indians made a great
feast in our behalf, and danced and cele-
brated all the time we were with them. And
at night six Indians, to each one of us, kept
watch at the entrance to the lodge we slept
in, without allowing anybody to enter be-
fore sunrise.
When we were about to leave some
women happened to come, that belonged to
I Indians living further on, and, informing
ourselves where their abodes were, we left,
although the Indians entreated us to remain
a day longer, since the place we wanted to
go to was very far away, and there was no
trail to it. They showed us how the women
who had just arrived were tired, but that
if we would let them rest until the next day,
they then would accompany and guide us.
We left, nevertheless, and soon the women
followed with others of the village.
There being no trails in that country, we
128
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
soon lost our way. At the end of four
leagues we reached a spring, and there met
the women who had followed us, and who
told us of all they had gone through until
they fell in with us again. We went on,
taking them along as guides.
In the afternoon we crossed a big river,
the water being more than waist-deep. It
may have been as wide as the one of Sevilla,
and had a swift current. At sunset we
reached a hundred Indian huts and, as we
approached, the people came out to receive
us, shouting frightfully, and slapping their
thighs. They carried perforated gourds
filled with' pebbles, which are ceremonial ob-
jects of great importance. They only use
them at dances, or as medicine, to cure, and
nobody dares touch then* but themselves.
They claim that those gourds have healing
virtues, and that they come from Heaven,
not being found in that country; nor do
they know where they come from, except
that the rivers carry them down when they
rise and overflow the land.
So great was their excitement and eager-
ness to touch us that, every one wanting to
129
THE JOURNEY OF
be first, they nearly squeezed us to death,
and, without suffering our feet to touch the
ground, carried us to their abodes. So many
crowded down upon us that we took refuge
in the lodges they had prepared for our ac-
commodation, and in no manner consented
to be feasted by them on that night.
The whole night they spent in celebration
and dancing,37 and the next morning they
brought us every living soul of that village
to be touched by us and to have the cross
made over them, as with the others. Then
they gave to the women of the other village
who had come with their own a great many
arrows. The next day we went on, and all
the people of that village with us, and when
"It is perhaps not amiss to call attention here
to the fact that an Indian dance is much more
of a religious performance than a mere rejoicing.
This Cabeza de Vaca, of course, did not, and
could not, know. The dances may just as well
have been, in part at least, conjurations, either
to implore the spirits to intercede for them with
the mysterious strangers, or to protect the In-
dians from any evil the newcomers might intend
to inflict, by rendering them harmless. Of course,
the further on the Spaniards went, and the better
it became known that their actions were beneficial,
the more these ceremonies had to assume the
character of intercession only, coupled with
thanks for the coming (or sending) of such pow-
erfully beneficial beings.
130
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
we came to other Indians were as well re-
ceived as anywhere in the past; they also
gave us of what they had and the deer they
had killed during the day. Among these we
saw a new custom. Those who were with
us took away from those people who came
to get cured their bows and arrows, their
shoes and beads, if they wore any, and
placed them before us to induce us to cure
the sick. As soon as these had been treated
they went away contented and saying they
felt well.
So we left there also, going to others, by
whom we were also very well received, and
they brought us their sick, who, after we
had made the sign of the cross over them,
would say they were healed, and he who
did not get well still believed we might cure
him. And at what the others whom we had
treated told they rejoiced and danced so
much as not to let us sleep.
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After we left those we went to many other
lodges, but thence on there prevailed a new
custom. While we were received very well
everywhere, those who came with us would
treat those who received us badly, taking
away their belongings and plundering their
homes, without leaving them anything. It
grieved us very much to see how those who
were so good to us were abused. Besides,
we dreaded lest this behavior might cause
trouble and strife. But as we could not ven-
ture to interfere or punish the transgressors,
we had to wait until we might have more
authority over them. Furthermore, the suf-
ferers themselves, noticing how we felt,
comforted us by saying we should not
worry ; that they were so happy at seeing us
as to gladly lose their own, considering it
to be well employed, and besides, that fur-
ther on they would repay themselves from
other Indians who were very rich. On that
whole journey we were much worried by
the number of people following us. We
could not escape them, although we tried,
because they were so anxious to touch us,
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ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
and so obtrusive that in three hours we
could not get through with them.
The following day they brought us all the
people of the village ; most of them had one
eye clouded, while others were totally blind
from the same cause, at which we were
amazed. They are well built, of very good
physique, and whiter than any we had met
until then. There we began to see mountains,
and it seemed as if they swept down from
the direction of the North Sea, and so, from
what the Indians told us, we believe they
are fifteen leagues from the ocean.38
From there we went with the Indians to-
wards the mountains aforesaid, and they
took us to some of their relatives. They did
not want to lead us anywhere but to their
own people, so as to prevent their enemies
having any share in the great boon which,
^Elsewhere I have observed that the terms,
north, or south, sea, indicate, not the north and
south respectively, but east and west ; the north
sea being the Atlantic and the south sea the
Pacific. Hence the mountains here mentioned
extended, at least approximately, from east to
west. As will be seen further on, the slopes of
these mountains were covered with "iron slags,"
indicating volcanic rock. This may lead to the
identification of the chain of mountains described
by Cabeza de Vaca.
133
THE JOURNEY OF
as they fancied, it was to see us. And as
soon as we would arrive those that went
with us would sack the houses of the others ;
but as these knew of the custom before our
coming, they hid some of their chattels, and,
after receiving us with much rejoicing, they
took out the things which they had concealed
and presented them to us. These were beads
and ochre, and several little bags of silver.39
We, following the custom, turned the gifts
immediately over to the Indians who had
come in our company, and after they had
given these presents they began their dances
and celebrations, and sent for others from
another village near by to come and look at
us. In the afternoon they all came, and
brought us beads, bows, and other little
things, which we also distributed.
The next day, as we were going to leave,
they all wanted to take us to others of their
"In place of "silver," the edition of 1555 has
"margarita," which may stand for mica, or else
foliated gypsum. Mica is more likely. Oviedo
(ut supra) says: "This last relation [the one of
1542] says the Indians gave to those Christians
[Cabeza de Vaca and his companions] some little
bags with silver, which is a mistake of the printer,
who should have put, little bags with margarita
(mica), and not 'with silver.' "
134
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
friends, who dwelt on a spur of the moun-
tains. They said there were a great many
lodges, and people who would give us much,
but, as it was out of our way, we did not
want to go there, and continued on the plain,
though near the mountains, thinking them
to be not far from the coast. All the people
there are very bad, and we preferred to cross
the country, as further inland they were bet-
ter inclined, and treated us better. We also
felt sure to find the country more thickly
settled and with more resources. Finally,
we did it because, in crossing the country,
we would see much more of its particulars,
so that, in case God our Lord should be
pleased to spare one of us and take him
back to a land of Christians, he might give
an account of it.
When the Indians saw we were deter-
mined not to go whither they wanted, they
said that nobody lived where we intended
to go, neither were there tunas nor any
other food, and they entreated us to tarry
one day longer with them, to which we con-
sented. Two Indians were sent out to look
for people on our proposed route.
i35
THE JOURNEY OF
The next day we departed, taking many
of them along, the women carrying water,
and so great had become our authority that
none dared to drink without our permission.
After going two leagues we met the men
sent out in search of people, but who had
not found any. At this the Indians seemed
to show grief, and again begged us to take
the way of the mountains, but we persisted,
and, seeing this, they took mournful leave
of us and turned back down the river to their
homes, while we proceeded along the stream
upwards.
Soon we met two women carrying loads.
As they descried us they stood still, put
down their loads, and brought us of what
these contained, which was cornmeal, and
told us that higher up on the river we would
meet with dwellings, plenty of tunas, and
of that same meat. We left them,, as they
were going to those from whom we had
just taken leave, and walked on until at sun-
set we reached a village of about twenty
lodges, where they received us with tears
and deep sorrow. They already knew that,
wherever we arrived, the people would be
136
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
robbed and plundered by those in our com-
pany. But, seeing us alone, they lost their
fear, and gave us tunas, though nothing
else. We stayed there over night.
At daybreak the same Indians we had
left the day before surprised the lodges, and,
as the people were unprepared, in fancied se-
curity, and had neither time nor place to
hide anything, they were stripped of all their
chattels, at which they wept bitterly. In
consolation, the robbers told them that we
were children of the sun, and had the power
to cure or kill, and other lies, bigger even
than those which they invent to suit their
purposes. They also enjoined them to treat
us with great reverence, and be careful not
to arouse our wrath ; to give us all they
had and guide us to where there were many
people, and that wherever we should come
to they should steal and rob everything the
others had, such being the custom.
After giving these instructions, and teach-
ing the people how to behave, they returned,
and left us with these Indians, who, mind-
ful of what the others had said, began to
treat us with the same respect and awe, and
i37
THE JOURNEY OF
we travelled in their company for three days.
They took us to where there were many In-
dians, and went ahead to tell them of our
coming, repeating what they had heard and
adding much more to it, for all these In-
dians are great gossipers and liars, particu-
larly when they think it to be to their bene-
fit. As we neared the lodges all the in-
mates came out to receive us, with much
rejoicing and display, and, among other
things, two of their medicine-men gave us
two gourds. Thence onward we carried
gourds, which added greatly to our author-
ity, since they hold these ceremonial objects
very high.40 Our companions sacked the
dwellings, but as there were many and they
only few in number, they could not carry
away all they took, so that more than half
was left to waste. Thence we turned inland
for more than fifty leagues, following the
slopes of the mountains, and at the end of
them met forty dwellings.
There, among other things which they
gave us, Andres Dorantes got a big rattle
*°The well-known rattles of the medicine-men,
also used largely in dances.
138
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
of copper, large, on which was represented
a face, and which they held in great esteem.
They said it had been obtained from some of
their neighbors. Upon asking these whence
it had come, they claimed to have brought
it from the north, where there was much of
it and highly prized. We understood that,
wherever it might have come from, there
must be foundries, and that metal was cast
in molds.41 Leaving on the next day, we
crossed a mountain seven leagues long, the
stones of which were iron slags. At night
we came to many dwellings, situated on the
banks of a very beautiful river.
The inmates of these abodes came to re-
ceive us halfways, with their children on
their backs. They gave us a number of
pouches with silver42 and powdered anti-
mony (or lead),43 with which they paint
41This recalls the copper plate on the breast of
a chief Quivira. (Compare the "Journey of
Coronado," in this series.) That Indian did as
little know the origin of the ornament he was
wearing (although Nebraska lies considerably
nearer the deposits of native copper than Texas)
than the Indians of Cabeza de Vaca. From the
(of course, fancied) belief in the existence of
foundries, we may infer that the rattle was cast.
^Should be mica (margarita) .
^This may have been war-paint, both lead and
antimony procuring a dark-bluish hue on the
139
THE JOURNEY OF
their faces, and many beads and robes of
cow-skins, and loaded those who came with
us with all their chattels. These people ate
tunas and pine-nuts ; there are in that coun-
try small trees of the sweet pine,44 the cones
of which are like small eggs, but the nuts
are better than those of Castilla, because the
husks are thin. When still green they grind
them and make balls that are eaten. When
dried they grind the nuts with the husks,
and eat them as meal. And those who re-
ceived us, as soon as they had touched our
bodies, returned to their houses on a run,
then came again, and never stopped running
back and forth. In this way they brought
us a great many things for our journey.
Here they brought to me a man who, they
told, a long time ago had been shot through
the left side of the back with an arrow, the
head of which stuck close to his heart. He
said it gave him much pain, and that on this
skin. In New Mexico a manganese ore is used
for war-paint.
"Pinus edulis, the well-known Pifion tree with
its edible nuts. If the statement of Cabeza de
Vaca, "in that country," means the place where
he was then, it must have been somewhere within
the triangle formed by the Rio Grande and the
Pecos rivers, where the nut pine exists to-day.
140
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
account he was sick. I touched the region
of the body and felt the arrowhead, and that
it had pierced the cartilage. So, with a
knife, I cut open the breast as far as the
place. The arrow point had gotten athwart,
and was very difficult to remove. By cut-
ting deeper, and inserting the point of the
knife, with great difficulty I got it out; it
was very long. Then, with a deer-bone, ac-
cording to my knowledge of surgery, I made
two stitches. After I had extracted the ar-
row they begged me for it, and I gave it
to them. The whole village came back to
look at it, and they sent it further inland
that the people there might see it also.
On account of this cure they made many
dances and festivities, as is their custom.
The next day I cut the stitches, and the In-
dian was well. The cut I had made only
showed a scar like a line in the palm of the
hand, and he said that he felt not the least
pain.
Now, this cure gave us such fame among
them all over the country as they were cap-
able of conceiving and respecting. We
showed them our rattle, and they told us that
141
THE JOURNEY OF
where it had come from there were a great
many sheets of the same (metal) buried,45
that it was a thing they valued highly, and
that there were fixed abodes at the place.
We believe it to be near the South Sea, for
we always heard that sea was richer (in
metal) than the one of the north.
After leaving these people we travelled
among so many different tribes and lan-
guages that nobody's memory can recall
them all, and always they robbed each
other; but those who lost and those who
gained were equally content. The number
of our companions became so large that we
could no longer control them.
Going through these valleys each Indian
carried a club three palms in length. They
all moved in a front, and whenever a hare
(of which there are many) jumped up they
closed in upon the game, and rained such
blows upon it that it was amazing to see.
Thus they drove the hare from one to the
other, and, to my fancy, it was the most
agreeable chase that could be thought of,
for many a time they would come right to
45This seems an allusion to native copper.
142
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
one's hands ; and when at night we camped
they had given us so many that each one of
us had eight or ten loads.46 Those of the
Indians who carried bows would not take
part, but went to the mountains after deer,
and when at night they came back it was
with five or six deer for each one of us, with
birds, quails, and other game ; in short, alt
those people could kill they set before us,
without ever daring to touch anything, even
if dying of hunger, unless we blessed it
first. Such was their custom from the time
they joined us.
The women brought many mats, with
which they built us houses, one for each of
us and those attached to him. After this we
would order them to broil all the game, and
they did it quickly in ovens built by them
for the purpose. We partook of everything
a little, giving the rest to the principal man
among those who had come with us for dis-
tribution among all. Every one then came
with the share he had received for us to
breathe on it and bless it, without which they
"This recalls the ceremonial rabbit-hunt of the
Pueblo Indians of New Mexico.
143
THE JOURNEY OF
left it untouched. Often we had with us
three to four thousand persons. And it was
very tiresome to have to breathe on and
make the sign of the cross over every morsel
they ate or drank. For many other things
which they wanted to do they would come
to ask our permission, so that it is easy to
realize how greatly we were bothered. The
women brought us tunas, spiders, worms,
and whatever else they could find, for they
would rather starve than partake of any-
thing that had not first passed through our
hands.
While travelling with those, we crossed
a big river coming from the north and, tra-
versing about thirty leagues of plains, met
a number of people that came from afar to
meet us on the trail, who treated us like the
foregoing ones.
Thence on there was a change in the man-
ner of reception, insofar as those who would
meet us on the trail with gifts were no
longer robbed by the Indians of our com-
pany, but after we had entered their homes
they tendered us all they possessed, and the
dwellings also. We turned over everything
144
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
to the principals for distribution. Invariably
those who had been deprived of their be-
longings would follow us, in order to re-
pair their losses, so that our retinue became
very large. They would tell them to be
careful and not conceal anything of what
they owned, as it could not be done with-
out our knowledge, and then we would
cause their death. So much did they frighten
them that on the first few days after join-
ing us they would be trembling all the time,
and would not dare to speak or lift their
eyes to Heaven.
Those guided us for more than fifty
leagues through a desert of very rugged
mountains, and so arid that there was no
game. Consequently we suffered much from
lack of food, and finally forded a very big
river, with its water reaching to our chest.
Thence on many of our people began to
show the effects of the hunger and hard-
ships they had undergone in those moun-
tains, which were extremely barren and tire-
some to travel.
The same Indians led us to a plain be-
yond the chain of mountains, where people
i45
THE JOURNEY OF
came to meet us from a long distance. By
those we were treated in the same manner
as before, and they made so many presents
to the Indians who came with us that, un-
able to carry all, they left half of it. We
told the givers to take it back, so as not to
have it lost, but they refused, saying it was
not their custom to take back what they
had once offered, and so it was left to waste.
We told these people our route was towards
sunset, and they replied that in that direction
people lived very far away. So we ordered
them to send there and inform the inhabi-
tants that we were coming and how. From
this they begged to be excused, because the
others were their enemies, and they did not
want us to go to them. Yet they did not
venture to disobey in the end, and sent two
women, one of their own and the other
a captive. They selected women because
these can trade everywhere, even if there
be war.
We followed the women to a place where
it had been agreed we should wait for them.
After five days they had not yet returned,
and the Indians explained that it might be
146
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
because they had not found anybody. So
we told them to take us north, and they re-
peated that there were no people, except very
far away, and neither food nor water.
Nevertheless we insisted, saying that we
wanted to go there, and they still excused
themselves as best they could, until at last
we became angry.
One night I went away to sleep out in
the field apart from them; but they soon
came to where I was, and remained awake
all night in great alarm, talking to me, say-
ing how frightened they were. They en-
treated us not to be angry any longer, be-
cause, even if it was their death, they would
take us where we chose. We feigned to be
angry still, so as to keep them in suspense,
and then a singular thing happened.
On that same day many fell sick, and
on the next day eight of them died! All
over the country, where it was known,
they became so afraid that it seemed as if
the mere sight of us would kill them. They
besought us not to be angry nor to procure
the death of any more of their number, for
they were convinced that we killed them
147
THE JOURNEY OF
by merely thinking of it. In truth, we were
very much concerned about it, for, seeing
the great mortality, we dreaded that all of
them might die or forsake us in their terror,
while those further on, upon learning of it,
would get out of our way hereafter. We
prayed to God our Lord to assist us, and the
sick began to get well. Then we saw some-
thing that astonished us very much, and it
was that, while the parents, brothers and
wives of the dead had shown deep grief at
their illness, from the moment they died the
survivors made no demonstration whatso-
ever, and showed not the slightest feeling;
nor did they dare to go near the bodies until
we ordered their burial.
In more than fifteen days that we re-
mained with them we never saw them talk
together, neither did we see a child that
laughed or cried. One child, who had be-
gun to cry, was carried off some distance,
and with some very sharp mice-teeth they
scratched it from the shoulders down to
nearly the legs. Angered by this act of
cruelty, I took them to task for it, and they
said it was done to punish the child for hav-
148
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
ing wept in my presence. Their apprehen-
sions caused the others that came to see us
to give us what they had, since they knew
that we did not take anything for ourselves,
but left it all to the Indians.
Those were the most docile people we met
in the country, of the best complexion, and
on the whole well built.
The sick being on the way of recovery,
when we had been there already three days,
the women whom we had sent out returned,
saying that they had met very few people,
nearly all having gone after the cows, as
it was the season. So we ordered those
who had been sick to remain, and those
who were well to accompany us, and that,
two days' travel from there, the same
women should go with us and get people
to come to meet us on the trail for our
reception.
The next morning all those who were
strong enough came along, and at the end
of three journeys we halted. Alonso del Cas-
tillo and Estevanico, the negro, left with the
women as guides, and the woman who was
a captive took them to a river that flows
149
THE JOURNEY OF
between mountains,47 where there was a vil-
lage, in which her father lived, and these
were the first abodes we saw that were like
unto real houses. Castillo and Estevanico
went to these and, after holding parley
with the Indians, at the end of three days
Castillo returned to where he had left us,
bringing with him five or six of the In-
dians. He told how he had found perma-
nent houses, inhabited, the people of which
ate beans and squashes,48 and that he had
also seen maize.
Of all things upon earth this caused us
the greatest pleasure, and we gave endless
thanks to our Lord for this news. Castillo
also said that the negro was coming to meet
us on the way, near by, with all the people
of the houses. For that reason we started,
and after going a league and a half met the
negro and the people that came to receive
"This being the last important stream met by
the wanderers before they reached the Pacific
states of Mexico, it may be permitted to inquire
whether it was not perhaps the Rio Grande, in
which case the stream previously mentioned, and
along which the "cows" were roaming, was the
Pecos.
^The originals have "melones," but I have no
doubt that a species of squash is meant.
150
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
us, who gave us beans and many squashes
to eat, gourds to carry water in, robes of
cowhide, and other things. As those people
and the Indians of our company were ene-
mies, and did not understand each other,
we took leave of the latter, leaving them
all that had been given to us, while we went
on with the former and, six leagues beyond,
when night was already approaching,
reached their houses, where they received us
with great ceremonies. Here we remained
one day, and left on the next, taking them
with us to other permanent houses, where
they subsisted on the same food also, and
thence on we found a new custom.
The people who heard of our approach
did not, as before, come out to meet us on
the way, but we found them at their homes,
and they had other houses ready for us.
They were all seated with their faces turned
to the wall, the heads bowed and the hair
pulled over the eyes. Their belongings had
been gathered in a heap in the middle of the
floor, and thence on they began to give us
many robes of skins. There was nothing
they would not give us. They are the best
151
THE JOURNEY OF
formed people we have seen, the liveliest
and most capable ; who best understood us
and answered our questions. We called
them "of the cows," because most of the
cows die near there,49 and because for more
than fifty leagues up that stream they go to
kill many of them. Those people go com-
pletely naked, after the manner of the first
we met. The women are covered with deer-
skins, also some men, especially the old ones,
who are of no use any more in war.
The country is well settled. We asked
them why they did not raise maize, and they
replied that they were afraid of losing the
crops, since for two successive years it had
not rained, and the seasons were so dry
that the moles had eaten the corn, so that
they did not dare to plant any more until
it should have rained very hard. And they
also begged us to ask Heaven for rain,
which we promised to do. We also wanted to
know from where they brought their maize,
and they said it came from where the sun
sets, and that it was found all over that
"Which is to say, that they are hunted and
killed in that vicinity.
152
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
country, and the shortest way to it was in
that direction. We asked them to tell us
how to go, as they did not want to go them-
selves, to tell us about the way.
They said we should travel up the river
towards the north, on which trail for seven-
teen days we would not find a thing to eat,
except a fruit called chacan, which they
grind between stones ; but even then it can-
not be eaten, being so coarse and dry ; and
so it was, for they showed it to us and we
could not eat it. But they also said that,
going upstream, we would always travel
among people who were their enemies, al-
though speaking the same language, and
who could give us no food, but would re-
ceive us very willingly, and give us many
cotton blankets, hides and other things ; but
that it seemed to them that we ought not
to take that road.
In doubt as to what should be done, and
which was the best and most advantageous
road to take, we remained with them for
two days. They gave us beans, squashes,60
and calabashes. Their way of cooking them
""Original has "melones!'
153
THE JOURNEY OF
is so new and strange that I felt like de-
scribing it here, in order to show how dif-
ferent and queer are the devices and indus-
tries of human beings. They have no pots.
In order to cook their food they fill a middle-
sized gourd with water, and place into a
fire such stones as easily become heated, and
when they are hot to scorch they take them
out with wooden tongs, thrusting them into
the water of the gourd, until it boils. As
soon as it boils they put into it what they
want to cook, always taking out the stones
as they cool off and throwing in hot ones
to keep the water steadily boiling. This is
their way of cooking.
After two days were past we determined
to go in search of maize, and not to follow
the road to the cows, since the latter car-
ried us to the north, which meant a very
great circuit, as we held it always certain
that by going towards sunset we should
reach the goal of our wishes.51
"By following the Rio Grande from the mouth
of the Pecos, they indeed would have travelled
almost due west for about a hundred and fifty
154
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
So we went on our way and traversed the
whole country to the South Sea, and our
resolution was not shaken by the fear of
great starvation, which the Indians said we
should -suffer (and indeed suffered-) during
the first seventeen days of travel. All along
the river, and in the course of these seven-
teen days we received plenty of cowhides,
and did not eat of their famous fruit (cha-
can), but our food consisted (for each day)
of a handful of deer-tallow, which for that
purpose we always sought to keep, and so
endured these seventeen days, at the end of
which we crossed the river and marched
for seventeen days more. At sunset, on a
plain between very high mountains, we met
people who, for one-third of the year, eat
but powdered straw, and as we went by
just at that time, had to eat it also, until, at
the end of that journey we found some
permanent houses, with plenty of harvested
maize, of which and of its meal they gave
us great quantities, also squashes and beans,
and blankets of cotton, with all of which
miles, and thence northwest for about eighty
miles more, by air line; whereas, by ascending
the Pecos they had to go due north,
155
THE JOURNEY OF
we loaded those who had conducted us
thither, so that they went home the most
contented people upon earth. We gave God
our Lord many thanks for having taken us
where there was plenty to eat.
Among the houses there were several
made of earth, and others of cane matting;
and from here we travelled more than a
hundred leagues, always meeting permanent
houses and a great stock of maize and beans,
and they gave us many deer (-hides?) and
blankets of cotton better than those of New
Spain. They also gave us plenty of beads
made out of the coral found in the South
Sea ; many good turquoises, which they get
from the north ; they finally gave us all they
had; and Dorantes they presented with five
emeralds, shaped as arrow-points, which ar-
rows they use in their feasts and dances.52
As they appeared to be of very good qual-
ity, I asked whence they got them from, and
82The "emeralds" are not mentioned in the re-
port published by Oviedo, but Oviedo himself re-
fers to them (p. 618) from the 1542 edition. It
is not unlikely they were malachites. I saw, in
possession of a prominent medicine-man from the
Pueblo of San Juan, in New Mexico, a plate of
malachite shaped like a large, blunt knife, which
he said had come from Chihuahua. It was, of
156
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
they said it was from some very high moun-
tains toward the north, where they traded
for them with feather-bushes and parrot-
plumes, and they said also that there were
villages with many people and very big
houses.
Among those people we found the women
better treated than in any other part of the
Indies as far as we have seen. They wear
skirts of cotton that reach as far as the knee,
and over them half-sleeves of scraped deer-
skin, with strips that hang down to the
ground, and which they clean with certain
roots, that clean very well and thus keep
them tidy. The shirts are open in front and
tied with strings ; they wear shoes.
All those people came to us that we might
touch and cross them ; and they were so ob-
trusive as to make it difficult to endure since
all, sick and healthy, wanted to be crossed.
It happened frequently that women of our
company would give birth to children and
course, not transparent, but had a fine emerald
hue, with dendrites. In South America (Peru
and Bolivia) among the common people emeralds
having a so-called "garden"— that is, imperfectly
transparent specimens — are highly prized, pro-
vided their color is deep green.
157
THE JOURNEY OF
forthwith bring them to have the sign of the
cross made over them and the babes be
touched by us. They always accompanied
us until we were again in the care of others,
and all those people believed that we came
from Heaven. What they do not under-
stand or is new to them they are wont to
say it comes from above.
While travelling with these we used to go
the whole day without food, until night, and
then we would eat so little that the Indians
were amazed. They never saw us tired, be-
cause we were, in reality, so inured to hard-
ships as not to feel them any more. We
exercised great authority over them, and
carried ourselves with much gravity, and,
in order to maintain it, spoke very little to
them. It was the negro who talked to them
all the time ; he inquired about the road we
should follow, the villages — in short, about
everything we wished to know. We came
across a great variety and number of lan-
guages, and God our Lord favored us with
a knowledge of all, because they always
could understand us and we understood
them, so that when we asked they would
158
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
answer by signs, as if they spoke our tongue
and we theirs; for, although we spoke six
languages,53 not everywhere could we use
them, since we found more than a thousand
different ones. In that part of the country
those who were at war would at once make
peace and become friendly to each other, in
order to meet us and bring us all they pos-
sessed ; and thus we left the whole country
at peace.
We told them, by signs which they under-
stood, that in Heaven there was a man called
God, by us, who had created Heaven and
earth, and whom we 'worshipped as our
Lord ; that we did as he ordered us to do,
all good things coming from his hand, and
that if they were to do the same they would
become very happy ; and so well were they
inclined that, had there been a language in
which we could have made ourselves per-
fectly understood, we would have left them
all Christians. All this we gave them to
understand as clearly as possible, and since
then, when the sun rose, with great shout
"The acquiring of six Indian languages in the
course of eight years, through practice imposed
by necessity, is not impossible.
159
THE JOURNEY OF
ing they would lift their clasped hands to
Heaven and then pass them all over their
body. The same they did at sunset. They
are well conditioned people, apt to follow
any line which is well traced for them.
In the village where they had given us
the emeralds, they also gave Dorantes over
six hundred hearts of deer, opened, of which
they kept always a great store for eating.
For this reason we gave to their settlement
the name of "village of the hearts." Through
it leads the pass into many provinces near
the South Sea, and any one who should at-
tempt to get there by another route must
surely be lost, as there is no maize on the
coast, and they eat powdered fox-tail grass,
straw, and fish, which they catch in the sea
in rafts, for they have no canoes. The
women cover their loins with straw and
grass. They are a very shy and surly
people.
We believe that, near the coast, in a line
with the villages which we followed, there
are more than a thousand leagues of inhab-
ited land, where they have plenty of victuals,
160
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
since they raise three crops of beans and
maize in the year. There are three kinds
of deer, one kind as large as calves are in
Castilla. The houses in which they live are
huts. They have a poison, from certain trees
of the size of our apple trees. They need but
pick the fruit and rub their arrows with it ;
and if there is no fruit they take a branch
and with its milky sap do the same. Many
of those trees are so poisonous that
if the leaves are pounded and washed
in water near by, the deer, or any other
animal that drinks of it burst at once.54 In
this village we stayed three days, and at a
day's journey from it was another one,
where such a rain overtook us that, as the
river rose high, we could not cross it, and
remained there fifteen days.
During this time Castillo saw, on the neck
of an Indian, a little buckle from a sword-
belt, and in it was sewed a horseshoe nail.
He took it from the Indian, and we asked
"Not in the report given by Oviedo, but men-
tioned by him as from the edition of 1542 (p.
618). The village of the "hearts" is a point well
established in southern central Sonora. (See
"The Journey of Coronado," in this series, by
Mr. Winship.)
l6x
THE JOURNEY OF
what it was; they said it had come from
Heaven. We further asked who had
brought it, and they answered that some
men, with beards like ours, had come from
Heaven to that river ; that they had horses,
lances and swords, and had lanced two of
them.
As cautiously as possible, we then in-
quired what had become of those men ; and
they replied they had gone to sea, putting
their lances into the water and going into
it themselves, and that afterwards they saw
them on top of the waves moving towards
sunset.
We gave God our Lord many thanks for
what we had heard, for we were despairing
to ever hear of Christians again. On the
other hand, we were in great sorrow and
much dejected, lest those people had come by
sea for the sake of discovery only. Finally,
having such positive notice of them, we has-
tened onward, always finding more traces of
the Christians, and we told the Indians that
we were now sure to find the Christians,
and would tell them not to kill Indians
or make them slaves, nor take them out of
162
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
their country, or do any other harm, and of
that they were very glad.
We travelled over a great part of the
country, and found it all deserted, as the
people had fled to the mountains, leaving
houses and fields out of fear of the Chris-
tians. This filled our hearts with sorrow,
seeing the land so fertile and beautiful, so
full of water and streams, but abandoned
and the places burned down, and the people,
so thin and wan, fleeing and hiding; and
as they did not raise any crops their desti-
tution had become so great that they ate
tree-bark and roots. Of this distress we had
our share all the way along, because they
could provide little for us in their indigence,
and it looked as if they were going to die.
They brought us blankets, which they had
been concealing from the Christians, and
gave them to us, and told us how the Chris-
tians had penetrated into the country be-
fore, and had destroyed and burnt the vil-
lages, taking with them half of the men and
all the women and children, and how those
who could escaped by flight. Seeing them
in this plight, afraid to stay anywhere, and
163
THE JOURNEY OF
that they neither would nor could cultivate
the soil, preferring to die rather than suf-
fer such cruelties, while they showed the
greatest pleasure at being with us, we began
to apprehend that the Indians who were in
arms against the Christians might ill-treat
us in retaliation for what the Christians did
to them. But when it pleased God our Lord
to take us to those Indians, they respected
and held us precious, as the former had
done, and even a little more, at which we
were not a little astonished, while it clearly
shows how, in order to bring those people
to Christianity and obedience unto Your
Imperial Majesty, they should be well
treated, and not otherwise.
They took us to a village on the crest of
a mountain, which can be reached only by
a very steep trail, where we found a great
many people, who had gathered there out
of dread of the Christians. These received
us very well, giving us all they had: over
two thousand loads of .maize, which we dis-
tributed among the poor, famished people
who had led us to the place. The next
day we dispatched (as we were wont to do)
164
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
four runners, to call together as many as
could be reached, to a village three journeys
away ; and on the next day we followed with
all the people that were at the place, always
meeting with signs, and vestiges where the
Christians had slept.
At noon we met our -messengers, who told
us they had not found anybody, because all
were hidden in the woods, lest the Chris-
tians might kill or enslave them; also that,
on the night before, they had seen the Chris-
tians and watched their movements, under
cover of some trees, behind which they con-
cealed themselves, and saw the Christians
take many Indians along in chains. At this
the people who were with us became fright-
ened, and some turned back to give the
alarm through the land that Christians
were coming, and many more would have
done the same had we not told them to stay
and have no fear, at which they quieted
down and were comforted. We had Indians
with us at the time who came from a dis-
tance of a hundred leagues, and whom we
could not induce to go back to their homes.
So, in order to reassure them, we slept there
165
THE JOURNEY OF
that night, and the next day went further,
and slept on the road; and the day after
those we 'had sent to explore guided us to
where fhey had seen the Christians. Reach-
ing the place iif the evening, we clearly
saw they had told the truth, and also, from
the stakes to which the horses -had •beerftied,
that there were horsemen among them.
From here, which is called the river of
Petutan,55 to the river which Diego de Guz-
man reached, there may be, from the place
where we first heard of the Christians,
eighty leagues ; thence to the village where
the rain overtook us, twelve leagues ; and
from there to the South Sea twelve leagues.56
Throughout all that country, wherever it is
mountainous, we saw many signs of gold,
antimony, iron, copper and other metals.
Where the permanent houses are it is so hot
that even in January the air is very warm.
From there to the southward the land, which
is uninhabited as far as the Sea of the North,
is very barren and poor. There we suffered
great and almost incredible starvation; and
"Petlatlan.
MThe distances must, of course, be taken with
due reserve.
166
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
heard that on the shores of the South there
are pearls and great wealth, and that the
richest and best is near there.
At the village of San Miguel we remained
until after the fifteenth of May, because
from there to the town of Compostela —
where the Governor, Nufio de Guzman, re-
sided— there are one hundred leagues of de-
serted country threatened by hostiles, and
we had to take an escort along. There
went with us twenty horsemen, accompany-
ing us as many as forty leagues ; afterwards
we had with us six Christians, who escorted
five hundred Indian captives. When we
reached Compostela, the Governor received
us very well, giving us of what he had, for
us to dress in ; but for many days I could
bear no clothing, nor could we sleep, except
on the bare floor. Ten or twelve days later
we left for Mexico. On the whole trip we
were well treated by the Christians ; many
came to see us on the road, praising God
for having freed us from so many dangers.
We reached Mexico on Sunday, the day be-
fore the vespers of Saint James, and were
very well received by the Viceroy and the
183
THE JOURNEY OF
Marquis of the Valley, who presented us
with clothing, offering all they had. On the
day of Saint James there was a festival, with
bull-fight and tournament.
After taking two months' rest at Mexico
I desired to come over to this realm, but
when ready to sail in October, a storm
wrecked the vessel and it was lost. So I de-
termined to wait until winter would be over,
as in these parts navigation is then very
dangerous on account of storms.
When winter was past, Andres Dorantes
and I left Mexico, during Lent, for Vera
Cruz, to take a ship there, but had again to
wait for favorable winds until Palm Sunday.
We embarked and were on board more than
fifteen days, unable to leave on account of a
calm, and the vessel began to fill with water.
I took passage on one of the ships which
were in condition to leave, while Dorantes
remained on the first one,64 and on the tenth
day of the month three craft left port.
We navigated together for one hundred
"This explains why Dorantes remained in Mex-
ico, where he afterwards attempted to set on foot
an expedition to the North, but failed.
184
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
and fifty leagues; afterwards two of the
ships dropped behind, and in the course of
a night we lost track of them*. It seems that,
as we found out later, their pilots and skip-
pers did not venture any further, and re-
turned to port without giving us any warn-
ing; neither did we hear any more from
them. So we kept on, and on the fourth of
May reached the port of Habana, on the
Island of Cuba, where we waited until the
second of June, still hoping for the other
two vessels to arrive. Then we left.
We were afraid of falling in with" French
craft that only a few days before had cap-
tured three of ours.
At the altitude of the Island of Bermuda
a storm overtook us, as is quite usual in
those parts — according to the people who are
wont to travel in them — and for a whole
night we considered ourselves lost. But it
pleased God that, when morning came, the
storm abated and we could proceed on our
way. Twenty-nine days after sailing from
Habana we had made eleven hundred
leagues, said to be the distance from it to the
settlement of the Azores, and the next day
i85
THE JOURNEY OF
we passed the island called of the raven,65
and met with a French vessel at noon. She
began to follow us, having with her a car-
avel taken from the Portuguese, and gave
us chase. That same evening we saw nine
more sail, but at such a distance that we
could not distinguish whether they were of
the same nation as our pursuer, or Portu-
guese. At nightfall the Frenchman was but
a cannon-shot from our ship, and as soon
as it was dark we changed our course so
as to get away from him. As he was
close upon us he saw our manoeuvre and
did the same, and this happened three or
four times.
The Frenchman could have taken us then,
but he preferred to wait until daylight. It
pleased God that, when morning came, we
found ourselves, as well as the French ship,
surrounded by the nine craft we had seen
the evening before, and which turned out
to belong to the Portuguese .navy. I thank
Our Lord for having allowed me to escape
from peril on land and sea.
MCorvo, one of the Azores; northwestern
group.
186
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
When the French saw it was the fleet of
Portugal they released the caravel, which
was filled with negroes. They had taken it
along in order to make us believe they were
Portuguese and to induce us to expect them.
On separating from the caravel the French-
man told the skipper and pilot we1 were
French also, belonging to their own navy;
then they put into their vessel sixty oars-
men, and thus, by oar and sail, went away
with incredible swiftness.
The caravel then approached the galley
warning its captain that both our vessel and
the other were French, so that when we
came up to the galley and the squadron saw
it, believing us to be French, they cleared
for action and came to attack us. But when
we were near enough to them we saluted,
and they saw we were friends. They had
been deceived, suffering the privateer to es-
cape by means of his strategy in telling that
we were also French. Four caravels went
in pursuit of him. Having come up with
the galley and presented our respects, the
captain, Diego de Silveira, asked where we
came from and what we had on board. We
187
THE JOURNEY OF
told him from New Spain, and that we car-
ried silver and gold. He inquired how much
it might be, and the skipper informed him
that we had about three hundred thousand
Castellanos. Thereupon the captain ex-
claimed : "Faith, you come back very rich,
although you have a bad craft and miserable
artillery. That dog of a French renegade
has lost a fat morsel, the bastard ! Now, go
ahead, since you escaped ; follow me closely,
and, God helping, I shall lead you back to
Spain."
The caravels that had gone in pursuit of
the French soon returned because the latter
sailed too fast for them and they did not
want to leave their squadron, which was es-
corting three ships loaded with spices.
We reached the Island of Tercera,68
where we rested fifteen days and took in
supplies, also waiting for another ship from
India, with the same kind of cargo as the
three our fleet was escorting. At the end
of the fifteen days we sailed, all together,
for the port of Lisbon, where we arrived
83Terceira, another of the Azores; central
group.
188
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
on the ninth of August, vespers of Saint
Laurentius day, of the year 1537.
And, in Testimony of, that what I have
stated in the foregoing narrative is true, I
hereunto sign my name :
CABEZA de VACA.
The document which this is taken from
was signed with his name and bore the seal
with his coat of arms.
Since, in the foregoing narrative, I have
related the Journey, the arrival at, and the
departure from, the country, and return to
this realm, I now wish to- tell also what hap-
pened to the ships and to the people who
remained on board of them. I have not
said anything about them as yet, for the rea-
son that we heard nothing of their fate until
after our return, when we found many of
the survivors in New Spain and some here
in Castile, through whom we learned every-
thing that occurred to them after we had
forsaken the three vessels, one having been
lost previously on the wild coast.
189
THE JOURNEY OF
These vessels were in great peril, and had
on board a hundred persons with few sup-
plies. Among these people were ten mar-
ried women, one of whom had foretold the
Governor many things that afterwards hap-
pened to him.
When he marched inland she warned him
not to go, as neither he nor any of his com-
pany would return, and that, should any
come back, God would work miracles
through him, as she felt sure that few, or
none, would escape. The Governor retorted
that he and all who went with him expected
to fight and conquer many and very strange
people and countries, so that, while many
would have to die in the conquest, he was
sure, from the accounts he had of the rich-
ness of the country, that the survivors wouM
be fortunate and become very wealthy. He
entreated the woman to tell him who it was
that had acquainted her with the things, past
and present, of which she had spoken. She
answered that in Castile a Moorish woman
from Hornachos had told her what she said
to us before we left there, all of which took
place as predicted,
190
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
After the Governor had appointed for his
lieutenant and commander of all the vessels
and their crews one Carvallo, a native of
Cuenca de Huete, we marched off, the Gov-
ernor leaving orders that they embark at
once and proceed to Panuco, hugging the
coast always and keeping a lookout for the
port where, when found, they should wait
for us.
At the time the people were embarking,
some saw, and distinctly overheard, the
woman before mentioned saying to the other
women that, since their husbands had gone
inland to affront such imminent peril, they
should not think of them any longer, but at
once look for other husbands ; that she was
going to do it, for her part. So she and the
others married, and lived with those that
were on board the vessels.
The vessels set sail and went on, but did
not find the port in the direction they were
proceeding, so they turned around and went
back where, five leagues further down from
our landing-place, they struck the harbor.
It stretched inland for seven or eight leagues
and was the one we had already discovered
191
THE JOURNEY OF
and where we had found the boxes from
Spain, as told before, and where were the
bodies of Christians. From this harbor and
along that coast the three vessels, together
with one that rejoined them from Habana
and the brigantine, cruised in search of us
for nearly a year, and then, not finding us,
they went to New Spain.
That harbor is the best on earth. It
sweeps inland for seven or eight leagues ;
the water is six fathoms deep at the mouth
and five near the shore ; the bottom is mud,
and there are no tides inside the bay, nor
heavy storms. There is space in it for many
vessels, and it has many fish. The distance
from it to Habana, a Christian town on
Cuba, is one hundred leagues on a line from
north to south. The breezes are constant,
and the trip is made from one place to the
other in four days, because the vessels go
and come with little trouble.
And now that I have given an account of
the ships, it may be well to record also who
those are and where from, whom it pleased
God to rescue from all these dangers and
hardship. The first is Alonso del Castillo
J 92
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
Maldonado, a native of Salamanca and son
of Doctor Castillo and Dona Aldonza Mal-
donado. The second is Andres Dorantes,
son of Pablo Dorantes, born at Bejar, but
a resident of Gibraleon. The third is Alvar
Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, son of Francisco de
Vera and grandson of Pedro de Vera, who
conquered the Canarian Islands. His mo-
ther was called Dona Teresa Cabeza de
Vaca, and she was a native of Xerez de la
Frontera. The fourth was Estevanico, an
Arab negro from Azamor,
153
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€.fm.u
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p:cflb:cgoelib:o0r^inogocla tricbatfa
dad*S cofta y efpenfag oel virtuofo ra
ron^uan pedro mufetti mercader
t>cIib:oove5tnot>c Medina t>el
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COLOPHON OF EDITION OF 1542.
Reduced from original in Lenox Branch of N. Y.
Public Library.
LETTER OF MENDOZA AND REPORT OF
FATHER MARCOS OF NIZZA.— INTRO-
DUCTORY NOTE.
IN order to furnish the reader the avail-
able data concerning the fate of the
two companions of Cabeza de Vaca,
who remained in Mexico after his
return to Spain, it has been deemed proper
to add the two documents which follow.
There is first a letter of the Viceroy Don
Antonio de Mendoza in which, as far as I
am able to ascertain, the only (very meagre)
data concerning the subsequent career of
Andres Dorantes in America are found.
This is followed by the well-known report
of Father Marcos of Nizza on his expedition
to Cibola (Zuhi), in which the Moor Este-
vanico acted as his guide and perished. The
text of the documents is taken from the
edition of 1810 of "Hackluyt's Collection of
the Early Voyages, Travels, and Discoveries
of the English Nation," Vol. III., pp. 436
to 4446. The translation is known to be
quite indifferent, still the main points are
reliable and it fully serves the purpose,
which is not to furnish a critical study of
Father Marcos of Nizza, and his achieve-
ments, but simply to supply the information
indicated, and, at the same time, establish
the logical connection of this narrative with
the "Journey of Coronado," already pre-
sented in "The Trail-Makers."
Ad. F. Bandelier.
195
A LETTER WRITTEN BY THE MOST HON-
ORABLE LORD DON ANTONIO DE
MENDOZA, VICE-ROY OF NUEVA ES-
PANNA, TO THE EMPERORS MAIES-
TIE.
Of Certaine Noblemen Which Sought to Dis-
cover the End of the Firme Land of Nueva
Espanna Toward the North. The Arrivall of
Vazquez de Coronado with Frier Marco at S.
Michael of Culiacan, with Commission to the
Governors of Those Partes, to Pacifie the Indians,
anl Not to Make Them Slaves Any More.
IN the ships that went last from hence
(whereof Michael de Usnago was
Admiral) I wrote into your maies-
tie, how I had sent two Franciscan
Friers to discover the end of this firme
land, which stretcheth to the North.
And because their iourney fell out to
greater purpose than was looked for, I
will declare the whole matter from the be-
ginning. It may please your Maiestie to
call to mind how often I wrote unto your
Highnesse, that I desired to know the ende
of this Province of Nueva Espanna, because
it is so great a countrey, and that we have
yet no knowledge thereof. Neither had I
onely this desire; for Nunno de Guzman de-
parted out of this city of Mexico with 400
horsemen, and 14,000 Indians footemen
borne in these Indias, being the best men
and the best furnished, which have bene
seene in these parts ; and he did so little with
197
JOURNEY OF ALVAR NUNEZ
them, that the most part of them were con-
sumed in the enterprize and could not enter
nor discover any more then already was dis-
covered. After this the saide Nunno Guz-
man beeing Governour of Nueva Galicia,
sent Captaines and Horsemen foorth divers
times, which sped no better then he had
done. Likewise the Marques de valle Her-
nando Cortez sent a captaine with 2 ships
to discover the coast : which 2 ships and the
captaine perished. After that he sent again
2 other ships, one of the which was divided
from her consort, and the master and cer-
taine mariners slue the captaine and usurped
over the ship.
After this they came to. an Island, where
the Master with certaine mariners going on
land, the Indians of the Country slew them,
and tooke their boat : and the ship with
those that were in it, returned to the coast
of Nueva Galicia, where it ran on ground.
By the men which came home in this ship,
the Marques had knowledge of the countrey
which they had discovered : and then, either
for the discontentment which hee had with
the bishop of Saint Domingo and with the
Judges of this royal audience in Mexico, or
rather because of his so prosperous successe
in all things here in Nueva Espanna, with-
out seeking any farther intelligence of the
state of that Island, he set forward on that
voyage' with, 3 ships, and with certaine foote-
men and horsemen, not throughly furnished
with things necessary ; which fell out so con-
trary to his expectations that the most part
of the people which he carried with him,
198
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
heard that on the shores of the South there
are pearls and great wealth, and that the
richest and best is near there.
At the village of San Miguel we remained
until after the fifteenth of May, because
from there to the town of Compostela —
where the Governor, Nufio de Guzman, re-
sided— there are one hundred leagues of de-
serted country threatened by hostiles, and
we had to take an escort along. There
went with us twenty horsemen, accompany-
ing us as many as forty leagues ; afterwards
we had with us six Christians, who escorted
five hundred Indian captives. When we
reached Compostela, the Governor received
us very well, giving us of what he had, for
us to dress in ; but for many days I could
bear no clothing, nor could we sleep, except
on the bare floor. Ten or twelve days later
we left for Mexico. On the whole trip we
were well treated by the Christians ; many
came to see us on the road, praising God
for having freed us from so many dangers.
We reached Mexico on Sunday, the day be-
fore the vespers of Saint James, and were
very well received by the Viceroy and the
183
THE JOURNEY OF
Marquis of the Valley, who presented us
with clothing, offering all they had. On the
day of Saint James there was a festival, with
bull-fight and tournament.
After taking two months' rest at Mexico
I desired to come over to this realm, but
when ready to sail in October, a storm
wrecked the vessel and it was lost. So I de-
termined to wait until winter would be over,
as in these parts navigation is then very
dangerous on account of storms.
When winter was past, Andres Dorantes
and I left Mexico, during Lent, for Vera
Cruz, to take a ship there, but had again to
wait for favorable winds until Palm Sunday.
We embarked and were on board more than
fifteen days, unable to leave on account of a
calm, and the vessel began to fill with water.
I took passage on one of the ships which
were in condition to leave, while Dorantes
remained on the first one,64 and on the tenth
day of the month three craft left port.
We navigated together for one hundred
"This explains why Dorantes remained in Mex-
ico, where he afterwards attempted to set on foot
an expedition to the North, but failed.
184
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
and fifty leagues; afterwards two of the
ships dropped behind, and in the course of
a night we lost track of them*. It seems that,
as we found out later, their pilots and skip-
pers did not venture any further, and re-
turned to port without giving us any warn-
ing; neither did we hear any more from
them. So we kept on, and on the fourth of
May reached the port of Habana, on the
Island of Cuba, where we waited until the
second of June, still hoping for the other
two vessels to arrive. Then we left.
We were afraid of falling in with French
craft that only a few days before had cap-
tured three of ours.
At the altitude of the Island of Bermuda
a storm overtook us, as is quite usual in
those parts — according to the people who are
wont to travel in them — and for a whole
night we considered ourselves lost. But it
pleased God that, when morning came, the
storm abated and we could proceed on our
way. Twenty-nine days after sailing from
Habana we had made eleven hundred
leagues, said to be the distance from it to the
settlement of the Azores, and the next day
185
THE JOURNEY OF
we passed the island called of the raven,65
and met with a French vessel at noon. She
began to follow us, having with her a car-
avel taken from the Portuguese, and gave
us chase. That same evening we saw nine
more sail, but at such a distance that we
could not distinguish whether they were of
the same nation as our pursuer, or Portu-
guese. At nightfall the Frenchman was but
a cannon-shot from our ship, and as soon
as it was dark we changed our course so
as to get away from him. As he was
close upon us he saw our manoeuvre and
did the same, and this happened three or
four times.
The Frenchman could have taken us then,
but he preferred to wait until daylight. It
pleased God that, when morning came, we
found ourselves, as well as the French ship,
surrounded by the nine craft we had seen
the evening before, and which turned out
to belong to the Portuguese .navy. I thank
Our Lord for having allowed me to escape
from peril on land and sea.
MCorvo, one of the Azores; northwestern
group.
186
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
When the French saw it was the fleet of
Portugal they released the caravel, which
was filled with negroes. They had taken it
along in order to make us believe they were
Portuguese and to induce us to expect them.
On separating from the caravel the French-
man told the skipper and pilot we were
French also, belonging to their own navy;
then they put into their vessel sixty oars-
men, and thus, by oar and sail, went away
with incredible swiftness.
The caravel then approached the galley
warning its captain that both our vessel and
the other were French, so that when we
came up to the galley and the squadron saw
it, believing us to be French, they cleared
for action and came to attack us. But when
we were near enough to them we saluted,
and they saw we were friends. They had
been deceived, suffering the privateer to es-
cape by means of his strategy in telling that
we were also French. Four caravels went
in pursuit of him. Having come up with
the galley and presented our respects, the
captain, Diego de Silveira, asked where we
came from and what we had on board, We
187
THE JOURNEY OF
told him from New Spain, and that we car-
ried silver and gold. He inquired how much
it might be, and the skipper informed him
that we had about three hundred thousand
Castellanos. Thereupon the captain ex-
claimed: "Faith, you come back very rich,
although you have a bad craft and miserable
artillery. That dog of a French renegade
has lost a fat morsel, the bastard ! Now, go
ahead, since you escaped ; follow me closely,
and, God helping, I shall lead you back to
Spain."
The caravels that had gone in pursuit of
the French soon returned because the latter
sailed too fast for them and they did not
want to leave their squadron, which was es-
corting three ships loaded with spices.
We reached the Island of Tercera,*8
where we rested fifteen days and took in
supplies, also waiting for another ship from
India, with the same kind of cargo as the
three our fleet was escorting. At the end
of the fifteen days we sailed, all together,
for the port of Lisbon, where w£ arrived
63Terceira, another of the Azores; central
group.
188
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
on the ninth of August, vespers of Saint
Laurentius day, of the year 1537.
And, in Testimony of, that what I have
stated in the foregoing narrative is true, I
hereunto sign my name :
CABEZA de VACA.
The document which this is taken from
was signed with his name and bore the seal
with his coat of arms.
Since, in the foregoing narrative, I have
related the Journey, the arrival at, and the
departure from, the country, and return to
this realm, I now wish to* tell also what hap-
pened to the ships and to the people who
remained on board of them. I have not
said anything about them as yet, for the rea-
son that we-heard nothing of their fate until
after our return, when we found many of
the survivors in New Spain and some here
in Castile, through whom we learned every-
thing that occurred to them after we had
forsaken the three vessels, one having been
lost previously on the wild coast.
189
THE JOURNEY OF
These vessels were in great peril, and had
on board a hundred persons with few sup-
plies. Among these people were ten mar-
ried women, one of whom had foretold the
Governor many things that afterwards hap-
pened to him.
When he marched inland she warned him
not to go, as neither he nor any of his com-
pany would return, and that, should any
come back, God would work miracles
through him, as she felt sure that few, or
none, would escape. The Governor retorted
that he and all who went with him expected
to fight and conquer many and very strange
people and countries, so that, while many
would have to die in the conquest, he was
sure, from the accounts he had of the rich-
ness of the country, that the survivors wou4d
be fortunate and become very wealthy. He
entreated the woman to tell him who it was
that had acquainted her with the things, past
and present, of which she had spoken. She
answered that in Castile a Moorish woman
from Hornachos had told her what she said
to us before we left there, all of which took
place as predicted.
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
After the Governor had appointed for his
lieutenant and commander of all the vessels
and their crews one Carvallo, a native of
Cuenca de Huete, we marched off, the Gov-
ernor leaving orders that they embark at
once and proceed to Panuco, hugging the
coast always and keeping a lookout for the
port where, when found, they should wait
for us.
At the time the people were embarking,
some saw, and distinctly overheard, the
woman before mentioned saying to the other
women that, since their husbands had gone
inland to affront such imminent peril, they
should not think of them any longer, but at
once look for other husbands ; that she was
going to do it, for her part. So she and the
others married, and lived with those that
were on board the vessels.
The vessels set sail and went on, but did
not find the port in the direction they were
proceeding, so they turned around and went
back where, five leagues further down from
our landing-place, they struck the harbor.
It stretched inland for seven or eight leagues
and was the one we had already discovered
191
THE JOURNEY OF
and where we had found the boxes from
Spain, as told before, and where were the
bodies of Christians. From this harbor and
along that coast the three vessels, together
with one that rejoined them from Habana
and the brigantine, cruised in search of us
for nearly a year, and then, not finding us,
they went to New Spain.
That harbor is the best on earth. It
sweeps inland for seven or eight leagues;
the water is six fathoms deep at the mouth
and five near the shore ; the bottom is mud,
and there are no tides inside the bay, nor
heavy storms. There is space in it for many
vessels, and it has many fish. The distance
from it to Habana, a Christian town on
Cuba, is one hundred leagues on a line from
north to south. The breezes are constant,
and the trip is made from one place to the
other in four days, because the vessels go
and come with little trouble.
And now that I have given an account of
the ships, it may be well to record also who
those are and where from, whom it pleased
God to rescue from all these dangers and
hardship. The first is Alonso del Castillo
192
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA
Maldonado, a native of Salamanca and son
of Doctor Castillo and Dona Aldonza Mal-
donado. The second is Andres Dorantes,
son of Pablo Dorantes, born at Bejar, but
a resident of Gibraleon. The third is Alvar
Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, son of Francisco de
Vera and grandson of Pedro de Vera, who
conquered the Canarian Islands. His mo-
ther was called Dona Teresa Cabeza de
Vaca, and she was a native of Xerez de la
Frontera. The fourth was Estevanico, an
Arab negro from Azamor,
*93
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COLOPHON OF EDITION OF 1542.
Reduced from original in Lenox Branch, of N. Y.
Public Library.
LETTER OF MENDOZA AND REPORT OF
FATHER MARCOS OF NIZZA.— INTRO-
DUCTORY NOTE.
IN order to furnish the reader the avail-
able data concerning the fate of the
two companions of Cabeza de Vaca,
who remained in Mexico after his
return to Spain, it has been deemed proper
to add the two documents which follow.
There is first a letter of the Viceroy Don
Antonio de Mendoza in which, as far as I
am able to ascertain, the only (very meagre)
data concerning the subsequent career of
Andres Dorantes in America are found.
This is followed by the well-known report
of Father Marcos of Nizza on his expedition
to Cibola (Zuni), in which the Moor Este-
vanico acted as his guide and perished. The
text of the documents is taken from the
edition of 1810 of "Hackluyt's Collection of
the Early Voyages, Travels, and Discoveries
of the English Nation," Vol. III., pp. 436
to 4446. The translation is known to be
quite indifferent, still the main points are
reliable and it fully serves the purpose,
which is not to furnish a critical study of
Father Marcos of Nizza, and his achieve-
ments, but simply to supply the information
indicated, and, at the same time, establish
the logical connection of this narrative with
the "Journey of Coronado," already pre-
sented in "The Trail-Makers."
Ad. F. Bandelier.
i95
A LETTER WRITTEN BY THE MOST HON-
ORABLE LORD DON ANTONIO DE
MENDOZA, VICE-ROY OF NUEVA ES-
PANNA, TO THE EMPERORS MAIES-
TIE.
Of Certaine Noblemen Which Sought to Dis-
cover the End of the Firme Land of Nueva
Espanna Toward the North. The Arrivall of
Vazquez de Coronado with Frier Marco at S.
Michael of Culiacan, with Commission to the
Governors of Those Partes, to Pacifie the Indians,
anl Not to Make Them Slaves Any More.
IN the ships that went last from hence
(whereof Michael de Usnago was
Admiral) I wrote into your maies-
tie, how I had sent two Franciscan
Friers to discover the end of this firme
land, which stretcheth to the North.
And because their iourney fell out to
greater purpose than was looked for, I
will declare the whole matter from the be-
ginning. It may please your Maiestie to
call to mind how often I wrote unto your
Highnesse, that I desired to know the ende
of this Province of Nueva Espanna, because
it is so great a countrey, and that we have
yet no knowledge thereof. Neither had I
onely this desire ; for Nunno de Guzman de-
parted out of this city of Mexico with 400
horsemen, and 14,000 Indians footemen
borne in these Indias, being the best men
and the best furnished, which have bene
seene in these parts ; and he did so little with
197
JOURNEY OF ALVAR NUNEZ
them, that the most part of them were con-
sumed in the enterprize and could not enter
nor discover any more then already was dis-
covered. After this the saide Nunno Guz-
man beeing Governour of Nueva Galicia,
sent Captaines and Horsemen foorth divers
times, which sped no better then he had
done. Likewise the Marques de valle Her-
nando Cortez sent a captaine with 2 ships
to discover the coast : which 2 ships and the
captaine perished. After that he sent again
2 other ships, one of the which was divided
from her consort, and the master and cer-
taine mariners slue the captaine and usurped
over the ship.
After this they came to. an Island, where
the Master with certaine mariners going on
land, the Indians of the Country slew them,
and tooke their boat : and the ship with
those that were in it, returned to the coast
of Nueva Galicia, where it ran on ground.
By the men which came home in this ship,
the Marques had knowledge of the countrey
which they had discovered : and then, either
for the discontentment which hee had with
the bishop of Saint Domingo and with the
Judges of this royal audience in Mexico, or
rather because of his so prosperous successe
in all things here in Nueva Espanna, with-
out seeking any farther intelligence of the
state of that Island, he set forward on that
voyage' with, 3 ships, and with certaine foote-
men and horsemen, not throughly furnished
with things necessary ; which fell out so con-
trary to his expectations that the most part
of the people which he carried with him,
198
LETTER OF MENDOZA
dyed of hunger. And although he had
ships, and a Countrey very neere him
abounding with victuals, yet could hee never
finde meanes to conquer it, but rather it
seemed, that God miraculously did hide it
from him : and so he returned home without
achieving ought else of moment. After
this, having heere in my company Andrew
Dorantez, which is one of those who were in
the voyage of Panphilo Naruaez, I often was
in hand with him, supposing that he was
able to doe Your Maiestie great service, to
imploy him with fortie or fiftie horses, to
search out the secret of those parts: and
having provided all things necessary for his
iourney, and spent much money in that be-
halfe, the matter was broken off, I wot not
how, and that enterprise was given over.
Yet of the things which were provided for
that purpose, I had left mee a negro, which
returned from the foresayde voyage of
Naruaez with Dorantez, and certaine slaves
which I had bought, and certaine Indians
which I had gathered together who were
borne in those North partes, whome I sent
with Frier Marco de Niga, and his compan-
ion a Franciscan Frier, because they had
bene long travelled, and exercised in those
partes, and had great experience in the af-
faires of the Indies, and were men of good
life and conscience, for whom I obtained
leave of their superiours : and so they went
with Frances Vazquez de Coronado, gov-
ernour of Nueva Galicia unto the Citie of
Saint Michael of Culiacan, which is the last
Province subdued by the Spaniards towarde
199
JOURNEY OF ALVAR NUNEZ
that quarter, being two hundred leagues dis-
tant from this Citie of Mexico. As soone
as the governour, and the Friers were come
unto that Citie, hee sent certaine of those
Indians which I had given him, home into
their Countrey, to signifie, and declare to
the people of the same, That they were to
vnderstand, that youf Maiestie had com-
manded they should not hereafter bee made
slaves, and that they should not be afrayd
any more, but might returne unto their
houses, and live peaceably in them, (for be-
fore that time they had bin greatly troubled
by the evill dealings which were used
toward them) and that your maiestie would
cause them to be chastened, which were the
causes of their vexation. With these In-
dians about twentie dayes after returned
about 400 men ; which coming before the
governour said unto him, that they came on
the behalfe of al their countrey-men, to tell
him, that they desired to see and know those
men which did them so great a pleasure as
to suffer them to returne to their houses,
and to sow maiz for their sustenance, for by
the space of many yeres they were driven to
flee into the mountaines, hiding themselves
like wild beasts, for feare lest they should be
made slaves, and that they and all the rest
cf their people were ready to doe whatsoever
should bee commanded them : whom the
governour comforted with good wordes, and
gave them victuals, and stayed them with
him three or foure dayes wherein the Friars
taught them to make the signe of the crosse,
and to learne the name of our Lorde Jesus
200
LETTER OF MENDOZA
Qirist, and they with great diligence sought
to learne the same. After these dayes hee
sent them home againe, willing them not to
be afraid, but to be quiet, giving them ap-
parel, beades, knives, and other such like
things, which I had given hjm for such pur-
poses. The sayde Indians departed very
well pleased, and said, that whensoever hee
would send for them, they and many others
would come to doe whatsoever he would
command them. The entrance being thus
prepared, Frier Marco and his companion,
with the Negro and other slaves, and In-
dians which I had given him, went forward
on their voyage 10 or 12 dayes after. And
because I had likewise advertisement of a
certaine Province called Topira situate in the
mountaines and had appointed the gov-
ernour Vazquez de Coronado, that he should
use meanes to learne the state thereof : he
supposing this to be a matter of great mo-
ment determined himselfe to goe and search
it, having agreed with the said Frier, that he
should returne by that part of the moun-
taine, to meete with him in a certaine valley
called Valle de los Coragones, being 120
leagues distant from Culiacan. The Gov-
ernour travelling into this province (as I
have written in my former letters) found
great scarcity of victuals there, and the
mountaines so craggy, that he could finde no
way to passe forward, and was inforced to
returne home to Saint Michael : so that as
well in chusing of the entrance, as in not
being able to finde the way, it seemeth onto
all men that God would shut up the gate to
201
JOURNEY OF ALVAR NUNEZ
all those, whrch by strength of humane
force have gone about to attempt this enter-
prise, and hath reveiled it to a poore and
bare-footed Frier. And so the Frier be-
ganne to enter into the Land, who because
he found his entrance so well prepared, was
very well received; and because he wrote
the whole successe of his voyage, according
to the instruction which I had given him to
ondertake the same, I wil not write any
more at large, but send your Maiestie this
copy of all such things as he observed in the
same.
202
A RELATION OF THE REVEREND FA-
THER FRIER MARCO DE NICA,
TOUCHING HIS DISCOVERY OF THE
KINGDOM OF CEUOLA OR CIBOLA,
SITUATE ABOUT 30. DEGREES OF
LATITUDE, TO THE NORTH OF
NUEUA ESPANNA
CHAPTER I.
Frier Marco de Niga Departeth from Saint
Michael in the Province of Culiacan, Standing in
24. Degrees of Northerly Latitude : and Coming
to the Towne of Petatlan, Receiveth Many Cour-
tesies of the Indians There. Departing from
Thence, He Had Information of Many Islands,
and of a Great Countrey Inhabited with Civil
People ; He Cometh to Vacupa : Where During
His Aboad, He Heard Newes of Cevola, and of
the State of the 7 Cities, and of Other Provinces,
and of the Rich Islands of Pedes, which Extend
Northward Upon the Coast.
I FRIER MARCO DE NICA of the
order of S. Francis, for the execu-
tion of the instruction of the right
honourable lord Don Antonio de
Mendoga, Vice-rov and captaine Gen-
erall for the Emperors Maiestie in New
Spaine, departed from the towne of S.
Michael in the province of Culiacan on Fri-
day the 7. of March, in the yeere 1539. hav-
ing for my companion Frier Honoratus, and
carying with me Stephan a Negro, belonging
to Andrew Dorantez, and certaine of those
203
JOURNEY OF ALVAR NUNEZ
Indians which the sayde lord Vice-roy had
made free, and bought for this purpose:
whom Frances Vazquez de Coronado gov-
ernour of Nueva Galicia delivered me, and
with many other Indians of Petatlan, and
of the towne called Cuchillo, which is some
50. leagues from Petatlan, who came to the
valley of Culiacan, shewing themselves to
bee exceeding glad, because they were cer-
tified by the Indians which had bin set free,
whom the said governour had sent before
to advertise them of their libertie, that none
of them from thenceforth should be made
slaves, and that no man should invade them,
nor use them badly; signifying onto them,
that the Emperors Maiesty had willed and
commanded that it should be so. With the
foresaid company I went on my voyage
vntil I came to the towne of Petatlan, find-
ing all the way great intertainment, and
provision of victuals, with roses, flowers,
and other such things, and bowers which
they made for me of chalke and boughs
platted together in all places where there
were no houses. In this towne of Petatlan
I rested 3. dayes, because my companion
Honoratus fell so sicke, that I was con-
strained to leave him there behinde.
Then, according to my said instruction, I
followed my iourney as the holy Ghost did
leade me, without any merit of mine, having
in my company the said Stephan the Negro,
Dorantez, and certaine of the Indians which
had bin set at liberty, and many of the people
of the countrey, which gave me great inter-
tainment and welcome in all places where I
204
MARCOS OF NIZZA
came, and made mee bowers of trees, giving
me such victuals as they had, although they
were but small: because (as they said) it
had not rained there in 3 yeres, and be-
cause the Indians of this countrey sought
means rather to hide themselves, then to
sowe corne, for feare of the Christians of
the Towne of S. Michael, which were wont
to make in-roades even to that place, and
to warre upon them, and to carry them away
captives. In all this way, which may be
about 25 or 30. leagues from that part of
Petatlan, I saw nothing worthy the noting,
save that there came to seeke me certaine
Indians from the Island, where Fernando
Cortez the Marques of the valley had bin, of
whom I was informed, that it was an Island,
and not firme land, as some suppose it to be.
They came to ye firme land upon certaine
rafts of wood : and from the maine to the
island is but halfe a league by sea, little
more or lesse. Likewise certaine Indians
of another island greater then this came
to visit me, which island is farther off, of
whom I was informed that there were 30.
other small islands, which were inhabited,
but had smal store of victuals, saving 2.
which have maiz or corne of the countrey.
These Indians had about their necks many
great shels which were mother of Pearle. I
shewed them pearles which I carryed with
me for a shew, and they told me that there
were in the Islands great store of them, and
those very great : howbeit I saw none of
them. I followed my voyage through a
desert of 4 dayes iourney, having in my
205
JOURNEY OF ALVAR NUNEZ
company both the Indians of the islands and
those of the mountaines which I had passed,
and at the end of this desert I found other
indians which marvelled to see me, because
they had no knowledge of any Christians,
having no traffike nor conversation with
those Indians which I had passed, in regard
of the great desert which was between them.
These Indians intertained me exceeding
courteously, and gave me great store of
victuals and sought to touch my garments
and called me Hagota, which in their lan-
guage signifieth A man come from heaven.
These Indians I advertised by my inter-
preter, according to my instructions, in the
Knowledge of our Lord God in heaven, and
of the Emperor. In these countries and in
all places els by all wayes and meanes pos-
sible, I sought information where any
Countreys were of more Cities and people of
civilitie and onderstanding, then those which
I had found : and I could heare no newes of
any such : howbeit they tolde mee, that foure
or five dayes iourney within the Countrey, at
the foote of the mountaines, there is a large
and mightie plaine, wherein they tolde mee,
that there were many great Townes, and
people clad in Cotton: and when I shewed
them certaine metals which I carryed with
mee, to learne what riche metals were in
the Lande, they tooke the minerall of Golde
and tolde mee, that thereof were vesselles
among the people of that plaine, and that
they carryed certaine round greene stones
hanging at their nostrilles, and at their
eares, and that they have certaine thinne
206
MARCOS OF NIZZA
plates of that Golde, wherewith they scrape
off their sweat, and that the walles of their
Temples are covered therewith, and that
they use it in all their household vessels.
And because this Valley is distant from the
Sea-coast, and my instruction was not to
leave the Coast, I determined to leave the
discovery thereof ontill my returne; at
which time I might doe it more commo-
diously.
Thus I travelled three dayes iourney
through Townes inhabited by the sayde peo-
ple, of whome I was received as I was of
those which I had passed, and came onto a
Towne of reasonable bignesse, called Va-
cupa, where they shewed mee great cour-
tesies, and gave mee great store of good
victuals, because the soyle is very fruitfull,
and may bee watered. This Towne is fortie
leagues distant from the Sea.
And because I was so farre from the Sea,
it being two dayes before Passion Sunday,
I determined to stay there until Easter, to
informe myselfe of the Islandes, whereof I
sayde before that I had information. And
so I sent certaine Indians to the Sea by
three severall wayes whom I commaunded
to bring mee some Indians of the Sea-coast
and of some of those Islandes that I might
receive information of them: And I sent
Stephan Dorantez the Negro another way,
whom I commaunded to goe directly north-
ward fiftie or threescore leagues, to see if
by that way hee might learne any newes of
any notable thing which wee sought to dis-
cover, and I agreed with him, that if hee
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found any knowledge of any peopled and
riche countrey which were of great im-
portance, that hee should goe no further but
should returne in person, or should sende
mee certaine Indians with that token which
wee were agreed upon, to wit, that if it were
but a meane thing, hee should sende mee a
White Crosse of one handfull long; and if
it were any great matter, one of two hand-
fuls long; and if it were a Countrey greater
and better then Nueva Espanna, hee should
send mee a great crosse. So the sayde
Stephan departed from mee on Passion-sun-
day after dinner: and within foure dayes
after the messengers of Stephan returned
vnto me with a great Crosse as high as a
man, and they brought me word from
Stephan, that I should forthwith come away
after him, for hee had found people which
gave him information of a very mighty
Province, and that he had certaine Indians
in his company, which had bene in the sayd
Province, and that he had sent me one of
the said Indians. This Indian told me, that
it was thirtie dayes iourney from the Towne
where Stephan was, vnto the first Citie of
the sayde Province, which is called Ceuola.
Hee affirmed also that there are seven great
Cities in this Province, all vnder one Lord,
the houses whereof are made of Lyme &
Stone, and are very great, and the least of
them with one lofte above head, and some
two and of three loftes, and the house of the
Lorde of the Province of foure, and that
all of them ioyne one onto the other in good
order, and that in the gates of the principall
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houses there are many Turques-stones cun-
ningly wrought, whereof hee sayth they
have there great plentie : also that the people
of this Citie goe very well apparelled: and
that beyond this there are other Provinces,
all which (hee sayth) are much greater then
these seven cities. I gave credite to his
speach because I found him to bee a man of
good vnderstanding: but I deferred my de-
parture to follow Stephan Dorantez, both
because I thought hee would stay for mee,
and also to attend the returne of my mes-
sengers which I had sent vnto the Sea, who
returned vnto me upon Easter day, bringing
with them certaine inhabitants of the Sea-
coast, and of two of the Islands. Of whom
I vnderstoode, that the Islandes above men-
tioned were scarce of victuals, as I had
learned before, and that they are inhabited
by people, which weare shelles of Pearles
upon their foreheads, and they say that they
have great Pearles, and much Golde. They
informed mee of foure and thirtie Islandes,
lying one neere vnto another: they say that
the people on the sea-coast have small store
of victuals, as also those of the Islandes, and
that they trafficke one with the other upon
raftes. This coast stretcheth northward as
is to bee seene. These Indians of the Coast
brought me certaine Targets made of Cow-
hydes very well dressed, which were so
large, that they covered them from the head
to the very foote, with a hole in the toppe
of the same to looke out before : they are so
strong, that a Crossebow (as I suppose) will
not pierce them.
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CHAPTER II.
He Hath New Information of the Seven Cities
by Certaine Indians Called Pintados, and of Three
Other Kingdomes Called Marata, Acus, and To-
tonteac. Being Countreys Very Rich in Turqueses
and Hides of Cattel. Following His Voyage
Through Those Countries He Taketh Possession
Thereof for the Emperors Maiestie, and of the
Indians Is Much Honoured and Served with
Victuals.
THE same day came three Indians
of those which I called Pintados,
because I saw their faces, breasts
and armes painted. These dwel
farther up into the countrey towards the
East, and some of them border upon the
seven cities, which sayd they came to see
mee, because they had heard of mee: and
among other things they gave me informa-
tion of the seven cities, and of the other
Provinces, which the Indian that Stephan
sent me had tolde mee of, almost in the very
same manner that Stephan had sent mee
worde ; and so I sent backe the people of the
sea-coast: and two Indians of the Islands
sayde they would goe with mee seven or
eight dayes.
So with these and with the three Pintados
above mentioned, I departed from Vacupa
upon Easter Tuesday, the same way that
Stephan went, from whom I received new
messengers with a crosse of the bignesse of
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the first which he sent me : which hastened
me forward, and assured me that the land
which I sought for, was the greatest and
best countrey in all those partes. The sayd
messengers told mee particularly without
fayling in any one poynt, all that which the
first messenger had tolde mee. and much
more, and gave mee more plaine informa-
tion thereof. So I travelled that day being
Easter Tuesday, and two dayes more, the
very same way that Stephan had gone: at
the end of which 3 dayes they tolde mee that
from that place a man might travell in thir-
tie dayes to the citie of Ceuola, which is the
first of the seven. Neither did one onely tell
me thus much, but very many ; who tolde me
very particularly of the greatness of the
houses, and of the fashion of them, as the
first messengers had informed me. Also
they told me, that besides these seven Cities,
there are 3 other Kingdomes which are
called Marata, Acus and Tontonteac. I en-
quired of them wherefore they travelled so
farre from their houses: They said that
they went for Turqueses, and Hides of
Kine, and other things ; and that of all these
there was great abundance in this Coun-
trey. Likewise I enquired how, and by
what meanes they obtained these things:
They tolde me, by their service and by the
sweat of their browes, and that they went
unto the first citie of the province which is
called Ceuola, and that they served them in
tilling their ground, and in other businesses,
and that they give them Hydes of oxen,
which they have in those places, and tur-
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queses for their service, and that the people
of this city weare very fine and excellent
turqueses hanging at their eares and at their
nostrils. They say also, that of these tur-
queses they make fine v/orkes upon the
principall gates of the houses of this citie.
They tolde mee, that the apparell which the
inhabitants of Ceuola weare, is a gowne of
cotten downe to the foote, with a button at
the necke, and a long string hanging downe
at the same, and that the sleeves of these
gownes are as broad beneath as above. They
say, they gyrded themselves with gyrdles of
turqueses, and that over these coates some
weare good apparel, others hides of Kine
very well dressed, which they take to bee
the best apparell of that countrey, whereof
they have there great quantitie. Likewise
the women goe apparelled, and covered
downe to the foote. These Indians gave me
very good intertainment, ana curiously en-
quired the day of my departure from Va-
cupa, that at my returne they might provide
me of foode and lodging. They brought
certaine sicke folkes before mee, that I
might heale them, and sought to touch my
apparell, and gave mee certaine cow-hydes
so well trimmed and dressed, that by them
a man might coniecture that they were
wrought by civile people, and all of them
affirmed, that they came from Ceuola.
The next day I followed my iourney, and
carrying with mee the Pintados, I came to
another Village where I was well received
by the people of the same : who likewise
sought to touch my garments, and gave mee
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as particular knowledge of the Lande afore-
saide, as I had received of those which
mette mee before : and also tolde mee, that
from that place certaine people were gone
with Stephan Dorantez, foure or five dayes
iourney. And here I found a great crosse,
which Stephan had left mee for a signe, that
the newes of the good Countrey increased,
and left worde, that with all haste they
should send mee away, and that hee would
stay for me at the ende of the first Desert
that he mette with. Heere I set up two
Crosses, and tooke possession according to
mine instruction, because that the Countrey
seemed better unto mee then that which I
had passed, and that I thought it meete to
make ar» acte of possession as farre as that
place.
In this maner I travailed five dayes, al-
wayes finding inhabited places with great
hospitalitie and intertainments, and many
Turqueses, and Oxe-hides, and the like re-
port concerning the countrey. Heere I un-
derstood, that after two dayes iourney I
should finde a desert where there is no
foode, but that there were certaine gone be-
fore to build mee lodgings, and to carrie
foode for me: whereupon I hastened my
way, hoping to finde Stephan at the ende
thereof, because in that place hee had left
worde that hee would stay for mee. Before
I came to the desert, I mette with a very
pleasant Towne, by reason of great store of
waters conveighed thither to water the same.
Heere I mette with many people both men
& women clothed in Cotton, and some cov-
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ered with oxe-hydes, which generally they
take for better apparell then that of cotton.
All the people in this village go in ca-
conados, that is to say, Turquesses hanging
at their nostrilles and eares, which Tur-
quesses they call Cacona. Amongst others,
the Lord of this Village came unto me ; and
two of his brethern, very well apparrelled
in cotton, who also were in Caconados, each
of them having his collar of Turquesses
about his necke; and they presented unto
mee many wild beastes, as conies, quailes,
Maiz nuttes of Pine trees, and all in great
abundance, and offered me many Turqueses,
and dressed Oxe-hydes, and very fayre ves-
sels to drinke in, and other things ; whereof
I would receive no whit. And having my
garment of gray cloth, which in Spaine is
called garagoqa, the Lord of this Village and
the other Indians touched my gowne with
their handes, and tolde mee, that of such
cloth there was great store in Tontonteac,
and that the people of that Countrey wore
the same. Whereat I laughed, and sayde
that it was nothing else but such apparell
of Cotton as they wore. And they replyed :
We would have thee thinke that we vnder-
stand, that that apparell which thou wearest,
and that which we weare are of divers
sortes. Understand thou, that in Ceulo all
the houses are full of that apparrell which we
weare, but in Totonteac there are certaine
litle beasts, from whom they take that thing
wherewith such apparell as thou wearest is
made. I prayed them to informe mee more
playnely of this matter. And they tolde mee
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MARCOS OF NIZZA
that the sayde beastes were about the big-
nesses of the two braches or spaniels which
Stephan caryed with him, and they say that
there is great store of that cattell in To-
tonteac.
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JOURNEY OF ALVAR NUNEZ
CHAPTER III.
He Entreth into a Desert, and the Indians
Suffer Him to Want Nothing Necessary. Fol-
lowing His Voyage, He Commeth into a Fertile
Valley, and Hath Certaine Knowledge Given Him
(as He Had Before) of the State of Ceuola, and
of Totonteac ; and That the Coast of the Sea in
35. Degrees Trendeth Much to the Westward;
and Also the Kingdomes of Mavata and Acus.
THE next day I entered into the
Desert, and where I was to dine,
I found bowers made, and victuals
in abundance by a rivers side : and
at night I found bowers and victuals in like
sort, and after that maner I found for 4
dayes travell: all which time the wildernesse
continueth.
At the ende of these foure dayes, I entred
into a valley very well inhabited with people.
At the first village there mette me many
men and women with victuals and all of
them had Turqueses hanging at their nos-
trils and eares, and som ? had collars of
turqueses like those which the Lord of the
Village before I came to the Desert, and
his two brethern wore : saving that they
ware them but single about their neckes,
and these people weare them three or foure
times double, and goe in good apparrell, and
skinnes of Oxen : and the women weare
of the said Turqueses at their nostrils and
216
MARCOS OF NIZZA
eares, and very good wast-coates and other
garments. Heere there was as great Knowl-
edge of Ceula, as in Nueva Espanna of
Temistitan, and in Peru of Cuzco; and they
tolde us particularly the maner of their
houses, lodgings, streetes and market-places,
as men that had bene oftentimes there, and
as those which were furnished from thence
with things necessary for the service of their
householde, as those also had done, which I
already had passed. I told them it was im-
possible that the houses should be made in
such sort as they informed mee, and they
for my better vnderstanding tooke earth or
ashes, and poured water thereupon, and
shewed me how they layd stones upon it,
and how the buylding grewe up, as they con-
tinued laving stones thereon, vntill it mount-
ed aloft. I asked them whether the men of
that countrey had wings to mount up unto
those loftes; whereat they laughed, and
showed mee a Ladder in as good sort as
I myself e was able to describe it. Then
they tooke a Staffe and helde it over their
heads, and said that the lofts were so high
one above another. Likewise heere I had
information of the woollen cloth of Toton-
teac, where they say are houses like those
of Ceuola, and better and more in number,
and that it is a great Province, and hath
no governour. Here I onderstood that the
coast of the sea trended much toward the
West; for vnto the entrance of this first
desert which I passed, the coast still
stretched Northward ;and because the trend-
ing of the coast is a thing of great impor-
217
JOURNEY OF ALVAR NUNEZ
tance, I was desirous to Knowe and see it;
and I saw plainely, that in 35. degrees the
coast stretcheth to the West, whereat I re-
ioyced no lesse, then of the good newes
within land, and so I returned back to pro-
ceede on my iourney.
Through the foresayd valley I travailed
five dayes iourney, which is inhabited with
goodly people, and so aboundeth with vic-
tuals, that it sufficieth to feede above three
thousand horsemen : it is all well watered
and like a garden : the burroughs and
townes are halfe and a quarter of a league
long, and in all these villages, I found very
ample repprt of Ceuola, whereof they made
such particular relation onto me, as people
which go yeerely thither to earne their liv-
ing. Here I found a man borne in Ceuola,
who told me that he came thither, having
escaped from the governour or Lieutenant
of the towne; for the Lord of these seven
Cities liveth and abideth in one of those
townes called Ahacus, and in the rest he
appoynteth lieu-tenants under him. This
townesman of Ceuola is a white man of a
good complexion, somewhat well in yeeres,
and of fame greater capacitie then the in-
habitants of this valley, or then those which
I had left behind me. Hee sayde that hee
would goe with mee, that I might begge his
pardon : and of him I learned many par-
ticulars : he tolde me that Ceuola was a great
Citie, inhabited with great store of people,
and having many streetes and market-
places : and that in some parts of this Citie
there are certaine very great houses of five
218
MARCOS OF NIZZA
stories high, wherein the chiefe of the Citie
assemble themselves at certaine dayes of the
yeere. He sayeth that the houses are of
Lyme and Stone, according as others had
tolde mee before, and that the gates, and
small pillars of the principall houses are of
Turqueses, and all the vessels wherein they
are served, and the other ornaments of their
houses were of golde: and that the other
sixe Cities are built like onto this, whereof
some are bigger: and that Ahacus is the
chiefest of them. Hee sayth that toward
the Southeast there is a Kingdome called
Marata, and that there were woont to be
many, and those great Cities, which were
all built of houses of Stone, with divers
lofts: and that these have and doe wage
warre with the Lord of the seven Cities,
through which warre this Kingdome of Ma-
rata is for the most part wasted, although
it yet continueth and maintaineth warre
against the other.
Likewise he saith, that the Kingdome
called Totonteac lyeth toward the West,
which he saith is a very mightie Province,
replenished with infinite store of people and
riches. And that in the sayde Kingdome
they weare woollen cloth like that which
I weare, and other finer sorts of woollen
cloth made of the fleeces of those beastes
which they described before onto me: and
that they are a very civile people. More-
over hee tolde me, that there is another
great Province and Kingdome called Acus;
for there is Acus, and Ahacus with an
aspiration, which is the principall of the
219
JOURNEY OF ALVAR NUNEZ
seven cities : and Acus without an aspiration
is a Kingdome and Province of it selfe. He
told me also, that the apparrel which they
weare in Ceuola is after the same maner
as they before had certified me, and that
all the inhabitants of the Citie lie upon
beddes raysed a good height from the
ground, with quilts and canopies over them,
which cover the sayde Beds : and hee tolde
mee that hee would goe with me to Ceuola
and farther also, if I would take him with
me. The like relation was given vnto me
in this towne by many others, but not so
particularly. I travelled three dayes iourney
through this valley : the inhabitants whereof
made me exceeding great cheere and inter-
tainment. In this valley I saw above a thou-
sand Oxe-hides most excellently trimmed
and dressed. And here also I saw farre
greater store of Turqueses and chaines made
thereof, then in all places which I had
passed ; and they say, that all commeth from
the city of Ceuola whereof they have great
Knowledge, as also of the Kingdome of
Marata and of the Kingdomes of Acus and
Totonteac.
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MARCOS OF NIZZA
CHAPTER IV.
Of a Very Great Beast with One Home Upon
His Fore-head ; and of the Courtesies which the
Indians Shewed Frier Marcus of Niga, in His
Voyage. Also How Cruelly Stephan Dorantez
and His Companions Were Used Upon Their
Arrivall at Ceuola, by the Lorde Thereof.
HERE they shewed me an hide halfe
as bigge againe as the hide of
a great oxe, and tolde me that
it was the skin of a beast which
had but one home upon his forehead,
and that this home bendeth toward his
breast, and that out of the same goeth a
point right forward, wherein he hath so
great strength, that it will breake any thing
how strong so ever it be, if he runne against
it, and that there are great store of these
beasts in that Countrey. The colour of the
hide is of the colour of a great Goat-skin,
and the haire is a finger thicke. Here I had
messengers from Stephan which brought
me word, that by this time 'he was come to
the farthest part of the desert, and that he
was very ioyful, because the farther he went,
the more perfect Knowledge he had of the
greatnesse of the countrey, and sent me
word, that since his departure from me, hee
never had found the Indians in any lye ; for
even vnto that very place he had found al
in such maner as they had informed him
221
JOURNEY OF ALVAR NUNEZ
and hoped that he should find the like at his
arrivall in- the valley which he was going
vnto, as he had found in the villages before
passed. I set up crosses and used those acts
and ceremonies, which were to be done ac-
cording to my instructions. The inhabitants
requested me to stay here three or foure
days, because that from this place there were
four days iourney vnto the desert, and from
the first entrance into the same desert vnto
the citie of Ceuola are 15 great dayes iour-
ney more; also that they would provide vic-
tuals, for me and other necessaries for that
voyage. Likewise they told me, that with
Stephan the Negro were gone above 300
men to beare him company, and to carry
victuals after him, and that in like sort many
of them would go with me to serve me,
because they hoped to returne home rich. I
thanked them, and willed them to set things
in order with speede, and so I rested there
three dayes, wherein I always informed my
selfe of Ceuola, and of as many other things
as I could learne, and called many Indians
vnto mee, and examined them severally and
all of them agreed in one tale, and told me
of the great multitude of people, and of the
order of the streetes, of the greatnesse of
the 'houses, and of the strength of the gates,
agreeing altogether with that which the rest
before had told me. After three dayes many
assembled themselves to go with me, 30 of
the principal of whom I tooke, being very
well apparrelled, and with chaines of tur-
queses, which some of them weare five or
sixe times double, and other people to cajy
222
MARCOS OF NIZZA
things necessary for them and me, and so
set forward on my voyage.
Thus I entred into the second desert on
the 9 of May, and travelled the first day
by a very broad and beaten way, and we
came to diner vnto a water, where the In-
dians had made provision for me; and at
night we came to another water, where I
found a hou^e which they had fully made
up for me, and another house stood made
where Stephan lodged when he passed that
way, and many old cottages and many signes
of fire which the people had made that
travelled to Ceuola by this way. In this
sort I travelled 12 dayes iourney being al-
way well provided of victuals, of wild beasts,
Hares, and Partridges of the same colour
and tast with those of Spaine although they
are not as big, for they be somewhat lesse.
Here met us an Indian the sonne of the
chiefe man that accompanied mee, which
had gone before with Stephan, who came in
a great fright, having his face and body all
covered with sweat, and shewing exceeding
sadnesse in his countenance; and he told
mee that a dayes iourney before Stephan
came to Ceuola he sent his great mace made
of a gourd by his messenges, as he was al-
ways woont to send them before him, that
hee might knowe in what sort hee came
onto them, which gourd has a string of
belles upon it, and two feathers one white
and another red, in token that he demanded
safe conduct, and that he came peaceably.
And when they came to Ceuola before the
magistrate, which the Lord of the citie had
22$
JOURNEY OF ALVAR NUNEZ
placed there for his Lieutenant, they deliv-
ered him the sayde great gourd, who tooke
the same in his hands, and after he spyed
the belles, in a great rage and fury he cast
it to the ground, and willed messengers to
get them packing with speed, for he knew
well ynough what people they were, and
that they should will them in no case to
enter into the citie, for if they did hee would
put them all to death. The messengers re-
turned and tolde Stephan how things had
passed, who answered them that it made no
great matter, and would needes proceed on
hisvoyage till he came to the citie ofCeuola:
where he found men that would not let him
enter into the towne, but shut him into a
great house which stoode without the citie,
and straightway tooke all things from him
which hee carried to truck and barter with
them, and certain turqueses, and other
things which he had received of the Indians
by the way, and they kept him there all that
night without giving him meate or drinke,
and the next day in the morning this In-
dian was a thirst, and went out of the house
to drinke at a river that was neere at hand,
and within a little while after he saw
Stephan running away, and the people fol-
lowed him, and slewe certain of the Indians
which went in his company. And when this
Indian saw these things, he hid himselfe on
the banks of the river, and afterward crossed
the high way of the desert. The Indians that
went with me bearing these newes began
incontinently to lament, and I thought these
heavie and bad news would cost mee my
224
MARCOS OF NIZZA
life, neither did I feare so much the losse
of mine owne life, as that I should not bee
able to returne to give information of the
greatnesses of that Countrey, where our
Lord God might be glorified : and streight
way I cut the cords of my budgets which
I carried with me ful of merchandise for
traffique, which I would not doe till then,
nor give anything to any man, and began to
divide all that I carried with mee among the
principall men, willing them not to be afraid,
but to goe forward with me, and so they did.
And going on our way, within a dayes
iourney of Ceuola wee met two other In-
dians of those which went with Stephan,
which were bloody and wounded in many
places : and as soone as they came to us, they
which were with me began to make great
lamentation. These wounded Indians I
asked for Stephan, and they agreeing in all
poynts with the first Indian sayd, that after
they had put him into the foresayd great
house without giving him meat or drinke all
that day and all that night, they tooke from
Stephan all the things which hee carried
with him. The next day when the Sunne
was a lance high, Stephan went out of the
house, and some of the chiefe men with him,
and suddenly came store of people from the
citie, whom as soone as hee sawe he began
to run away and we likewise, and foorthu ith
they shot at us and wounded us, and cer-
taine dead men fell upon us, and so we lay
till night and durst not stirre, and we heard
great rumours in the citie, and saw many
men and women keeping watch and ward
225
JOURNEY OF ALVAR NUNEZ
upon the walles thereof, and after this we
could not see Stephan any more, and wee
thinke they have shot him to death, as thoy
have done all the rest which went with him,
so that none are escaped but we onely.
226
MARCOS OF NIZZA
CHAPTER V.
The Situation and Greatnesse of the Citie of
Ceuola, and How Frier Marcus Tooke Posses-
sion Thereof and of Other Provinces, Calling
the Same The New Kingdomes of S. Francis,
and How After His Departure from Thence
Being Reserved by God in So Dangerous a Voy-
age, He Arrived at vCompostella in Nueva Galicia.
HAVING considered the former re-
port of the Indians, and the
evill meanes which I had to pros-
ecute my voyage as I desired, I
thought it not good wilfully to loose my
life as Stephan did ; and so tolde them, that
God would punish those of Ceuola, and that
the Viceroy when he should understand
what had happened, would send many chris-
tians to chastise them: but they would not
believe me, for they sayde that no man was
able to withstand the power of Ceuola. And
herewith I left them, and went aside two or
three stones cast, and when I returned I
found an Indian of mine which I had
brought from Mexico called Marcus, who
wept and sayde unto me : Father, these men
have consulted to kill us, for they say, that
through your and Stephans meanes their
fathers are slaine, and that neither man nor
woman of them shall remaine unslaine.
Then againe I divided among them certaine
other things which I had, to appease them,
227
JOURNEY OF ALVAR NUNEZ
whereupon they were somewhat pacified, al-
beit they still shewed great griefe for the
people which were slaine. I requested some
of them to goe to Ceuola, to see if any other
Indian were escaped, with intent that they
might learne some newes of Stephan ; which
I could not obtaine at their handes. When
I saw this, I sayd unto them, that I purposed
to see the citie of Ceuola, whatsoever came
of it. They sayde that none of them would
goe with me. At the last when they sawe
mee resolute, two of the chiefe of them
sayde they would goe with me ; with whome
and with mine Indians and interpreters I
followed my way, till I came within sight of
Ceuola, which is situate on a plaine at the
foote of a round hill, and maketh shew to bee
a faire citie, and is better seated then any
that I have seene in these partes. The
houses are builded in order, according as
the Indians told me, all made of stone with
divers stories, and flatte roofes, as farre as
I could discerne from a mountaine, whither
I ascended to viewe the citie. The people
are somewhat white, they weare apparell,
and lie in beds, their weapons are bowes,
they have Emeralds and other iewels, al-
though they esteeme none so much as tur-
queses wherewith they adorne the walles of
the porches of their houses, and their ap-
parell and vessels, and they use them instead
of money through all the Countrey. Their
apparell is of cotton and Oxe hides, and
this is their most commendable and honour-
able apparell. They use vessels of gold and
silver, for they have no other mettall, where-
228
MARCOS OF NIZZA
of there is greater use and more abundance
then in Peru, and they buy the same for tur-
queses in the province of the Pintados,
where there are sayd to be mines of great
abundance. Of other Kingdomes I could
not obtaine so particular instruction. Divers
times I was tempted to goe thither, because
I knewe I could but hazard my life, and
that I had offered unto God the first day
that I began my iourney : in the ende I be-
gan to bee afraid, considering in what dan-
ger I should put my selfe, and that if I
should dye, the knowledge of this countrey
should be lost, which in my iudgement is
the greatest and the best that hitherto hath
beene discovered : and when I tolde the chief
men, what a goodly citieCeuola seemed unto
mee, they answered me that it was the least
of the seven cities, and that Totonteac is the
greatest and best of them all, because it hath
so many houses and people, and there is no
ende of them. Having seene the disposition
and situation of the place, I thought good
to name that countrey El Nueva reyno de
San Francisco: in which place I made a
great heape of stones by the helpe of the
Indians, and on the toppe thereof I set up
a small slender crosse because I wanted
meanes to make a greater, and sayd that I
set up that crosse and heape in the name of
the most honourable Lord Don Antonio de
Mendoga Viceroy and Captaine generall of
Nueva Espanna, for the Emperour our
Lord, in token of possession, according to
mine instruction. Which possession I sayd
that I tooke in that place of all the seven
229
JOURNEY OF ALVAR NUNEZ
cities, and of the Kingdomes of Totonteac,
of Acus, and of Marata. Thus I returned
with much more feare then victuals, and
went untill I found the people which I had
left behind mee, with all the speede that I
could make, whome I overtooke in two
dayes travell, and went in their company till
I had passed the desert, where I was not
made so much of as before : for both men
and women made great lamentation for the
people which were slaine at Ceuola,and with
feare I hastened from the people of this
valley, and travelled tenne leagues the first
day, and so I went daily eight or ten leagues,
without staying until I had passed the sec-
ond desert. And though I were in feare, yet
I determined to go to the great plaine,
whereof I said before, that I had informa-
tion, being situate at the foote of the moun-
taines, and in that place I vnderstoode, that
this plaine is inhabited for many dayes
iourney toward the East, but I durst not
enter into it, considering, that if hereafter
wee shoulde inhabite this other countrey of
the seven cities, and the kingdomes before
mentioned, that then I might better discover
the same, without putting my selfe in hazard,
and leaue it for this time, that I might give
relation of the things which I had now
seene. At the entrance of this plaine I sawe
but seven Townes onely of a reasonable big-
nesse, which were a farre off in a lowe valley
beeing very greene and a most fruitfull
soyle, out of which ranne many Rivers. I
was informed that there was much golde in
this valley, and that the inhabitants worke
230
MARCOS OF NIZZA
it into vessels and thinne plates, wherewith
they strike and take off their sweat, and
that they are people that will not suffer those
of the other side of the plaine to traffique
with them, and they could not tell me the
cause thereof. Here I set up two crosses,
and tooke possession of the plaine and valley
in like sort and order, as I did at other
places before mentioned. And from thence
I returned on my voyage with as much haste
as I coulde make, untill I came to the citie
of Saint Michael in the province of Culiacan,
thinking there to have found Francis Vaz-
quez de Coronado governour of Nueva Ga-
licia, and finding him not there, I proceeded
on my iourney till I came to the citie of
Compostella, where I found him. I write
not here many other particularities, because
they are impertinent to this matter : I only
report that which I have seene, and which
was tolde me concerning the countreys
through which I travelled, and of those
which I had information of.
231
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