Chapter 16
_The Christians leave the island of Malhado._
After Dorantes and Castillo returned to the island, they brought together the Christians, who were somewhat separated, and found them in all to be fourteen. As I have said, I was opposite on the main, where my Indians had taken me, and where so great sickness had come upon me, that if anything before had given me hopes of life, this were enough to have entirely bereft me of them.
When the Christians heard of my condition, they gave an Indian the cloak of marten skins we had taken from the cacique, as before related, to pass them over to where I was that they might visit me. Twelve of them crossed; for two were so feeble that their comrades could not venture to bring them. The names of those who came were Alonzo del Castillo, Andrés Dorantes, Diego Dorantes, Valdevieso,[106] Estrada, Tostado, Chaves, Gutierrez, Asturiano a clergyman, Diego de Huelva, Estevanico the black, and Benitez; and when they reached the main land, they found another, who was one of our company, named Francisco de Leon. The thirteen together followed along the coast. So soon as they had come over, my Indians informed me of it, and that Hieronymo de Alvaniz[107] and Lope de Oviedo remained on the island. But sickness prevented me from going with my companions or even seeing them.
[106] Diego Dorantes and Pedro de Valdivieso were cousins of Andrés Dorantes. See p. 69.
[107] Called also Alaniz--the notary.
I was obliged to remain with the people belonging to the island[108] more than a year, and because of the hard work they put upon me and the harsh treatment, I resolved to flee from them and go to those of Charruco, who inhabit the forests and country of the main, the life I led being insupportable. Besides much other labor, I had to get out roots from below the water, and from among the cane where they grew in the ground. From this employment I had my fingers so worn that did a straw but touch them they would bleed. Many of the canes are broken, so they often tore my flesh, and I had to go in the midst of them with only the clothing on I have mentioned.
[108] The Capoques.
Accordingly, I put myself to contriving how I might get over to the other Indians, among whom matters turned somewhat more favorably for me. I set to trafficking, and strove to make my employment profitable in the ways I could best contrive, and by that means I got food and good treatment. The Indians would beg me to go from one quarter to another for things of which they have need; for in consequence of incessant hostilities, they cannot traverse the country, nor make many exchanges. With my merchandise and trade I went into the interior as far as I pleased, and travelled along the coast forty or fifty leagues. The principal wares were cones and other pieces of sea-snail, conchs used for cutting, and fruit like a bean of the highest value among them, which they use as a medicine and employ in their dances and festivities. Among other matters were sea-beads. Such were what I carried into the interior; and in barter I got and brought back skins, ochre with which they rub and color the face, hard canes of which to make arrows, sinews, cement and flint for the heads, and tassels of the hair of deer that by dyeing they make red. This occupation suited me well; for the travel allowed me liberty to go where I wished, I was not obliged to work, and was not a slave. Wherever I went I received fair treatment, and the Indians gave me to eat out of regard to my commodities. My leading object, while journeying in this business, was to find out the way by which I should go forward, and I became well known. The inhabitants were pleased when they saw me, and I had brought them what they wanted; and those who did not know me sought and desired the acquaintance, for my reputation. The hardships that I underwent in this were long to tell, as well of peril and privation as of storms and cold. Oftentimes they overtook me alone and in the wilderness; but I came forth from them all by the great mercy of God our Lord. Because of them I avoided pursuing the business in winter, a season in which the natives themselves retire to their huts and ranches, torpid and incapable of exertion.
I was in this country nearly six years,[109] alone among the Indians, and naked like them. The reason why I remained so long, was that I might take with me the Christian, Lope de Oviedo, from the island; Alaniz, his companion, who had been left with him by Alonzo del Castillo, and by Andrés Dorantes, and the rest, died soon after their departure; and to get the survivor out from there, I went over to the island every year, and entreated him that we should go, in the best way we could contrive, in quest of Christians. He put me off every year, saying in the next coming we would start. At last I got him off, crossing him over the bay, and over four rivers in the coast,[110] as he could not swim. In this way we went on with some Indians, until coming to a bay a league in width, and everywhere deep. From the appearance we supposed it to be that which is called Espiritu Sancto. We met some Indians on the other side of it, coming to visit ours, who told us that beyond them were three men like us, and gave their names. We asked for the others, and were told that they were all dead of cold and hunger; that the Indians farther on, of whom they were, for their diversion had killed Diego Dorantes, Valdevieso, and Diego de Huelva,[111] because they left one house for another; and that other Indians, their neighbors with whom Captain Dorantes now was, had in consequence of a dream, killed Esquivel and Mendez.[112] We asked how the living were situated, and they answered that they were very ill used, the boys and some of the Indian men being very idle, out of cruelty gave them many kicks, cuffs, and blows with sticks; that such was the life they led.
[109] From 1528 to 1533.
[110] The identification of Malhado Island is a difficult problem. On general principles Galveston Island would seem to supply the conditions, in that it more likely would have been inhabited by two distinct tribes, perhaps representing distinct linguistic families, as it is known to have been occupied by Indians (the Karankawa) at a later period, besides having the smaller island or islands behind it. But its size and the other conditions are not in favor of the identification, for its length is at least twice as great as that of Malhado, as given in the narrative, and it is also more than two leagues from its nearest end to the first stream that the Spaniards crossed after departing from the island (Oviedo, p. 593). Mr. James Newton Baskett suggests that the so-called Velasco Island, next south of Galveston Island, better fulfils the requirements, as indeed it does topographically, except for the fact that it is really a peninsula. Aside from this, it possesses all the physical features,--length and width, distance from the first stream to the southward, and having the necessary island or islands (Mud and San Luis) off its northern shore. Accepting Mr. Baskett's determination, it is not difficult to account for the four streams, "very large and of rapid current," one of which flowed directly into the gulf. Following the journey of the Spaniards from the island, down the coast, in April, when the streams were swollen by flood, the first river was crossed in two leagues after they had reached the mainland. This was evidently Oyster Creek. Three leagues farther was another river, running so powerfully that one of the rafts was driven to sea more than a league. This fully agrees with the Brazos, which indeed is the only large stream of the landlocked Texas coast that flows directly into the gulf. Four leagues still farther they reached another river, where the boat of the comptroller and the commissary was found. From this fact it may be assumed that this stream also flowed into the open gulf, a condition satisfied by Caney Creek. The San Bernardo may well have escaped notice in travelling near the coast, from the fact that it flows into Cedar Lake. Five or six leagues more brought them to another large river (the Colorado), which the Indians carried them across in a canoe; and in four days they reached the bay of Espíritu Santo (La Vaca Bay?). "The bay was broad, nearly a league across. The side toward Pánuco [the south] forms a point running out nearly a quarter of a league, having on it some large white sand-stacks which it is reasonable to suppose can be descried from a distance at sea, and were consequently thought to mark the River Espíritu Santo." After two days of exertion they succeeded in crossing the bay in a broken canoe; and at the end of twelve leagues they came to a small bay not more than the breadth of a river. Here they found Figueroa, the only survivor of the four who had attempted to return to Mexico. The distance from Malhado Island is given as sixty leagues, consequently the journey from the Colorado to the bay now reached, which seems to be no other than San Antonio Bay, covered thirty-two to thirty-three leagues. Lofty sand dunes, such as those seen on what we regard as perhaps La Vaca Bay, occur on San Antonio Bay. See _United States Coast Survey Report_ for 1859, p. 325. The western shore of the bay is a bluff or bank of twenty feet. "At one place on this side, a singular range of sand-hills, known as the Sand-mounds, approaches the shore. The highest peak is about seventy-five feet above the bay."
[111] These were all members of Dorantes' party who visited Cabeza de Vaca when he was ill on the mainland. See p. 55.
[112] Esquivel was one of the party under Enrriquez the comptroller; Mendez was one of the good swimmers who started from the island in the hope of reaching Pánuco.
We desired to be informed of the country ahead, and of the subsistence: they said there was nothing to eat, and that it was thin of people, who suffered of cold, having no skins or other things to cover them. They told us also if we wished to see those three Christians, two days from that time the Indians who had them would come to eat walnuts a league from there on the margin of that river; and that we might know what they told us of the ill usage to be true, they slapped my companion and beat him with a stick, and I was not left without my portion. Many times they threw lumps of mud at us, and every day they put their arrows to our hearts, saying that they were inclined to kill us in the way that they had destroyed our friends. Lope Oviedo, my comrade, in fear said that he wished to go back with the women of those who had crossed the bay with us, the men having remained some distance behind. I contended strongly against his returning, and urged my objections; but in no way could I keep him. So he went back, and I remained alone with those savages. They are called Quevenes,[113] and those with whom he returned, Deaguanes.[114]
[113] _Guevenes_ in the edition of 1542 (Bandelier translation). There is reason to believe that these people may have been identical with the Cohani, who lived west of the Colorado River of Texas in the first quarter of the nineteenth century.
[114] _Doguenes_ in ch. 26.