We met some Indians on the other side of it, who came to visit ours; and they told us that beyond them there were three men like us, and gave their names. And we asked them for the others; and they told us that they were all dead of cold and hunger; that the Indians farther on, of whom they were, had for their diversion killed Diego Dorantes, Valdevieso, and Diego de Huelva, 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. We asked them how the living were situated; and they answered us that they were very ill used; for that the boys and some of the Indian men were very idle, and of cruelty gave them severe kicks, cuffs, and blows with sticks, and that such was the life they led among them.
We desired to be informed of the country ahead, and of the subsistence in it; and they said there was nothing in it to eat, and [it] was thin of people, who suffered of cold, having no skins or other thing 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 had 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. They frequently threw fragments 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 they had destroyed our friends. Lope Oviedo, my comrade, in fear, said that he wished to go back with the women who had crossed the bay with us, the men having remained some distance behind. I contended strongly with him against his returning, and I urged many objections; but in no way could I keep him. So he went back, and I remained alone with those savages.
IV.—The Indians of the Gulf of Mexico.
These are the most watchful in danger of any people I have ever seen. If they fear an enemy, they are awake the night long, with each a bow by his side, and a dozen arrows. He that sleeps tries his bow; and, if it is not strung, he gives the turn necessary to the cord. They often come out from their houses, bending to the ground in such manner, that they cannot be seen, andlook and watch on all sides to catch every object. If they perceive any thing about, they are all in the bushes with their bows and arrows, and there they remain until day, running from place to place where it is useful to be, or where they think their enemies are. When the light has come, they unbend their bows until they go out to hunt. The strings are of the sinews of deer.
The method they have of fighting is lying low to the earth; and, whilst they shoot, they move about, speaking, and leaping from one point to another, screening themselves from the shafts of their enemies. So effectual is this manœuvring,that they can receive very little injury from cross-bow or arquebuse;[96] but they rather scoff at them: for these arms are of little value employed in open field, where the Indians go loosely. They are proper for defiles, and in water: everywhere else the horses will be found the most effective, and are what the natives universally fear. Whosoever would fight against them must be cautious to show no weakness or desire for any thing that is theirs; and, whilst war exists, they must be treated with the utmost severity; for, if they discover any timidity or covetousness, they are a race that well discern the opportunities for vengeance, and gather strength from the fear of their adversaries. When they use arrows in battle, and exhaust their store, each returns by his own way without the one party following the other, although the one be many and the other few; for such is their custom. Oftentimes their bodies are traversed from side to side by arrows; and they do not die of the wounds, butsoon become well, unless the entrails or the heart be struck.
I believe they see and hear better, and have keener senses, than any people there are in the world. They are great in the endurance of hunger, thirst, and cold, as if they were made for these more than others by habit and nature. Thus much I have wished to say beyond the gratification of that desire which men have to learn the customs and manners of each other, that those who hereafter at some time find themselves amongst these people may be intelligent in their usages and artifice, the value of which they will not find inconsiderable in such event.
V.—Cabeza de Vaca’s Escape.
[After getting away from his first captors, he came among Indians who thought that he and his comrades must have come from heaven, because of their superior knowledge. He thus describes them.]