USA > New Mexico > Historical sketches of New Mexico : from the earliest records to the American occupation > Part 5
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As Vaca could have no more hope from that quarter, he directed his course to the other boat, which awaited his approach and which he found to be that commanded by Peñalosa and Tellez. These two little crafts, com- panions in misery, and laden with as unhappy a set of men as ever burdened a vessel, kept company with each
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other four days, while the passengers were reduced to a diurnal allowance of half a handful of raw corn. Then a storm arose and they became separated, never more to see each other. The wretchedness of the situation in his own boat is so vividly described by Cabeza de Vaca himself that it seems best to use his own words. " Because," says he, "of winter and its inclemency, the many days we had suffered hunger, and the heavy beat- ing of the waves, the people began next day to despair in such a manner that when the sun sank all who were in my boat were fallen one on another, so near to death that there were few among them in a state of sensibility. Of the whole number at this time not five men were on their feet ; and when night came, only the master and myself were left who could work the boat. Two hours after dark he said to me that I must take charge of her, as he was in such condition he believed he should die ' that night. So I took the paddle, and going after mid- night to see if the master was alive, he said to me he was rather better, and would take the charge until day. I declare in that hour I would more willingly have died than seen so many people before me in such condition. After the master took the direction of the boat, I lay down a little while, but without repose, for nothing at that time was farther from me than sleep." Toward morning the Treasurer heard the roaring sound which told of waves beating on a shore, and on sounding found that they were in seven fathoms of water. The Captain advised that they should keep off shore until it was light enough to land with safety, and so Vaca himself took an oar and pulled the boat out into the Gulf. There a great wave struck the boat, throwing it entirely out of the water and arousing all of the men within it, no matter how exhausted; and as she was forced near the shore again, they got out on the rocks and crawled to the land on their hands and feet to the shelter of some ravines. There they made a fire, parched and ate the
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seanty remainder of their corn, and relieved their thirst from pools of rain-water.
The morning having come, and the men being some- what refreshed, Vaca ordered the strongest of the party, one Lope de Oviedo, to climb to the top of some trees near at hand and reconnoitre the country ; and he soon returned to say they were on an island which seemed inhabited. This aroused mingled feelings of joy and fear, which were enhanced when the same messenger returned from a second trip to tell of finding some empty huts, and bringing an earthen pot, a little dog, and a few mullets, which he had found in them. Just as he arrived three Indians came in view following him, and half an hour later their number was increased by fully 100 of their companions, all armed with bows. "They were not large," says the chronicler, "but our fears made giants of them. The Spaniards were in no condition to meet any hostile attack, so they attempted to conciliate the natives. The Treasurer and the Over- seer went to meet them, and by signs endeavored to open friendly intercourse. They gave them beads and bells, and in return each Indian gave Vaca an arrow in token of friendship, and promised to bring some provis- ions the next day. True to this promise, at sunrise the Indians brought a quantity of fish and a kind of edible root, about the size of a walnut; and again at evening they returned with more of the same supplies. The Spaniards in return gave such presents as they could to the women and children, who flocked to see them.
Being thus refreshed, they began to think of pursuing their journey, and with much difficulty dug their boat out of the beach-sand, under which it was buried. They were still so weak that all exertion was a great burden, and in endeavoring to launch the craft they stripped off their clothes so as to work the better. The boat was scarcely in the water, and but a little way from shore,
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when a wave passed over her, making the oars so slippery as to be temporarily useless, and the next minute another wave completely capsized the boat. Three of the crew, including Don Alonzo de Solis, the assessor, seeking to save themselves by clinging to the vessel, were carried under and drowned; the rest of the Spaniards being thrown violently upon the beach, naked and half dead. Here the cold wind, beating upon their wet and unpro- tected bodies, would have caused them to perish, but that they found a few embers still remaining from their last fire, and soon had a bright blaze to warm and comfort them. When the Indians came as usual at sunset to bring fish and roots, they were so amazed and alarmed at what seemed to them a miraculous transformation of their strange guests, that they immediately fled ; but on learning the true state of affairs by signs, and seeing the dead bodies washed onto the shore, they returned and expressed their sympathy and condolence by loud and mournful lamentations for the space of half an hour. " It was strange," says Vaca, "to see these men, wild and untaught, howling like beasts over our misfortunes. It caused in me, as in others, an increase of sorrow and a more vivid sense of our calamity." Nothing could well exceed the kindness experienced at the hands of these Indians. Cabeza de Vaca suggested to his com- rades that in their forlorn condition it would be best to ask the natives to take them to their homes. The soldiers generally objected to this, fearing that they would be sacrificed to the native idols; but Vaca per- sisted, and begged the Indians to take care of them. The proposition was received with great favor, and so careful and considerate were the Indians that they carried the half-starved and exhausted white men in their arms up to their village, and on account of the extreme cold and the nakedness of their guests, built four or five large fires at easy distances along the road with which to warm the Spaniards on the way.
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Arrived at the village, the strangers were lodged in a house just constructed for them, and were supplied with fires ; and would have been most comfortable but for an unpleasant idea that they were only being well cared for at the present in order to be prepared to be suitable victims in a great sacrifice. Meanwhile the Indians celebrated the event by dancing and rejoicings, which continued all night. The next day the keen eye of Vaca observed with one of the Indians an European article which their own party had not brought, and on inquiry was told that it was a gift from some other men similar to the Spaniards, who were not far off. Amazed and delighted by this intelligence, the Treasurer sent a small party to seek their countrymen, who were soon met, as they had heard of the arrival of Cabeza de Vaca and were hastening to visit him-and who turned out to be the entire company from the boat of Captains Dorantes and Castillo. Their respective stories were quickly told; and it appeared that the day before Ca- beza de Vaca and his comrades were cast on that shore the other boat had been capsized a league and a half from there, but all the men were saved, and succeeded in preserving a large proportion of their goods. It was soon agreed that the best plan was to repair their boat so that the strongest of the united company could pro- ceed along the coast in search of assistance, while the others remained to regain their strength, or until succor should arrive. In accordance with this plan they set at work; but their efforts were fruitless and their hopes disappointed, for the boat proved unfit for service, and finally sank to the bottom of the sea. There was then no alternative but to winter on the island; for the weak condition of the men, as well as their lack of covering, prevented further effort at that cold and boisterous season.
Four of the most powerful of the company, however, being all expert swimmers, volunteered to make one
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more attempt to reach the Spanish settlement at Pan- uco in Mexico (which they all believed to be not far distant), in order that, if a good Providence crowned their efforts with success, relief might be sent to the wretched party on the island The men who thus risked their lives were a Portuguese named Alvaro Fernandez, and three Spaniards named Mendez, Fi- gueroa, and Astudillo. They were accompanied by an Indian of the island-which was called by the natives Auia, but which the Spaniards, from their own sad ex- periences there, appropriately named Malhado, or Bad Luck.
And now these experiences were to become more and more unfortunate. The weather soon became so tem- pestuous that the natives could no longer find the roots which grew at the water's edge, and the fish-nets caught nothing, so that semi-starvation ensued; besides this, the exposure to the winter blasts without any sufficient protection made many a stout heart but emaciated body succumb. Five Spaniards living by themselves in an isolated place near the shore were reduced to such straits that as each died the survivors lived on his dead body; so that when visited, only the corpse of the last survivor was found unmolested. So great was the suffering and mortality that before spring sixty-five out of the eighty who had come on shore in the two boats had perished. Then the Indians themselves, prob- ably on account of their insufficient food, became af- flicted with a disease of the bowels, which proved so fatal that full half of the whole population fell victims to it. Never having been so afflicted before, they at- tributed their misfortune to the malign influence of the pale-faced strangers, and determined to put the sur- viving Spaniards to death for their own safety, if not in retaliation for the scourge inflicted on their people; and this purpose would, no doubt, have been put into execution but for the enlightened advice of the Indian
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who had special charge of Cabeza de Vaca, who re- minded his companions that if the Europeans had power over life and death they would certainly have saved their own people from the dire destruction which had carried off nearly all of their number; that those who remained were not only feeble, but showed no ill will to the natives, and that it would be far better to leave them in God's .hands. Fortunately, these argu- ments prevailed, and the remnant of the Spaniards was saved from the impending peril. Thus they remained on the island until April, suffering great privations themselves, but none greater than those undergone by the Indians; some of whose immemorial customs en- tailed great inconvenience s and danger in such a time of pestilence. For example, if a son or a brother died in a family, none of the household could go out in search of food for three months, but had to be supplied by their friends and relatives; and they would sooner perish than violate this observance. While ordinarily this might produce no inconvenience, yet during this winter, when nearly every house had lost one of its inmates, it caused great hardships. The number of those still permitted to obtain food was so greatly reduced that though they toiled from morning till night, the supply was far less than what was required, and yet none had the temerity to break through the custom; and had not a part of the people passed over to the main-land, where there were oysters, nearly the whole population would have per- ished. In April the Spaniards under Cabeza de Vaca also crossed over, and lived on blackberries all that month; while the Indians carried on their spring cere- monials and dances. This probably gave rise to the re- port which was brought back to Cuba by a vessel which had been sent along the shores of the Gulf in search of the expedition of Narvaez, and which is referred to in a report made by Lope Hurtado to the Emperor Charles V., dated May 20, 529, in the following words: "A car-
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aval has arrived here from searching after Narvaez, and brings eight Indians from the coast; they state by signs that he is inland with his men, who do little else than eat, drink, and sleep."
Among this people Cabeza de Vaca and his com- panions first appeared in the character of physicians, in which they were afterwards compelled to act in many places. The native system of medical attendance was by blowing upon the sick, and with that breath and the laying on of hands they performed the cures. They also made cauteries with fire and then blew upon the spot, which gave the patient relief. The Indians in- sisted that the Spaniards should act as their physicians, and when the latter demurred and said that they had no knowledge of medicine, the Indians insisted that it could not be, but that the whites being extraordinary men, must possess this power; and believing that the refusal came from stubbornness, they withheld all food from them until they had starved them into compliance. While thus constrained to obey, the Spaniards were in great fear, lest their ill success should bring new dangers upon them ; but these apprehensions seem not to have been realized. Cabeza de Vaca tells us : "Our method was to bless the sick, breathing upon them, and recite a Pater-noster and Ave-Maria, praying with all earnest- ness to God our Lord that he would give health, and in- fluence them to make us some good return. In his clemency he willed that all those for whom we suppli- cated should tell the others that they were sound and in health, directly after we made the sign of the blessed cross over them. For this the Indians treated us kindly ; they deprived themselves of food that they might give to us, and presented us with skins and some trifles."
As the spring advanced the other Christians returned to the island, but Vaca remained on the main-land, where he became very sick. Hearing of this, the others,
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under Alonzo del Castillo and Andres Dorantes, desired to visit him, but had considerable difficulty in getting* the tribe with which they were to allow them to cross. Those still alive on the island were fourteen in all, but two, named Alviniz and Lope de Oviedo, were too feeble to travel. The other twelve crossed to the main-land, and there found another of their party, Francisco de Leon; and these thirteen started to travel along the coast, leaving Cabeza de Vaca alone and to his fate, as he was unable to move. Here he remained for more than a year, treated by the natives as a slave, and com- pelled to perform the most toilsome and painful work. During this time he was continually planning how to escape to some other tribe, and so gradually move on to Mexico, but it was long before an opportunity was pre- sented. At length he proposed to his masters to go trafficking for them to the adjacent tribes, and as he was expert in such matters, they soon let him travel on such business to considerable distances. The goods that he took to trade with, were shells, and a peculiar fruit, like a bean, which the interior tribes used as a medicine ; and in return he obtained skins, ochre for painting the face, hard cane to make arrows, sinews, flints, etc., etc. This business gave him not only great liberty, but better fare and treatment ; and besides, he was continually gain- ing information as to the best way to go forward when he should escape and start for Christian settlements.
For nearly six years he remained thus among the natives, with no European for a companion, but living naked and in all respects like an Indian. The reason, he says, that he remained so long was that he wanted, when he went, to take with him Oviedo, who had been left on the island, and whose companion, Alvaniz, had soon after died. With this in view he went over to the island every year and saw Oviedo, and tried to induce him to start on the journey toward the Christian settle- ments. But Oviedo, who seems to have been satisfied
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with his lot, or else afraid to venture on new trials, kept putting him off, until in the year 1533 Vaca finally took him away and carried him with him toward the West ; although as Oviedo could not swim, he had to support him in the water in crossing rivers and bays. So they proceeded until they arrived at a wide expanse of water, which they believed must be the bay called Espiritu Santo. There they met some Indians from the western side of the bay, who said that there were three white men with their tribe, and inquiry showed that these were the sole survivors of the thirteen who had passed on ; five of the others having been killed by the Indians, and the others having died of cold or from privations. They gave such a frightful account of the manner in which the three survivors were being treated that the courage of Oviedo completely gave out, and he insisted on returning to the island; and notwithstanding the entreaties of Cabeza de Vaca, he could not be dissuaded from the purpose, and so departed, leaving Vaca again entirely alone among this new tribe of savages. As soon as he could, he ascertained where the three Spaniards were to be found and visited them ; his appearance creat- ing the greatest astonishment, as they had supposed that he was long since dead-and the natives had so reported. In the words of Vaca: "We gave many thanks at seeing ourselves together again, and this day was to us the happiest that we had ever enjoyed in our lives." The three Christians who were there found were Alonzo del Castillo, Andres Dorantes, and Estev- anico, the latter being an African. They soon talked of plans of escape, and Dorantes said that for a long time he had been urging the others to unite with him in pressing forward, but that they had refused because they could not swim, and were afraid of the rivers and bays which so abounded in that country. They advised Vaca that he must not arouse any suspicions on the part of the natives that he intended to leave there, or he would
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certainly be killed; and that for success in any project of escape, it would be necessary to wait for six months, until the time when the Indians regularly went to another island to eat prickly-pears. Cabeza de Vaca was given as a slave to the same Indian who owned Dorantes, and so had a further experience in enforced servitude to a native.
While here he heard of the fate of the other boats of the expedition, and of the death of Narvaez and the Comptroller. The boats in which were the Comptroller and the Friars had been cast away on the coast, and that of Narvaez had been carried out to sea by a north wind, while scarcely any except the Governor were on board, and was never more heard of. All of the men in both those parties had perished in various ways, except one, named Hernando de Esquivel, who was believed to be still alive among the Indians to the west. One other Spaniard still survived, Figueroa, one of the party of four who were dispatched from the island the year before to endeavor to force a passage through to Mexico, and send succor to their enfeebled commander. It might be added here, that some time after, information came through the Indians of the destruction of the party under Peñalosa and Tellez, who were in the fifth and last boat. It appeared that they had reached the shore a little farther west than the others, but in so feeble a condition that they were all destroyed by the Camones tribe, who inhabited that region, the Spaniards not having the strength to offer any resistance even when being slain.
While among the tribe where they now were, the Spaniards suffered greatly, being cruelly treated, com- pelled to work very hard, and suffer much hunger; but the Indians themselves, except in the prickly-pear season, fared little better as to food, as they were com- pelled to live on roots, which were scarce and difficult to dig, and frequently were reduced to the use of spiders,
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worms, lizards, and snakes, and even earth and wood. They had a singular custom as to their children, all the female infants being cast away at their birth. The reason of this was that they were surrounded by tribes that were enemies, and if their daughters grew up, they would have to marry into some of these tribes, and so serve to increase the number of their foes-as it was not allowable to intermarry in the tribe. For their own wives they captured or bought the women of their enemies, in that way strengthening themselves and weakening their opponents.
When the prickly-pear season arrived, to which they had looked forward as the time of their deliverance, by great ill fortune the masters of the Spaniards had a quarrel and separated a considerable distance, so that it was impossible for them to meet and escape; and thus a whole year was lost until the same season came again. During the year Cabeza de Vaca suffered many things- three times narrowly escaping being killed by his mas- ters; but at length the summer arrived once more, and the tribe moved as before. After encountering many difficulties in arranging to escape, the Spaniards finally succeeded in uniting beyond the encampment of the Indians, and pressed on as rapidly as possible to avoid being overtaken. After two days they came to another tribe called Avavares. These people had already heard of the Spaniards, and of the wonderful cures which they had performed among the Indians on the island; so that scarcely had they arrived when some of the Indians came to Castillo saying that they had severe headaches, and asking to be relieved. He made the sign of the cross over them and commended them to God; whereupon they all said that the pains had departed, and soon re- turned with prickly - pears and a piece of venison -a rare treat for our adventurers. As the news of their cures spread, many others came, each bringing a piece of venison as a fee, until more meat had accumulated
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than the Spaniards knew how to dispose of; whereupon they gave thanks to God for his goodness. As the season was now well advanced and inquiry showed that there were no provisions at that season in the country beyond, the Spaniards concluded to remain through the winter with these Indians who treated them so well. All through that period the sick and wounded of the sur- rounding country were brought to them for cure; and they had such success that nothing else was talked of by the adjacent tribes but the astonishing power of these pale-faced strangers. At first only Castillo and Cabeza de Vaca acted as physicians; but as time passed, and the number applying for help increased, Dorantes and the negro also commenced to practice-and all with equal success ; "although," says Vaca, "in being vent- uresome and bold in the performance of cures, I greatly excelled." "No one whom we treated," he adds, "but told us he was left well; and so great was the confidence that they would become healed if we administered to them, that they even believed that whilst we remained none of them could die " The Indians not only treated them well, but showed great appreciation of their char- acter as their benefactors: " Thus," says the narrative, "when the Cuthalchuches (who were in company with our Indians) were about to return to their own country, they left us all the prickly-pears they had-without keeping one; they gave us flints of very high value there, a palm and a half in length, with which they cut. They begged that we would always remember them, and pray to God that they might always be well ; and we promised to do so. They left the most satisfied beings in the world-having given us the best of all they had."
For eight months they stayed among these people; and then, as the prickly-pears began to ripen, they stole away (as that was the only means by which they could pursue their journey) to another tribe, called Malia-
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cones; and thence to the Arbadaos, a people very weak and lank-probably for lack of food. "Among them," says Cabeza de Vaca, "we underwent greater hunger than with the others; we ate daily not more than two handfuls of prickly-pears, which were green, and so milky they burned our mouths. In our extreme want we bought two dogs, giving in exchange some nets (with other things), and a skin with which I used to cover myself. I have already stated that throughout all this country we went naked; and as we were unac- customed to being so, twice a year we cast our skins, like serpents. Sometimes the Indians would set me to scraping and softening skins; and the days of my greatest prosperity there were those in which they gave me skins to dress. I would scrape them a very great deal, and eat the scraps; which would sustain me two or three days. When it happened, among these people (as it had likewise among others whom we left behind), that a piece of meat was given us, we ate it raw ; for if we had put it to roast, the first native that should come along would have taken it off and devoured it-and it appeared to us not well to expose it to this risk ; besides, we were in such condition it would have given us pain to eat it roasted, and we could not have digested it so well as raw. Such was the life we spent there, and the meagre subsistence we earned by the matters of traffic, which were the work of our own hands."
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