that we found if they decided that they wanted to flee. They warned me not to let the Indians know in any way that I wanted to press on because then they would kill me. They told me I should spend six months with them, after which those Indians would go to another land to eat prickly pears. These are fruits the size of an egg, red and black in color and with a very good flavor. They eat them three months of the year, when they eat nothing else. While they are gathering them, other Indians from further away come to them with bows to deal and trade with them, and we could flee from our Indians and go away with the other Indians when they left.

After agreeing on this, I remained there and they gave me as a slave to an Indian with whom Dorantes stayed and who was blind in one eye. His wife and a son that he had and another who was with him had the same condition, such that they were all one- eyed. These are called the Mariames, and Castillo was with a neighboring group called the Yguazes. While we were there they told me that, while they were on the Isle of Misfortune, they found grounded on the seacoast the boat that had carried the Purser and the friars. While they were crossing those four very large rivers with strong currents, their boats were swept out to sea, where four of their men drowned. They went on that way until they crossed the inlet. They crossed it with great difficulty, and fifteen leagues further on they came to another." By the time they got there two of their comrades had died in the sixty leagues they had traveled, and the rest of them were near death, since they had eaten only crabs and kelp the entire way. When they arrived at this last inlet, they said they found Indians eating blackberries there. When the Indians saw the Christians, they went to the other end. While they were trying to find a way to cross the inlet, an Indian and a Christian passed by. When he neared them, they recognized that it was Figueroa, one of the four that we had sent ahead from the Isle of