Chapter Index

× Proem 1. Which Tells When the Fleet Sailed, and of the Officers and People Who Went with It 2. How the Governor Came to the Port of Xagua and Brought a Pilot with Him 3. How We Arrived in Florida 4. How We Entered the Land 5. How the Governor Left the Ships 6. How We Entered Apalachee 7. What the Land is Like 8. How We Left Aute 9. How We Left the Bay of Horses 10. Of Our Skirmish with the Indians 11. What Happened to Lope de Oviedo with Some Indians 12. How the Indians Brought Us Food 13. How We Found Out about Other Christians 14. How Four Christians Departed 15. What Happened to Us in the Village of Misfortune 16. How Some Christians Left the Isle of Misfortune 17. How the Indians Came and Brought Andrés Dorantes and Castillo and Estebanico 18. How He Told Esquivel's Story 19. How the Indians Left Us 20. How We Escaped 21. How We Cured Some Sick People 22. How They Brought Other Sick People to Us the Following Day 23. How We Left after Having Eaten the Dogs 24. About the Customs of the Indians of That Land 25. How the Indians Are Skilled with a Weapon 26. About the Peoples and Languages 27. How We Moved On and Were Welcomed 28. About Another New Custom 29. How They Stole from One Another 30. How the Custom of Welcoming Us Changed 31. How We Followed the Corn Route 32. How They Gave Us Deer Hearts 33. How We Saw Traces of Christians 34. How I Sent for the Christians 35. How the Mayor Received Us Well the Night We Arrived 36. How We Had Them Build Churches in That Land 37. What Happened When I Wanted to Leave 38. What Happened to the Others Who Went to the Indies
TOC
La relación - p.49
 


Misfortune. Figueroa told them how he and his companions had gotten as far as that place, where two of the Christians and one Indian had died, all three of cold and starvation, since they had arrived and remained during the worst weather imaginable. He said that some Indians had captured him and Méndez. While they were with these Indians, Méndez had fled, going as best he could in the direction of Panuco, but the Indians pursued him and killed him. While Figueroa was with these Indians, he learned from them that there was among the Mariames a Christian who had come from the other side. Figueroa had found him with the Quevenes; he was a Christian named Hernando de Esquivel, a native of Badajoz, who had come with the Commissary. Figueroa said that he learned from Esquivel what had happened to the Governor and the Purser and the others. Esquivel told him that the Purser and the friars had run their boat aground between the rivers. While the Governor's boat was proceeding along the coast, he and his men landed, and the Governor continued on with his boat until he arrived at that large inlet. From there he turned back to board the men and take them to the other side, and he returned for the Purser and the friars and all the others. He said that, once they disembarked, the Governor revoked the Purser's commission to be his lieutenant, and reassigned it to a captain named Pantoja who had come with him. Figueroa also said that the Governor stayed in his boat that night and did not want to go ashore. A sailing master and a sick page stayed with him, but there was no food or water on the boat. At midnight the north wind blew so strongly that it carried the boat out to sea, since it had only a stone anchor, without anyone seeing it. That was the last they heard of him. When they saw what had happened, those who were on land went along the coast. Hindered by a large body of water, they built rafts with great difficulty and crossed to the other side on them. Moving on, they arrived at the edge of a wood on the shore. There they found Indians who, when they saw them coming, put their lodges in their canoes and crossed