to go to other Indians further ahead. But since the Indians holding him found this out, they went after them, beat them severely, stripped the Asturian and put an arrow through his arm. Nonetheless, the Christians managed to escape, and remained with the other Indians consenting to be their slaves, although while they were serving them they were treated worse than any slave or man has ever been. There were six of them, and not content with slapping them many times and pulling out their beards as a pastime, the Indians killed three of them for going from one lodge to another. These were Diego Dorantes and Valdivieso and Diego de Huelva. The remaining three men expected the same fate. Rather than endure this kind of life, Andrés Dorantes fled and went over to the Mariames, who were the people with whom Esquivel ended up. They told him how they had held Esquivel, and how he wanted to flee from them because a woman dreamed that he was going to kill one of her children. The Indians went after him and killed him, showing Andrés Dorantes his sword, his beads, his book and other things he had. They do this because of a custom they have, namely to kill their sons because of dreams. When their daughters are born they cast them to the dogs, which eat them. The reason for doing this, according to them, is that all the people of that land are their enemies with whom they are constantly at war, and if their enemies were to marry their daughters, they would multiply so much that they would conquer them and take them as slaves. For this reason they preferred to kill their daughters rather than have them bear offspring who would be their enemies. We asked them why they did not marry their daughters to their own men and they replied that they considered it an unseemly thing to marry them to their relatives and that it was better to kill them than to give them to their relatives or their enemies. This custom is observed only by these people and their neighbors, the Yguazes, and by no other people in that land. When they want to get married,