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
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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,