that they have more and better meat than cattle here in Spain. From the small ones the Indians make blankets to cover themselves, and from the large ones they make shoes and shields. These animals come from the North all the way to the coast of Florida, where they scatter, crossing the land for more than four hundred leagues. All along their range, through the valleys where they roam, people who live near there descend to live off them, and take inland a great quantity of their hides.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

How the Indians Left Us

After I had been with the Christians for six months waiting to carry out our plan, the Indians went to gather prickly pears, that grew about thirty leagues from there. When we were about to flee, the Indians we were with fought among themselves over a woman, hitting one another with fists and sticks and striking one another on the head. They were so angry that each one took his lodge and went off by himself, making it necessary for us Christians who were there to leave also. In no way were we able to come together until the following year.

During this time my life was miserable because I was so hungry and so mistreated by the Indians. I tried to escape from my masters three times, but each time they went after me intending to kill me. God our Lord through his great mercy protected and sheltered me from them. When prickly pear season came again, we came together in the same place, since we had already plotted and picked the day we were to escape. On that day the Indians left us and each one of us went his own way. I told my companions that