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
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saying that they had found very few people, since all of them had gone to where the buffalo were, since this was the season for them. We told those who had been sick to remain and those who were well to go with us. Two days' journey from there, those same two women would go with two of us to bring out people to the trail to receive us. So the next morning all the fittest departed with us. We stopped after journeying for three days. The following day Alonso del Castillo set out with Estebanico the black man, taking the two women as guides. The one who was a captive took them to a river that ran through some mountains, to a village where her father lived. Here we saw the first houses that really looked like houses. Castillo and Estebanico went there. Having spoken to the Indians, Castillo returned after three days to where he had left us, bringing five or six of those Indians. He said that he saw people's dwellings and permanent settlements, and that those people ate beans and squash, and that he had seen corn. This made us the happiest people in the world, and we thanked our Lord heartily for it. He said that the black man would return with all the people from the houses to wait near there along the way.

For this reason we departed. A league and a half away, we came upon the black man and the people who were coming to receive us. They gave us beans and many squashes to eat and gourds for carrying water, and buffalo skin blankets and other things. Since these people and the ones who had come with us were enemies and did not get along, we left the latter, giving them what we had been given, and went with these new people. Six leagues from there, as night was falling, we reached their houses, where they had a great celebration with us. We stayed there for a day, and the following day took them with us to another permanent settlement where they ate the same things as these people.

From that point on there was a new custom. Those who knew we were coming would not come out to the trails to welcome us as the others