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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La Relación - page 28

that at sunset we rounded a point of land where we found fair weather and shelter. Many canoes came towards us with Indians who spoke to us, but turned back not wanting to wait for us. They were large, handsome people and they had no bows or arrows with them. We followed them to their dwellings, which were nearby at the water's edge, and landed. In front of the lodges we found many jugs of water and a large quantity of cooked fish. The Chief of those lands offered all those things to the Governor, and took him to his lodge. Their dwellings were made of mats and appeared to be permanent. After we entered the Chief's lodge, he gave us much fish and we gave him some of the corn we had brought. They ate it in our presence, asked for more, and we gave it to them. The Governor gave him many trinkets, but while he was in the Chief's lodge half an hour into the night, the Indians suddenly attacked us and the very sick men who were lying on the beach. And they also attacked the Chief's lodge where the Governor was and injured his face with a rock. Our men who were there seized the Chief, but since he was so near his own men, he got away from them, leaving in their hands a sable mantle, which I think are the best in the world, with a scent quite like amber and musk which can be detected from a great distance. We saw others there, but none was like this one. When we saw that the Governor was wounded, those of us who were there put him on a boat and had most of our men take shelter on theirs, while fifty of us remained on land to fight the Indians. They attacked us three times that night, and with such force that each time they compelled us to withdraw more than the distance of a stone's throw. Every one of us was wounded, and I was wounded in the face. They had few arrows but

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