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
La Relación - page 68

they let them nurse, so that they won't die in times of hunger. Even if some should survive those times, they would end up sickly and very weak. If any fall sick, they leave him to die in the wilderness, if he is not their child. If any cannot keep up with them, they are left behind. But they will carry a son or a brother on their backs. All these people have the custom of leaving their wives when there is a disagreement between husband and wife, and then they marry whomever they please. This is among childless men, because those who have children remain with their wives and do not leave them. In some villages when they quarrel and have disputes among themselves, they punch and hit one another until they are tired and then they separate. Sometimes women separate them by coming between them; the men will not do this. No matter how heated the fight, they never resort to the bow and arrow. After they have finished punching each other, they take their lodges and their wives and go to live in the wilderness, away from the others until their anger has subsided. When their anger and wrath have gone, they return to their village and thereafter the two parties are friends and behave as if nothing had happened. It is not necessary for anyone to help them reconcile, because they do it themselves. If the men who quarrel are not married, they go away to other neighboring groups, who, even if they are their enemies, receive them well and are pleased to see them. They give them part of what they have; and so when their anger has subsided, they return to their village as rich men. All these people wage war. They are as astute in guarding themselves from their enemies as if they had been reared in Italy in a time of continuous war. When they are in a place where they can be attacked by their enemies, they set up their dwellings at the edge of the harshest and thickest woods they can find. Next to their camp they make a ditch and sleep in it. All the warriors are covered with brushwood, in which they make loopholes. They are so camouflaged and concealed that their enemies do not see them even if they are near them. They make a very narrow path into the center of the woods, so that

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