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 107

we departed from them. The Governor had given them orders that they should then all assemble in the ships and continue their journey directly in the direction of Panuco, always sailing along the coast and looking for the harbor the best way they could, so that, once they had found it, they could anchor in it and wait for us. At the time they were assembling on the ships, they say that everyone there clearly heard that woman tell the other women, whose husbands were going inland and exposing themselves to such great danger, that they should not count on their returning and ought to look for someone else to marry as she intended to do. She did so, and she and the other women married and cohabited with the men who remained on the ships. After they departed from there, the ships sailed and followed their course, but did not find the harbor and turned back. Five leagues below where we had landed they found the harbor which stretched seven or eight leagues inland. It was the same one we had explored, where we had found the boxes from Castile mentioned above, containing the bodies of the men who were Christians. In this harbor and along this coast, the three ships, the brig and the other one that came from Havana went looking for us for nearly a year. Since they did not find us, they proceeded to New Spain. This harbor that we are talking about is the best in the world, stretching inland for a distance of seven or eight leagues. It is six fathoms deep at the entrance and five fathoms deep near land, with a fine sandy bottom. Within it there are no rough seas or strong storms, and it can accommodate many ships. There is a great quantity of fish in it. It is 100 leagues from Havana, a town of Christians in Cuba, on a north-south axis with this town. Here the winds are always fair and ships come and go from one place to the other in four days, with the wind on the quarter.

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