FOOTNOTES:

[1]This heading is taken from the title-page of the edition of 1542. The edition of 1555, generally followed in this book, has a title-page so phrased as to cover both the North American and the South American narratives of the author. The return really took place in 1537.

[2]The Emperor Charles V.

[3]He doubtless refers particularly to the services of his grandfather, Pedro de Vera, conqueror of the Canaries, to whom he refers at the close of this work. See the Introduction.

[4]He arrived in Florida with the Narvaez expedition in April, 1528, and reached New Spain overland in April, 1536—eight years later.

[5]The Spanish edition of 1542 has the date June 27.

[6]At the mouth of the Guadalquivir, in the province of Cadiz, Spain; noted as the point of debarkation of Fernão Magalhães, or Magellan, September 20, 1519.

[7]Probably the Rio de Santander, which enters the Gulf of Mexico one hundred miles north of Tampico. The name was later applied to the province that joined the province of Pánuco on the north. The latter was, in general terms, the region drained by the streams that empty into the Gulf about Tampico.

[8]The edition of 1542 has "Juan Gutierrez."

[9]A term often used to designate one of the districts or territories into which a Spanish province was divided for purposes of administration, and having a head pueblo or village; but here employed to signify the favorable proposals which the colonists made to the deserters from the fleet.

[10]In southeastern Cuba, the Santiago de Cuba that was surrendered to the American forces in the summer of 1898.

[11]Vasco Porcallo de Figueroa afterward became De Soto's lieutenant-general in Florida, but returned to Cuba early in the history of the expedition.

[12]On the southern coast, longitude 80°.

[13]Now Cabo Cruz, longitude 77° 40'.

[14]One Juan Pantoja, captain of crossbowmen and Lord of Ixtlahuaca, accompanied Narvaez on his first expedition to Mexico. If the same as the present Pantoja, which seems likely, he was killed by Sotomayor in a quarrel. See ch. 17.

[15]The present Jagua, at the entrance to the bay of Cienfuegos.

[16]Evidently one of the numerous keys between Xagua Bank and the Isle of Pines.

[17]Southwestern Cuba.

[18]The westernmost point of the island.

[19]The place of landing is identified as having been about St. Clement's Point, on the peninsula west of Tampa Bay, on the western coast of Florida. See Woodbury Lowery,Spanish Settlements, 1513-1561 (New York, 1901), p. 177, and App. J.

[20]These were Indians belonging to the Timuquanan, or Timucuan family, now entirely extinct. The Seminoles were comparatively recent intruders in the peninsula, except in the extreme northern part.

[21]April 14, 1528.

[22]April 15, 1528

[23]An Arawak term for house, referring specifically to a dwelling with an open shed attached. The Spaniards became acquainted with the word in Santo Domingo. For descriptions of these habitations see Fewkes, "The Aborigines of Porto Rico and Neighboring Islands,"Twenty-fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 1906.

[24]April 16, 1528.

[25]For the interesting if farcical formula used in taking possession of a country in the name of Spain, see Buckingham Smith,Relation of Alvar Nuñez Cabeça de Vaca(ed. 1871), App. III., 215-217, and Lowery,op. cit., pp. 178-180.

[26]Really northeast.

[27]The western arm of Tampa Bay, known as Old Tampa Bay.

[28]With forty men and a dozen horses.

[29]In the letter addressed by the survivors to the Audiencia of Santo Domingo (Oviedo,Historia General y Natural de las Indias, III., cap. i. 583, Madrid, 1853), it is stated that when the natives were asked whence came these intrusive articles, which included also some pieces of shoes, canvas, broadcloth, and iron, they replied by signs that they had taken them from a vessel that had been wrecked in the bay. Compare also cap. VII. 615. It has been suggested that possibly the objects may have come from the vessel which Lucas Vazquez de Ayllon lost in 1526, but as this wreck occurred at the mouth of Cape Fear River, on the southern coast of North Carolina, it does not seem likely that they could have been derived from this source. That natives of the West Indies had intercourse by canoe with Florida, and that an Arawakan colony was early established on the southwest coast of the peninsula, is now well established.

[30]The Apalachee were one of the Muskhogean tribes that occupied northwestern Florida from the vicinity of Pensacola eastward to Ocilla River, their chief seats being in the vicinity of Tallahassee and St. Marks. In 1655 they numbered six or eight thousand, but about the beginning of the eighteenth century they were warred against by the Creeks, instigated by the English of Carolina, and in 1703 and 1704 expeditions by English troops, reinforced by Creek warriors, resulted in the capture and enslavement of about fourteen hundred Apalachee and in practically exterminating the remainder. The town of Apalachicola, on the Savannah River, was inhabited by Apalachee refugees colonized later by the Carolina government, but these were finally merged with the Creeks. Appalachee Bay and the Appalachian Mountains derive their names from this tribe.

[31]"Apalachen," as above, in the edition of 1542 (Bandelier translation).

[32]The Spanish league varied greatly, but in these early narratives the judicial league, equivalent to 2.634 English miles, is usually meant. Distances, however, while sometimes paced, were generally loose guesses, as is often shown by the great disparity in the figures given by two or more chroniclers of the same journey.

[33]"Jerónimo de Albaniz" in the edition of 1542 (Bandelier translation).

[34]Fray Juan Xuarez.

[35]Buckingham Smith has "Sunday," translatingSábado("Sabbath") literally; the Christian Sabbath is the SpanishDomingo.

[36]The Letter (Oviedo, 584) says two hundred and sixty men afoot and forty horsemen. References to the Letter to the Audiencia of Santo Domingo will henceforth be cited simply as Oviedo, in whose work it appears (see the Introduction).

[37]Buckingham Smith says: "This is the dwarf fan-palm, not the cabbage-palm, to which we often inadvertently apply the diminutive terminationito, mispelledetto." Smith lived in Florida for many years.

[38]Evidently the Withlacoochee, which enters the Gulf at latitude 29°.

[39]The Spaniards were still among the Timucuan tribes.

[40]May 18, 1528.

[41]Castillo.

[42]Two leagues, according to Oviedo,op. cit., 585.

[43]The Withlacoochee.

[44]Forty men according to Oviedo, 585.

[45]When Hernando de Soto passed through this country eleven years later he also was met by Indians playing flutes.

[46]The Suwannee.

[47]Saint John the Baptist's Day, June 24. They had been travelling through the jungle for four or five days.

[48]The assessor, or inspector, it will be recalled, was Alonzo de Solis.

[49]The sweet-gum, copalm, or alligator tree (Liquidambar styraciflua).

[50]Seemingly the lake country in the northern part of Leon and Jefferson counties, Florida. "Apalachen" town was perhaps on Miccosukee Lake.

[51]The opossum. This is probably the first allusion to this animal. The name is derived from the Algonquian language of Virginia, having first been recorded by Captain John Smith.

[52]As it was now late in June, this is not explicable, unless the season was an unusual one.

[53]Buckingham Smith thinks it strange that the turkey and the alligator are not particularly mentioned among the fauna of the region.

[54]Most authorities agree that this place was at or near the site of St. Marks, south-southeast of Tallahassee, although the distance seems too short for nine days' travel, as will be seen.

[55]See Buckingham Smith,Relation of Alvar Nuñez Cabeça de Vaca, 1871, p. 42, note 7, regarding this Aztec prince of the blood.

[56]"Twenty-six days." Oviedo, 586. The edition of 1542 (Bandelier trans., p. 30) says: "And so we left, arriving there five days after. The first day we travelled across lagunes and trails without seeing a single Indian."

[57]July 19-20, 1528.

[58]Alonzo Enrriquez.

[59]"Eight or nine days." Oviedo, 587.

[60]St. Marks River, which flows into St. Marks Bay, at the head of which Aute was situated.

[61]August 1, 1528.

[62]August 3, 1528.

[63]About six hundred and forty bushels.

[64]Tampa Bay.

[65]In reality they could not have travelled much more than as many miles in a straight line from Tampa Bay.

[66]Consult Garcilasso de la Vega,La Florida, 78, 1723, for the finding of the relics of Narvaez by De Soto's expedition in 1539, and see the De Soto narration of the Gentleman of Elvas, later in the present volume.

[67]"Bay of Horses": St. Marks Bay of Appalachee Bay.

[68]The conditions are applicable to the mouth of St. Marks Bay, the two small islands, and the strait between them and the coast.

[69]St. Michael's Day, September 29, 1528.

[70]That is, in a southwesterly direction.

[71]Pensacola Bay. The Indians were Choctaws or a closely related tribe.

[72]"Killing three men." Oviedo, p. 589.

[73]October 28, 1528.

[74]"Three or four days." Oviedo, p. 589.

[75]Biedma's Narrative (Publications of the Hakluyt Society, IX. 1-83, 1851) says of the De Soto expedition in 1539: "Having set out for this village [Mavila, Mauvila, Mobile], we found a large river which we supposed to be that which falls into the bay of Chuse [Pensacola Bay]; we learned that the vessels of Narvaez had arrived there in want of water, and that a Christian named Teodoro and an Indian had remained among these Indians: at the same time they showed us a dagger which had belonged to the Christian."

[76]"Three or four," according to the Letter (Oviedo, p. 589), which also gives the number of canoes as twenty.

[77]According to the Letter they travelled two days more before reaching this point of land.

[78]The Mississippi, the waters of which were now seen by white men fourteen years before the "discovery" of the stream by De Soto.

[79]The present normal depth at this distance from the delta is about sixty feet.

[80]The selfishness and incompetence of Narvaez, shown throughout the narration, are here further exemplified. His life had more than once been spared through the self-sacrifice of his men, yet he now thought more of saving himself, with the aid of his hardy crew, than of lending a hand to his weakened companions.

[81]Juego de herradura, a game played with an iron bar, often a crowbar, which is grasped at the middle and cast as far as possible.

[82]See p. 57, note 2.

[83]As this was the root-digging season, the wordcampoin the original evidently refers to the digging "grounds" in the shoal water, and not to "woods" as Mr. Smith interpreted it.

[84]"Two hundred archers with holes in their ears in which were joints of cane." Oviedo, p. 590.

[85]For an account of these Indians, see ch. 14, p. 50, 51.

[86]Alonzo de Solis.

[87]As he does not speak of crossing water, the dwellings of these Indians were doubtless those seen by Lope de Oviedo on the island, where they lived from October until March, for the purpose of obtaining the roots from the shoal water, as well as fish and oysters.

[88]This would seem to indicate that Dorantes' boat was cast ashore on the same island.

[89]November, 1528. Dorantes' boat was therefore cast ashore the day before the landing of Cabeza de Vaca's party.

[90]About four miles.

[91]Pánuco, previously referred to.

[92]The edition of 1542 omits the last two words.Auiahas been regarded as the native name of Malhado Island, but this is seemingly an error, otherwise Cabeza de Vaca would in all probability have mentioned the nativity of the Indian in later speaking (ch. 17) of his death from cold and hunger. Herrera says: "the island of Cuba," which seems more probable.

[93]That is, the Indians believed the Christians to be sorcerers.

[94]"Misfortune," "ill-fate."

[95]The Capoques, or Cahoques, and the Hans. See ch. 26.

[96]This is characteristic of all Indians, who punish their children very rarely.

[97]Nevertheless these same people were so horrified by the uncanny action of the Spaniards who ate their dead companions that they sought to put them to death. It should be noted that the Attacapan and probably the Karankawan tribes of the Texas coast, to which the people of Malhado Island may have belonged, were reputed to be cannibals.

[98]Tabu of the mother-in-law by a young man is quite common among the Indians, but refusal to see or to speak to the wife's father is very rare.

[99]On their food, compare Oviedo, p. 592.

[100]Anareito, orareyto, was a dance ceremony of the Arawak Indians of the West Indies in which their traditions were recounted in chants. Likebuhío, previously mentioned, the word was now carried to the continent.

[101]These were evidently the Hans, of whom he speaks later.

[102]See p. 57, note 2.

[103]Spanish moss.

[104]Important as it is in affording evidence of the route of Cabeza de Vaca and his companions, it is not possible, with our present knowledge of the former tribes of the coast region of Texas, to identify with certainty the various Indians mentioned by the narrator. Whether the names given by him are those which the natives applied to themselves or are those given by other tribes is unknown, and as no remnant of this once considerable coast population now exists, the only hope of the ultimate determination of these Indians lies in the historical archives of Texas, Mexico, and Spain. The two languages and stocks represented on the island of Malhado—the Capoque and the Han—would seem to apply to the Karankawan and Attacapan families respectively. The Capoques (called Cahoques on p. 87) are seemingly identical with the Cocos who lived with the Mayayes on the coast between the Brazos and Colorado Rivers in 1778, and with the Cokés, who as late as 1850 are described as a branch of the Koronks (Karankawa). Of the Han people nothing more definite is known than that which is here recorded.

[105]Compare Barcia,Ensayo, 263, 1723, and Gatschet inArchaeological and Ethnological Papers of the Peabody Museum, Harvard University, 1891, for references to these "weepers."

[106]Diego Dorantes and Pedro de Valdivieso were cousins of Andrés Dorantes. See p. 69.

[107]Called also Alaniz—the notary.

[108]The Capoques.

[109]From 1528 to 1533.

[110]The identification of Malhado Island is a difficult problem. On general principles Galveston Island would seem to supply the conditions, in that it more likely would have been inhabited by two distinct tribes, perhaps representing distinct linguistic families, as it is known to have been occupied by Indians (the Karankawa) at a later period, besides having the smaller island or islands behind it. But its size and the other conditions are not in favor of the identification, for its length is at least twice as great as that of Malhado, as given in the narrative, and it is also more than two leagues from its nearest end to the first stream that the Spaniards crossed after departing from the island (Oviedo, p. 593). Mr. James Newton Baskett suggests that the so-called Velasco Island, next south of Galveston Island, better fulfils the requirements, as indeed it does topographically, except for the fact that it is really a peninsula. Aside from this, it possesses all the physical features,—length and width, distance from the first stream to the southward, and having the necessary island or islands (Mud and San Luis) off its northern shore. Accepting Mr. Baskett's determination, it is not difficult to account for the four streams, "very large and of rapid current," one of which flowed directly into the gulf. Following the journey of the Spaniards from the island, down the coast, in April, when the streams were swollen by flood, the first river was crossed in two leagues after they had reached the mainland. This was evidently Oyster Creek. Three leagues farther was another river, running so powerfully that one of the rafts was driven to sea more than a league. This fully agrees with the Brazos, which indeed is the only large stream of the landlocked Texas coast that flows directly into the gulf. Four leagues still farther they reached another river, where the boat of the comptroller and the commissary was found. From this fact it may be assumed that this stream also flowed into the open gulf, a condition satisfied by Caney Creek. The San Bernardo may well have escaped notice in travelling near the coast, from the fact that it flows into Cedar Lake. Five or six leagues more brought them to another large river (the Colorado), which the Indians carried them across in a canoe; and in four days they reached the bay of Espíritu Santo (La Vaca Bay?). "The bay was broad, nearly a league across. The side toward Pánuco [the south] forms a point running out nearly a quarter of a league, having on it some large white sand-stacks which it is reasonable to suppose can be descried from a distance at sea, and were consequently thought to mark the River Espíritu Santo." After two days of exertion they succeeded in crossing the bay in a broken canoe; and at the end of twelve leagues they came to a small bay not more than the breadth of a river. Here they found Figueroa, the only survivor of the four who had attempted to return to Mexico. The distance from Malhado Island is given as sixty leagues, consequently the journey from the Colorado to the bay now reached, which seems to be no other than San Antonio Bay, covered thirty-two to thirty-three leagues. Lofty sand dunes, such as those seen on what we regard as perhaps La Vaca Bay, occur on San Antonio Bay. SeeUnited States Coast Survey Reportfor 1859, p. 325. The western shore of the bay is a bluff or bank of twenty feet. "At one place on this side, a singular range of sand-hills, known as the Sand-mounds, approaches the shore. The highest peak is about seventy-five feet above the bay."

[111]These were all members of Dorantes' party who visited Cabeza de Vaca when he was ill on the mainland. See p. 55.

[112]Esquivel was one of the party under Enrriquez the comptroller; Mendez was one of the good swimmers who started from the island in the hope of reaching Pánuco.

[113]Guevenesin the edition of 1542 (Bandelier translation). There is reason to believe that these people may have been identical with the Cohani, who lived west of the Colorado River of Texas in the first quarter of the nineteenth century.

[114]Doguenesin ch. 26.

[115]The fruit of theOpuntiacactus, of which there are about two hundred species.

[116]Mariamesin ch. 26, and in the edition of 1542. These people are not identified. They were possibly of Karankawan or Coahuiltecan affinity, but there is no direct evidence of this.

[117]Iguacesin the edition of 1542.

[118]See p. 57, note 2.

[119]Rafts built for the purpose of crossing the streams.

[120]Yerba pedrera: "Of which glass is made in Spain." Oviedo, p. 593. Doubtless kelp. It was burned and from the product glass and soap were formerly manufactured. It is still a source of manufacture of carbonate of soda and iodine.

[121]Alvaro Fernandez, the Portuguese sailor and carpenter; Astudillo, the native of Zafra; and the Indian from the island of "Auia" (Cuba).

[122]The Mississippi delta.

[123]Doubtless consisting of mats fastened to a framework.

[124]That is, he supposed that he was then somewhere on the coast of central Mexico.

[125]See the extracts from the letter of the survivors (preserved by Oviedo) appended to this chapter.

[126]Evidently for the insertion of canes, as was the custom of the Capoques and Hans of the island of Malhado.

[127]The Capoques of Malhado Island.

[128]It is not improbable that the liquor was made from the peyote, or mescal button, still used by the Kiowa, Comanche, and others to produce stupefaction. See Mooney inSeventeenth Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 1898.

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