AN ANTHOLOGY
OF
AMERICAN LITERATURE
TO 1800
Prezenta culegere este numai pentru uz intern şi se adresează studenţilor de la Facultatea de Litere, secţia engleză, învăţământ de zi, la distanţă şi cu frecvenţă redusă.
CONTENTS
CONTENTS...3
...4
LITERATURE TO 1620...5
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS (1451-1506)...5
BARTOLOME DE LAS CASAS (1474-1566)...10
HERNAN CORTES (1485-1547)...12
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA (1490-1558)...14
BERNAL DIAZ DEL CASTILLO (1492-1547)...20
NATIVE AMERICAN LITERATURE...29
ARTHUR BARLOWE (FL. 1584-85)...36
JOHN WHITE (1545-1593)...41
SAMUEL DE CHAMLPLAIN (1570-1635)...43
JOHN SMITH (1580-1631)...45
GEORGE PERCY (1580-1632)...51
EARLY AMERICAN LITERATURE 1620-1820...56
WILLIAM BRADFORD (1590-1650)...56 ANNE BRADSTREET (1612-1672)...71 MARY ROWLANDSON (1636-1711)...79 EDWARD TAYLOR (1642-1720)...96 SAMUEL SEWALL (1652-1730)...167 JONATHAN EDWARDS (1703-1758)...174 BENJAMIN FRANLKIN (1706-1790)...178
JEAN HECTOR SAINT JEAN DE CREVECOEUR (1735-1813)...234
THOMAS PAINE (1737-1809)...248
THOMAS JEFFERSON (1743-1826)...251
THE FEDERALIST PAPERS...253
WASHINGTON IRVING...263
EMERSON RALPH WALDO...271
EDGAR ALLAN POE, ...291
ABRAHAM LINCOLN...305
EMILY DICKINSON...311
...343
WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS...343
HENRY JAMES...349
WALT WHITMAN...368
HERMAN MELVILLE (1819–1891). ...409
STEPHEN CRANE...427
LITERATURE TO 1620
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS (1451-1506)
Letter to Luis de Santangel
February, 15th, 1493
Sir:
Since I know that you will be pleased by the great victory which Our Lord has given me on my voyage, I am writing you this letter, from which you will learn how in twenty days1 I crossed to the Indies with the fleet which the
King and Queen, our most illustrious sovereigns, gave me. I found there very many islands inhabited by people without number, and I have taken possession of them all on behalf of Their Highnesses by proclamation and by unfurling the royal standard, and I was not contradicted.2
To the first island I found I gave the name San Salvador in memory of His High Majesty who miraculously has given all this; the Indians call it Guanahaní. To the second I gave the name the island of Santa María de Concepción; to the third, Fernandina; to the fourth, Isabela; to the fifth, the island of Juana, and so on, to each a new name.
When I reached Juana3 I followed the coast to the west and I found it to be so large that I thought it must be
the mainland, the province of Cathay; and since I found no towns or villages on the coast except small settlements with whose inhabitants I could not speak because they all immediately fled, I continued on that course thinking that I could not fail to find great cities or towns.
After many leagues, having seen that there was nothing new and that the coast was carrying me northwards, which was not the course I wished to take because winter was now drawing on and I proposed to make to the south, and as moreover the wind was carrying me forward, I decided to wait no longer and I turned round and made for a fine harbour.4 From there I sent two men85 inland to find out if there was a king or any great cities. They travelled for three
days and found an infinite number of small villages and countless people, but no sign of authority; for which reason they returned. I understood well enough from some other Indians I had already taken that the whole of this coast was an island;6 and so I followed the coast one hundred and seven leagues to the east to where it ended.
From that cape7 I sighted another island to the east, eighteen leagues distant, to which I then gave the name
Española,8 and I went there and followed the north coast due east as I had done in Juana for a good hundred and
eighty-eight leagues, in a straight line to the east as I had in Juana. That coast like all the others is very rocky, and this one is particularly so. There are many harbours on the sea coast beyond comparison with any I know in Christendom, and so many good, wide rivers that it is a marvel. The land is high and there are many sierras and high mountains beyond comparison with the island of Tenerife,9 all most beautiful and of a thousand different shapes and all accessible and
covered in trees of a thousand kinds and so high that they seem to reach the sky; and I am told that they never lose their leaves as far as I can understand, for I saw that they were as green and as beautiful as they are in Spain in May, and some were in flower and some in fruit, and some at another stage according to their nature, and there where I travelled the nightingale10 and other birds of a thousand kinds were singing in November. There are six or eight kinds of palms
which are a wonder to behold for their beautiful variety, as too with the other trees and fruits and plants. There are marvellous pine groves and broad meadows, and there is honey and there are many different kinds of birds and many varieties of fruit. In the interior there are many mines of metal and incalculable numbers of people. Española is a 1 The fleet left the Canaries on 8 September and made landfall in the early morning of 12 October, making a journey of 35 days
inclusive. On the possible reasons for the figure given in the text, see Introduction, p. 11.
2 For this ceremony, described in more detail in the Diario entry for 11 October, see p. 25, n. 2. 3 Cuba, sighted on 28 October.
4 Río de Mares, now known as Puerto or Bahía de Gibara.
5 Rodrigo de Jerez and Luis de Torres. According to the Diario entry for 2 November, the latter was a converso and knew Hebrew,
Chaldean and some Arabic.
6 By contrast, the Diario entry for 1 November concludes that 'esta es la tierra firme', 'this is the mainland' (Ife, Journal, pp. 64, 65).
Columbus confirmed this view to his satisfaction during the second voyage in 1494. Cuba was not in fact circumnavigated by the Spanish until 1508.
7 Cape Maisí, at the far eastern end of Cuba.
8 The island of Hispaniola, now Haiti and the Dominican Republic, sighted on 5 December.
9 Pico de Teide in Tenerife, at 12,198 ft., was three times higher than any mountain Columbus could have seen on the first voyage.
The Spanish texts are garbled; Columbus's usual point of comparison is with Tenerife, as in the Diario entry for 20 December: 'Y sin duda que ay allí montañas más altas que la ysla de Tenerife', 'without doubt there are mountains there which are higher than the island of Tenerife' (Ife, Journal, pp. 142, 143).
marvel; the sierras and the mountains and the plains and the fields and the land are so beautiful and rich for planting and sowing, for raising all kinds of cattle, for building towns and villages. The harbours are beyond the belief of anyone who has not seen them, and the many great rivers give good waters of which the majority bear gold. There are great differences between the trees and fruit and plants and those of Juana. On this island there are many spices and great mines of gold and other metals.
All the people on this island and all the others I have found or have learned of go naked, men and women alike, just as their mothers bear them, although some women cover themselves in one place with a leaf from a plant or a cotton garment which they make for the purpose.
They have no iron or steel or weapons, nor are they that way inclined, not because they are not well built and of fine bearing, but because they are amazingly timid. They have no other weapons than those made from canes cut when they are in seed, to the ends of which they fix a sharp stick; and they dare not use them, for many times I have happened to send two or three men ashore to some town to speak to them and a great number of them have come out, and as soon as they see the men coming they run off, parents not even waiting for children, and not because any harm has been done to any of them; on the contrary, everywhere I have been and have been able to speak to them I have given them some of everything I had, cloth and many other things, without receiving anything in exchange; but they are simply incurably timid.
The truth is that, once they gain confidence and lose this fear, they are so lacking in guile and so generous with what they have that no-one would believe it unless they saw it. They never refuse to give whatever they have, whenever they are asked; rather, they offer it willingly and with such love that they would give their hearts, and whether it is something of value or of little worth, they are happy with whatever they are given in return, however it is given. I forbade the men to give them such worthless things as pieces of broken crockery and pieces of broken glass and the ends of laces, even though when they could get hold of them they seemed to think they had the most precious jewel in the world. There was a sailor who had a piece of gold weighing two and a half castellanos16 in exchange for a lace, and
others got things worth much more for much less; for new blancas17 they would give everything they had, even if it was
gold worth two or three castellanos or an arroba18 or two of spun cotton. They would even take broken hoops from the
wine barrels and give what they had, like animals. All this seemed wrong to me and I put a stop to it and I gave them thousands of pretty things I carried with me so that they would be well disposed and, moreover, would become christians, inclined to the love of Their Highnesses and the whole Castilian nation, and help us by giving us the things they have in abundance and of which we have need.
They knew no sect and were not idolaters, except that they all believe that power and good come from heaven,19 and they believed very firmly that I and these ships and crew came from heaven and in this belief they
received me everywhere, once they had overcome their fear. And this is not because they are ignorant; rather, they are of subtle intelligence and can find their way around those seas, and give a marvellously good account of everything; it is only because they have never seen men clothed or ships of that kind. When I arrived in the Indies, at the first island I found I took some of them by force so that they could learn20 and give me information about what there was in those
parts, and in that way they soon understood us and we them, whether by word or by sign; and they have been very useful to us. I still have them with me,21 and they still insist that I come from heaven, in spite of all the exchanges they
have had with me, and they were the first to announce this wherever I went, and the others would run from house to house and to the nearby towns shouting: "come, come and see the people from heaven." In this way they all flocked in, men and women alike, great and small, once they were confident about us; none were left behind, and they all brought something to eat and drink, which they gave with marvellous affection.
On all the islands they have very many canoes like galleys22 with oars, some large, some small; and some,
indeed many, are larger than a galley with eighteen benches. They are not as broad because they are made from a single tree-trunk, but a galley could not compete with them by rowing, because they travel incredibly fast. And with these they sail around all those islands, which are countless, and trade in their merchandise. I have seen some of these canoes with seventy and eighty men in them, each one with an oar.
Throughout the islands I did not find much variety in the appearance of the people, nor in their customs or language; rather, they can all understand each other, which is very unusual23 and for which reason I hope that Their
Highnesses will decide to undertake their conversion to our holy faith, to which they are well disposed.
I have already mentioned that I had sailed one hundred and seven leagues along the sea coast in a straight line from west to east along the island of Juana, from which course I can say that this island is larger than England and Scotland together,24 because, apart from these hundred and seven leagues, to the west of me were two provinces which I
have not visited, one of which they call Avan,25 where the people are born with tails.26 These provinces cannot be less
than fifty or sixty leagues in length, as far as I can understand from the Indians I have with me who know all the islands. This other island of Española is larger in circumference than Spain from Collioure in Catalunya round the coast to Fuenterrabía in Vizcaya,27 since I sailed along one side of it for a good hundred and eighty-eight leagues in a
straight line from west to east.
This island is much to be desired and, once seen, never to be left. Since I have taken possession of them all in Their Highnesses' name and since they are better endowed than I can possibly say and I hold them all as Their Highnesses' possessions for them to dispose of entirely as they would the kingdoms of Castile, on this island of Española, in the most suitable place, most conveniently situated for the gold mines and for all trade from the mainland
here as well as from the land of the Great Khan which will bring very great trade and profit, I have taken possession of a large town to which I gave the name the town of Navidad28 and I have made a fortress, the building of which should
by now be finished and I have left there sufficient men for the purpose,29 together with arms and artillery and supplies
for more than a year, and a boat and a shipwright to build others, and with the firm friendship of the king of that land,30
so much so that he took great pride in calling me his brother and treating me as such. And even if he were to change his attitude to one of hostility towards these men, neither he nor his people know what weapons are and they go naked as I have already said. They are the most timid people in the world; in fact, the men left there would be enough to destroy the whole of that land, and it is an island which offers no danger to them if they know how to govern it.31
On all these islands it seems that all the men are content with one woman and that to their leader or king they give as many as twenty. The women seem to me to work harder than the men. I have not been able to determine if they have private property, for it appeared from what I could see that what one person had was shared among everybody, especially in the case of food.32
On these islands until now I have not found any monstrous men, as many expected;33 rather, they are all people
of very beautiful appearance and are not black as in Guinea but have long flowing hair, and where they live the sun's rays are not too intense; it is true that the sun is very fierce there, although it is twenty-six degrees north of the equator.34
On these islands where there are large mountains the cold was very harsh there this winter; but they are used to it, and withstand it with the help of their food which they eat heavily seasoned with hot spices.
So I have found no monsters, nor heard of any except on an island here which is the second one as you approach the Indies and which is inhabited by people who are held in all the islands to be very ferocious and who eat human flesh.35 These people have many canoes in which they sail around all the islands of India robbing and stealing
whatever they want; they are no more malformed than the others except that they wear their hair long like women and they carry bows and arrows made from the same cane stems with a small stick at the end for want of iron which they do not have. They are ferocious with these other people who are excessively cowardly, but I take no more account of them than of the rest.
These are the people who have relations with the women of Matinino, which is the first island on the way from Spain to the Indies, and on which there are no men.36 These women do not behave like women but carry bows and cane
arrows like those I have already described, and they arm and protect themselves with plates of copper, of which they have a great deal.
There is another island which they assure me is larger than Española whose inhabitants have no hair. On this island there is gold beyond measure and I have Indians with me as witnesses about this and other islands.
In conclusion, to speak only of what has been achieved on this voyage, which was very rapid, Their Highnesses can see that I will give them as much gold as they require if Their Majesties will give me only a very little help; as much spice and cotton as Their Majesties may order to be shipped, as much mastic37 as they may order to be
shipped, which until now has only been found in Greece, on the island of Chios, and the Genoese government sells it for whatever it likes, and as much aloe38 as they may order to be shipped and as many slaves39 as they may order to be
shipped, and who will be from among the idolaters. I believe that I have found rhubarb40 and cinnamon41 and that I will
find a thousand other things of value which the men I have left there will have discovered; for I have not delayed at any point whenever the wind gave me the opportunity to sail, except at the town of Navidad for as long as I might leave it safe and secure. And in truth I could have done a great deal more if the ships had served me as reason demanded.42
That is enough. Eternal God, our Lord, gives to all those who follow His path victory over things which appear impossible, and this was a very notable example. For, although these lands may have been spoken or written of, that was all conjecture, without eye-witness, and those who heard the stories listened to them and judged them more as fables than as having the least vestige of truth. Therefore, since Our Redeemer gave to our most illustrious King and Queen and to their famous kingdoms this victory in such great matters, the whole of Christendom should be joyful and hold great celebrations and give solemn thanks to the Holy Trinity with many solemn prayers for the great exultation they will have when so many people return to our holy faith and for the temporal benefits which will bring solace and profit not only to Spain but to all christians. This is a brief account of what has been achieved.
Dated on board the caravel, off the islands of the Canaries,43 15 February in the year 1493.
Your obedient servant. The Admiral. Enclosure with the letter.
After writing this and being at sea off Castile, such a great wind blew up from the south-south-west that I was obliged to lighten ship. But I ran into this port of Lisbon today, which was the greatest marvel in the world, and I decided to write to Their Majesties. Throughout the Indies, to which I sailed in thirty-three days and returned in twenty-eight,44 I have always found the weather to be as in May, except for these storms which have detained me for fourteen
days beating about on this sea. All the seamen here say that there has never been such a bad winter nor so many ships lost. Dated 14 March.45
This letter was sent by Columbus to the Controller of the Household46 about the islands discovered in the
Indies, enclosed in another to Their Majesties.
Footnotes
2. making a journey of 35 days inclusive. On the possible reasons for the figure given in the text, see Introduction, The fleet left the Canaries on 8 September and made landfall in the early morning of 12 October, p. 11.
3. For this ceremony, described in more detail in the Diario entry for 11 October, see p. 25, n. 2. 4. For a discussion of the landfall and the subsequent islands see p. 25, n. 3.
5. Cuba, sighted on 28 October.
6. 31 October. For the implications of this decision see Hulme, Colonial Encounters, pp. 26 ff. 7. Río de Mares, now known as Puerto or Bahía de Gibara.
8. converso and knew Hebrew, Chaldean and some Arabic. Rodrigo de Jerez and Luis de Torres. According to the Diario entry for 2 November, the latter was a
9. (Ife, Journal, pp. 64, 65). Columbus confirmed this view to his satisfaction during the second voyage in 1494. By contrast, the Diario entry for 1 November concludes that 'esta es la tierra firme', 'this is the mainland' Cuba was not in fact circumnavigated by the Spanish until 1508.
10. Cape Maisí, at the far eastern end of Cuba.
11. The island of Hispaniola, now Haiti and the Dominican Republic, sighted on 5 December.
12. construes the A reading as the superlative of 'fuerte' meaning 'abrupta, escabrosa' and refers to the Diario text of Most editors, following D, amend the text to 'fertilísimas' and translate as 'very fertile'. Demetrio Ramos 6 December: 'Toda esta ysla le pareçió de más peñas que ninguna otra...', 'All this island seemed to him rockier than any other...' (Ife, Journal, pp. 114, 115).
13. seen on the first voyage. The Spanish texts are garbled; Columbus's usual point of comparison is with Tenerife, Pico de Teide in Tenerife, at 12,198 ft., was three times higher than any mountain Columbus could have as in the Diario entry for 20 December: 'Y sin duda que ay allí montañas más altas que la ysla de Tenerife', 'without doubt there are mountains there which are higher than the island of Tenerife' (Ife, Journal, pp. 142, 143).
14. mockingbird (Mimus). The nightingale (Erithacus) is not a native of the New World, but the term is often applied loosely to the
15.
Literally 'thing of cotton'. The common translation 'net' derives from the D reading 'cofia'. Note that the letter to the Monarchs reads 'cosita', 'little thing' at this point (p. 28).
16. sterling. A castellano was worth 490 maravedis or 1.3 gold ducats, or, at modern gold prices, a little over £30
17. A blanca was a copper coin worth half a maravedi, or approximately three new pence. 18. An arroba was a measure of weight equivalent to approximately 25 lb or 11.5 kilos. 19. Note that 'cielo' means 'sky' as well as 'heaven'.
20. 'to learn our language' (Ife, Journal, pp. 34, 35). See also the letter to the Monarchs, p. 33. I.e. to speak Castilian, as the Diario entry for 14 December makes clear: 'para deprender nuestra fabla',
21. Seven Indians survived the return journey, of whom one acted as interpreter on the second voyage. 22. rigging (triangular sails) to supplement the oars. A fusta was smaller than a galley but larger than a rowing-boat, and sometimes carried masts and lateen
23. November he says that 'toda la lengua es una', 'they all speak the same language', and on 12 November he Columbus made a number of statements in the Diario about the linguistic condition of the islands. On 1 compares the linguistic homogeneity he has noted with the culture of Guinea 'adonde es mil maneras de lenguas que la una no entiende la otra', 'where there are a thousand different languages, with the one not understanding the other' (Ife, Journal, pp. 64, 65, 78, 79). However, by 13 January Columbus was able to note correctly the crossing of a cultural boundary when he observed that a Ciguayo Indian could not understand words for 'gold' used on San Salvador and the western end of Española: 'fallava differençia de lenguas por la gran distançia de las tierras', 'they found the languages different due to the great distance between the lands' (192, 193).
24.
Though Cuba is in fact longer than the British Isles, stretching some 11o E-W, it has just under half the surface area. Since Columbus's calculation is based on the length of the north coast his observation is more accurate than he is usually given credit for.
25.
26. comment should be read as hearsay. Columbus goes on to underline the fact that he found no monsters (p. 59), which suggests that this
27. Spain and Portugal, approximately 1900. An over-estimate of about 26%. The circumference of Española is approximately 1500 miles; that of
28. For the circumstances surrounding the founding of Navidad see Introduction, pp. 16-18.
29. perished before he was able to relieve them the following year, in spite of the confidence he goes on to express Following the loss of the Santa María, Columbus had no choice but to leave 39 men behind. All in their safety.
30. 'rey', 'king'. The cacique was in fact the chief of a province. Columbus knew the native word cacique, but does not use it in the letter, preferring the more European
31. 'se' can be taken to refer either to the men or to the island. The former has its attractions because it implies that Some translate 'govern themselves' or 'maintain discipline'. The syntax is unclear; the reflexive pronoun Columbus feared the worst (the men lacked discipline and were killed by the natives), but the latter is more likely.
32. For a slightly different account, see the letter to the Monarchs, p. 29.
33. throughout Europe from the mid 14th to the late 15th centuries, and Marco Polo. Such expectations were fuelled by many medieval travel books, such as those of Mandeville, popular
34. In fact the latitude was nearer 21oN. For a discussion of this discrepancy see Introduction, p. 11. 35. Colonial Encounters, pp. 33 ff The Caribs. For a discussion of Columbus's changing attitude to reports of cannibalism, see Hulme,
36. passage in Marco Polo about the two islands of Masculina and Feminea: the men visit the women for three Martinique. The legend is associated with the classical female warriors, the Amazons, and with the months of the year for procreation, and for the rest of the year the sexes live separately (Latham, ed. and trans., The Travels of Marco Polo, p. 252). Mandeville locates the land of Amazonia, or Feminea, beside the land of Chaldea, in the Middle East (Seymour, ed., Mandeville's Travels, pp. 119-121).
37.
The mastic with which Columbus was familiar was from the small evergreen tree Pistacia lentiscus. What they found on Cuba was probably the gumbo-limbo (Bursera simaruba). See Fuson, Log, p. 103.
38. It is not a native of the Caribbean. Columbus almost certainly confused this with the agave (family Agavaceae). A shrubby succulent plant of the familiy Liliaceae, native to Africa, whose juice is used as a purgative.
39.
Columbus first mentions the possibility of using the Indians as slaves in the Diario entries for 16 December and 21 December, commenting on the readiness with which they carry out orders: 'son buenos para les mandar y les hazer trabajar sembrar y hazer todo lo otro que fuere menester', 'they are suitable to take orders and be made to work, sow and do anything else that may be needed' (Ife, Journal, pp. 132-135).
40. purgative. It is not a native of the Caribbean. Rhubarb was imported into the west from China during the middle ages and used as a medicinal
41.
Cinnamon is not a native of the Caribbean, but Las Casas (I.45) thought that the wild pepper of the area ('ají') could have been confused with the oriental variety they were seeking.
42. For Columbus's amplification of this point see p. 33.
43. this discrepancy see Introduction, p. 11. Columbus was in fact off the island of Santa Maria in the Azores on 15 February. For the reasons for
44.
Columbus left Española on 16 January and sighted Santa Maria in the Azores on 18 February, a journey of 34 days inclusive.
45. 14 March Columbus was off Cape St. Vincent on his way back to Palos. Probably an error for 4 March, the day he arrived in Lisbon ('I ran into this port of Lisbon today'). On
46. financiers. He was contracted as a tax gatherer in 1475 and joined the Court in 1478, although he maintained his Luis de Santángel. Santángel was a Valencian of converso origin, born into a family of bankers and own business as a merchant while in royal sevice. The post of 'escribano de ración' involved responsibility for administering the provisioning of the court (see M. Serrano y Sanz, Orígenes de la dominación española en América, vol. I, (Madrid: Bailly-Bailliere, 1918) ch. 3. Santángel played an important role in arranging the financial backing for the first voyage, using for the purpose funds from the Santa Hermandad, which were also in his charge. It was probably out of gratitude that Columbus sent him a personal report on the outcome of the voyage. The Latin editions give the name of the recipient as Gabriel Sánchez (in one case 'Rafael' Sánchez), who occupied the post of Treasurer. The two letters are virtually identical, allowing for the translation, and lead one to suppose that Sánchez's name became associated with the Latin translation as a result of confusion on the part of the translator as to who held which post.
From Letter to Ferdinand and Isabella Regarding the Fourth Voyage
[Jamaica, July 7, 1503]
Of Espaniola, Paria, and the other lands, I never think without weeping. I believed that their example would have been to the profit of others; on the contrary, they are in an exhausted state., although they are not dead, the infirmity is incurable or very extensive; let him who brought them to this state come now with the remedy if he can or if he knows it. In destruction, everyone is an adept. It was always the custom to give thanks and promotion to him who imperiled his person. It is not just that lie who has been so hostile to this undertaking should enjoy its fruits or that his children should. Those who left the Indies, flying from toils and speaking evil of the matter and of me, have returned with official employment So it has now been ordained in the case of Veragua. It is an ill example and without profit for the business and for justice in the world.
The fear of this, with other sufficient reasons, which I saw clearly, led me to pray your highnesses before I went to discover these islands and Terra Firma, that you would leave them to me to govern in your royal name. It pleased you; it was a privilege and agreement, and under seal and oath, and you granted me the title of viceroy and admiral and governor general of all. And you fixed the boundary, a hundred leagues beyond the Azores and the Cape Verde Islands, by a line passing from pole to pole, and you gave me wide power over this and over all that I might further discover. The document states this very fully.
The other most important matter, which calls aloud for redress, remains inexplicable to this moment. Seven years I was at your royal court, where all to whom this undertaking was mentioned, unanimously declared it to be a delusion. Now all, down to the very tailors, seek permission to make discoveries. It can be believed that they go forth to plunder, and it is granted to them to do so, so that they greatly prejudice my honor and do very great damage to the enterprise. It is well to give to God that which is His due and to Caesar that which belongs to him. This is a just sentiment and based on justice.
The lands which here obey Your Highnesses are more extensive and richer than all other Christian lands. After I, by the divine will, had placed them under your royal and exalted lordship, and was on the point of securing a very great revenue, suddenly, while I was waiting for ships to come to your high presence with victory and with great news of gold, being very secure and joyful, I was made a prisoner and with my two brothers was thrown into a ship, laden with fetters, stripped to the skin, very ill~treated, and without being tried or condemned. Who will believe that a poor foreigner could in such a place rise against Your Highnesses, without cause, and without the support of some other prince, and being alone among your vassals and natural subjects, and having all my children at your royal court?
I came to serve at the age of twenty-eight years, and now I have not a hair on my body that is not gray, and my body is infirm, and whatever remained to me from those years of service has been spent and taken away from me and sold, and from my brothers, down to my very coat, without my being heard or seen, to my great dishonor. It must be believed that this was not done by your royal command. The restitution of my honor, the reparation of my losses, and the punishment of him who did this, will spread abroad the fame of your royal nobility. The same punishment is due to him who robbed me of the pearls, and to him who infringed my rights as admiral. Very great will be your merit, fame without parallel will be yours, if you do this, and there will remain in Spain a glorious memory of Your Highnesses, as grateful and just princes.
The pure devotion which I have ever borne to the service of Your Highnesses, and the unmerited wrong that I have suffered, will not permit me to remain silent, although I would fain do so., I pray Your Highnesses to pardon me. I am so ruined as I have said; hitherto I have wept for others; now, Heaven have mercy upon me, and may the earth weep for me. Of worldly goods, I have not even a blanca' for an offering in spiritual things. Here in the Indies I have become careless of the prescribed forms of religion. Alone in my trouble, sick, in daily expectation of death, and encompassed about by a million savages, full of cruelty and our foes, and so separated from the holy Sacraments of Holy Church, my soul will be forgotten if it here leaves my body. Weep for me, whoever has charity, truth, and justice.
I did not sail upon this voyage to gain honor or wealth; this is certain, for already all hope of that was dead. I came to Your Highnesses with true devotion and with ready zeal, and I do not lie. I humbly pray Your Highnesses that if it please God to brong e from this place, that you will be pleased to permit me to go to Rome and other places of pilgrimage. May the Holy Trinity preserve your life and high estate, and grant you increase of prosperity.
Done in the Indies in the island of Jamaica, on the seventh of July, in the year one thousand five hundred and three. (1505)
BARTOLOME DE LAS CASAS (1474-1566)
From The Very Brief Relation of the Devastation of the Indies From Hispaniola
This was the first land in the New World to be destroyed and depopulated by the Christians, and here they began their subjection of the women and children, taking them away from the Indians to use them and ill use them, eating the food they provided with their sweat and toil. The Spaniards did not content themselves with what the Indians gave them of their own free will, according to their ability, which was always too little to satisfy enormous appetites, for a Christian cats and consumes in one day an amount of food that would suffice to feed three houses inhabited by ten Indians for one month. And they committed other acts of force and violence and oppression which made the Indians realize that these men had not come from Heaven. And some of the Indians concealed their foods while others concealed their wives and children and still others fled to the mountains to avoid the terrible transactions of the Christians.
And the Christians attacked them with buffets and beatings, until finally they laid hands on the nobles of the villages. Then they behaved with such temerity and shamelessness that the most powerful ruler of the islands had to see his own wife raped by a Christian officer.
From that time onward the Indians began to seek ways to throw the Christians out of their lands. They took up arms, but their weapons were very weak and of little service in offense and still less in defense. (Because of this, the wars of the Indians against each other are little more than games played by children.) And the Christians, with their horses and swords and pikes began to carry out massacres and strange cruelties against them. They attacked the towns and spared neither the children nor the aged nor pregnant women nor women in childbed, not only stabbing them and dismembering them but cutting them to pieces as if dealing with sheep in the slaughter house. They laid bets as to who, with one stroke of the sword, could split a man in two or could cut off his head or spill out his entrails with a single stroke of the pike. They took infants from their mothers' breasts, snatching them by the legs and pitching them headfirst against the crags or snatched them by the arms and threw them into the rivers, roaring with laughter and saying as the babies fell into the water, "Boil there, you offspring of the devil!" Other infants they put to the sword along with their mothers and anyone else who happened to be nearby. They made some low wide gallows on which the hanged victim's feet almost touched the ground, stringing up their victims in lots of thirteen, in memory of Our Redeemer and His twelve Apostles, then set burning wood at their feet and thus burned them alive. To others they attached straw or wrapped their whole bodies in straw and set them afire. With still others, all those they wanted to capture alive, they cut off their hands and hung them round the victim's neck, saying "Go now, carry the message," meaning, Take the news to the Indians who have fled to the mountains. They usually dealt with the chieftains and nobles in the following way: they made a grid of rods which they placed on forked sticks, then lashed the victims to the grid and lighted a smoldering fire underneath, so that little by little, as those captives screamed in despair and torment, their souls would leave them.
I once saw this, when there were four or five nobles lashed on grids and burning; I seem even to recall that there were two or three pairs of grids where others were burning, and because they uttered such loud screams that they disturbed the captain's sleep, he ordered them to be strangled. And the constable, who was worse than an executioner, did not want to obey that order (and I know the name of that constable and know his relatives in Seville), but instead put a stick over the victim's tongues, so they could not make a sound, and he stirred up the fire, but not too much, so that they roasted slowly, as he liked. I saw all these things I have described, and countless others.
And because all the people who could do so fled to the mountains to escape these inhuman, ruthless, and ferocious acts, the Spanish captains, enemies of the human race, pursued them with the fierce dogs they kept which attacked the Indians, tearing them to pieces and devouring them. And because on few and far between occasions, the Indians justifiably killed some Christians, the Spaniards made a rule among themselves that for every Christian slain by the Indians, they would slay a hundred Indians.
From The Coast of Pearls, Paria, and the Island of Trinidad
[The Spaniards] have brought to the island of Hispaniola and the island of San Juan11 more than two million souls
taken captive, and have sent them to do hard labor in the mines, labors that caused many of them to die. And it is a great sorrow and heartbreak to see this coastal land which was so flourishing, now a depopulated desert.
This truth can be verified, for no more do they bring ships loaded with Indians that have been thus attacked an capture as I have related . No more do they cast overboard into the sea the third part of the numerous Indians they stow on their vessels, these dead being added to those they have killed in their native lands, the captives crowded into the holds of their ships, without food or water, or with very little, so as not to deprive the Spanish tyrants who call themselves ship owners and who carry enough food for themselves on their voyages of attack. And for the pitiful Indians who died of hunger and thirst, there is no remedy but to cast them into the sea. And verily, as a Spaniard told me, their ships in these regions could voyage without compass or chart, merely by following for the distance between the Lucayos Islands12 and Hispaniola, which is sixty or seventy leagues, the trace of those Indian corpses floating in the sea, corpses
that had been cast overboard by, earlier ships. 11 Puerto Rico
Afterward, when they disembark on the island of Hispaniola, it is heartbreaking to see those naked, Indians, heartbreaking for anyone with a vestige of piety, the famished state they are in, fainting and falling down, weak from hunger, men, women, old people, and children.
Then, like sheep, they are sorted out into flocks of ten or twenty persons, separating fathers from sons, wives from husbands and the Spaniards draw lots, the ship owners carrying off their share, the best flock, to compensate them for the moneys they have invested in their fleet of two or three ships, the ruffian tyrants getting their share of captives who will be house slaves, and when in this "repartimiento"13 a tyrant gets an old person or an invalid, he says, "Why
do you give me this one? To bury him? And this sick one, do you give him to me to make him well?" See by such remarks in what esteem the Spaniards hold the Indians and judge if they are accomplishing the divine concepts of love for our fellow man, as laid down by the prophets.
The tyranny exercised by the Spaniards against the Indians in the work of pearl fishing is one of the most cruel that can be imagined. There is no life as infernal and desperate in this century that can be compared with it, although the mining of gold is a dangerous and burdensome way of life. The pearl fishers dive into the sea at a depth of five fathoms, and do this from sunrise to sunset, and remain for many minutes without breathing, tearing the oysters out of their rocky beds where the pearls are formed. They come to the surface with a netted bag of these oysters where a Spanish torturer is waiting in a canoe or skiff, and if the pearl diver shows signs of wanting to rest, he is showered with blows, his hair is pulled, and he is thrown back into the water, obliged to continue the hard work of tearing out the oysters and bringing them again to the surface.
The food given the pearl divers is codfish, not very nourishing, and the bread made of maize, the bread of the Indies. At night the pearl divers are chained so they cannot escape.
Often a pearl diver does not return to the surface, for these waters are infested with man-eating sharks of two kinds, both vicious marine animals that can kill, cat, and swallow a whole man.
In this harvesting of pearls let us again consider whether the Spaniards preserve the divine concepts of love for their fellow men, when they place the bodies of the Indians in such mortal danger, and their souls ,too, for these pearl divers perish without the holy sacraments. And it is solely because of the Spaniards' greed for gold that they force the Indians to lead such a life, often a brief life, for it is impossible to continue for long diving into the cold water and holding the breath for minutes at a time, repeating this hour after hour, day after day.' the continual cold penetrates them, constricts the chest, and they die spitting blood, or weakened by diarrhea.
The hair of these pearl divers, naturally black, is as if burnished by the saltpeter in the water, and hangs down their backs making them look like sea dogs or monsters of another species. And in this extraordinary labor, or, better put, in this infernal labor, the Lucayan Indians are finally consumed, as are captive Indians from other provinces. And all of them were publicly sold for one hundred and fifty castellanos,14 these Indians who had lived happily on their islands
until the Spaniards came, although such a thing was against the law. But the unjust judges did nothing to stop it. For all the Indians of these islands are known to be great swimmers.15
1542-46 1552
HERNAN CORTES (1485-1547)
From First Letter from Mexico to the Sapnish Crown.
[Gifts of the Aztecs to Cortes]
First a large gold wheel with a design of monsters on it and worked all over with foliage. This weighed 3,800 pesos
de oro. From this wheel, because it was the best that has been found here and of the finest gold, a fifth was taken for
Their Highnesses. this amounted to two thousand castellanos which belonged to Them of Their fifth and Royal privilege according to the stipulation that the captain Fernando Cortes brought from the Hicronymite Fathers who reside on the island of Hispaniola and on the other islands. The eighteen hundred pesos that remained and all the rest that goes to make up twelve hundred pesos, the council of this town bequeath to Their Highnesses, together with everything else mentioned in this list, which belonged to the people of the aforementioned town.
Item:Two necklaces of gold and stone mosaic, one of which has eight strings of 232 red jewels and 163 green jewels. Hanging from the border of this necklace are twenty-seven small gold bells; and in the center of them are four figures in large stones inlaid with gold. From each of the two in the center hang single pendants, while from each of the 13 Distribution (spanish) Attempts were made, by royal decree in 1503, to require that the masters of the American Indians convert
them to Christianity and serve as trusters for their property, but the repartimiento ceased to be anything more than a slave-holding system.
14 A Spanish gold coin bearing the arms of Castille.
15 The physical abilities of the Caribbean natives as pearl divers were so extraordinary that the Spanish judges overlooked their
ends hang four double pendants. The other necklace has four strings of 102 red jewels and 172 which appear to be green in color; around these stones there are twenty-six small gold bells. In this necklace there are ten large stones inlaid with gold from which hang 142 pendants.
Item:Four pairs of screens, two pairs being of fine gold leaf with trimmings of yellow deerskin, and the other two (pairs) of fine silver leaf with trimmings in white deerskin. The remainder are of plumes of various colors, and very well made. From each of these hang sixteen small gold bells, all with red deerskin.
Another item: One hundred pesos de oro for melting, so that Their Highnesses may see how the gold is taken from the mines here.
Another item: In a box, a large piece of featherwork, lined with animal skin which, in color, seems like that of a marten. Fastened to this piece, and in the center of it, is a large disk of gold which weighed sixty pesos de oro, and a piece of blue and red stone mosaic in the shape of a wheel, and another piece of stone mosaic, of a reddish color; and at the end of the piece there is another piece of colored featherwork that hangs from it.
Item:A fan of colored featherwork with thirty-seven small rods cased in gold.
Another item: A large piece of colored featherwork to be worn on the head and encircled by sixty-eight small pieces of gold, each of which is as large as a half cuarto,' Beneath them are twenty little gold towers.
Item:A miter5 of blue stone mosaic with a design of monsters in the center of it. It is lined with an animal skin which by its color appears to be that of a marten, and has a small piece of featherwork which, together with the one mentioned above, is of the same miter.
Item: Four harpoons of featherwork with their stone heads fastened by a gold thread, and a jeweled scepter with rings of gold and the rest of featherwork.
Item: bracelet of blue jewels and, in addition, a small piece of black featherwork and with other colors.
Item: A large pair of sandals of leather whose color resembles that of a marten. The soles are white and sewn with gold thread.
Furthermore, a mirror set in a piece of blue and red jewelry, with a piece of featherwork and two strips of red leather attached to it, together with a skin which seems to be from those same martens.
Item: Three pieces of colored featherwork that belong to a large gold head which seems to be that of an alligator. Item: Some screens of blue stone mosaic, lined with a skin which by its color seems to come from a marten; and from each one of them hang fifteen small gold bells.
Another item: A maniple' of wolfskin with four strips of leather that look like martenskin.
Another item: Some fibers placed in some colored feathers.' the which fibers are white and look like locks of hair. Another item: Two pieces of colored featherwork that are for two helmets of stone mosaic which are mentioned below.
Furthermore, two pieces of colored featherwork which are for two pieces of gold, made like large shells and worn on the head.
Furthermore, two birds with green plumage and their feet, beaks and eyes made of gold. These are put on one of those pieces of gold that resemble shells.
Furthermore, two large car ornaments of blue stone mosaic which are for the large alligator head.
In another square box, a large alligator head in gold, which is the one mentioned above where the aforementioned pieces are to be put.
Also, a helmet of blue stone mosaic with twenty small gold bells hanging round the outside of it with two strings of beads above each bell: and two car ornaments of wood with gold plates.
Also, a bird with green plumage and with feet, beak and eyes of gold.
Another item: Another helmet of blue stone mosaic with twenty-five little gold bells and two beads of gold above each bell, which hang round it, with some wooden ear ornaments with gold plates; and a bird with green plumage and feet, beak and eyes of gold.
Another item: A reed container with two large pieces of gold to be worn on the head. they are made like gold shells with car ornaments of wood with gold plates. Also two birds with green plumage and feet, beaks and eyes of gold.
Also, sixteen bucklers of stone mosaic. with pieces of colored featherwork hanging round the outside of them, and with, a wide-angled board of stone mosaic with its pieces of colored featherwork. In the center of this board is a cross inside a wheel made of the same stone mosaic, and lined with leather the color of martenskin.
Furthermore, a scepter of a red stone mosaic, made to resemble a snake with head, teeth and eyes in what seems to be mother-of-pearl. The hilt is adorned with the skin of a spotted animal, and beneath this hilt there hang six small pieces of featherwork.
Another item: A fan of featherwork in a reed adorned with the skin of a spotted animal, in the manner of a weathercock. Above it has a crown of featherwork and finally many long green feathers.
Item:Two birds made of thread and featherwork. The quills of their wings and tails, the claws of their feet, their eyes and the tips of their beaks are of gold, each placed in its respective gold-covered reed. And below some feather down, one white and the other yellow, with some gold embroidery between the feathers; and from each of these hang seven strands of feathers.
Item:Four pieces made after the manner of skates, 7 placed in their respective gold-covered canes. Their tails, gills, eyes and mouths are of gold; below, on their tails, are some pieces of green featherwork, while toward their mouths
each has a crown of colored featherwork, and in some of the white feathers there is some gold embroidery, and beneath the handle of each one hang six strands of colored featherwork.
Item:A small copper rod lined with a skin in which is placed a piece of gold in the manner of a piece of featherwork, which has some pieces of colored featherwork above and below it.
Another item: Five fans of colored featherwork, four of which have ten small quills covered with gold while the fifth has thirteen.
Item:Four harpoons of white flint, fastened to four rods of featherwork.
Item:A large buckler 8 of featherwork trimmed on the back with the skin of a spotted animal. In the center of the field of this buckler is a gold plate with a design such as the Indians make, with four other half plates of gold round the edge, which together form a cross.
Another item: A piece of featherwork of various colors made in the manner of a half chasuble,' lined with the skin of a spotted animal ' This, the lords of these parts, which we have seen up to now, hang from about their necks. On the front it has thirteen pieces of gold very well fitted together.
Item:A piece of colored featherwork, made in the manner of a jousting helmet, which the lords of this land wear on their heads. From it hang two ear ornaments of stone mosaic with two small bells and two beads of gold; and above there is a piece of featherwork of broad green feathers, while below hang some white hairs.
Furthermore, four animal heads, two of which seem to be 'Wolves, the other two tigers, with some spotted skins: from these heads hang some small bronze bells.
Item:Two animal skins of spotted animals, lined with some cotton mantles: these skins appear to be those of a mountain cat.
Item:The red and gray skin of another animal, which seems to be a lion, and two deerskins. Item:Four skins of small deer from which here they make small tanned gloves.
And, moreover, two books which the Indians have: also half a dozen fans of colored featherwork and a perfume container of colored featherwork.
Furthermore, a large silver wheel which weighed forty-eight silver marks, and also some bracelets, some beaten [silver] leaves; and one mark five ounces and forty adarmes' of silver; and a large buckler and another small one of silver, which weighed four marks and two ounces; and another two bucklers which appear to be silver and which weighed six marks and two ounces; and another buckler, which likewise appears to be silver, which weighed one mark and seven ounces, which is in all sixty-two marks of silver.
Another item: Two large pieces of cotton richly woven in white, black and tawny.
Item: Two pieces woven with feathers and another piece woven in various colors: another piece woven in patterns of red, black and white, and the back of these patterns do not show.
Item: Another piece woven with patterns and in a center a black wheel of feathers. Item: Two white cotton cloths woven with some pieces of featherwork.
Another cotton cloth with some white cords attached. A peasant smock.
Two pieces of gray cord with som wheels of feathers, and another two of tawny cord.
Six painted pieces; another red piece with some wheels and another two pieces painted blue; and two women’s shirts.
Item: Six bucklers, each one with a gold plate covering the whole buckler. Another item: A half miter of gold.
(1519)
ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA (1490-1558)
From The Relation of Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca
Sacred Caesarian Catholic Majesty:
Among all the princes who have reigned, I know of none who has enjoyed the universal esteem of Your Majesty16
at this day, when strangers vie in approbation with those motivated by religion and loyalty.
Although everyone wants what advantage may be gained from ambition and action, we see everywhere great inequalities of fortune, brought about not by conduct but by accident, and not through anybody's fault but as the will of God. Thus the deeds of one far exceed his expectation, while another can show no higher proof of purpose than his fruitless effort, and even the effort may go unnoticed.
I can say for myself that I undertook the March abroad, on royal authoriza- tion, with a firm trust that my service would 'be as evident and distinguished as my ancestors', and that I would not need to speak to be counted among those your Majesty honors for diligence and fidelity in affairs of state. But my counsel and constancy availed nothing 16 Emperor Chalres V (1500-1558), grandson and successor of Ferdinand and Isabella.
toward those objectives we set out to gain, in your interests, for our sins. In fact, no other of the many armed expeditions into those parts has found itself in such dire straits as ours, or come to so futile and fatal a conclusion.
My only remaining duty is to transmit what I saw and heard in the nine years I wandered lost and miserable over many remote lands. I hope in some measure to convey to Your Majesty not merely a report of positions and distances, flora and fauna, but of the customs 'of the,nu,merous, barbarous people
I talked with and dwelt among, as well as any other matters I could hear of or observe. My hope of going out from among those nations was always small; nevertheless, I made a point of remembering all the particulars, so that should God our Lord eventually please to bring me where I am now, I might testify to my exertion in the royal behalf.
Since this narrative, in my opinion, is of no trivial value for those who go in your name to subdue those countries and bring them to a knowledge of the true faith and true Lord and bring them under the imperial dominion, I have written very exactly. Novel or, for some persons, difficult to believe though the things narrated may be, I assure you they can be accepted without hesitation as strictly factual. Better than to exaggerate, I have minimized all things; it is enough to say that the relation is offered Your Majesty for truth.
I beg that it may be received as homage, since it; is the most one could bring who returned thence naked.
[TheMalhado Way of Lifel
The people17 we came to know there are tall and well-being. Their only weapons are bows and arrows, which they
use with great dexterity. The men bore through one of their nipples, some both, and insert a joint of cane two and a half palms long by two fingers thick. They also,bore their lower lip and wear a piece of cane in it half a finger in diameter.
Their women toil incessantly. From October to the end of February every year, which is the season these Indians live on the island, they subsist on the roots I have mentioned,18 which the women get from under water in November
and December. Only in these two months, too do they take fish in their cane weirs. When the fish is consumed, the roots furnish the one staple. At the end of February the islanders go into other parts to seek sustenance for then the root is beginning to grow and is not edible.
These people love their offspring more than any ln the world and treat them very mildly.
If a son dies, the whole village joins the parents and kindred in weeping. The parents set off the wails each day before dawn, again at noon, and at sunset, for one year. The funeral rites occur when the year of mourning is up. Following these rites, the survivors wash off the smoke stain of the ceremony in a symbolic purgation. All the dead are lamented this way except the aged, who merit no regrets. The dead are buried, except medicine-men who are cremated. Everybody, in the village dances and makes merry while the pyre of a medicine-man kindles, and until his bones become powder. A year later, when his rites are celebrated, the entire village again participating, this powder is presented in water for the relatives to drink.
Each man has an acknowledged wifv, except the medicine-men, who may have two or three wives apiece. The several wives live together in perfect amity.
When a daughter marries, she must take everything her, husband kills in hunting or catches in fishing to the house of her father, without daring to cat or to withhold any part of it, and the husband gets provided by female carrier from his father-in-law's house. Neither the bride's father nor mother may enter the son-in-law's house after the marria, nor he theirs; and this holds for the the children of the respective couples. If a man and his in-laws should chance to be walking so they would meet, they turn silently aside from each other and go a crossbow-shot out of their way, averting their glance to the ground. The woman, however, is free to fraternize with the parents and relatives of her husband. These marriage customs prevail for more than fifty leagues inland from the island.
At a house where a son or brother may die, no one goes out for food for three months, the neighbors and other relatives providing what is eaten. Because of this custom, which the Indians literally would not break to save their lives, great hunger reigned in most houses while we resided there, it being a time of repeated deaths. Those who sought food worked hard, but they could get little in that severe season. That is why Indians who kept me left the island by canoe for oyster bays on the main.
Three months out of every year they eat nothing but oysters and drink very bad water. Wood is scarce; mosquitoes, plentiful. The houses are made of mats; their floors consist of masses of oyster shells. The natives sleep on these shells--in animal skins, those who happen to own such.
Many a time I would have to go three days without eating, as would the natives. I thought it impossible that life could be so prolonged in such protracted hunger; though afterwards I found myself in yet greater want, as shall be seen.
The Indians who had Alonso del Castillo, Andrés Dorantes, and the others of their barge who remained alive, spoke a different dialect and claimed a different descent from those I lived among. They frequented the opposite shore of the main to eat oysters, staying till the first of April, then returning.
The distance to the main is two leagues at the widest part of the channel. The island itself, which supports the two tribes commodiously, is half league wide by five long.
17 The Capoques and Hans of coastal Texas, near today’s Galveston Island, which Cabeza de Vaca calls Malhado, or the Island of
Doom.
The inhabitants of all these parts go naked,. except that the women cover some part of their persons with a wool that grows on trees, and damsels dress in deerskin.
The people are generous to each other with what little they have. There is no chief. All belonging to the same lineage keep together. They speak two languages: Capoque and Han.
They have a strange custom when acquaintances meet or occasionally visit, of weeping for half an hour before they speak. This over, the one who is visited rises and gives his visitor all he has. The latter accepts it and, after a while carries it away, often without a word. They have other strange customs, but I have told the principal and most remarkable of them.
In April [1529] we went to the seashore and ate blackberries all month, a time of [dance ceremonies] and fiesta among the Indians.
*** [Our Life among the Avavares and Arbadaos]
All the Indians of this region19 are ignorant of time, either by the sun or rnoon; nor do they reckon by the month or
year. They understand the seasons in terms of the ripening of fruits, the dying of fish, and the position of stars, in which dating they are adept.
The Avavares always treated us well. We lived as free agents, dug our own food, and lugged our loads of wood and water. The houses and our diet were like those of the nation we had just come from, but the Avavares suffer yet greater want, having no corn, acorns, or pecans. We always went naked like them and covered ourselves at night with deerskins.
Six of the eight months we dwelled with these people we endured acute hunger; for fish are not found where they are either. At the end of the eight months, when the prickly pears were just beginning to ripen again [mid-June 1535], I traveled with the Negro20--unknown to our hosts--to others a day's journey farther on: the Maliacones.21 When three
days had passed, I sent Estev- Anico to fetch Castillo and Dorantes.
When they got there, the four of us set out with the Maliacones, who were, going to find the small fruit of certain trees which they subsist on for ten or twelve days while the prickly pears are maturing. They joined another tribe, the Arbadaos, who astonished us by their weak, emaciated, swollen condition.
We told the Maliacones with whom we had come that.we wanted to stop with these Arbadaos. The Maliacones despondently returned the way they came, leaving us alone in.the brushland near the Arbadao houses. The observ- ing Arbadaos talked among themselves and came up to us in a body. Four of them took each of us by the hand and led us to their dwellings.
Among them we underwent fiercer hunger than among the Avavares, We ate not more than. two handfuls of prickly pears a day, and they were still so green and rnilky they burned our mouths. In our lack of water, eating brought great thirst.. At nearly the end of our endurance we bought two dogs for some nets, with other things, and a skin I used for cover.
I have already said that we went naked,througb all this country; not being accustomed to going so, we shed our skins twice a year like snakes. The sun and air raised, great,, painful sores on our chests and shoulders, and. our heavy loads caused the cords to cut our arms. The region is so broken and 6o over- grown that often, when we gathered wood, blood flowed from us in many places where the thorns and shrubs to.te our flesh. At times, when my turn came to get wood andl had collected it at heavy cost in blood, I could neither drag nor bear it out. My only solace in these labors was to think of the suffer- ings of our Redeemer, Jesus Christ, and the blood He shed for me. How much worse must have been his torment from the thorns than mine here!
I bartered with these Indians in combs I made for them and in bows, arrows, and nets. We made mats, which are what their houses consist of and for which they feel a keen necessity. Although they know how to make them, they prefer to, devote their full time to finding food; when they do not, they get too pinched with hunger.
Some days the Indians would set me to scraping and softening skins. These were my days of greatest prosperity in that place. I would scrape thoroughly enough to sustain myself two or three days on the scraps. When it happened that these or any people We had left behind gave us a piece of meat, we ate it raw. Had we put it to roast, the first native who came along would have filched it. Not only did we think it better not to risk this, we were in such a condition that roasted meat would have given us pain. We could digest it more easily raw.
Such was our life there, where we earned our meager subsistence by trade in items which were the work of our own hands.
*** [Pushing On]
Eating the dogs seemed to give us strength enough to go forward; so commending ourselves to the guidance of God our Lord, we took leave of our hosts, who pointed out the way to others nearby who spoke their language. . 19 At this point in his story, having escaped from his captivity among the Capoques and Hans, Cabeza de Vaca is among the
Avavares and Arbadaos in inland Texas.
20 Estevánico, a Moorish slave from the est coast of Moroco. 21 Neighbors of the Avavares and Arbadaos.
Rain caught us. We traveled the day in the wet and got lost. At last, we made for an extensive scrub wood stretch, where we stopped and pulled prickly pear pads, which we cooked overnight in a hot oven we made. By morning they were ready.
After eating, we put ourselves again in the hands of God and set forth. We located the path we had lost and, after passing another scrub wood stretch, saw houses. Two women who were walking in the "forest" with some boys fled deep into it in fright to call their men, when they noticed us heading for the houses. T'he men arrived and hid behind trees to look at us. We calle to them, and they came up very timidly. After some conversation, they told us their food was very scarce and that many houses of their people stood close by, to which they would conduct us.
At nightfall wIe came to a village of fifty dwellings. The residents looked at us in astonishment and fear. When they grew somewhat accustomed to our appearance, they felt our faces and bodies and then their own, comparing.
We stayed in that place overnight. In the morning the Indians brought us their sick, beseeching our blessing.. They shared with us what they had to eat- prickly pear pads and the green fruit roasted. Because they did this with kind- ness and good will, gladly foregoing food to give us some, we tarried here several days.
Other Indians came from beyond in that interval and, when they were about to depart, we told our hosts we wanted to go with them. Our hosts felt quite uneasy at this and pressed us warmly to stay. In the midst of their weeping we left them.
***
[Customs of That Region]
From the Island of Doom to this land, all the Indians we saw have the custom of not sleeping with their wives from the time they are discovered pregnant to two years after giving birth. Children are suckled until they are twelve, when they are old enough to find their own support. We asked why they thus prolonged the nursing period, and they said that the poverty of the land frequently meant--as we witnessed--going two or three days without eating, sometir nes four; if children were not allowed to suckle in seasons of scarcity, those who did not farnish would be weaklings. Anyone who chances to fall sick on a foraging trip and cannot keep up with the rest is left to die, unless he be a son or brother; him they will help, even to carrying on their back.
It is common among them all to leave their wives when there is disagree- ment, and directly reconnect with whomever they please. This is the course of men who are childless. Those who have children never abandon their wives.
When Indian men get into an argument in their villages, they fist-fight until exhausted, then separate. Sometimes the women will go between and part them, but men never interfere. No matter what the disaffection, they do not resort to bows and arrows. After a fight, the disputants take their houses (and families) and go live apart from each other in the scrub wood until they have cooled off; then they return and from that moment are friends as if nothing had happened. No intermediary is needed to mend their friendship.
In case the quarrelers are single men, they repair to some neighboring peo- ple (instead of the scrub wood), who, even if enemies, welcome them warmly and give so largely of what they have that when the quarrelers' animosity subsides, they return to their home village rich.
***
[The Long Swing-Around]
After the two days of indecision,22 we concluded that our dqtiny lay toward the sunset and so took the trail north
only as far as we had to in order to reach the westward one, and then swung down until eventually we came out at the South Sea. The seventeen jornadas23 of hunger the Cow People warned us of, and which proved to be just as bad as
they said, could not deter us.
D)uring this desert ascent by the river, the Indians gave us many cowhides but we passed up their chacan24 in favor
of about a handful of deep tallow a day, which we had long since learned to save for such times of famine.
After seventeen jornadas we forded the very wide, deep hosted southern flowing river arid traveled another seventeen.
One day as the sun went down out on the plains between massive rnoun- tains, we came upon people who for a third of the year eat nothing but powdered straw and, that being the season we passed through, we had to eat it ourselves until at last, at the end of the seventeen tornados, we got to the people of permanent houses who had plenty of corn.25
22 Tarrying in the Rio Grande valley among the Cow People (so-called by the Spaniards because they hunted buffalo), Cabza de
Vaca’s party is reluctant to leave the hospitality and easy leaving experienced there.
23 Roughly the distance covered in a day’s journey, or between stops on a longer trip. The ‘seventeen jornadas of hunger’ may refer
to the infamous ‘Jounrey of Death’, the ninety-mile stretch separating the Cow People from the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico.
24 Juniper berries, much used by Suma Indians.
