Coming to another town, the Indians brought their children to touch the hands of the Spaniards, giving them meal made of a fruit like carobs, which was eaten along with a certain kind of earth, and was very sweet and agreeable. Departing from thence, after passing a great river the water of which reached to their breasts, they came to a town of an hundred houses, whence the people came out to meet them with great shouts, clapping their hands on their thighs, and making a kind of music by means of hollow gourds with stones in them. These Indians received them with great kindness, carrying them to their houses without suffering their feet to touch the ground, and great numbers flocked to them to be blessed. Next day they continued their journey, and were well received by the next Indians, who supplied them with plenty of venison, and brought their sick to be cured. They were equally well treated by the next succeeding tribe, by whom so great rejoicing was made for their arrival, that they could not sleep for the noise. They observed a strange custom among all these Indians, who, when they escorted the Spaniards to another tribe, always plundered the houses they came to. Cabeza and his companions were much concerned at this; but those who had lost their goods in this manner made quite light of the matter, desiring them not to be troubled at it, as they would repay themselves farther on among tribes who were very rich. At this place the Spaniards began to perceive a chain of mountains which they thought extended towards New Spain, and to which they now directed their journey accompanied by the Indians, who pillaged as usual wherever they went. When their guides retired, their new hosts presented the Spaniards with such things as they had hidden, being beads, vermillion, and some small bags of silver.

At this place the Spaniards agreed not to make for the mountainous country, where the inhabitants were reported to be ferocious, but to continue in the low country in which the people were extremely courteous. Many men and women loaded with water bore them company, and their authority was so great that no one would presume to drink without their leave. In this part of their journey they proceeded along a river, having been abandoned by their Indian guides, and were supplied with some meal made of Indian corn by two women. About sun-set they came to a village of about twenty houses, where the inhabitants were in great fear of being plundered by their guides; but were quite rejoiced on seeing them come alone. Next morning, when the Spaniards were about to depart, the inhabitants of the former town came in a body and plundered that in which they had spent the night; telling the inhabitants that these strangers were children of the sun and cured the sick, though able to destroy them all, and therefore that they must be respected; they told them likewise to go and plunder the next town according to custom, and to carry the strangers on their way. The Spaniards were accordingly well treated by this tribe, who carried them on for three days to a place having many houses, sending some before to give an account of what the others had said of the Spaniards, to which they added much of their own invention, being fond of novelty and much addicted to lying, especially where any advantage was expected. The Spaniards were well received, and their guides plundered as much as they could find and then returned to their own habitations. From this place the Spaniards travelled above fifty leagues along the face of a mountain, and came to a town of forty houses, in one of which they were shewn a large copper hawks-bell ornamented with a face, which these people valued highly, saying that they got it from a neighbouring tribe. Travelling from thence seven leagues over a mountain, the stones of which were iron ore, they came to some houses on the banks of a river, where the principal men came out to meet them, having their children on their backs, and presented the Spaniards, with small bags of fine sand and powdered antimony, with which they daub their faces, and gave them also beads and cloaks made of dressed skins. The food at this place was tunas and the kernels of pine apples, better than those of Spain, but smaller, as were the trees141.

At this place a man was brought to Cabeza who had been wounded by an arrow, the point of which as he said had reached his heart and gave him much pain, being still there, and he was to all appearance in extreme danger. Cabeza opened his breast with a knife and extracted the arrow head with much difficulty, after which he stitched up the wound and staunched the bleeding with the scrapings of a cows hide. The point of the arrow was exhibited all over the country, and caused much rejoicing. After some days, Cabeza removed the stitches, and the man was quite sound, declaring himself free of pain. This cure acquired the Spaniards so great reputation that they could do any thing they pleased. From this place they proceeded through so many different tribes that it were tedious and indeed impossible to mention them all; and all the way each tribe as they conducted the Spaniards to the next, plundered their neighbours in succession. Through the whole journey the Spaniards had so much company that they knew not how to turn themselves. During their journey the Indians killed many deer, hares, pigeons, and other birds by means of their arrows and spears, all of which they presented to the Spaniards, and would not use them for their own necessities without leave. Sometimes they were attended by above four thousand persons at once, which was extremely troublesome, as none of them would either eat or drink till the Spaniards had blessed the food and drink and breathed on them.

They travelled in this manner for upwards of thirty leagues, at the end of which the mode of their reception was considerably changed as the Indians who accompanied them ceased plundering; yet the tribe at which they arrived offered every thing they had, which was divided among the escort, who then returned to their own dwellings, and this tribe recovered what they had given away in a similar manner on accompanying the Spaniards to the next tribe. In the course of their journey however the Spaniards had to travel for more than fifty leagues through a craggy mountainous country, where they suffered extremely for want of food, till at length they arrived at a plain country where they met with a kind reception, and where their escort received abundance of goods and provisions and then returned to their own habitations. As the people farther on were at war with the tribe where the Spaniards then were, two women were sent on to inform the hostile tribe of the approach of the Christians, as it was usual among these people, even when at war, to continue an intercourse of trade by means of their women. Continuing their journey, the Spaniards were inclined to change the route more to the northwards, as no person came to meet them from the tribe to which the women were sent; but the Indians who accompanied them objected to this measure, as they alleged that the natives in that direction were wicked and cruel, and that besides they would be unable to procure food or water. As the Spaniards were displeased at this interruption, the Indians declared themselves ready to go with them wherever they were pleased to command, even though sure to perish, and they accordingly went on; but as many of the Indians fell sick, and eight of them died in this part of the journey, the other tribes were thrown into great consternation, believing that they should all die upon being visited by the Spaniards. So great was the dread and reverence in which the Spaniards were held by the Indians, who imagined they were the cause of the sickness and death of their countrymen, that they earnestly entreated the Spaniards not to be angry with them. Cabeza de Vaca and his companions became apprehensive that this mortality might estrange the Indians from them, and therefore prayed earnestly to God to put a stop to the sickness, and accordingly all who were sick began immediately to recover.