Ottr Catholic Heritage in Texas
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question the captives, to ascertain what towns there might be to the west, no Indian was found in the camp who knew their language." 41 JJfoscoso retttrns to the Mississippi. It was now September, the Spaniards had traveled approximately one hundred and fifty leagues in a general westward direction from the Mississippi, urged by the desire to reach New Spain and the expectation of finding some rich country where they might spend the winter. One disappointment after another had slowly but surely killed their enthusiasm and blasted all their hopes. The question now, therefore, was what to do next. Moscoso called a council of all the officers and principal persons of the expedition to help him decide the question. It was the unanimous opinion of the men assembled that it would be best to return to Guachoya on the great river to spend the winter there. It was pointed out that corn could be obtained in Guachoya and its vicinity in abundance, and that during the winter the men could build brigantines in which to sail down the river in the spring. In this manner the sea would be reached and by following the coast to the west they would ultimately arrive in New Spain. The Gentleman of Elvas explains the reasons advanced for this decision, to show that the difficulties of a sea trip were preferable to the insurmountable obstacles that would be encountered in an over- land march. "They could not travel by land," it was declared, "for want of an interpreter; and they considered the country farther on, beyond the River Daycao, on which they were, to be that which Cabeza de Vaca had said in his narrative should have to be traversed, where the Indians wandered like Arabs, having no settled place of residence, living on prickly pears, the roots of plants, and game; and that if this should be so, and they, entering upon that tract, found no provisions for suste- nance during the winter, they must inevitably perish, it being already the beginning of October; and if they remained any longer where they were, that with rains and snow, they should neither be able to fall back, nor, in a land so poor as that, to subsist." 42 But no sooner was the decision made than with the finality of giving up the quest came golden dreams of what might have been, had they only persevered. Many of the men murmured that the sea trip was as dangerous and impossible as that by land and held no prospect of finding a rich country while on the way to New Spain. Cabeza de Vaca, they
41 / bid., I 79. 42 Gentleman of Elvas, "Narrative" (Lewis, ed.), 245-246.
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