The Narr,aez Expedition, I526-I536
53
building." Wisely, that night, they commended their course to God, our Lord "that He would direct it as should best serve Him." 29 Next day a man offered to make a pair of bellows out of deerskins. Others volunteered, and soon the stirrups, armor, spurs, and crossbows were being melted and made into nails, saws, and hatchets. One carpenter, with many willing but inexperienced helpers, set to work to build boats. Such was their diligence that having started on August 4, they had finished five barges, each twenty-two cubits long, by September 20. A Greek named Theodoro proved most useful in extracting resin out of pine trees wherewith to calk the ships. "From the tails and manes of the horses we made ropes and rigging, and from our shirts, sails," says Cabeza de Vaca. 30 In these frail and flimsy vessels they loaded such provisions as they had been able to obtain by raids on Aute. When all was in readiness the men embarked. The first craft under the command of the governor, carried forty-nine men; the second, in charge of Alonso Enriquez and Fray Juan Suarez, took an equal number; the third, guided by Alonso Castillo and Andres Dorantes, had forty-eight; the fourth , captained by Tellez and Penalosa, forty-seven; and the fifth, headed by Alonso Solis and Cabeza de Vaca, took forty-nine , making a total of two hundred and forty-two men. So crowded were they that there was scarcely room to move. After the provisions and clothes were loaded the water came up . to within one span of the gunwales. Without a sailor among them, 31 this band of desperate men set out to search for the Rio de las Palmas, said to be not far to the west. For seven days they picked their way carefully along the bay to the open sea, then following the coast as best they could they passed Pen- sacola Bay and came to the area of present Mobile, where the Greek, Theocloro, and a negro went ashore to secure water but ne,·er returned. De Soto, thirteen years later, was shown the dagger of Theodoro as a mute reminder of his fate. The scanty provisions of the crews had long since been consumed, the water bags made of horsehide had rotted, and many men had died of thirst. Barely able to hold their oars, they doggedly
29 Hodge, 33-35. 30Barcia, I, 9 .
31 Cabeza de Vaca exaggerates a little here, when he says there was not a sailor among them. Later in his narrat ive he refers twice to "Alvaro Fernandez, a Portu- guese sailor and carpenter, " as one of the four who were chosen to try to reach Panuco, while the rest remained at Malhaclo Isla nd (in the vicinity of present Gal- veston Island) . Barcia, I, 15.
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