Tlie Narvaez Expedition, 1526-1536
me a Christian called Lope de Oviedo, who still lingered on the island. The other companion, Alaniz, who remained with him after Alonso del Castillo and Andres Dorantes and all the others had gone, soon died, and in order to get him [Oviedo] out of there, I went over to the island every year, entreating him to leave with me and go as far as we could, in search of Christians. But year after year, he put it off to the year that was to follow." 52 Finally, in 1534, almost six years after the ship- wreck on the Texas coast, Cabeza de Vaca succeeded in getting Lope de Oviedo to go with him. Unable to swim. Cabeza de Vaca had to carry him across to the mainland from Malhaclo Island, from where they pro- ceeded along the coast in the direction of Panuco as Dorantes and his companions had previously clone in 1529. Across the four rivers that lay between the starting point opposite San Luis Island (peninsula) and Cavallo Pass, he carried the helpless Oviedo. These streams have been definitely identified as Oyster Creek, Brazos River, San Bernardo River, and Caney Creek , which was the main channel of the Colorado at that time. 53 It was at Cavallo Pass that Cabeza de Vaca remarked that this inlet was a league wide and uniformly deep and reminded him of Espiritu Santo Bay, referring to the mouth of the Mississippi as described by Pineda in his map of 1519. 51 They crossed the inlet in the company of some native women of the Deaguenes and found on the opposite bank other natives who had come to meet those in their company. These Indians informed them that farther clown the coast there were th1=ee other men like the Spaniards. These were Castillo, Dorantes, and Estevanico. ·when Cabeza de Vaca inquired about the rest of the Christians, he was told that most of them had died of cold and hunger. They told him how the Indians beyond, who were very cruel, had killed Diego Dorantes, Valdivieso, and Diego de Huelva simply because they had gone from one house to another and how the Indian children amused themselves by pulling out the beards of the Spaniards. Other Indians, they said, who were their neighbors and among whom Andres Dorantes was now living, had killed Esquivel and Mendez because of forebodings presented by a woman's dream. They assured 52 Bandelier, 76-77 . 53 Davenport and Wells, Quarterly, Vol. 22, pp. 119-123: Hill, Dallas News, August 6, 1933. MCoopwood, "Notes on the History of La Bahia del Espiritu Santo," Quarterly, Vol. 2, p. I 62. La Salle made the same mistake a hundred and fifty years later. Dunn, S,Pa11is/1 a11d Fre11ch Rivalry, 59-108 ; \Vooten (ed.), A ComjJrehmsh,e His- tory of Texas, I, 6-9, note; see a\i;o Chapter I, p. 12, of this volume.
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