The Narvaez Expedition, 1526-1536
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the terrible fate of the men of the crafts here mentioned. Figueroa declared that he tried to induce Esquivel to go with him in search of Panuco, but that he had refused, saying that the friars had told him they had left Panuco behind them, for which reason he preferred to stay where he was. 65 The little band of nine survivors under the leadership of Dorantes, who had traveled now as far as present Cedar Bayou, not far from Corpus Christi Bay, spent a few days with Figueroa after which his Indian master refused to release him and took him across the ancon. Of the nine Christians, only two could swim. These passed over the inlet with Figueroa and his master to obtain some fish from the Indian village on the opposite bank. One of them was Asturiano, the last of the five priests of the expedition who seems to have joined Dorantes' party in this place, and the other was a young man whose name is not recorded. When the two Spaniards arrived in the Indian village the natives decided to keep them as slaves and to prevent them from returning to their companions. They consequently began to load their houses, which were made of mats, on canoes, and planned to carry the Christians with them, saying they would soon return; that they were going to gather a certain leaf which they steeped in water and used as a beverage (yupon). Before leaving, how- ever, they allowed one of the Christians to go back next day to tell the others of the plan and to ask them to wait and not be alarmed. With the messenger the Indians sent some fish. 66 A day after the others were gone, the seven, who were on the east side of Cedar Bayou, saw two Indians who came to observe if the mulberries were ripe. It seems they were in the habit of visiting this region every year for a period of two months, during which time they subsisted on this fruit. The Spaniards called to them and they crossed over to the spot where the white men were and greeted them with indifference as "people for whom they [the natives] had little respect." Without asking leave, they helped themselves to the scanty food the Christians had. In spite of this distressing incident, the Spaniards, urged by a desire to pass over the Bayou and filled with the hope of meeting their other two companions and of continuing with them on their way to Panuco at all cost, asked the Indians to take them across. This they did in a canoe. When they reached the opposite bank, their hosts promptly carried them to their village, which was not far from there and fed them some fish.
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6SBarcia, I, 20; Bandelier, 86; Oviedo, Vol. 3, p. 594. 66 0viedo, Vol. 3, pp. 594-595; Barcia, I, 20.
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