_How the Governor marched from Nondacao to Soacatino and Guasco,
passing through a wilderness, whence, for want of a guide and
interpreter, he retired to Nilco._
The Governor set out from Nondacao for Soacatino, and on the fifth
day came to a province called Aays.[314] The inhabitants had never
heard of the Christians. So soon as they observed them entering the
territory the people were called out, who, as fast as they could get
together, came by fifties and hundreds on the road, to give battle.
While some encountered us, others fell upon our rear; and when we
followed up those, these pursued us. The attack continued during the
greater part of the day, until we arrived at their town. Some men
were injured, and some horses, but nothing so as to hinder travel,
there being not one dangerous wound among all. The Indians suffered
great slaughter.
[314] This was apparently to the southward of Gainesville, Texas,
the town being located just west of the "Lower Cross Timbers," on
the prairie.
The day on which the Governor departed, the guide told him he had
heard it said in Nondacao, that the Indians of Soacatino had seen
other Christians; at which we were all delighted, thinking it might
be true, and that they could have come by the way of New Spain; for
if it were so, finding nothing in Florida of value, we should be able
to go out of it, there being fear we might perish in some wilderness.
The Governor, having been led for two days out of the way, ordered
that the Indian be put to the torture, when he confessed that his
master, the cacique of Nondacao, had ordered him to take them in
that manner, we being his enemies, and he, as his vassal, was bound
to obey him. He was commanded to be cast to the dogs, and another
Indian guided us to Soacatino,[315] where we came the following day.
[315] This place was apparently located in the "Upper Cross
Timbers." The Spaniards here turned to the southward.
The country was very poor, and the want of maize was greatly
felt. The natives being asked if they had any knowledge of other
Christians, said they had heard that near there, towards the south,
such men were moving about. For twenty days the march was through
a very thinly peopled country, where great privation and toil were
endured; the little maize there was, the Indians having buried in the
scrub, where the Christians, at the close of the day's march, when
they were well weary, went trailing, to seek for what they needed of
it to eat.
Arrived at a province called Guasco,[316] they found maize, with
which they loaded the horses and the Indians; thence they went to
another settlement, called Naquiscoça, the inhabitants of which said
that they had no knowledge of any other Christians. The Governor
ordered them put to torture, when they stated that farther on, in the
territories of another chief, called Naçacahoz,[317] the Christians
had arrived, and gone back toward the west, whence they came. He
reached there in two days, and took some women, among whom was one
who said that she had seen Christians, and, having been in their
hands, had made her escape from them. The Governor sent a captain
with fifteen cavalry to where she said they were seen, to discover
if there were any marks of horses, or signs of any Christians having
been there; and after travelling three or four leagues, she who
was the guide declared that all she had said was false; and so it
was deemed of everything else the Indians had told of having seen
Christians in Florida.
[316] Waco. The town was evidently located on the Brazos River,
near old Fort Belknap, in Young County, Texas.
[317] These two provinces were to the southeast of Guasco, in the
Brazos valley.
As the region thereabout was scarce of maize, and no information
could be got of any inhabited country to the west, the Governor went
back to Guasco. The residents stated, that ten days' journey from
there, toward the sunset, was a river called Daycao,[318] whither
they sometimes went to drive and kill deer, and whence they had seen
persons on the other bank, but without knowing what people they were.
The Christians took as much maize as they could find, to carry with
them; and journeying ten days through a wilderness,[319] they arrived
at the river of which the Indians had spoken. Ten horsemen sent in
advance by the Governor had crossed; and, following a road leading up
from the bank, they came upon an encampment of Indians living in very
small huts, who, directly as they saw the Christians, took to flight,
leaving what they had, indications only of poverty and misery.
So wretched was the country, that what was found everywhere, put
together, was not half an alqueire of maize.[320] Taking two natives,
they went back to the river, where the Governor waited; and on coming
to question the captives, to ascertain what towns there might be to
the west, no Indian was found in the camp who knew their language.
[318] Probably the Double Mountain fork of Brazos River. The
crossing was probably made at the south angle of the river, in
the northwestern part of Fisher County, Texas.
[319] A continuous forest extends from old Fort Belknap to the
eastern slope of the "Staked Plains," and is the only one through
which they could have marched for ten days to the westward.
[320] _I.e._, less than a peck.
The Governor commanded the captains and principal personages to be
called together that he might determine now by their opinions what
was best to do. The majority declared it their judgment to return
to the River Grande of Guachoya, because in Anilco and thereabout
was much maize; that during the winter they would build brigantines,
and the following spring go down the river in them in quest of the
sea, where having arrived, they would follow the coast thence along
to New Spain,--an enterprise which, although it appeared to be one
difficult to accomplish, yet from their experience it offered the
only course to be pursued. They could not travel by land, for want of
an interpreter; and they considered the country farther on, beyond
the River Daycao, on which they were, to be that which Cabeça 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
provision for sustenance during winter, they must inevitably perish,
it being already the beginning of October; and if they remained any
longer where they were, what with rains and snow, they should neither
be able to fall back, nor, in a land so poor as that, to subsist.
The Governor, who longed to be again where he could get his full
measure of sleep, rather than govern and go conquering a country so
beset for him with hardships, directly returned, getting back from
whence he came.