OCR Text |
Show 76 ToPF ren EL a LEADING FACTS OF NEW MEXICAN ernor should come up, but the latter, instead, entered a bay near by filled with small islands. Here all the boats came together and took on a supply of fresh water. This river was undoubtedly the Mississippi. Its powerful current and the wind from the north carried the boats out into the open sea a great distance from land and only after the third day did they see the shore. They were compelled to wait over night, and in the morning it was found that the boats had parted company. The boat commanded by Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca kept on its way, until, toward evening, the governor’s boat was overtaken. Still further on, at sea, another boat was visible. After a short consultation Alvar Nufiez Cabeza de Vaca concluded to follow the governor, but this he was unable to do, as Narvaez had all the healthy men and Alvar Nuiiez Cabeza de Vaca was unable to keep up with him and joined the boat out at sea, which proved to be the one commanded by Tellez and Pefialosa. For four days the two boats kept company, the men subsisting upon the shortest of rations, when a severe storm parted them also and Alvar Nufiez Cabeza de Vaca was left alone with his men. Soon out of the entire company with Alvar Nufiez Cabeza de Vaca there were only five who were strong enough to handle the oars; as night came on, only two were left, the master and Alvar Nufiez Cabeza de Vaca, and finally the master too gave up and Alvar Nufiez alone remained, steering the frail canoe with a paddle. In a short time the master revived and took his place at the helm, permitting Alvar Nufiez Cabeza de Vaca to take some rest. Toward morning some breakers were heard, and soon after a wave took the boat and hurled it some distance, into shallow water. From the violence with which the boat struck, nearly all the people were aroused by the shock to consciousness. Crawling into a ravine on shore, they parched some maize and found some rain water which shortly revived their exhausted energies. Alvar Nufiez Cabeza de Vaca and his crew were cast ashore on the 6th day of November, 1528, and the island upon which they were cast is one not far from Matagorda bay.78 78 Davis, W. W. H., Spanish Conquest of New Mexi 7 ; < 2% most cocareful examination I h f OO, ROTM . From t he boat of Vaca w a : ave been able to give the subject, I believe that the lf - gee cast away west of the Mississippi, upon one of the low, sandy to this * ae v for coming are several reasons There : e . . an const Q 2 n the offirstLouisiana. place, the time they were occupied in coasting 10n, THE HISTORY FIRST SPANISH EXPLORERS 17 The Indians gave the island the name of Auia; it was more than thirteen miles in length, about a mile and a half wide, and was situated in the mouth of a bay where there was another island. The Indians were the Capoques and the Hans. The men pierced their ears, the breasts, and the upper lip, through which they passed a piece of cane. The women were clad in the long Spanish moss, and the young girls wore deer-skins. They were armed with bows and arrows in the use of which they were very dextrous. They lived in houses built on heaps of shells. They subsisted on oysters, fish, roots, As among all the Indians, the women and other wild vegetables. They were of a kindthe household. of work the of performed most hearted disposition and treated the Spaniards with great kindness. Had they been otherwise disposed, resistance would have been usealong shore would have enabled them to get beyond the mouth of the Mississippi. From the time they embarked at the Bay of Caballos until Vaca ’s boat was cast upon the of island forty-five Malhado, days elapsed, exclusive of stoppages. They were seven days passing through the shoals after they had embarked, and the other thirty-eight were occupied in rowing toward the west along the coast of the gulf. They did not follow all the windings and indentations of the coast is very evident, for Vaca says they only now and then entered the coves. After rowing thirty-four days, they passed the mouth of a great river, the current of which was so strong that it drove the boats out to sea in spite of all they could do; and four days and that of Vaca wrecked. afterwards ina the boats were separated storm, The Mississippi is the only river that empties into The the Gulf of Mexico with a current as strong as the one here deseribed. ; mouth of the river was encountered four days before Vaca ’s boat was wrecked river and Mr. Smith locates the island of Malhado between the Chostawhatchee to the “pr = and Pensacola Bay, but there is no river, with a current equal the east Spaniards encountered, emptying into the gulf at a point four days the cone ‘er of favor In reason There is another islands off Pensacola Bay. After he and pa to which I have arrived as to the place of Vaca’s shipwreck. they = companions started inland in their wanderings through the country, likely a stream w hich the with no river the size of the Mississippi, and it is not the Agar in unnoticed Indians called the ‘Father of Waters’ would have passed nal. The deepest river Vaca mentions only reached up to the waist, and t rm es me © had stream was encountered far out upon the plains. If they their mare 1 OR eae Mississippi while travelling on land it would have impeded they could have obtained canoes from the Indians to cross it. fix the stantial evidence already given seems to be sufficient to The a 0 iy > Vaca at a point west of the Mississippi, in the absence of other van wer “4 But, in addition to this, we have direct testimony upon the subject. ee in his narrative of the expedition of Coronado, says the Spaniards ae a : — my day mouth of the Mississippi, which they discovered, on the last about which time they encountered the furious storm which separated According to the same pin and drove that of Narv4ez out to sea. the boa tir six days after passing the mouth of the river Vaca’s boat was cast upon the shore which would have allowed them sufficient islands that skirt the coast of Louisiana. ’ time to make some of the low sandy |