ey crept on
hands and knees toward shelter in a ravine. Here some rain-water was
found, a fire was made and they parched their corn, and here they were
found by some Indians who brought them food. They still had some of
their trading stores, from which they produced colored beads and
hawk-bells. After resting and collecting provisions the indomitable
Spaniards dug their boat out of the sand and made ready to go on with
the voyage.

They were but a little way from shore when a great wave struck the
battered craft, and the cold having loosened their grip on the oars the
boat was capsized and some of the crew drowned. The rest were driven
ashore a second time and lost literally everything they had. Fortunately
some live brands were left from their fire, and while they huddled about
the blaze the Indians appeared and offered them hospitality. To some of
the party this seemed suspicious. Were the Indians cannibals? Even when
they were warmed and fed in a comfortable shelter nobody dared to sleep.

But the Indians had no treacherous intentions whatever, and continued to
share with the shipwrecked unfortunates their own scanty provision.
Fever, hunger and despair, reduced the eighty men who had come ashore,
to less than twenty. All but Cabeca and two others who were helpless
from fever at last departed on the desperate adventure of trying to find
their way overland to Mexico. One of the two left behind died and the
other ran away in delirium, leaving Cabeca de Vaca alone, as the slave
of the Indians.

He discovered presently that he was of little use to them, for though he
could have cut wood or carried water, this was squaws' work, and should
a man be seen doing it every tradition of the tribe would be upset. He
was of no use as a hunter, for he had not the hawk-like sight of an
Indian or the Indian instinct for following a trail. He could dig out
the wild roots they ate, which grew among canes and under water, but
this was laborious and painful work, which made his hands bleed. With
tools, or even metal with which to make them, he might have made himself
the most useful member of the tribe, but as it was, he was even poorer
than the wretched people among whom he lived, for they knew how to make
the most of what was in the country, and he had no such training.

The lonely Spaniard studied their language and customs diligently. He
found that they made knives and arrows of shell, and clothing of woven
fibers of grass and le