Chronicle of the Narvaez Expedition

The Indigenous people following the Europeans no longer steal everything when they arrive in a new village. Instead, the villagers freely give them everything they own before joining the large following so as to be recompensed later on. They travel 50 leagues through inhospitable desert until they arrive in a village where they receive so many gifts that they can’t carry them all.

The Europeans want to go westwards, but their followers refuse, since the Indigenous people to the west are their enemies. The Europeans feign anger to compel the Indigenous people to guide them; when eight people suddenly fall ill and die, the Indigenous followers become afraid and entreat the Europeans for forgiveness.

After three days, they arrive in a village where they find dwellings “that were like real houses” (83). Its inhabitants are hostile to the Europeans’ followers, so only the Europeans accompany them to their village, naming the group “Natives of the Cow” (84). The Indigenous people throw a large celebration, boiling their food by using hot rocks, but lament that they have no corn because of a drought. They ask the Europeans to pray for rain, which they agree to do.