144 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 73 
next to nothing regarding the people themselves. Our earliest 
information of value concerning any of the people of this coast is 
contained in the relation of Cabeza de Vaca, who encountered them 
in 1528 on his way westward from the Apalachee country by sea 
with the remains of the Narvaez expedition. Although none of the 
tribes which the explorers met is mentioned b} r name there is every 
reason to believe that one of them was the Pensacola. He says: 
That hay from which we started is called the Bay of the Horses. We sailed seven 
days among those inlets, in the water waist deep, without signs of anything like the 
coast. At the end of this time we reached an island near the shore. My barge went 
ahead, and from it we saw five Indian canoes coming. The Indians abandoned 
them and left them in our hands, when they saw that we approached. The other 
barges went on and saw some lodges on the same island, where we found plenty of ruffs 
and their eggs, dried, and that was a very great relief in our needy condition. Hav- 
ing taken them, we went further, and two leagues beyond found a strait between the 
island and the coast, which strait we christened San Miguel, it being the day of that 
saint. Issuing from it we reached the coast, where by means of the five canoes I had 
taken from the Indians we mended somewhat the barges, making washboards and 
adding to them and raising the sides two hands above water. 
Then we set out to sea again, coasting towards the River of Palms. Every day our 
thirst and hunger increased because our supplies were giving out, as well as the water 
supply, for the pouches we had made from the legs of our horses soon became rotten 
and useless. From time to time we would enter some inlet or cove that reached very 
far inland, but we found them all shallow and dangerous, and so we navigated through 
them for thirty days, meeting sometimes Indians who fished and were poor and 
wretched people. 
At the end of these thirty days, and when we were in extreme need of water and 
hugging the coast, we heard one night a canoe approaching. When we saw it we 
stopped and waited, but it would not come to us, and, although we called out, it 
would neither turn back nor wait. It being night, we did not follow the canoe, but 
proceeded. At dawn we saw a small island, where we touched to search for water, 
but in vain, as there was none. While at anchor a great storm overtook us. We 
remained there six days without venturing to leave, and it being five days since we 
had drunk anything our thirst was so great as to compel us to drink salt water, and 
several of us took such an excess of it that we lost suddenly five men. 
I tell this briefly, not thinking it necessary to relate in particular all the distress and 
hardships we bore. Moreover, if one takes into account the place we were in, and the 
slight chances of relief , he may imagine what we suffered. Seeing that our thirst was 
increasing and the water was killing us, while the storm did not abate, we agreed to 
trust to God, our Lord, and rather risk the perils of the sea than wait there for cer- 
tain death from thirst. So we left in the direction we had seen the canoe going on 
the night we came here. During this day we found ourselves often on the verge of 
drowning and so forlorn that there was none in our company who did not expect to 
die at any moment. 
It was our Lord's pleasure, who many a time shows His favor in the hour of greatest 
distress, that at sunset we turned a point of land and found there shelter and much 
improvement. Many canoes came and the Indians in them spoke to us, but turned 
back without waiting. They were tall and well built, and carried neither bows nor 
arrows. We followed!; hem to their lodges, which were nearly along the inlet, and 
landed, and in front of the lodges we saw many jars with water, and great quantities 
of cooked fish. The chief of that land offered all to the governor and led him to 
