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They also said that the Indians had slain Orantes, Valdivieso, Huelva, Esquibel, and Mendez ; but that the three who still lived were very ill used, especially by the boys, who kicked, beat, and abused them for their amusement. At this time the Indians treated Cabeza and Oviedo very ill, so that Oviedo went back along with some of the natives, but Cabeza stayed and they two never met more.
Yet they appointed to meet again on the 1st of September, when the moon was full. Two of them came on the 13th and Orantes on the 14th, when they actually fled. Coming to a tribe of Indians called Avares, they were well received and procured plenty of provisions, as these people had learnt that the Christians performed cures.
Leaving Castillo and Estevanillo at Mexico, Cabeza de Vaca and Orantes proceeded to Vera Cruz, whence they passed over into Spain in 1537. It has been already stated in a former note that the direct distance they had travelled could not be less than 1200 miles, probably 1600 allowing for deflections.
Cabeza requested to be conducted to their commander, Diego de Alcaraz, who informed him they were now in New Galicia, and about thirty leagues from the town of San Miguel. Castillo and Orantes then came up, attended by above six hundred of the Indians who had deserted their habitations from fear of the Spaniards.
Taking along with him Orantes and the mulatto Estevanillo, he went to visit a sick person in a very dangerous condition, being almost dead, with his eyes turned in his head, and no pulse; and so confident were the Indians of his approaching death that his house was already pulled down according to their custom on such occasions.
We learn from Herrera , that Alvar Nunnez Cabeza de Vaca was sent out in 1540 as governor of the incipient Spanish settlements on the Rio Plata, in which expedition he was accompanied by his former companion in distress Orantes.
Orantes went to visit Cabeza who had been hidden by some Indians who favoured him, and it was a great satisfaction to these friends to meet, though in great trouble as being naked and miserable in a land of savages.
Orantes appears in the sequel to have been still alive; but we must take the translation as it is, not having the original to consult. Two days after the departure of Oviedo, the Indians with whom Orantes resided came to the banks of this creek to eat nuts, on which they fed two months of the year.
Three days journey from thence, Orantes and Estevanillo went under the guidance of a female slave to a village in which her father lived, and where they saw the first houses that were built in any thing like regular order, the inhabitants of which cultivated kidney-beans, pompions, and maize. Cabeza de Vaca and his companions went to this place, dismissing their former conductors.
According to their account, the Spaniards remained eight moons among the Avares, neither Orantes nor Estevanillo having yet performed any cures, though so much importuned that they were at length forced to comply, being called the children of the sun.
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