I was in this country nearly six years,[95] alone among the Indians, and naked like them. The reason why I remained so long was, that I might take with me from the island the Christian Lope de Oviedo. De Alaniz, his companion, who had been left with him by Alonzo del Castillo, Andres Dorantes, and the rest, died soon after their departure; and, to get the survivor out from there, I went over to the island every year, and entreated him that we should go, in the way we could best contrive, in quest of Christians. He put me off every year, saying that in the next coming we would go. At last I got him off, crossing him over the bay, and over four rivers there are in the coast, as he could not swim. In this way we went on with some Indians, until coming to a bay a league in width, and everywhere deep. From its appearance, we supposed it to be that which they call Espiritu Santo. We met some Indians on the other side of it, who came to visit ours; and they told us that beyond them there were three men like us, and gave their names. And we asked them for the others; and they told us that they were all dead of cold and hunger; that the Indians farther on, of whom they were, had for their diversion killed Diego Dorantes, Valdevieso, and Diego de Huelva, because they left one house for another; and that other Indians, their neighbors, with whom Captain Dorantes now was, had, in consequence of a dream, killed Esquivel and Mendez. We asked them how the living were situated; and they answered us that they were very ill used; for that the boys and some of the Indian men were very idle, and of cruelty gave them severe kicks, cuffs, and blows with sticks, and that such was the life they led among them. We desired to be informed of the country ahead, and of the subsistence in it; and they said there was nothing in it to eat, and [it] was thin of people, who suffered of cold, having no skins or other thing to cover them. They told us, also, if we wished to see those three Christians, two days from that time the Indians who had them would come to eat walnuts a league from there, on the margin of that river; and, that we might know what they had told us of the ill usage to be true, they slapped my companion, and beat him with a stick, and I was not left without my portion. They frequently threw fragments of mud at us; and every day they put their arrows to our hearts, saying that they were inclined to kill us in the way they had destroyed our friends. Lope Oviedo, my comrade, in fear, said that he wished to go back with the women who had crossed the bay with us, the men having remained some distance behind. I contended strongly with him against his returning, and I urged many objections; but in no way could I keep him. So he went back, and I remained alone with those savages. IV.――THE INDIANS OF THE GULF OF MEXICO.