Identifier: popularhistoryof00brya (find matches)
Title: A popular history of the United States : from the first discovery of the western hemisphere by the Northmen, to the end of the first century of the union of the states ; preceded by a sketch of the prehistoric period and the age of the mound builders
Year: 1876 (1870s)
Authors: Bryant, William Cullen, 1794-1878 Gay, Sydney Howard, 1814-1888
Subjects:
Publisher: New York : Scribner, Armstrong, and Company
Contributing Library: Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection
Digitizing Sponsor: The Institute of Museum and Library Services through an Indiana State Library LSTA Grant

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ng them down almost to the gunwales,and pushed out into the Gulf of Mexico. They crept slowly along the coast for weeks, hoping to reach theSpanish colony of Panuco on the western shore of the gulf. Endur-ing always the extremity of suffering from cold, and wet, and hunger,they were buffetted when on the sea by storms, and repulsed by theIndians when they attempted a landing. At length the boats partedcompany. First the governor refused to throw a rope to the men ofCabe^a de Vaca, of whom only one or two were able to lift an oar,saying the time had come when each man must take care of himself.Then a storm parted the others, and De Vacas boat was driven uponthe beach of an island.^ To get off again the next day the menstripped to the skin, as it was necessary to wade into the water to digthe boat out of the sand and once more set her afloat. But when thiswas done and they had jumped aboard, the surf again upset her beforethey had time to resume their clothing. Some were drowned ; those
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Upset in the Surf. who were not were left as absolutely naked and destitute as they cameinto the world, for not one thing in the boat was recovered. For-tunately the Indians were humane and pitiful, making fires to warm 1 The BaUa de Caballos is probably the present harbor of St. Marks. 2 Cabe9a de Vaca called this island Mathado — misfortune. Its locality is uncertain,but it may have been the island of Galveston. Buckingham Smith is entirely at a loss toidentify it. Fairbanks (History of Florida) thinks it was the island of Santa Rosa. 156 SPANISH DISCOVERIES AND EXPLORATIONS. (Chap. VIL the half frozen and famished bodies of the strangers, giving them foodfrom their own scanty stores. In a few days these were joined bycompanions from another boat, who had also been wrecked not fardistant. The company now numbered eighty. Exposure, starvation,and sickness, soon decided the fate of most of them, though someprolonged their lives awhile by feeding on those who were the firstto die. Be

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