ving the country of the cow-herds. On one of these
occasions a soldier was wounded by an arrow, which penetrated through
his greaves and thigh, and passing through the saddle lap, ran two
fingers breadth into the horses side, the arrow being made of reed with
no other head than the reed itself hardened in the fire and sloped to a
point. The wounded soldier was lifted from his horse, the arrow being
previously cut off between his thigh and the saddle, and he was left to
cure himself, as he had formerly performed many wonderful cures on his
comrades with only oil and wool, assisted by prayers. But since the
battle of Mavila, in which all the oil was lost, he had never attempted
to cure either others or himself, though twice wounded before, believing
that the cure could not be performed without oil and dirty wool. In this
distress, he swore that he would not submit to the surgeons, and would
rather die than allow them to dress his wound. Having no oil, he
substituted hogs lard, and procured some wool from an Indian mantle, as
the Spaniards had now no shirts or any other linen among them, and to
the astonishment of every one he was so sound in four days that he was
able to mount his horse on the fifth day. He now begged pardon of the
soldiers for having allowed so many of his comrades to perish, by
refusing to cure them, as he had believed the efficacy of his mode of
cure depended on the oil, but as he now found that it consisted in the
holy words he had pronounced over the dressings, he desired they might
again recur to him when wounded, and he would exert himself as formerly.
This soldier, named Sanjurgo Gallego, was very chaste, a good Christian,
ever ready to serve all men, and had many other virtues[189].

[Footnote 188: There is some ambiguity in the text, from which it is
difficult to ascertain whether the left and right hand of their general
line of march is now to be respectively considered as south and north,
or the contrary. But as coupled with their intended return towards the
great river, now to the east, the _left_ means probably the _north_, and
the _right_ the _south_.--E.]

[Footnote 189: Though not mentioned in the text, it is not improbable
that Gallego had formerly placed considerable dependence on the use of
_holy_ oil, or chrysm. The whole secret of his surgery seems to have
consisted in the application of bland oils, and leaving nature to
operate, without the employment of the ancient barbarous method