was to save
them all. Without it, all four would have perished in the wilderness,
and the world would never have known their end.

While they were still on the Isle of Misfortune, a proposition had been
made which seemed the height of the ridiculous. "In that isle," says
Vaca, "they wished to make us doctors, without examining us or asking
our titles; for they themselves cure sickness by blowing upon the sick
one. With that blowing, and with their hands, they remove from him the
disease; and they bade us do the same, so as to be of some use to them.
We laughed at this, saying that they were making fun, and that we knew
not how to heal; and for that they took away our food, till we should do
that which they said. And seeing our stubbornness, an Indian said to me
that I did not understand; for that it did no good for one to know how,
because the very stones and other things of the field have power to
heal,... and that we, who were men, must certainly have greater power."

This was a characteristic thing which the old Indian said, and a key to
the remarkable superstitions of his race. But the Spaniards, of course,
could not yet understand.

Presently the savages removed to the mainland. They were always in
abject poverty, and many of them perished from starvation and from the
exposures incident to their wretched existence. For three months in the
year they had "nothing but shell-fish and very bad water;" and at other
times only poor berries and the like; and their year was a series of
wanderings hither and thither in quest of these scant and unsatisfactory
foods.

It was an important fact that Vaca was utterly useless to the Indians.
He could not serve them as a warrior; for in his wasted condition the
bow was more than he could master. As a hunter he was equally
unavailable; for, as he himself says, "it was impossible for him to
trail animals." Assistance in carrying water or fuel or anything of the
sort was impossible; for he was a man, and his Indian masters could not
let a man do woman's work. So, among these starveling nomads, this man
who could not help but must be fed was a real burden; and the only
wonder is that they did not kill him.

Under these circumstances, Vaca began to wander about. His indifferent
captors paid little attention to his movements, and by degrees he got to
making long trips north, and up and down the coast. In time he began to
see a chance for trading, in which the Indians encouraged him