ves. But I
did not let them go, since the sure thing was to follow it to the West,
where either a settlement or the road from Guatemala, which we were
searching for, could not fail us. At this time we were going on with a
strong desire to reach it, but with little courage; wherefore we
stopped to sleep on the road."

They Climb Some High Hills. "On the next day we went on over some high
hills, difficult to climb; then, on passing over one which is ascended
on the bank of a stream with but little water in it, one of the two
Indians who accompanied me carried me, so that I could pass over it or
climb it. There was no need for the hill to be very high (and it was
not) for me not to be able to climb it, since now there was left to me
in all my body only the bones and the skin and the spirit which
animated them. In a little while I gave up at once, without being able
to take a step forward, although my wish was to go on and the Indians
encouraged me. This was a thing which gave them great trouble, for they
also now were reeling from weakness. I, seeing that they would be
missed more, if they died than if I did, since they had families of
wife, children, mother and brother, and that I had only God, to whom I
had delivered my soul and life, I made an agreement with them, that
they should leave me there under a tree, and that they should try to
save their lives, with the understanding that, if they got out in a
short time to a settlement, they should come back to see me in a few
days and to bring me some aid, for if I did not follow them, it was not
from want of wish or spirit to do so, but from want of strength. They
grieved much over this resolution of mine, on account of the love which
they had come to have for me, and so they replied to me that they were
not going to leave me, but that where I should die, they were going to
die also. I (perhaps by divine inspiration) insisted that they should
go on and leave me, to the point of commanding them with firmness to do
so, provided that they should come to see me, whenever they found
supplies, for I trusted in God that they would find me alive. With this
determination of mine, they obeyed me, cutting off as they could leaves
or branches of palms, and they made me a little hut in which to remain
at rest."

Avendano Left Alone. "At the same time they left me a fire lighted, and
it was a prodigy for them to have lighted it, since on other occasions
they had not been able to ma