who followed him and did his bidding as if he had been born their chief.
Rambling about for months, but always followed by his Indians,
he at length encountered a Spanish horse-soldier, and, accosting him,
found he had almost forgotten Spanish during his ten years' sojourn
with the Indians. His first entreaty, when he found Spanish
gradually returning to him, was to the Spaniards not to harass
his Indian following. Then he besought the Indians themselves
to cease their nomad life and cultivate the soil. In neither case
was he successful, as the Spaniards, like all other Europeans,
held Indians little removed from dogs. And for the Indians,
the few remaining are as much attached to their old wandering life as in
the days of the discovery of the New World. In all that Alvar Nunez writes,
he shows a grandeur of soul and spirit far different from the writings,
not only of the conquerors of the New World, but of the conquerors of Africa
of to-day. For him no bragging of his exploits.*1* All that he says
he sets down modestly and with excuses (as every now and then,
`Me pesa hablar de mis trabajos'), and as befits a gentleman.
Lastly, he leaves the reader (when describing his captivity in Florida),
by telling him quite quietly and without comment that God was pleased to save
from all these perils himself, Alonso del Castillo Maldonado, Andres Dorantes,
and that the fourth was a negro called Estevanico, a native of Azimur.
But, not contented with his ten years' captivity, after three years at home
he entered into a certain `asiento'*2* and `capitulacion'*3* with the King
to sail at his own charges with an expedition to succour
Don Pedro de Mendoza, who was hard pressed by famine and the Indians
at Buenos Ayres. He agreed to furnish eight thousand ducats,
horses, arms, men, and provisions at his own expense, upon condition
that he was made Governor and Adelantado of the Rio de la Plata,
and General both of its armies and its fleets.