At dead of night a band of harquebusiers dragged him from his bed
(after a captivity of eleven months), as he says, `almost with the candle
in his hand' -- i.e., in a dying state. As he left the prison,
he fell upon his knees and thanked God for having let him once more
feel the air of heaven, and then in a loud voice exclaimed:
`I name as my successor Captain Juan de Salazar de Espinosa.'
At this one Garci Vargas rushed at him with a knife, and told him
to recall his words or he would kill him instantly. This he was stopped
from doing, and Nunez was hurried to the ship and chained securely
to a beam. On board the vessel, he says, they tried to poison him;
but this seems doubtful, as there was nothing on earth
to prevent their doing so had they been so inclined.
Still, as a prudent man he took the precaution to provide
some oil and a piece of unicorn (`pedazo de unicornio'),
with which he tried the food. Unicorns he could not have seen in Paraguay,
nor yet in Florida, and he does not explain how he became so luckily equipped.

--
*1* `Comentarios de Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca', contained in Barcia's
`Historiadores Primitivos de las Indias Occidentales'.
*2* The `patriots' are always those of the prevailing party in a State.
*3* `(I.H.S.)

`God preserve your Excellency, say we, the Cabildo,
and all the Caciques and Indians, men, women and children of San Luis,
as your Excellency is our father. The Corregidor,
Santiago Pindo and Don Pantaleon Caynari, in their love for us,
have written to us of certain birds which they desire we will send them
for the King. . . . We are sorry not to have them to send,
inasmuch as they live where God made them, in the forests,