Page:Don Coronado through Kansas.djvu/35

24 24 SWORDS MADE INTO NAILS. "When we failed of our ships, owing to our desperate condition and after earnest deliberation, we solemnly resolved to leave the country at any risk. So we all went to work with a wOl, to construct five boats with which to escape. We erected forges and used iron implements to make the saws, axes and nails necessary. Our stirrups, spurs, swords, in fact nothing was exempt only our harquebuses, which we realized must be retained for protection; but the most valuable and precious accoutrements were mutUated to save our lives, and, Senor, you could not help smile had you seen our sails and ropes; the first were made of hides pieced with the shirts of the men, and the ropes were of the horsehair from our dead animals. I think it was September 22nd that we embarked. There were about forty -five men to each boat, none of whom had any experience in navigation, as those who came from home wlio were accustomed to such had all gone in our ships. It happened that we four were assigned to the same boat. We endeavored to steer westward, keeping near the land and stopping occa- sionally for water and to shoot meat to live upon. "Towards the end of October we came to a very powerful river. Its current was so strong that It drove the boats out to sea and so much fresh water came down that for a league, (2.42 miles), for the life of us we oonld not enter the mouth. And notr the sad part of our story is reached, for it was here ^v« lost our commander, Narvaez, his boat and that which held the friars were wrecked and all drowned. Our boat and the two others continued to make our way along the coast thinking to reach this province, but it