Page:Don Coronado through Kansas.djvu/37

26 FIGHT FOR INDIAN ■WIVES. the expedition was that man, (pointing to De Vaca), and on being cast among barbarians, it was he who kept lis all from giving up. He imbued us with the HOPE that we would return home, and for five years W3 remained with the tribe , He was our counsellor and guiding star. And now you will forgive me for referring to a part of our experiences which may not be considered honorable to you gentlemen, but the truth must be told. We soon became strong and of good health and being only men,'some of my country- men, and, in fact, I may admit all, began to antago- nize the male portion of the tribe, and it seemed as though there would be trouble come of it, but De Vaca soon acquired enough of their language and having read Roman history, remembered how the Eomans did to procure wives from the Sabines. So De Vaca got to talking to the chief who was made to compre- hend that if there were any other tribes we would go and fight for women. It transpired that hke all the tribes, there was a feud between our Indians and an- other nation, and after a council of the principal men as well as ourselves, it was decided to fit out a strong party and attack the other people and endeavor to capture wives for our men. "Don't forget that we had our firearms; of course we did not have one for each of our 120 men, but there were about fifty harquebuses and enough pow- der and lead to fire each harquebus seventy-flve times before the same could be exhausted. So we figured that the fifty harquebuses would, with care, kill or malm 2500 men. We were told that the enemy were more powerful than our people, but that their women