The Indians promised them food in themorning, and brought fish, roots, and pure water; and finding them chillyfrom the coldness of the night, carried them in their arms to their homes,first making four or five large fires on the way. At the houses there weremany fires, and the Spaniards would have been wholly comfortable, had theynot thought it just possible that they were to be offered as a sacrifice.Still fearing this, they left their Indian friends after a few days andtraversed the country, stopping at every spring or fountain to test itsquality. Alas! they all grew older and more worn in look, as time went on,and farther from the Fountain of Youth.After a time they came upon new tribes of Indians, and as they wentfarther from the coast these people seemed more and more friendly. Theytreated the white men as if come from heaven,--brought them food, madethem houses, carried every burden for them. Some had bows, and went uponthe hills for deer, and brought half a dozen every night for their guests;others killed hares and rabbits by arranging themselves in a circle andstriking down the game with billets of wood as it ran from one to anotherthrough the woods. All this game was brought to the visitors to bebreathed upon and blessed, and when this had to be done for severalhundred people it became troublesome.
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