HISTORY OF THE SPANISH CONQUEST OF YUCATAN AND OF THE ITZAS

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A Desperate Situation. "In this final and extreme need we remained so
absolutely destitute of everything, that only by some angel bringing us
food and placing it in our mouths, could we nourish this living body;
because, even if we should find anything, either animals or birds of
the forest, we had nothing to kill them with, and, even if they put
themselves into our hands for killing, we had no knife nor machete to
skin them with, if they were animals, nor anything to cook them with
for want of a steel for striking fire. From this it can be inferred
that, being wet every day, at least with the dew, besides the showers
which caught us, and having to sleep on the bare earth, wherever night
came upon us, whether it was wet or dry, we were unable to get any
comfort, besides not having any means of making fire."


They Find Some Edible Thistles. "Notwithstanding, the said _akalchees_
were not what exhausted us most, nor were they so unkind to us that
amongst them we did not find something to eat and drink; since on some