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He came up with a plan that was both simple and bloodless. He would convert the Indians to Christianity. The pope had forbidden the enslaving of Christian Indians. Díaz hoped that Alcaraz would not defy his church as well as his king. A week later, Cabeza de Vaca and Díaz met with three chiefs who had come down from the mountains at his request. Cabeza de Vaca asked them to whom they prayed when they wanted water for their fields. A man in heaven called Aguar, they replied. Cabeza de Vaca said the Christians called Aguar God and told the Indians they must do the same. Melchior Díaz then gave the Indians a choice: if they became Christians, all Spaniards would regard them as brothers and they could return to their land. If not, they would be carried off into a life of slavery. The Indians said they “would be good Christians and serve God.” When Alcaraz’s soldiers entered Indian villages, they were welcomed with crosses. They saw churches being built and children being baptized. Alcaraz ordered his men to leave the Christian villages in peace. The Indians’ safety assured, Cabeza de Vaca was ready to go home. The Children of the Sun left Culiacán for New Spain’s capital, Mexico City. They were given clothes, but they were so accustomed to going naked that it would be weeks before they put them on their bodies. They spent their nights in Spanish homes, but they were so unused to beds that they slept on the floor. When they arrived in Mexico City, they were welcomed as heroes by Hernán Cortés himself. Not wanting to cross the ocean during the winter months, Cabeza de Vaca did not leave New Spain until April. Finally in August 1537, ten years and two month after the Narváez expedition left for the New World, Cabeza de Vaca arrived home. |