Dorantes and Castillo return and gather all the scattered European survivors. Cabeza de Vaca is too sick to travel, so he is forced to remain another year with the Indigenous people. The year is full of hardship: Harvesting the roots that are a staple of the Indigenous people’s diet is extremely difficult, plus Indigenous people of the area are depicted as constantly at war with one another. This provides Cabeza de Vaca the opportunity to become a mediator and trader between them. Cabeza de Vaca eventually adopts Indigenous ways: “I spent nearly six years in this country, alone with them and as naked as they were” (43). One reason de Vaca stays in the area so long is because he does not want to leave Lope de Oviedo, who lives with another group and is reluctant to go. Finally, Cabeza de Vaca convinces Oviedo to leave.

As they travel, they learn that those who left six years earlier mostly perished from cold and hunger. Those who survived now live among other Indigenous people, who mistreat them and regularly beat them. Due to these reports, Oviedo returns to the group he had been living with, while Cabeza de Vaca goes on alone.