Leaving Aute is difficult because of the terrain, so many being sick, and so few horses for transport. Some of the horsemen desert, though most remain with the expedition. Narváez holds a council to discuss how to best to extricate themselves from the area and find relief. Because a third of the men are sick and the land is so difficult to traverse, they decide to build boats. Those who can, build the ships, while the others oversee the search for food and supplies. Often, the search involves raiding the locals. During the building, they lose 10 men to Indigenous attacks and more than 40 men to illness; they also eat all but one of the horses. On September 22, they pile into four boats and move to open water with no one “having the least knowledge of the art of navigation” (24).

The men name the area they are leaving the Bay of Horses. After 37 days at sea, supplies run low and scavenging is so difficult that some resort to drinking salt water. Five men die. They eventually follow a canoe and find a village. The chief of the village receives the Europeans hospitably, offering them water and fish.