Cabeza De Vaca
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Publicado: 19 de febrero de 2013
Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca
(c.1490-c.1557)
The journey of Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca remains one of the most amazing feats of exploration in the Americas.
Cabeza de Vaca was born into theSpanish nobility in 1490. Little of his early life is known, except that he made his career in the military. In early 1527 he left Spain as a part of a royal expedition intended to occupy the mainlandof North America.
After their fleet was battered by a hurricane off the shore of Cuba, the expedition secured a new boat and departed for Florida. They landed in March 1528 near what is now TampaBay, which the expedition leader, Pánfilo de Narváez, claimed as the lawful possession of the Spanish empire.
Despite this confident declaration, the expedition was on the verge of disaster.Narváez's decision to split his land and sea forces proved a grievous error, as the ships were never able to rendezvous with the land expedition. The party soon overstayed its welcome with the ApalacheeIndians of northern Florida by taking their leader hostage. Expelled and pursued by the Indians, suffering from numerous diseases, the surviving members of the expedition were reduced to huddling in acoastal swamp and living off the flesh of their horses. In late 1528, they built several crude rafts from trees and horse hides and set sail, hoping to return to Cuba.
Storms, thirst and starvation hadreduced the expedition to about eighty survivors when a hurricane dumped Cabeza de Vaca and his companions on the Gulf Coast near what is now Galveston, Texas. They were initially welcomed, but, asCabeza de Vaca was to remember, "half the natives died from a disease of the bowels and blamed us." For the next four years he and a steadily dwindling number of his comrades lived in the complex nativeworld of what is now East Texas, a world in which Cabeza transformed himself from a conquistador into a trader and healer.
By 1532, only three other members of the original expedition were...
(c.1490-c.1557)
The journey of Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca remains one of the most amazing feats of exploration in the Americas.
Cabeza de Vaca was born into theSpanish nobility in 1490. Little of his early life is known, except that he made his career in the military. In early 1527 he left Spain as a part of a royal expedition intended to occupy the mainlandof North America.
After their fleet was battered by a hurricane off the shore of Cuba, the expedition secured a new boat and departed for Florida. They landed in March 1528 near what is now TampaBay, which the expedition leader, Pánfilo de Narváez, claimed as the lawful possession of the Spanish empire.
Despite this confident declaration, the expedition was on the verge of disaster.Narváez's decision to split his land and sea forces proved a grievous error, as the ships were never able to rendezvous with the land expedition. The party soon overstayed its welcome with the ApalacheeIndians of northern Florida by taking their leader hostage. Expelled and pursued by the Indians, suffering from numerous diseases, the surviving members of the expedition were reduced to huddling in acoastal swamp and living off the flesh of their horses. In late 1528, they built several crude rafts from trees and horse hides and set sail, hoping to return to Cuba.
Storms, thirst and starvation hadreduced the expedition to about eighty survivors when a hurricane dumped Cabeza de Vaca and his companions on the Gulf Coast near what is now Galveston, Texas. They were initially welcomed, but, asCabeza de Vaca was to remember, "half the natives died from a disease of the bowels and blamed us." For the next four years he and a steadily dwindling number of his comrades lived in the complex nativeworld of what is now East Texas, a world in which Cabeza transformed himself from a conquistador into a trader and healer.
By 1532, only three other members of the original expedition were...
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