Cabeza De Vaca Dbq Essay

From a proud Conquistador, to a castaway, a slave and trader, and then medicine man, Cabeza de Vaca was the first European to explore much of the southern coast of Texas. Cabeza was a 37 year old military veteran in 1527 when he left on the Narvaez Expedition to find gold and colonize the Gulf Coast. He was the expedition’s treasurer. Cabeza de Vaca was enslaved by Indians in 1528 when one of the rafts the crew made crashed on present day Galveston island, he then escaped in 1530 and joined/was enslaved by another tribe called the Charrucos until his escape with 3 other survivors in 1534. He then walked to Mexico City. Cabeza survived this ordeal because of the incredible patience he had, his skills of diplomacy and goodwill, and his amazing wilderness survival skills.

One of the reasons Cabeza de Vaca survived was due to his incredible

patience/ perseverance. For example, when Cabeza met up with three other survivors, they waited two years for the right moment to escape, that would take unbelievable amounts of patience.

(Background Essay) Another example would be that after he escaped, he walked to Mexico City from Texas, the long way. It took Cabeza 21 months to reach Mexico City going around 2 mountain ranges and through a desert in between the mountain ranges until he was forced to go through the mountain range in order to reach his destination with his fellow survivors. Overall he traveled over 2500 miles(Doc A) Without these skills Cabeza de Vaca might have been to hasty to leave and probably would have been caught and killed several times over

A second reason Cabeza de Vaca survived was because of his diplomacy and goodwill skills, or the fact that he was just a good person in general. A good example of this reason would be that, shortly after being captured by the Charrucos, Cabeza de Vaca became friends with them, they which in turn allowed him to be a trader, (though still enslaved,) to tribes as far as 150 mile from the Gulf Coast region.(Doc B) A second example of this reason would be, while Cabeza de Vaca was enslaved, as well as during his trek to Mexico City, Cabeza

learned four Indian languages, including the language of the Charrucos, the second tribe he was enslaved by. Cabeza also learned sign language.(Doc B) There is also the prominent example of when Cabeza de Vaca and his fellow survivors, with hundreds of Indians following them, came across Spanish Conquistadors on A slave catching expedition, who told the Natives that Cabeza and his survivors were basically bad-luck crazy people. Even with this said, the Native Americans still regarded Cabeza and his friends with much higher respect than they did towards the Spaniards, as they did not believe them. The Native Americans said Cabeza came from where the sun rose (they believe this was the side of the living,) cared for and cured the sick, came naked and barefooted or humbly, and did not yearn for what others had, but rather returned whatever the Indians gave them soon after it was given. Whereas the Spaniards killed those who were not sick, went everywhere dressed in armor, fancy garbs, on horses and with lances, came from where the sun set, (it was believed that this was the side of the dead and evil,) and that the Spaniards wished to do to nothing but steal almost anything they found and not give anything to anyone.(Doc D) This skills would have helped Cabeza immensely, as it would have helped to know his captors native language, as well as a variety of other languages to be able to communicate as a trader, and on his journey to Mexico City. And if not for the goodwill of his Heart, the Native Americans may not have returned their goodwill and trust in kind.
The third and most important reason Cabeza de Vaca survived was because of his amazing wilderness survival skills. Strong evidence of this reason would be that, when Cabeza and the other members of the expedition arrived at Apalachee Bay in Florida after 2 months of searching for gold and finding that their ships were not there. They needed to make rafts in order to go west to Mexico, but none had the tools to make any. Cabeza ordered for the guns to be melted down to make tools, and then the men made 5 rafts each able to carry about 50 men. Cabeza de Vaca led one of these rafts.(Essay) A second good example would be the way Cabeza dealt with thirst and hunger. To deal with thirst while on the raft, Cabeza, along with other survivors adrift on the raft, hollowed out horse legs, and used them as canteens, storing fresh water in them to drink. As for periodic hunger while he was a slave, Cabeza would eat whatever was available, like snakes, spiders, mollusks, rats, roots, lizard, berries, and other stuff of the sort.(Doc B) Finally there is evidence that, early in his trek to Mexico City, specifically in the year 1534, Cabeza was lost, cold, desperate, and naked. He found a tree that was smoldering, after being lit on fire from being struck by lightning. Cabeza lit a branch on fire from the tree, making a torch, and would keep it burning while he walked. BEfore he went to to sleep each night he would dig a hole, huddle in it, and around it he made 4 fires, creating a cross shape. This would keep mosquitoes and predators away, and would prevent enemy Indians from being able to see him, aim at him, or touch him, as the fire would obscure their sight. These examples prove that Cabeza de Vaca’s used survival skills because you don’t just do things like that naturally, it takes ingenuity and training, as well as skill. Most people wouldn’t even think of anything even close to as efficient as Cabeza’s wilderness survival tactics were, that would take serious skill.
Cabeza de Vaca survived in the wilderness of the Texas coast and the rugged land of north-central Mexico because of his patience, his goodwill and diplomacy skills, and his awesome wilderness survival skills. Cabeza de Vaca’s accounts of his expedition, particularly the account of the stories of the Seven Cities of Gold, inspired other explorers and conquistadors to explore and colonize Texas.