Essay On Cabeza De Vaca

“Cabeza de Vaca was born into the Spanish 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 mainland of North America.” http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/a_c/cabezadevaca.htm

“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 Tampa Bay, 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 Apalachee Indians 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 a coastal 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.” http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/a_c/cabezadevaca.htm
“Although Cabeza de Vaca did not intentionally land in Texas, he had a great impact on Texas history.

He was one of the few survivors that made it to Texas. Once in Texas, Cabeza de Vaca came in contact with many different groups, some of which did not like him. He met many indian tribes along his journey and affected them in many different ways. The main indian tribe that he stayed with was the Karankawa Indians. Cabeza de Vaca did not exactly live with the Karankawa Indians, but was rather a slave. Although he was a slave during his time with the Karankawa Indians, he showed his medical skills and became a healer"

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“Storms, thirst and starvation had reduced 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, as Cabeza 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 native world 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 still alive -- Alonso del Castillo Maldonado, Andrés Dorantes de Carranza, and Estevan, an African slave. Together with Cabeza de Vaca, they now headed west and south in hopes of reaching the Spanish Empire's outpost in Mexico, becoming the first men of the Old World to enter the American West. Their precise route is not clear, but they apparently traveled across present-day Texas, perhaps into New Mexico and Arizona and through Mexico's northern provinces. In July 1536, near Culiacán in present-day Sinaloa, they finally encountered a group of fellow Spaniards who were on a slave-taking expedition. As Cabeza de Vaca remembered, his countrymen were "dumbfounded at the sight of me, strangely dressed and in company with Indians. They just stood staring for a long time."
Appalled by the Spanish treatment of Indians, in 1537 Cabeza de Vaca returned to Spain to publish an account of his experiences and to urge a more generous policy upon the crown.

He served as a Mexican territorial governor, but was soon accused of corruption, perhaps for his enlightened conduct toward Indians. He returned to Spain and was convicted; a 1552 pardon allowed him to become a judge in Seville, Spain, a position which he occupied until his death in 1556 or 1557.” http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/a_c/cabezadevaca.htm

“From 1529 to 1534, Cabeza de Vaca and these others lived a meagre life with the Karankawa Indians, in a state of semi-slavery and often separated from each other. During this time Cabeza de Vaca took advantage of his slight medical skills and remade himself as healer.”http://www.americanjourneys.org/aj-070/summary/

“After Cabeza de Vaca recovered from a near-fatal illness, he became the first European of record to become a Texas merchant. He carried sea shells, some sharp enough to cut open mesquite beans, and what he called “beads of sea” into the interior reaches of Texas. He traded these wares for bison skins and red ochre, much prized by coastal natives for their body

decorations.”
https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fca06
Today’s history would not be the same without many historic explorers, one of which is Cabeza de Vaca. It might not seem like he greatly impacted Texas, but if he would not have accidently landed in Galveston, Texas would not be the same. He explored great amounts of land that had not yet been explored, and changed the lives of many indian tribes. Cabeza de Vaca wrote about how wonderful the Americas were and probably caused many more explorers to visit the Americas.