The Journey of Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca
Cabeza de Vaca had
traveled 6,000 miles over the course of eight years. They were the first
to see possum and buffalo. They visited tribes that wouldn’t be visited
again for decades to come. It's a story of a man transformed. This is
his story, adapted from his own words...
This could possibly be
the greatest adventure story never told. Well, hardly ever told. Despite
the fact that most of it occurred in the continental United States not one
in a hundred Americans can tell you about it.
This adventure started on June 27, 1527, and didn’t conclude until eight
years later. The name of the man who led this adventure was
Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca,
and his adventure was about more than survival against all odds. It was
also about spiritual awakening, transformation, and the true nature of
humanity. You can find the entire story
here
in de Vaca’s own words written in 1536.
The story begins
with conquistador
Pánfilo de Narváez.
Narvaez is historically famous for leading an army against
Hernan Cortes
in 1520, where he was defeated in open battle, wounded, and then
imprisoned by Cortes for two years. Cortes had actually left part of his
army in Tenochtitlan, with Moctezuma imprisoned, in order to fight Narvaez’s Spanish army at Veracruz.
Oh, the intrigue!
As governor of Cuba, Narvaez had overseen the massacre of 2,500 Indians
who were bringing food to the Spaniards.
Pánfilo de Narváez
Narvaez was
appointed governor of Florida in 1527 under the condition that he create
two permanent settlements there. However, Narvaez, like Cortes before him,
was only after one thing – gold.
Narvaez left Spain
with 700 men, five ships, and the memory of the immense riches and fame
Cortes managed a few years earlier. What he didn’t know was that Florida
had no gold and no empires to conquer. On April 14, 1528, the expedition
touched land near present-day Tampa Bay with 300 men and 42 horses, after
losing ships and men in a hurricane. de Vaca was the treasurer and
sheriff of the expedition. As a side note, it was here that the true story
of Pocahontas and John Smith played out. (John Smith lifted the story from
Ulele and Juan Ortiz--but that's another story for another day...)
De Vaca had a military background.
He joined the military in
1511 and had
already served in many bloody campaigns in Italy.
Narvaez almost
immediately displayed poor leadership and ordered the ships to sail ahead
to find a better port, splitting his ground forces in unknown lands. De
Vaca and other disagreed with this plan, the logistics just weren't right, but Narvaez overruled them. The
ships and ground forces never met up.
Since they
completely underestimated the distances they were going to travel, the
expedition soon ran out of food. They supplemented their supplies by
stealing the crops of native Americans along the way. This, of course,
didn’t sit well with the starving Indians.
The Spaniards soon found themselves under “constant guerrilla attacks”,
and eventually the local Indians began “scorthed earth” tactics, leaving
little for the Europeans to steal.
It's a horrible story.
Lost, desperate,
sick with malaria, and losing hope, the expedition spent six weeks making
rafts somewhere in northwest Florida. By September 22nd they had eaten all
of their horses and had lost at least 50 men to sickness and Indian
attacks. On that day they pushed their five rafts into an unknown sea,
each carrying 49 men.
For over a month the
five rafts navigated the shallow waters of the Gulf of Mexico, somehow
managing to avoid the tropical storms that frequent the region that time
of year. Lack of fresh water and hostile Indians kept the expedition
always on the brink of disaster.
That disaster
happened once they reached the mouth of the Mississippi.
It's a horrible
story.
Lost, desperate,
sick with malaria, and losing hope,
the expedition spent six weeks making
rafts somewhere in northwest Florida.
By September 22nd they had eaten all
of their horses
and had lost at least 50 men to sickness and Indian attacks.
Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca
Strong currents and
drifting in the night separated all the rafts. De Vaca could not keep up
with Narvaez’s raft, which pushed on towards shore.
At least one raft was lost with all hands during a tempest the following
day. Five days later, with everyone on de Vaca’s raft close to death, the
currents pushed them towards land. After a wave overturned the raft, most
of them managed to crawl ashore, their clothing lost in the sea. They had
to be a real sight: Naked, starving, lost, sunburned, and desperate.
It was November 6th,
1528, and they had just discovered Galveston Island. Discovered may
be reaching. They were marooned. Two of de Vaca's raft mates were dead.
Natives greeted them onshore.
The Indians sat down and lamented for
half an hour so loudly they could have been heard a long way off. It must
have been
amazing for these Spaniards to see these wild, untaught savages howling
like brutes in compassion for them.
Compassion is not
something the Spaniards had shared with the Indians they encountered up until
this point. Now it was de Vaca and his comrades who required it.
The
“Island of Doom”
De Vaca asked the
Indians to take them to their homes. The Indians “were delighted” and
literally carried them back to their village, where they had a dance
celebration that lasted all night. In the morning they found the crew of
another raft and sent four of the Christians ahead to look for Mexico.
Being in poor health and with the weather turning cold, de Vaca decided to
stay there for the winter. Starvation set in, which led four of five men
in one hut to eat each other. The Indians were appalled at this
cannibalism. To make things worse, disease broke out and killed half of
the Indian villagers and 75 out of the remaining 90 Christians.
It was during this
time that de Vaca learned to be an medicine man. He used a combination of
local customs along with the more extreme Catholic customs of
a country undergoing the throws of an Inquisition at the time.
In consequence, the Indians treated them kindly. They deprived themselves of
food to give to the Spaniards, and presented them with skins and other tokens of gratitude.
The Wandering Merchant
De Vaca got extremely sick in the spring and was unable join a renewed
effort to go south to Mexico. There were fourteen survivors of the ill
fated expedition that headed south without him. They had apparently given him up for
dead.
Here the story clouds up.
At this point de Vaca
recounts that he was enslaved. De Vaca was vague on
how he went from being a well-treated medicine man on Galveston Island, to
being a slave on the mainland. Nevertheless, de Vaca and one other
Spaniard remained a full year with the Capoques as slaves.
His
life had become unbearable. In addition to much other work, he had to grub
roots in the water or from underground in the canebrakes. he recounts that
his fingers got so raw that if a straw touched them they would bleed. The
broken canes often slashed his flesh; he had to work amidst them without
benefit of clothes.
He discovered that he
had an advantage by being a white man. The Indian tribes were usually
hostile to one another, which prevented them from taking long journeys.
He, being a neutral, could make the journeys for them. And that was his
ticket to freedom – being a trader.
For six years de Vaca lived the life of a wandering merchant in
sixteenth Century Texas. He
became well-known and well-liked. His travels took him as far as Oklahoma
and the Colorado River. He claims his only reason for not heading towards
Mexico was his desire to take his lone, surviving companion,
Lope de Oviedo, with him. De Oviedo kept putting him off, telling him he
would try next year.
Finally, in November
1532, he convinced Lope to leave and take his chances. After they had
traveled several days they ran into a group of Indians who told them that
they were holding three Christians as slaves. These were very cruel and
hostile Indians that terrified de Oviedo. De Oviedo abandoned de Vaca and
headed back in the direction they had come, never to be heard from again.
De Vaca waited it out and eventually met up with Alonso del Castillo,
the African-born slave Estevánico, and Andrés Dorantes, three of the
explorers who had left de Vaca on Galveston Island six years ago when they
thought he was fatally ill. All of the rest of their companions had died
from cold, hunger, or being murdered by their cruel slave masters.
In order to arrange
an escape for all four of them, de Vaca had to once again consign himself
to being a slave for a period of six months until the time was right.
During that time they told him the fate of their failed expedition.
The Story of What Had
Happened to the Others
After leaving de Vaca on what they thought was his death-bad in April 1529, the 14 of them
had stumbled upon the remains of another one of the original rafts they
had built in Florida (no sign of the crew of this raft). They used this
raft to cross several small rivers, although losing four companions along
the way until they reached Matagorda Bay.
None of them being able to swim, they were discussing how to cross the
waters when they were approached by several Indians and one Spaniard,
“whom they recognized as Figueroa [of Toledo], one of the four that had sent
ahead from the Island of Doom [in 1528].”
Figueroa told them
how his small group had also made it to Matagorda Bay when two of them and
their Indian guide succumbed to cold and hunger. His other companion, Méndez, fled when approached by Indians, but he was chased down and put to
death. While living with the Indians he was told about another Spaniard
who was caught heading the other direction. He eventually met up with this
fellow, who turned out to be Hernando de Esquivel, who had sailed on
the Governor’s raft.
Hernando told the
ugly story of the fate of the Governor’s crew. Somewhere south of
Matagorda Bay Narváez, with two other crew, had abandoned the rest ashore
and went south without them. They were never heard from again. Hernando
and the rest of the men went south on foot, but one by one, cold, hunger
and sickness claimed them. They turned to cannibalism. Eventually only
Hernando remained alive. He was taken in by local Indians.
Hernando was taken away not long after telling Figueroa his tale, never
to be seen again.
Figueroa, after
telling the Dorantes party his tale, and two others later headed south,
determined to either reach Mexico or die trying. The remainder of the
Dorantes party were treated as badly as any slaves ever were. Three of the
six were murdered for petty offenses. The rest suffered constant beatings
and threats of death.
The Escape
Shortly before the
four remaining Spaniards were to implement their escape, the tribal heads
had a dispute and the tribes split up before the plan could be enacted. De Vaca was forced to spend another year as a slave with this brutal tribe
before the tribes rejoined.
On September 8, 1534, de Vaca slipped away at an agreed upon time to
meet his comrades. Once their journey started they came across another
Indian tribe, the Anagado, They told them of the fate of the last
remaining raft.
It was
another tribe, immediately ahead of them, called Camones, who came from
close to the coast, that had killed the men who landed in the barge
belonging to Peñalosa
and Téllez, other survivors from the failed expedition. These men arrived so feeble that they could offer no
resistance even while being slain, and the Camones slew them to a man. De
Vaca was shown their clothes and arms and learned that the barge remained
stranded where it landed. Now all five rafts had been accounted for.
The Healer
Things got better for de Vaca. The travelers soon
came across a kinder Indian tribe. It was here that de Vaca conducted his
first successful “healing”. It was to be their bread-and-butter through
the wastelands of the Mexican desert.
Word got out that strangers with the ability to heal had arrived. A week later other
Indians came to the Spaniards to be healed. They
prayed over them, breathed on them, laid on the hands, and for some reason
their “patients” felt better afterwards. Word of this traveled swiftly,
and soon other tribes were coming to them for their “medicine”. Being in a
safe and welcoming community, they decided to winter there.
During this winter,
de Vaca was summoned to to heal a local chief. He arrived at the village
only to find the chief had already died. De Vaca prayed over the chief and
breathed on him before doing other “healings” in the village.
When they got back that evening, they brought the tidings that the “dead”
man that had been treated had gotten up whole and walked; he had eaten and spoken
with these Sosulas, who further reported that all that had been ministered to had
recovered and were glad to be alive. Throughout the land the effect was a profound
wonder and fear. People talked of nothing else, and wherever the fame of
it reached people set out to find the Spaniards so they could cure them and bless
their children.
With no exceptions, every patient told of how he had been made well.
Confidence in their ministrations as infallible extended to a belief that
none could die while the Spaniards remained among them.
 Some months later de
Vaca was summoned to heal a local Indian who’s chest was punctured with an
arrow. Using a flint knife, de Vaca cut the arrow from the poor man’s
chest, thus performing the first recorded case of surgery in Texas
history. The operation has earned him remembrance as the “patron saint” of
the Texas Surgical Society.
Pushing On
Their journey
continued upriver where they encountered many Indian tribes of extreme
poverty and want. The explorers wandered the desert naked like the local
Indians, eating little and asking for little. The Indians, despite near
famine, would share what little they had.
Despite traveling
many leagues, the reputation of these healers preceded them. Keep in mind
that this is the story that de Vaca recounted when he finally made it back
to his compatriots.
The story continued...
One sunset they reached a village of a hundred huts. All the people who
lived in them were awaiting them at the village outskirts with terrific yelling
and violent slapping of their hands against their thighs…
This group hysterically crowded upon them, everyone competing to touch
them first; they were nearly killed in the crush. Without letting their
feet touch ground, they carried the Spaniards to the huts they had made for
them. The Europeans took refuge
in them and absolutely refused to be feasted that night. The natives ,
however, sang and danced the whole night through.
It was at this point
that de Vaca’s exploration transformed into something entirely unexpected.
Leaving these Indians, they proceeded to the next village, where another
novel custom commenced: Those who accompanied de Vaca and his small group
plundered their hospitable new hosts and ransacked their huts, leaving
nothing. De Vaca watched this with deep concern but was in no position to do anything about it; so for the
present he had to bear with it until such time as he might gain greater
authority. Those who had lost their possessions, seeing the Spaniards' dejection,
tried to console them! They said they were so honored to have them that their
property was well bestowed–and that they would get repaid by others
farther on, who were very rich.
All through the day’s travel they had been badly hampered by the hordes of
Indians following them. The Spaniards could not have escaped if they had
tried, they pursued so closely just to touch them.
De Vaca couldn't
help but note the transformation here. Remember that eight years earlier
these same Spaniards had landed in Florida intending to conquer the land
by sword, take food from the Indians and any gold they might have, and kill any
Indians that opposed them. They took hostages of the local Indians when it
was useful. They saw no distinction between one Indian tribe from another,
nor did they care.
And now look at
them. They treated kindness with kindness. They were concerned about the
well-being of the Indians and honestly wanted to help them. They clearly
saw the distinctions between the tribes and understand their culture.
What’s more, one of the four is a black slave who was being treated as an equal.
But the transformation wasn’t complete yet. De Vaca’s escort
multiplied to an extreme size.
 They were frequently accompanied by three or four
thousand Indians and were obliged to sanctify the food and drink of each
one, as well as grant permission for the many things they asked to do. It
was quite an inconvenience.
And it wasn’t just
the Indians from the previous village that traveled with them. Villages
they were approaching started sending out large parties to greet
them and bring them back to festive celebrations.
Along the way de Vaca came across artifacts left over from what appeared to be the
Anasazi civilization.
The origin of these artifacts (such as copper rattles) was unknown by the
local tribes.
After de Vaca’s
successful surgery, the treatment they received was practically religious.
The villages would
offer them everything, even their homes. Their escort would dare not
speak, or even look at them. When a village declined to escort them over a
large desert, a sudden illness struck the region and killed several
people. The natives became terrified that the explorers had caused this
out of anger.
Because they were
often traveling from one warring tribe to another, and because of the
custom of the village offering everything to the explorers, which they
then dispersed to their escorts from the previous village, de Vaca’s group
forced warring tribes to stop their fighting and work together.
Thus, as they traveled through the lands, they left peace in their wake.
After reaching the
Pacific, they turned south. Shortly afterward they began finding the
traces of previous Spanish visitation in the area.
They
hastened through a vast territory, which they found vacant, the
inhabitants having fled to the mountains in fear of the Spanish. With
heavy hearts de Vaca and his small band looked out over the lavishly watered, fertile, and beautiful
land, now abandoned and burned, the people thin and weak, scattering or
hiding in fright. Not having planted, they were reduced to eating roots
and bark; and they shared their famine the whole way….The natives brought
them blankets they had concealed from the other Europeans and told them
how the latter had come through razing the towns and carrying off half the
men and all the women and boys; those who had escaped were wandering about
as fugitives. De Vaca found the survivors too alarmed to stay anywhere very long,
unable or unwilling to till, preferring death to a repetition of their
recent horror.
Eventually they ran
into a Spanish slave-hunting expedition that had been out-country for a
many months. De Vaca summoned the Indians of the area to bring food for
their hungry countrymen.
They
sent their heralds to call them, and presently there came 600 Indians
with all the corn they possessed. They also brought whatever else they
had; but we wished only a meal, so gave the rest to the Europeans they
recently met to
divide among themselves.
After this they had a hot argument with them, for they meant to make
slaves of the Indians in our train. De Vaca got so angry that he went off
forgetting the many Turkish-shaped bows, the many pouches, and the five
emerald arrowheads, etc., which was thus lost. And to think he had given
these Christians a supply of cowhides and other things that our retainers
had carried a long distance!
After this de Vaca’s
group attempted to persuade their escort to go home and plant their corn.
This proved difficult.
But they did not want to do anything until they had first delivered them
into the hands of other Indians, as custom bound them. They feared they
would die if they returned without fulfilling this obligation whereas,
with us, they said they feared neither Christians nor lances.
This sentiment roused our countrymen’s jealousy. Alcaraz bade his
interpreter tell the Indians that we were members of his race who had been
long lost; that his group were the lords of the land who must be obeyed
and served, while we were inconsequential.
The Indians paid no attention
to this. Conferring among themselves, they replied that the Christians
lied: We had come from the sunrise, they from the sunset; we healed the
sick, they killed the sound; we came naked and barefoot, they clothed,
horsed, and lanced; we coveted nothing but gave whatever we were given,
while they robbed whomever they found and bestowed nothing on anyone.
To the last I could not convince the Indians that we were of the same
people as the Spanish Christian slavers. Only with the greatest effort were we
able to induce them to go back home. We ordered them to fear no more,
reestablish their towns, and farm.
And so the
transformation was complete. Cabeza de Vaca and his three comrades had
transformed from conquistadors into spiritual leaders of the native
tribes. The transformation was so complete that the Indians refused
to believe they were of the same race and creed.
The Spanish
slave-raiders then led de Vaca’s group away, and under arrest, to the
local governor. They arrived in Mexico City on July 24, 1537.
Epilogue
Cabeza de Vaca had
traveled 6,000 miles over the course of eight years. They were the first
to see possum and buffalo. They visited tribes that wouldn’t be visited
again for decades to come.
De Vaca longed to
return to Florida (a name for pretty much everything north of Mexico at
the time), but it wasn’t to be. Instead he was given a royal commission
for the South American regions of the Rio de la Plata. He arrived there in
1540.
Instead of the year-long sea route via Buenos Aires, he chose to lead an
expedition directly overland–1000 miles across unknown and supposedly
impenetrable jungles, mountains, and cannibal villages. He accomplished
this successfully, barefoot, from late November 1541 to late March 1542,
from Santa Catalina Island via Iguazú Falls. The following summer he led
an even more remarkable expedition about the same distance up the Paraguay
in search of the legendary Golden City of Manoa.
However, this is life,
and there is no “happily-ever-after” ending. You see, de Vaca had “gone
native” in the eyes of his countrymen.
He had systematically prohibited enslaving, raping, and looting of the
Indians–which were what the majority of the Spaniards had come for. So
they deposed him….They returned him wretchedly to Spain in chains in 1543.
It took seven years
before de Vaca was granted a trial, at which time the King annulled his
sentence and cleared his name.
He died in honor in 1557.
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