Cabeza De Vaca
History 102
Dr. Rezende
12 Pm Class
Cabeza De Vaca
In Adventures in the Unknown Interior of America the author Cabeza De Vaca describes the hardships and challenges faced of exploring an unknown region of the America’s. It goes into detail of many encounters with the Native peoples, and describes the problems he faced with many of his own people such as his men dying from disease and the battles with the Natives. He talks about the complications faced with his commanders and even the ships in which they sailed to the America’s. Throughout the book, Cabeza De Vaca goes through many challenges that changed him as an individual. The voyage began on June 17, 1527, where Governor Pamfilo de Narvaez sailed on a journey to the New World with Cabeza De Vaca as his treasurer and 600 sailors, officers, and French friars. Around September 17 the army made port in Santo Domingo where the Governor acquired 45 horses and recruited many more men. He sent Cabeza De Vaca on a ship to the port of Trinidad to acquire more supplies and provisions. Immediately after arriving in Trinidad he was sent on an emergency mission inland, while on the mission the seas began to rise and his ship sank in the harbor. Cabeza De Vaca made it alive with some of his men but the unlucky sixty went down with the ship. Cabeza De Vaca stated that, “we had to walk seven or eight together, locking arms to keep from being blown away.”(Vaca, 28) Soon after the Governor purchased another ship for Cabeza De Vaca and his remaining crew. On April 12, 1528, the armada sighted land and came to anchor in Sarasota Bay. The following day the Governor and Cabeza De Vaca with his men began to move inland where they spent the next months encountering Native encampments, some friendly, some not. Six months later, the remaining men in the Governors party founded the sea again and made a flotilla or barges to take back to the water. After many attacks by the Indians, his men