La Relacion Cabeza De Vaca Summary

Cabeza de Vaca journeyed far into the Americas with disasters striking left and right. He wrote La Relacion to tell the king of Spain of the land and peoples there.He told of the suffering he and his men endured, and included helpful and factual information about the Americas. This primary source was invaluable to the king for the reason it told him what the Native Americans were like, what the living conditions were like, and what the climate was like. The king wanted to control the land and discover gold, so it was essential to know what the Native Americans were like. What Cabeza de Vaca found out was that the Native Americans were charitable, such as when, “As the sun rose next morning, the Indians appeared as they promised, bringing an abundance of fish and certain roots… mostly grubbed from water with great labor.” That would allow the king to assume that these are kind people and the Spaniards could rely on them if needed. Also, it could be assumed that the natives could be easily manipulated if they needed any supplies while in that foreign country.In fact the Native Americans were so kind that, “The Indians, when hearing our plight, sat down and lamented for half an hour…” The natives, the king could assume, would assist them with anything. If anything happened to the
Cabeza de Vaca traveled to uncharted land, with an unfamiliar climate, was struck with surprise. When they were travelling, “it was winter and bitterly cold, and we suffered hunger and the heavy beatings of waves for many days.” The Spaniards discovered while traveling that winter was frigid and stormy. The king would be able to plan when to send more men over so that they wouldn’t be traveling during storms using that information. Also, it would let the king decide if it's worth risking men to travel to the new land. The climate is important for the king to know because he wanted to control the