Hispanic Heritage

Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca

1490-1560
Explorer

Although Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca could have lived an easy life as a member of one of Spain's noble families, he chose the hard and uncertain existence of an explorer. During his career he experienced triumph and disgrace. He had a unique ability to adapt to his surroundings, living for years among Native Americans as a medicine man and trader. His stories about the Seven Golden Cities of Cíbola probably inspired the explorations of Hernando de Soto and Francisco Vásquez de Coronado. Cabeza de Vaca blazed new trails for the Spanish in the New World.

Cabeza de Vaca was born around 1490 in the town of Jerez de la Frontera, the center of Spanish sherry wine production. His family had earned its title of nobility, Cabeza de Vaca (literally "head of a cow"), in 1212, when a peasant ancestor used the skull of a dead cow to mark a pass for a Christian army. The army went on to defeat the Muslim Moors in a fierce battle during the Crusades. Brought up by a paternal grandfather in the Canary Islands (located off the northwestern coast of Africa), Cabeza de Vaca joined the Spanish army in 1511 and served in Italy and Spain.

Arrival in Florida

Cabeza de Vaca's ventures into the New World began in 1527, when he was appointed royal treasurer for an expedition commanded by Pánfilo de Narvárez. The expedition, which was to be an ill-fated one, consisted of six hundred men and five ships. It made stops in Santo Domingo and Cuba before crossing over to Florida and landing at present-day Tampa Bay on April 14, 1528.

Unwisely splitting his land and sea forces, Narvárez led a force of 250 to 300 men inland to pursue reports from Native Americans about an abundance of gold at a place called Apalachen (on the site of Tallahassee). Corn was the only gold they found in Apalachen. Disappointed, the Spaniards returned to the coast, only to learn that their ships had sailed to Cuba. Since they were short of supplies and had come under attack by hostile Native Americans, it was thought that their best chance for survival might be to sail to the Spanish settlement of Pánuco in northeastern Mexico.

Disaster at Sea

The Spaniards constructed five barges out of materials at hand. They melted down metal to make nails, fashioned sails out of clothing, wove horsehair into ropes, and used horsehides to make water containers. In September 1528 a total of 242 men sailed in the barges from a bay somewhere in the present-day Florida panhandle. Cabeza de Vaca and his men called it the Bay of the Horses because they had killed and eaten the last of their horses there.

The trip became a nightmare as they sailed west, keeping close to the shore. Along the way they suffered from lack of food and water. While passing into the mouth of the Mississippi River, the barges were separated by winds and currents. Cabeza de Vaca's barge was wrecked on Galveston Island on November 6; a few days later it was joined by another barge captained by Alonso de Castillo and Andres Dorantes. The other three barges sank at sea. The eighty surviving Spaniards found themselves among a group of Native Americans who were friendly but did not have any spare food for the men. Many of the Spanish died during the severe winter that followed. By the spring only fifteen men remained. They headed for the Texas mainland without Cabeza de Vaca, who was too ill to travel. Among them were Castillo, Dorantes, and the Moroccan slave Estevanico.

Life Among the Native Americans

Cabeza de Vaca later crossed to the mainland and traveled west, attempting to reach by foot the town of Pánuco in eastern Mexico. For several years he lived among the Native Americans in eastern Texas as a trader, wandering along the coast and sometimes going inland. Cabeza de Vaca also gained a considerable reputation as a healer. According to some accounts, he was held as a slave.

During Cabeza de Vaca's travels he became the first European to see the North American bison, or buffalo. In the early winter of 1533 he was surprised to meet the only survivors of the party that had left Galveston Island in 1529. Having spent the intervening years as the slaves of various tribes, Castillo, Dorantes, and Estevanico had been brought to a place along the Colorado River in Texas where the Native Americans traditionally celebrated the pecan harvest.

The four men planned an escape for the following summer at a place where they knew the Native Americans would again rendezvous to eat prickly pears. They successfully broke away in September 1534 from a site near the modern city of San Antonio and headed for Mexico. After wintering with a tribe they called the Avavares, they continued their westward journey using Native Americans as guides. Surviving by skills learned from years of living in the hot, arid climate and using a good bit of diplomacy, they were led from one tribe to the next, maintaining the goodwill of all. Cabeza de Vaca apparently grew tired of his role of healer and medicine man, reporting that "it was very tiresome to have to breathe on and make signs of the cross over every morsel they [Native Americans] ate or drank."

Warm Welcome in Mexico

At last the survivors crossed the Rio Grande near Rincon, New Mexico, where they saw members of the Yaqui tribe wearing items of Spanish origin. The Native Americans said they had been driven off their land by Europeans. Realizing they were near Mexico, Cabeza de Vaca and his three companions headed south into the modern Mexican state of Sonora. In early 1536 they made contacts with Spanish settlers near the city of Culiacán, where they planned to rest for several weeks before going on to Mexico City.

The party was warmly welcomed by Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza. Although Cabeza de Vaca had experienced only poverty and hardship on his long trip, he told tales of the fabulous riches that were to be found in the "Seven Golden Cities of Cíbola." He indicated they were somewhere beyond the region where he had traveled. Always eager to find new wealth for Spain, the viceroy sent out an expedition under Fray Marcos de Niza. The guide was Estevanico, who had accompanied Cabeza de Vaca on his journey to Mexico. When Estevanico was killed, Marcos returned, and another expedition, headed by Francisco Vásquez de Coronado, resumed the search. Although Coronado found no gold, he opened the southwestern part of the United States for exploration.

Return to Spain

Cabeza de Vaca returned to Spain in 1537. Not surprisingly, he declined an opportunity to go back to Florida with the expedition of Hernando de Soto. On March 8, 1540, he was named captain general of Spanish settlements on the Río de la Plata, headquartered at Asunción in what is now the South American country of Paraguay.

The journey to Asunción was another test for Cabeza de Vaca and his force of 280 men. The Spanish survived by bartering with the villages of the Guaraní tribe. Cabeza de Vaca was so honest in his dealings that the Spaniards maintained good relations with the local people throughout the trip. In January 1542 they became the first Europeans to see the Iguaçu Falls, one of the world's greatest waterfalls. Continuing down the Paraná River to where it meets the Paraguay River, Cabeza de Vaca then took several members of his party and traveled by land to Asunción. They arrived on March 11, 1542, to the great joy of the settlers, who thought they had been abandoned.

Believing it would be possible to open a route from the Paraguay River to the rich gold mines and cities in Peru, Cabeza de Vaca set off once again in September 1543. He led about four hundred Spaniards and eight hundred members of the Guaraní tribe up the river to a place he christened Puerto de los Reyes, or "Port of the Kings." He had traveled only a short distance before he was forced to return by his followers, who did not want to risk the hazards of the jungle.

Imprisonment and Deportation

Two weeks after he returned to Asunción, Cabeza de Vaca was thrown out of office by a rebel governor, who imprisoned him and deported him to Spain in 1545. Cabeza de Vaca was charged with a variety of offenses, among them trying to subvert the authority of the king. He was found guilty by the Council of the Indies and condemned to exile in Africa.

There are conflicting reports of how Cabeza de Vaca fared after the trial. One source states that he was cleared of all charges by King Charles I and lived out his life in well-deserved honor until his death in 1557. According to another account, the verdict was upheld, but Cabeza de Vaca received a lightened sentence after he appealed. This same source indicates that he died in poverty sometime after the year 1556 (probably in 1560 in Seville, Spain). Whatever the circumstances of his final years, it is apparent that he was an honest and fair person in his dealings with the indigenous peoples he encountered.

Cabeza de Vaca's books and reports about his trips are still being read today. Among them are Naufragios (The Shipwrecked Men), published in 1542, and La Relación y Comentarios (1555), an account of his experiences in South America, which is a valuable geographic work.

FURTHER READING

Johnston, Lissa Jones, Crossing a Continent: The Incredible Journey of Cabeza de Vaca, Eakin Press, 1997.
Rodman, Maia, The Story of Alvaro Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, Burns & Oates, 1965.
Syme, Ronald, First Man to Cross America: The Story of Cabeza de Vaca, Morrow, 1961.
Terrell, John Upton, Journey Into Darkness, Morrow, 1962.
Wojciechowska, Maia, Odyssey of Courage, Athenium, 1965.

Source: U·X·L Biographies 2.0 CD-ROM, Gale, 1998.