Alex Schindler

10/14/15

History 101

Ben

Book Review The epic lost expedition of Cabeza de Vaca is one that is not regularly taught or mentioned when compared to Christopher Columbus. However, it is a beautiful representation of the hardships faced by the early explorers of the New World. The eight-year voyage is narrated by one of the four survivors, Cabeza de Vaca, and includes the testimonies of the three others. Coming from high status in Spain, Cabeza de Vaca sets off on an expedition to the new world to help settle a colony in the Southeastern United States. It gets interesting when their voyage lands a thousand miles off course. From tales of cities full of gold, to braving the harsh winters without any clothes, being enslaved by the indigenous people, and eventually being thought of by the natives as a God: the story of Cabeza de Vaca is a story that everyone should be aware of. The whole reason for this expedition to the New World was for a settlement to be established in Florida by Pánfilo Narvaez, an early explorer of the New World. In the 1500’s, the explorers rendering of Florida reached all the way from where it is today, all across the Gulf of Mexico to the Rio de las Palmas river in Northern Mexico, just South of Texas. The colony was going to be established by the Rio de las Palmas. This massive area, which was largely unexplored and foreign to the explorers, was referred to by the King of Spain as the ‘territory between three seas.’ The seas that the king is referring to are the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Pacific Ocean. During the 16th century, all expeditions to the New World began in Spain’s city of Seville. This was because Seville was the only port licensed to do business with the American Colonies (39). The main activity in Seville was fabricating and outfitting ships that were bound for the New World. This immense amount of activity drew people from all over Europe. In the town of Seville, on the steps of the Cathedral of Seville, shipmasters recruited people to be crewmembers on their ships (40). One very important aspect of Seville was its immense population, which was crucial to the city’s ability to fill ships bound for the New World with crew-members (42). The permission of Pánfilo Narvaez to lead an expedition to the New World was decided by the Emperor of Spain. The provisions of the expedition were: it had to leave within a year, the goal was to permanently occupy Florida and the surrounding territories, and it was allowed to establish two towns and three fortresses. Navarez was very happy with these provisions; the expedition could have been to only trade with Indians and then return (44). This expedition led by Navarez contained five ships, and was going to have 600 passengers. Recruiting passengers on the Cathedral steps is likely where Navarez met Cabeza de Vaca, who was appointed Royal Treasurer of the expedition. He was thus in charge of all economic transactions and making sure that the emperor got his fair share of each deal made. Once Navarez was able to recruit the passengers he needed, the ships left port in 1527. Traveling by sea in these times was far from luxurious or safe. When crossing the Atlantic, passengers were always advised to sell their provisions, meaning that the chance of them not returning was great (59). The conditions on the ship were extremely poor. With ships measuring only about 60 feet, and carrying 100-120 passengers, each person had about 1.8 square yards to themselves. However, this didn’t account for the luggage, which made space even more limited. Their space also had to be shared with animals making the journey as well such as sheep, cows, and horses. Food was also hard to provide, consisting mainly of unleavened bread, water, and wine. The option to go below deck was not advisable, temperatures below deck were extreme, and overpowering odors coming from down there made going below deck unbearable. Slaves were often kept below deck on these expeditions (60). This month-long trip eventually made port in Santo Domingo to purchase provisions, and then to Cuba, which is where Navarez was from. It was from Cuba that the expedition was finally able to sail to Florida, or more specifically, the Rio de las Palmas river. It was a straight shot across the Gulf of Mexico from Cuba. However, early explorers of the New World did not understand the Gulf of Mexico. It is home to the fastest current in the world, which runs in a clockwise manner inside the gulf. Another major pitfall of the 16th century was the limitations of navigation, with the most basic of navigating techniques such as charts and compasses, which were not very accurate and a method called “dead reckoning” (77). The captain of this expedition was incompetent; his limitations of navigation led the ships into a treacherous maze of reefs Southwest of Cuba. After stopping in Havana to regroup, the ships left for Florida. A few days of sailing later, the ships spotted land, which they decided must have been close to the Rio de las Palmas. However, they were a thousand miles off course, near present day Tampa Bay. It was at this point that the first major challenge occurred. After sailing along the Florida coast for two days looking for familiar geographic features, Navarez decided to divide the expedition in two. Half was to remain on land and walk to the Rio de las Palmas river, which was estimated to be 45 miles away. The other half was to remain aboard the ships, would sail to the river and wait for the land goers to reach them. Their fatal mistake was that they were a thousand miles farther than they imagined (77).
Being on land gave an entirely new set of challenges to the explorers. One challenge in particular was the attacks by the native Indians. In one Indian village named Apalachee, the natives, when provoked, resorted to guerilla war tactics, being swift, skillful, and relentless. In one occasion the natives even burned down the houses that the explorers were staying in (100).
Before the explorers headed north in pursuit of Apalachee, there were some conflicts between the explorers, especially between Navarez and Cabeza de Vaca. Navarez was in pursuit of a village that he heard from other Indians was a village with many rich materials. The problem with this pursuit was that it was taking the explorers away from the coast, which is where they would have any chance of being reunited with their ships. Cabeza de Vaca wanted to go back to the coast, but Navarez had no interest in that idea, even though being near the coast was their goal to finding the Rio de las Palmas. Navarez eventually sent a reconnaissance team to go to the coast of 40 men who had to travel on foot, with Cabeza de Vaca in charge. Another example of the extreme challenges faced by the explorers was when they left Apalachee to head to another village that was supposed to be rich with materials. However, the hike was disastrous, with the explorers having to hike through unending swamps that were chest deep. Also, while traversing the swamps, they were attacked by Indians, who according to Cabeza de Vaca, claimed the attacking Indians were like giants who had admirable skill with bows and arrows (104).
Most of the societies that inhabited the Southern United States were sparse villages of hunter-gatherers or small communities that cultivated maize (96). Other societies were more complex and were even hierarchical which was regarded to as a chiefdom where a chief was in charge of the lives of the villagers. There was a capital of Apalachee where the chief lived and ruled over other smaller cities within a short distance (98).
Because the coast of the Southeastern United States is so difficult to traverse with its endless reefs and sandbars, the explorers decided to makeshift rafts with the idea of being spotted by ships more easily or sailing all the way to their destination (111). After one month of sailing with minimal provisions, the animal skins that they were storing water in had rotted through (121). With no water, many were driven mad, and 5 eventually drank salt water and died. After more battering by the elements, some Indians led them back to their village and acted as hosts to the explorers. Overnight the Indians turned on the explorers killing three men (123). One major setback that slowed the remaining explorers was when the Indians that had been helping them through the difficult winter of 1528-1529 slowly enslaved them. The explorers were initially living with the Indians as hosts when they tried to leave an island in their makeshift rafts. They ended up losing everything including their clothes. The nearby Indians saw the event and took them in as guests. The guest host relationship went sour when the guests were not pulling their equal weight when they eventually outstayed their welcome with the Indians who saved their lives. However slaves were of little importance to the Indians, and were thought of as just another pair of hands, but more importantly, another mouth to feed. “They were treated as stray dogs and permitted to stay as long as they made themselves useful” (146). Since the explorers had no skills that the Indians needed, they were given women’s work, which consisted of digging roots and fetching water (143). Eventually, the explorers were at the complete mercy of the Indians. A minor delay or infraction could easily lead to serious consequences and sometimes could even lead to death (145). Over several years of planning, the four remaining explorers managed to escape. They knew that their tribes traveled south in the summer to eat prickly pear. Their plan was to travel south with their tribes, and then escape by running away and joining a tribe that came from the south to follow them away from their original tribes (158). However they did not succeed the first time. It took a couple years for their plan to come into fruition. Their plan worked and they escaped to the south (165). After the four survivors escaped they established themselves as faith healers, and this status became known by all Indian villages (167). All four of the remaining explorers claimed to have healing powers, and the Indians believed them, bringing sick people to them to be healed by these foreigners. Cabeza de Vaca always portrayed himself and the other survivors as God’s humble servants, despite his belief in his extraordinary powers to heal (177). These ‘powers’ allowed the explorers to move through the land without fear of being captured, as they reached the Rio de las Palmas and continued inland. From leaving Spain in 1527 until reaching the Rio de las Palmas river in 1535, Cabeza de Vaca was out of his element. He did not know how to communicate with the Indians and did not understand the terrain of the New World. After leaving his masters, he fully understood where he was and his purpose. He was a healer and was going to use that power to navigate the land to reach his new destination, which had changed since he first left Spain. The four survivors were no longer in pursuit of establishing a colonial empire, but instead wanted to continue as explorers and discover the strange lands that lay ahead of them.