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Spanish Explorers in the Southern United States, 1528-1543.: The Narrative of Alvar Nunez Cabeca de Vaca. The Narrative of the Expedition of Hernando De Soto by the Gentleman of Elvas — John Shaqi

Spanish Explorers in the Southern United States, 1528-1543.: The Narrative of Alvar Nunez Cabeca de Vaca. The Narrative of the Expedition of Hernando De Soto by the Gentleman of ElvasNúñez Cabeza de Vaca, Alvar, active 16th century

History

Spanish Explorers in the Southern United States, 1528-1543.: The Narrative of Alvar Nunez Cabeca de Vaca. The Narrative of the Expedition of Hernando De Soto by the Gentleman of Elvas

Name: Spanish Explorers in the Southern United States, 1528-1543.: The Narrative of Alvar Nunez Cabeca de Vaca. The Narrative of the Expedition of Hernando De Soto by the Gentleman of Elvas
Author: Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, Alvar, active 16th century

Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, Alvar, active 16th century

America -- Discovery and exploration -- Spanish; Coronado, Francisco Vásquez de, 1510-1554; Florida -- History -- To 1565; Indians of North America; Soto, Hernando de, approximately 1500-1542

Having returned to Spain after many years of service in the New World
for the Crown, Pámfilo de Narvaez petitioned for a grant; and in
consequence the right to conquer and colonize the country between the
Rio de las Palmas, in eastern Mexico, and Florida was accorded him.
The expedition, consisting of six hundred colonists and soldiers,
set sail in five vessels from San Lucar de Barrameda, June 17, 1527,
and after various vicissitudes, including the wreck of two ships and
the loss of sixty men in a hurricane on the southern coast of Cuba,
was finally driven northward by storm, and landed, in April, 1528,
at St. Clements Point, near the entrance to Tampa Bay, on the west
coast of Florida. Despite the protest of Cabeza de Vaca, who had been
appointed treasurer of Rio de las Palmas by the King, Narvaez ordered
his ships to skirt the coast in an endeavor to find Pánuco, while
the expedition, now reduced to three hundred men by desertions in
Santo Domingo, death in the Cuban storm, and the return of those in
charge of the ships, started inland in a generally northern course.
The fleet searched for the expedition for a year and then sailed to
Mexico.

Among the members of the force, in addition to Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de
Vaca, were Andrés Dorantes de Carrança, son of Pablo, a native of
Béjar del Castañar, in Estremadura, who had received a commission as
captain of infantry on the recommendation of Don Alvaro de Zúñiga,
Duke of Béjar; Captain Alonzo del Castillo Maldonado, of Salamanca,
the son of Doctor Castillo and Aldonza Maldonado; and Estévan, or
Estévanico, a blackamoor of Asemmur, or Azamor, on the west coast
of Morocco, the slave of Dorantes. With the exception of those who
returned with the ships, these four men were the only ones of the
entire expedition who ever again entered a civilized community.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Spanish Explorers in the Southern United States, 1528-1543.: The Narrative of Alvar Nunez Cabeca de Vaca. The Narrative of the Expedition of Hernando De Soto by the Gentleman of Elvas

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