Before Quixote...there was Cabeza...
La
relacion que dio Aluar nuñez cabeça de vaca de lo acaescido en las Indias en la
armada donde yua por gouernador Panphilo de Narbaez desde el año de veynte y
siete hasta el año de treynta y seys quo bolvio a Seuilla con tres de su
compañia...
A long title for a very long journey...one that
spanned eight years and took Senor Nunez from Florida to Texas to Arizona and
down to Mexico City. Alvar Nunez Cabeza
de Vaca was an explorer and a soldier who was attached as an officer to the
Narvaez Expedition of 1527. Commissioned
to explore present day Florida, the expedition encountered a storm and was
wrecked at sea in 1528. Once ashore and
in the thick of Florida's humid and uncharted wilderness, the expedition
counted its losses and attempted to construct some small boats in which to
return to civilization.
Thus began a journey that would bring Alvar
historical fame and a secure placing as one of the first European explorers to
travel within North America. His
wanderings would take him to the shores of Florida, across the gulf to the outlying
islands of Texas, deep into the American Southwest then eventually down into
Mexico City in 1536. His eight year
pilgrimage has sparked controversy ever since within the historical
community. Was he really made a slave by
various Indian tribes? What tribes did
he make contact with? Did he really get
as far as northern Arizona? These
questions will more than likely be debated for the next 500 years. What is certain is that we have his
account...printed and textualized...that is the most important aspect of de
Vaca's adventure...the record.
He penned it while back in Spain in 1537, the book
seeing its first publication in 1542.
In the interim, Alvaro was made adelantado of Rio de la Plata,
but was unjustly sent back on a trumped up charge of mismanagement during his
Governorship of what would later become Argentina. The 1542 edition is one of the rarest books
in the World...only 3 copies are available to scholars. The 1555, second edition, is more accessible,
and you can read that text, with corresponding English translation, online.
La
Relación is the first European book devoted exclusively to
the Americas, its descriptions of native peoples from Florida to Arizona are in
some cases the only descriptions we have...and they are detailed...right down
to the clothes and foodstuffs...
La Relación 1555 edition
Should you wish to read the very first English translation published in 1625...that is available as well... Pvrchas his Pilgrimes