http://www.utmb.edu/galveston/history/devaca.html
from "The Virtual Tour of Galveston Island"

The Journey of Cabeza de Vaca
by Todd A. Guillory

The history of Europeans in Galveston begins back in Spain in 1212, when a modest shepherd named Martin Alhaja marked a path through the mountains north of Seville with a cow skull. Somehow this helped King Sancho of Navarre's troops defeat the Spanish Moors. The king rewarded Alhaja being made a noble. The decedents of Alhaja served as builders, civil servants and explorers. One of those decedents born around 1490 wasAlvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca (or just Cabeza de Vaca to most people) who joined the Spanish army during his teens.Núñez's paternal grandfather, Pedro de Vera, led the conquest of Grand Canary Island in the fifteenth century.

Emperor Charles V appointed Don Pánfilo de Nárvaez governor of Florida, the region Ponce de León claimed for Spain in 1513. Don Pánfilo financed an expedition to conquer the whole Gulf Coast of North America - from Florida to Rio de las Palmas in Mexico. Cabeza de Vaca was appointed royal treasurer and second in command of the expedition. On June 17, 1527 a fleet of 5 ships and 600 men departed Spain from San Lúcar de Barrameda near Cádiz. In September the expedition arrived in Hispanola were 140 men defected. On February 22, 1528 they arrived in Cuba, but before they could leave a hurricane ravaged the island and sunk at least one ship.

On April 7, 1528 the fleet floated into St. John's Pass just north of Tampa Bay (Sarasota Bay) and St. Petersburg, Florida. The impatient Don Pánfilo went ashore with 300 men and 40 horses, sending the ships in search of a harbor. Don Pánfilo, like many of his counterparts, was in search of cities of gold. The commander's mistake was that he thought he was on the northeast Gulf Coast of Mexico near the settlement of Pánucho (present day Tampico). Don Pánfilo marched his troops north. After a week they had depleted their rations, but continued. After another week they came to a North American aborigine village on the Withlacoochee River. There the natives told them of "The Empire of the Apalachee Tribe" not too far north. "Not too far north" turned into a six-week march to Micosukee Lake just northwest of Tallahassee, Florida. There, they found only another village.

After about a month of over staying their welcome, the Apalachee prompted the Spanish to leave with a few ambushes. Don Pánfilo and his men continued their trek southwest until they reached Apalachee Bay at the mouth of the Ocklockonee River - starving, fatigued, and basically dying. After giving up on their ships finding them, the expedition constructed five 35-foot sail barges. 247 men put to sea westward along the Gulf coast on September 7, 1528.

After three days, two of the barges became lost at sea. The despaired Don Pánfilo issued "every man for himself." By sunset, the commander's barge was lost as well. Only the barge with Cabeza de Vaca and another with two ship's captains Panaloso and Tellez remained. Four days later, a storm separated the barges leaving Cabeza de Vaca and a single barge of about 40 men. By the end of their fifteenth day at sea, the ragged crew had given up.

The next morning they were flipped onto a sandy beach. Cabeza de Vaca sent Lope de Oviedo to look out from a treetop. Lope reported that they were on an island. He also spied a small grove of trees on an otherwise brushy landscape. Cabeza de Vaca dispatched a band to what later became known as "Lafitte's Grove" or "Three Trees." The band returned with some dried mullet, some "nutlike" roots and a small dog (which they ate too). They reported the presence of a small village but there was no one home.

That evening, the Spaniards met the Karawankawa tribe. Lucky for the castaways the Karawankawa's were friendly (which wasn't their general demeanor) and brought them more food.  Three days later, Cabeza de Vaca and his men tried to set sail again on their battered barge. They didn't make it much farther than the surf which destroyed the barge and drowned 3 men. The men agreed to seek refuge among their native host and surprisingly were reunited with two captains Alonso del Castillo Maldonado of Salamanca and Andrés Dorantes from the expedition. Cabeza de Vaca also sent four men south along the coast to continue the search for Panuco. For the rest of the winter of 1528, thirty or so Spanish explorers remained on the island the natives called "Auia" which, of course, today is called Galveston Island.

During the winter, relations between the Spanish and Karawankawas went sour after five Spaniards living off on their own cannibalized each other. Ironic, considering the Karawankawas were cannibals themselves only they only ate their enemies. The natives got a little nervous after the Spaniards were willing to dine on their comrades. So, the Karawankawas just enslaved the remaining Spanish.

"Cabeza de Vaca performing the first recorded surgical operation on the North American Continent--1535"
by Tom Lea, Jr. It is believed that this event took place near Pecos, Texas.
Courtesy of the Moody Medical Library, The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.

In January of 1529, a plague of what is speculated to be cholera killed several of the natives and about half of the Spanish. Somehow, this earned the Spanish respect and they were promoted to the status of Shaman or medicine man. Not being fools, the Spanish acted their role with a few flashy rituals, prayers, signs of the cross, and then for good measure they cauterized the injury.

The following month the Karawankas took the Spanish to the mainland around Galveston Bay. In the Spring, Cabeza de Vaca fell ill with malaria which was too bad because the captains Dorantes and Castillo decided it was time to leave with the rest of the men, leaving Cabeza de Vaca behind (Lope stayed by choice). After his recovery and losing his shaman status, Cabeza de Vaca became an intermediary among the natives. Over the next three years he traveled back and forth along the Texas coast trading sea snails, shells, red ochre, animal hides and flint. He integrated himself among the aborigine's culture and learned their customs and language.

In 1532 Cabeza de Vaca finally convinced Lope to head south along the coast with him where at

present day Port O’Connor near Matagorda Bay they again ran into captains Dorantes and Castillo and the Moorish slave Estebanico being held captive by the Quevenes (or Mariames). Lope fled back to Galveston, but Cabeza de Vaca stayed until he could find a way for all to escape. In the Spring of 1534, during the annual intertribal "Truce of Tunas," the four men fled westward.

Exactly were the party wandered is still being debated but they did find their way to the Rio Grande and the western Sierra Madres of Mexico. Cabeza de Vaca learned from the captains that Don Pánfilo had been washed out to sea one evening while sleeping on his anchored barge. Also, the settlement of Pánucho had been abandoned several years earlier. Sometime between July 22 to 24, 1536, Cabeza de Vaca and company made it to Mexico City and were greeted with a heroes welcome. Cabeza de Vaca returned to Spain by 1537 and wrote "La Relación" recollecting his adventure in the New World (later translated as "Cabeza de Vaca's Adventures in the Unknown Interior of America").

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