| The
following information was taken directly
from the following source:
Center
for the Study of the Southwest at Southwest
Texas University
Cabeza de Vaca
the Physician
This
painting is displayed in the University
of Texas at Galveston Medical School
>Alvar
Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca is arguably the
first European of historic importance
to set foot on the soil of present-day
Texas. In early November 1528, he and
approximately eighty other Spaniards
and an African slave named Estevanico
landed on the Texas coast to the west
of present-day Galveston Island. Over
the next eight years, Cabeza de Vaca
experienced hardships and misfortunes
that would have defeated a lesser man.
He not only survived incredible odysseys
in Texas and Mexico, which he later
recorded in his Relación (account),
but also entered the annals of colonial
Texas as its first merchant, geographer,
historian, ethnologist, and physician-surgeon.
He also experienced remarkable personal
growth and came to accept Indians on
their own terms. In the first book published
on portions of the future United States
of America, Cabeza de Vaca shaped our
earliest impressions of the land that
became Texas, and his subtle influence
may still be seen in the contemporary
Lone Star State, where he reigns as
the "patron saint" of the
Texas Surgical Society.
…Against
his better judgment, Cabeza de Vaca
was compelled by the Karankawas to treat
their ill. He noted that the Indians
“wanted to make us physicians, without
testing us or asking for any degrees.”
“Treatment” consisted of breathing on
the patient, making the sign of the
cross, and reciting prayers. The fact
that these ministrations regularly improved
the condition of the sick certainly
suggests the presence of psychoneurotic
afflictions among the coastal Karankawas.
During
his ordeal, Cabeza de Vaca again revealed
his deep commitment to God, commending
Him for not allowing the north wind
to blow, for by his own admission he
could not have survived a norther. Upon
reaching a riverbank on the fifth day,
don Alvar was reunited with friendly
Indians and his companions. The natives
had several sick persons among them,
but once again the ministrations of
Bernal Diaz del Castillo worked wonders.
He commended the ill to God, and miraculously
they were all well on the following
morning. Being a “timid physician,”
Castillo shied away from treating the
more seriously afflicted. And at this
juncture don Alvar moved into the forefront
as a master healer. He allegedly saved
one Indian who had no pulse and “showed
all the signs of being dead.” With his
fame spreading, various Indian groups
brought their sick children to Cabeza
de Vaca, and his ministrations again
proved salutary. Nevertheless, he again
credited God with restoring the health
of his patients. …But Cabeza de Vaca
was “the boldest and the most daring
in undertaking any cure.”
While
crossing northern Mexico, Cabeza de
Vaca performed the first surgery by
a European in what would become the
Spanish Southwest. An Indian had been
wounded some time before by an arrow
that entered the right side of his back.
The arrowhead had lodged over the heart,
causing great pain and suffering. With
a knife don Alvar opened the chest of
the native, extracted the projectile,
and closed the incision with two stitches.
He then staunched the bleeding with
hair scrapped from the skin of an animal.
Although he probably exaggerated the
time of recovery, claiming that the
stitches were removed on the following
day and that the “Indian was healed,”
it was nonetheless a remarkable piece
of surgery that has earned recognition
for Cabeza de Vaca in the prestigious
New England Journal of Medicine.
Taken
from:
Southwest Texas State University’s Center
for the Study of the Southwest’s research
on Cabeza de Vaca’s Journey’s
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