He spent eight years with the native tribes of the Texas-Northern Mexico region learning their languages and customs. Explorer Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca spent eight years in the Gulf region of present-day Texas and was treasurer to the Spanish expedition under de Narváez. Later, he sailed some more and landed in Tampa Bay,Florida from where he then sailed to Galveston,Texas. Part II. Cabeza de Vaca was assigned to find a usable route from this colony to the colony in Peru, on the other side of the Andes Mountains on the Pacific Coast. accessed April 4, 2021), map, PBS, n.d. Despite their unsubstantial social status the family commanded modest economic assets and sources indicate that even after the death of his parents, Cabeza de Vaca lived a comfortable life with relatives. ((Cabeza De Vaca, Alvar N. “The Journey of Cabeza De Vaca.” PBS. In 1540, Cabeza de Vaca was appointed adelantado of the Río de la Plata in South America. Cabeza de Vaca's Route across Texas 129 There have been and are difficulties in projecting the path of the four survivors from the Galveston area to Culiacin-problems that will never be resolved to everyone's satisfaction, for no one can prove be-yond a doubt the route taken on any part of the journey. Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca heard the stories about the New World and wanted to explore it, so he joined Narváez on the trip. Cabeza de Vaca was sure these men were Spanish slave traders, so he and the others set out in search of them. For partners and peer institutions seeking information about standards, project requests, and our services. The ancestor was granted a title and this Cabeza de Vaca coat of arms, which reflects that the way to the pass was marked with the skull of a cow. Davenport and Wells, who published their analysis in 1918, used the testimony of still-living settlers who remembered what south Texas looked like before the cattle drives and the advent of barbed wire. Once Irala returned and reported, Cabeza de Vaca planned his own expedition. 1528-1536, from Galveston, Texas, to Culiacan, Mexico. Cabeza de Vaca and his companions took an indirect route from Texas to Mexico City. 1559). Route of Cabeza De Vaca, Route of Cabeza de Vaca among Inland groups. Hallenbeck's book includes a paraphrase of Cabeza de Vaca's narrative and a detailed analysis of the possible routes of Cabeza de Vaca's journey on foot from Florida to Mexico. Because Cabeza de Vaca's La relación offers an important early glimpse of the native peoples, our understanding of those cultures can be greatly enhanced by pinpointing exactly where Cabeza de Vaca traveled. 1490–ca. To end this expedition he set sail back to Spain. "The Route of Cabeza de Vaca: Part I" is an article from The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 3. The precise year of Cabeza de Vaca’s birth cannot be determined, but it was within the “birth window” of 1487–92. Route of the Cabeza de Vaca Expedition After slogging along the coast for a month, suffering from Indian attack and food shortage, they realized that they must return to the sea for their travel. Cabeza de Vaca wrote his account of the journey safe in Spain fifteen years after the 1542 expedition, but this narrative is vivid. The colony comprised parts of what is now Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay. He was the grandson on his father's side of Pedro de Vera, the conqueror of the Canary Islands. The story of Cabeza de Vaca has been told many times, beginning with his own account, Relación de los naufragios, which was included and amplified in Gonzalo Fernando de Oviedo y Váldez's Historia general de las Indias. University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; collections, new partnerships, information on research, trivia, Isla de Malhado ("Isle of Misfortune") was the name applied by Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca to an island off the Texas coast where and he and approximately eighty Spaniards and an African were shipwrecked in November 1528. They stayed with American Indian tribes along the way, finally reaching Culiacan in January 1536. Afterwards, he made a ground trip from Galveston to Baja California,Mexico, then down to Mexico City, going later to Veracruz, Mexico. Historians and archeologists have long been interested in determining Cabeza de Vaca's exact route across Texas and the Southwest. This part will present two routes from Nogales, pursuing them to their western termini, to afford the reader an opportunity to determine which, if either, is the true route in question. 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