Chronicle of the Narvaez Expedition

Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca

Penguin, Jun 25, 2002 - Biography & Autobiography - 160 pages

The New World story of the Spanish explorer Cabeza de Vaca in his own words

This riveting true story is the first major narrative detailing the exploration of North America by Spanish conquistadors (1528-1536). The author, Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, was a fortune-seeking Spanish nobleman and the treasurer of an expedition sent to claim for Spain a vast area of today's southern United States. In simple, straightforward prose, Cabeza de Vaca chronicles the nine-year odyssey endured by the men after a shipwreck forced them to make a westward journey on foot from present-day Florida through Louisiana and Texas into California. In thirty-eight brief chapters, Cabeza de Vaca describes the scores of natural and human obstacles they encountered as they made their way across an unknown land. Cabeza de Vaca's gripping account offers a trove of ethnographic information, including descriptions and interpretations of native cultures, making it a powerful precursor to modern anthropology.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Contents

• VIII: 3
• IX: 5
• X: 8
• XI: 10
• XII: 14
• XIII: 17
• XIV: 18
• XV: 22
• XVI: 25
• XVII: 28
• XVIII: 31
• XIX: 32
• XX: 35
• XXI: 37
• XXII: 40
• XXIII: 42
• XXIV: 45
• XXV: 49
• XXVI: 53
• XXVII: 55
• XXVIII: 57
• XXIX: 59
• XXX: 64
• XXXI: 66
• XXXII: 68
• XXXIII: 70
• XXXIV: 72
• XXXV: 75
• XXXVI: 78
• XXXVII: 81
• XXXVIII: 86
• XXXIX: 89
• XL: 93
• XLI: 95
• XLII: 98
• XLIII: 101
• XLIV: 103
• XLV: 106
• XLVI: 109
• XLVII: 111

About the author

Ilan Stavans is Lewis-Sebring Professor in Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College and the author or editor of numerous books.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Chronicle of the Narvaez Expedition; Classics Series; Penguin classics
• Author: Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca
• Editor: Harold Augenbraun
• Translated by: Fanny Bandelier
• Contributor: Ilan Stavans
• Edition: illustrated, reprint, annotated
• Publisher: Penguin, 2002
• ISBN: 0142437077, 9780142437070
• Length: 160 pages
• Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / Adventurers & Explorers; History / Expeditions & Discoveries; History / Modern / 16th Century