CastawaysCastaways (or Naufragios) is the first major narrative of the exploration of North America by Europeans (1528-1536). It is also an enthralling story of adventure and survival against unimaginable odds. Its author, Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, a fortune-seeking sixteenth-century Spanish nobleman, was the treasurer of an expedition to claim for the Spanish Crown a vast area that includes today's Florida, Louisiana, and Texas. A shipwreck forced him and a handful of men to make the long journey to the West coast, where they would meet up with Hernan Cortes, on foot. They endured unspeakable hardships, some of them surviving only by eating the dead. Others, including Cabeza de Vaca joined native peoples he met along the way, learning their languages and practices, and serving them as a slave and later as a physician. When after eight years he finally reached the West, he was not recognized by his compatriots. Cabeza de Vaca displays great interest in the cultures - so alien to his own - of the native peoples he encountered on his odyssey, observing their customs and belief systems with a degree of sophistication and sensitivity unusual in the conquistador. As he forged intimate bonds with some of them, sharing their brutal living conditions and curing their sick, he found himself on a voyage of self-discovery that was to make his reunion with his fellow Spaniards less joyful than expected. Cabeza de Vaca's narrative is a marvelously gripping story, but it is also much more. It is a first-hand account of sixteenth-century Spanish colonization, of the encounter between the conquistador and the Native American, of the aspirations and fears of exploration. It is a trove of ethnographic information, its descriptions and interpretations of native peoples' cultures making it a powerful precursor to modern anthropology. And it is a masterpiece of exploration writing, its author keenly aware of the fictive thrust that often energizes the writing of history. |
Contents
Prologue | 3 |
of Jagua and Brought a Pilot with Him | 10 |
How the Indians Brought Us Food | 41 |
How Four Christians Departed | 46 |
What Befell Us in the Isle of Ill Fortune | 49 |
How the Christians Departed from the Isle of Ill Fortune | 51 |
How the Indians Came and Brought Andrés Dorantes and Castillo and Estebanico | 55 |
Of the Report Given to Figueroa by Esquivel | 59 |
Of the Customs of the Indians of That Land | 79 |
Of the Indians Readiness to Use Arms | 82 |
of the Tribes and Their Languages | 84 |
How We Moved and Were Well Received | 86 |
Of Another New Custom | 89 |
How Some Indians Robbed the Others | 92 |
How the Custom of Receiving Us Changed | 97 |
How We Followed the Maize Road | 103 |
How the Indians Separated Us | 64 |
How We Escaped | 66 |
How We Cured Some Sufferers There | 68 |
How They Brought Us More Sick Folk Next Day | 71 |
How We Departed after Eating the Dogs | 77 |
How They Gave Us Hearts of Deer | 106 |
How We Saw Traces of Christians | 110 |
APPENDIX A Note on the Text | 129 |
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Common terms and phrases
Alonso del Castillo Alvar Núñez Cabeza Andrés Dorantes Apalachee arrived arrows asked Asunción ATAKAPANS began believe boat bows bring brought Cabeza de Vaca called canoes captain carry Christians Coahuiltecans coast Comentarios cross Culiacán cultures cured custom dared deer Diego de Guzmán edition enemies escape Esquivel Estebanico everything farther fear Fernández Figueroa fire fish Florida fruit Gandía gave governor harbor hides Hornachos horses houses hundred hunger Ill Fortune Indies inlet island Isle of Ill Jerez journey Jumanos Karankawas killed land language leagues leave lived Lord lost maize Majesty marched Mexico mountains named narrative Narváez's expedition Naufragios night Nuño de Guzmán Opatas Oviedo Pánuco Pedro pilots prickly pears reached Relación returned river sailed Sanlúcar de Barrameda ships Spain Spaniards stayed storm tell things Timucuas told took town traveled trees tribes Vaca's village women woods