Spanish Explorers - Stevie Trefethen

I just read a book by Stuart Waldman  called "We Asked For Nothing" . Its about the remarkable journey of Cabeza de Vaca a Spanish conquistador. In April of 1528 he sailed on one of four ships from Spain to what they called New Spain. He landed in Tampa Bay Florida. They met local indians and after discovering they had little bits of gold they were determined to find more. De Vacca learned that the gold came from a village to the North called Apalachee. They said it was overflowing with gold. But it was an island very far to the North of Tampa Bay. They decided that 300 of the men would walk there and the ships would meet them there.  Travelling through thick swamps they had tough going. They found Apalachee but no gold. The Indians had lied to get them away. Hungry the Spaniards pillaged the Apalachee's food. Mostly corn they called maize.On the way back through the swamps to the rendevous place 50 men died from Indian ambushes. They got back to the beach where they first landed but the ships never arrived. (A storm had driven the ships away).
Desperate the men melted their armor and weapons to make fastners and build several large rafts. They set sail into the Gulf of Mexico.  When they came to shore the rafts crashed onto the beaches of the Karakawa Indians. De Vaca gave them beads and trinkets. The Indians gave him arrows. They provided thte Spaniards with food for a while and then then made the them work. Begining as food gatherers they moved up quickly to medicine men and the tribe was very appreciative. De Vaca was here two years.
Then he learned to trade with other Indian Tribes. He travelled all over what is now coastal Texas. He helped the tribes deal with the desieses brought to the new world by Europeans. More Conqueistadors arrived. Cabeza told the new commers he was Spanish. The Indians could not belive him. The Spanish did not know what to make of him either. The Conqueistadors began enslaving the indians. Cabaza learned that the Pope had forbade the enslavement of christians so he began converting the Indians to Christians. When Alcaraz learned of the conversions he stooped enslaving the locals.
After walking over a thousand miles he entered Mexico City and met with Melchior Diaz the new govenor and found passage back to Spain. There he wrote his famous book called "La Relacion". He died in obscurity. But 450 years later his book became a best seller and to this day is the best resource scholars have about the early indians of New Spain.

Stevie Trefethen