[Illustration: Routes of Narváez and de Vaca]
NARVÁEZ EXPEDITION
Santiago, Cuba
{west Florida coast}: Narváez Expedition lands April 1526
Apalachee
Aute: Expedition builds boats
CABEZA DE VACA
{Texas coast}: Expedition wrecks; Cabeza de Vaca continues overland
Colorado River
Pecos River
Gila River
Rio Sonora
Corazones
Culiacán: Cabeza de Vaca arrives 1536
[Illustration: Desert vista]
Cabeza de Vaca and three companions, sole survivors of the ill-fated
Narváez expedition (1527), were the first Europeans to cross the North
American continent. They spent 8 years traveling 6,000 miles through the
interior of Florida, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and northern Mexico.
The journey itself was an incredible feat of human stamina and pluck.
Equally remarkable is Cabeza de Vaca’s account of his adventure. _La
Relación_, first published In 1542, revised Spanish conceptions about
the size and nature of the continent north of Mexico. The book is also
the first detailed description of native Americans. In his wanderings
Cabeza de Vaca came to admire Indians, whom he came to see as fellow
humans who could be won over only by kindness. His book—which can be
considered the beginning of American literature—is a record of both a
physical and a spiritual journey.
[Illustration: Mangrove near De Soto National Memorial. Thickets of
this plant once formed great barriers along the Florida shore.]