Cabeza de Vaca's Trail
by Donald E. SheppardIn 1527 Panfilo de Narvaez with Cabeza de Vaca had sailed from Spain with 5 ships and 600 men to establish a colony in "La Florida;" the name Spain used for North America. 300 of his men landing in Florida with 40 horses from Cuba.
They wandered for 6 months fighting hostile Indians, malaria and dysentery. To escape they built five 30-foot barges and headed west along the Gulf Coast toward Mexico, Spain's nearest outpost on this continent.
In the winter of 1528 two barges containing 80 sick men wrecked on East Island, Louisiana. The barges were destroyed, as were all but 15 of the men to cold weather, hunger, disease, drowning and cannibalism among themselves. The fate of Narvaez with the other barges is unknown.
Cabeza de Vaca and 3 others spent 6 years in Louisiana before heading west again living like the natives. In Houston (circled on map), Vaca heard stories of the interior which profoundly influenced DeSoto and Coronado.
Vaca went on to New Mexico and Arizona, eating flowers, roots, bitter fruits and nuts, and practicing the science of healing, often followed by 100's of native well-wishers.
In early 1536 he found Spanish soldiers on a slaving expedition in Northern Mexico. In July he arrived in Mexico City where he wrote the oldest known history of Gulf Coast America.