Chronicle of the Narvaez Expedition

Chronicle of the Narvaez Expedition Alvar Nunez Cabeza De Vaca Date: 25 June, 2002   —   $9.60   —   Book product page Rating:

Out here in Singapore, the Chinese taxi drivers are always giving me grief over the fact that we Americans are ignorant of the history of the rest of the world. It's hard to disagree, especially when Americans are woefully ignorant even of the rich history of our own country.

Cabeza De Vaca's "Chronicle of the Narvaez Expedition", written in 1542, is the account of Narvaez's ill-fated 1527 expedition to the Gulf Coast. Only Cabeza De Vaca and three others survived. It's an amazing account that reads almost like literary fiction. The protagonist, proud and arrogant, begins a journey through a barbarous Hell that completely disassembles him physically, mentally, and morally. When it seems that there is nothing left but to die, our hero finds within himself a core of humanity and hope which brings him back to civilization a completely changed man. But this isn't fiction.

De Vaca's account is just amazing. Narvaez's men storm the beaches of America's Gulf Coast looking for treasure. They fight hostile Indians and disease until only a very few are left alive. De Vaca and his three remaining companions then make their way across Texas, Arizona, and Mexico before they finally find a Spanish outpost. Along the way, they survive by becoming slaves to the Indians, trading, and finally by becoming shamans. According to De Vaca, by the grace of God, they are given the ability to cure the sick and lame. As word of their ability grows, whole villages of Indians begin to follow them. As they make their way back to civilization, these hordes sack every village on the way, recruit the victims, and head off to the next village where this "custom" is repeated. It's an incredible tale of men living completely outside the boundaries of civilization.

De Vaca's chronicle also includes the requisite stories of demons that tear out the entrails of fearful villagers in the night and hints of gold, jewels, and fabulous riches just beyond the next mountain. It's an amazingly rich narrative, and it's a fairly short and easy read. The terseness with which the account is written only leads your imagination to run wild with what De Vaca and his companions must have endured.

"Sotomayor... quarreled with Pantoja, hit him, and he died. In this way they perished one after the other. The survivors sliced the dead for meat. The last one to die was Sotomayor and Esquivel cut him up and fed on his body until the first of March, when an indian... came to see if they were dead."

De Vaca's report is a stunning narrative, all the more astonishing for being true and being part of the history of America. A history that is virtually unknown to its inhabitants almost five hundred years later.