Week 4 Assignment - Essay Example

In some cases, they acted as slaves to the “Indians”. However, Cabeza de Vaca had a relatively free life, due to his trading activities. They were ultimately venerated due to the healing abilities that they showed. The early explorers, therefore, lived with the natives and they strived to embrace the culture and practices of the natives. Cabeza de Vaca; for example, stayed with Indians in the general Texas area, for approximately six years. He adopted some of their cultural practices such as walking naked, and he rarely met other Spaniards during the tribal meetings.

The literary work also illustrates the challenges experienced during expeditions. Cabeca de Vaca left Spain in1527 during his late thirties. He was part of the ill fated Pánfilo de Narváez expedition, which was heading to Florida. The expedition arrived in Tampa Bay in April 1528. On arrival, the soldiers and colonialists number was less than the initial 600. Many of them died due to desertion, disease attacks, and also ship wreck. On reaching the Appalachee Bay with approximately 300 people and they again went to the sea.

They constructed homemade forge using nails developed from melted stirrups. The soldiers killed their horses so as to get food. The horse skins were used to make water bottles. The expedition used five homemade boats to transport them to Texas. In November 1528, the expedition suffered from two boats wrecked at an island off Texas. Only fifteen Spaniards survived the winter, out of a total of eighty members who arrived at the island. Ultimately, only four members of the expedition survived. They were; Cabeza de Vaca, Estevern who was a black slave, Alves Dorantes and Alonzo del Castillo.

The Indians showed great hospitality to the surviving expedition members. The Indians supplied the surviving people with food supplies that include fish and edible roots. In the evening, the individuals supplied more food staffs to the Spaniards. The women and children