Outside of the Arabian Nights and the realms of fairy tales and fiction, there is perhaps no stranger story of adventure than that of Cabeza de Vaca's ten years wanderings in Texas and Mexico.
The first that we hear of this interesting Spaniard is in 1527, when he was made chief treasurer of an expedition under Pamphilo de Narvaez, bound for the Gulf shores of the New World. “Notwithstanding,” says Buckingham Smith, “the most zealous devotion of scholars, and the ceaseless delvings of antiquaries, the place and period, both of his birth and decease, have evaded their research.”
But as he was a man in 1527, his boyhood, youth, and early manhood must have been spent in one of the most wonderful periods of time—the age in which the Old World found the New,—the age in which the warm southern blood of Italy, Spain and France, as well as the cold northern blood of England, was being intoxicated with the love of adventure, with the dream of untold wealth. Every explorer believed that in this new land lay his Mexico, his palace of Montezuma, waiting for him its Cortez.
One of the many expeditions bearing the Spanish flag was that of de Narvaez, with whom as we have said went Cabeza de Vaca as treasurer. The tract which had been granted to Narvaez stretched from the southern part of Florida to the Rio de las Palmas, which has been identified with the Rio Grande. As was usual, the expedition first stopped in Cuba. While waiting here, two vessels were sunk by a terrible storm and sixty men were lost. Terrified by this, Narvaez waited here until the following spring, when, a pilot having been found, he sailed for his grant. When only a few days out, a strong westerly wind arose, and, beaten out of their track, the ships were driven off the coast of Florida. The pilot assured the Spaniards they were near the Rio de las Palmas. Narvaez then, strongly advised to the contrary by Cabeza, divided his men into two parties, one to sail the vessels along the coast, the other to make an inland expedition, of which he himself was to be the leader. These two parties, he said, would unite at some good harbor; and taking with him some three hundred men with whom was Cabeza, he started inland. Let me anticipate here, and say that after a year's fruitless searching, those aboard the vessels returned to the islands, bearing the sad news that Narvaez and his men had perished on the mainland.
What, in truth, was the fate of this luckless expedition? Necessarily unable to carry but a few days' provisions, they soon began to suffer from hunger. True, they found Indian villages, but in them there was little food, and no treasure. Farther on, the Indians said, in the village of Appalache, there are treasures, and all those things that white men desire. Weary and worn, they pushed on. Twice they went to the coast, but could find no harbor; no welcome vessel came in sight. At last they came to the village of Appalache, which proved a bitter disappointment. No treasure was found, and the Indians were treacherous and hostile. However, they stayed here several months, living chiefly on maize. The Indians here told them of another village, Aute, nine or ten days south of there, on the seacoast. Toward this point they directed their course.
They reached Aute in the last stages of despair, after fighting their way through swamps and forests, frequently in water that came above the knees. The Indians were hostile; there was little to eat. Weak and emaciated from hunger and travel, hampered by the sick and dying, threatened with mutiny, the outlook was dreary, not to say hopeless. To march inland was to march to certain death; on the sea lay their one chance for life.
With rude implements of their own manufacture they made five rough boats, their spurs and the stirrups from their saddles furnishing the nails. Their few remaining horses were killed, the flesh eaten, and the skins from their legs made into bags, which served as the only means of carrying water. Forty-nine men or more were crowded into each boat. The instinct of self-preservation was to be their only guide, for they knew but little, if anything, of the art of navigation. From a strange land they sailed out on strange waters.
Not daring to trust themselves far out at sea, and in the vain hope of finding some Spanish settlement, they kept close to the shore. For thirty days or more they sailed along in this manner. Then the water bags rotted, and many of the men, delirious with thirst, drank the briny water of the sea, and died in agony. While a like death seemed inevitable to all, they came to an Indian village, where was food and water. After a day and night's stay, during which they were attacked by the Indians, they re-embarked and sailed on. In this manner they continued for many days, suffering all that men can suffer from want of food and water.
At length they came to a broad river, at the mouth of which were many little islands—a river which, for several reasons, is supposed to have been the Mississippi. The current being too strong to allow them to land, they were borne out to sea, and, in the darkness, separated from each other. The captain's boat finally reached land, but two others, one of which was Cabeza's, drifted out to sea, for the men were too weak to row. For several days these two boats stayed together, but a storm arose, and they, too, drifted apart.
Cabeza's boat was finally cast ashore on an island, which, for reasons to be given later, we believe to have been Galveston island. The Spaniards named it Malhado, meaning “Ill-luck.” The Indians came down to the shore, gave them fish and roots, and treated them kindly. In an endeavor to launch the boat on the following day, it was capsized and borne out to sea. They were now entirely at the mercy of the Indians. These, however, were kindly disposed, and took them to their village. In a few days they were joined by a party from one of the other boats, which had been wrecked at another part of the island.
They now numbered forty; but to go on in such weather was impossible, as those of the first boat had even lost their clothing. It was, therefore, agreed that they should remain on the island, while four of the men should go on in search of the Spanish settlement, which they supposed to be very near the west. Soon after the departure of the four, a plague broke out on the island, and the number of the Spaniards was reduced to fifteen. These were separated by the Indians, who had practically enslaved them; some were being taken to the mainland, others left on the island. The weather was very severe and food scarce. In the springtime the Spaniards, except Cabeza and another, who were too sick to travel, escaped from their masters, and started westward down the coast. Nothing had yet been heard of the four who had previously set out.
For six years Cabeza led a slave's life, sometimes on the mainland, sometimes on the island. From October to February they stayed on the island, living on a certain kind of root. At the end of this time they went into other parts, for the root was then beginning to grow, and not fit to eat. “I had,” said Cabeza, “to get roots from below the water and in the cane, where they grow in the ground, and from this employment I had my fingers so worn that did a straw but touch them they bled.” Later on he fared better, for, getting in the good graces of the Indians, he was allowed to become something of a trader, going far inland on his trading expeditions. In this way he became acquainted with the surrounding country.
At the end of these six years, he and his companion, Lope de Oviedo, escaped from the Indians, and started down the coast. After having crossed four rivers, of which we shall speak more definitely, they came to a bay, most probably Matagorda bay. On the farther side of this bay they met a party of Indians coming to visit the Indians on the island. These told them that beyond were three men like the Spaniards. The Indians also said that if Cabeza wished to see them that in the next few days they would be at a walnut grove not far distant. At this point Lope de Oviedo, terrified by the Indians' tales of cruelty, refused to go farther, and returned to his former masters.
Two days later Cabeza joined the other three in the walnut grove. They were three of the party who had left the island six years before. Their companions had been killed by the Indians or had died from hardships. Of the powerful force which, not long before, Narvaez had led into the swamps of Florida, there now remained only this mere handful of wretched creatures, who maintained a precarious livelihood as slaves of the Indians.
We believe we can identify the vicinity in which this meeting occurred. But of this we shall speak more at length in another place; it is sufficient to say here that the Spaniards were most probably in the neighborhood of Matagorda bay, and, perhaps, near the mouth of the Colorado river. They remained quietly here for six months, waiting until the Indians should go to the prickly pear region, at which time, many tribes being gathered together, they thought they could best make their escape. For three months in the year the Indians in that part of the country lived entirely on the fruit of the cactus. So luxuriant and thick is the growth of this plant in southwestern Texas that we can safely say it was to this region that the Indians came yearly.
As the Spaniards had anticipated, they were taken in due season to the prickly pear region, where they planned their escape. On the day settled upon for their departure the Indians quarreled among themselves, and the Spaniards were separated. After a year's weary waiting, at the next prickly pear season they were again brought together, and again separated before they could escape. In despair they appointed a meeting place, and each pledged himself to elude the vigilance of his master, and join the others at the appointed time. This time they were successful, and the four men began their desperate journey to find the Spanish settlements in Mexico.
For the first few days they travelled very rapidly, fearing greatly lest the Indians should overtake them. They soon came to another Indian tribe, where they were kindly treated. From here they went on to another tribe, where they stayed eight months.
At this point, their social position, if such it may be called, was exalted beyond their wildest hopes, and they entered upon a career that probably has no parallel in all history. As far back as Cabeza's slave residence on Malhado island, he had on occasions been called upon to perform cures after the Indian fashion; he had done so with seeming reluctance, not dreaming of the tremendous power over the tribes which lay within his grasp. However, he and his friends had scarcely begun their journey towards civilization before the Indians forced this unexpected greatness upon them. “That same night of our arrival,” says Cabeza, “some Indians came to Castillo and told them they had great pain in the head, begging him to cure them. After he had made over them the sign of the cross, and commended them to God, they instantly said all pain had left, and went to their houses, bringing us prickly pears, with a piece of venison, a thing little known to us. As the report of Castillo's performances spread, many came to us that night sick, that we should heal them, each bringing a piece of venison, until the quantity of it became so great that we knew not where to dispose of it. We gave many thanks to God, for every day went on increasing his compassion and his gifts.” 2
New hopes were thus kindled, and the Spaniards continued with deliberate purpose the practice which had accidentally opened a new career to them. Their fame spread, and from this time forward their march was the progress of triumphant medicine men, often attended by hundreds, even thousands, says Cabeza. The Indians surrendered all their earthly possesions to these children of the sun, and served them as willing slaves. The sick were brought to them from far and near, and often they were importuned to go out of their way to relieve the afflicted. We must no doubt make some allowances for exaggeration in Cabeza's account, but on the whole he probably gives us a fair idea of what really happened. We find, for instance, when Coronado crossed the route of the wanderers, the Indians again brought their possessions to these other children of the sun, saying that in such fashion they had received the four whom we are following.
Our faith in the efficacy of Cabeza's cures, however, must stop at certain limits; it taxes our credulity too much when he tells of reviving the dead. As regards this, he says: “Coming near their huts, I perceived the sick man we went to heal was dead. Many persons were around him weeping, and his house was prostrate, a sign that one who dwelt in it is no more. When I arrived I found his eyes rolled up and the pulse gone, he having all the appearances of death. I removed a mat with which he was covered and supplicated the Lord fervently as I could that he would be pleased to give health to him and to the rest that might have need of it. After he had been blessed and breathed upon many times, they brought me his bow and gave me a basketful of pounded prickly pear. The next morning the report came that he who had been dead had got up whole and walked, had eaten and spoken to them. . . . This caused great wonder and fear and throughout the land the people talked of nothing else.” 3
In a very interesting chapter Cabeza also tells us of some of the queer customs of the tribes through which he passed. In one tribe, when a child died it was mourned for a whole year, the weeping beginning in the morning and lasting until sunset. If a brother or a husband died, none of that family would go in search of food for three months, but would starve to death if not provided for by the rest of the tribe. In war they were keen and vigilant. The warriors dug ditches in front of their huts, and lying down in them, completely covered themselves with brush and twigs. Thus concealed, they could do much damage. They drank a liquid, made by roasting a certain kind of leaf, upon which water was then poured. This had an intoxicating effect, and for three days at a time they would take nothing else. From the time it was ready to be used until it was consumed they cried continually, “Who wishes to drink, who wishes to drink?” When a woman heard this she stopped instantly whatever she was doing. If she moved, it was thought an evil spirit went into the liquid and it was thrown away and the woman was beaten with sticks. The mesquite bean, an important article of food with them, was prepared for eating in a peculiar manner. A hole was dug in the ground and in this the beans were placed and pounded with a club. Dirt and water were poured in on them and all stirred up together. Then the Indians gathered around and ate out of the hole. If it did not taste right, more dirt was stirred in.
Among these tribes Cabeza and his companions wandered for many days, always followed by a great number of Indians. On approaching a new tribe, the Indians came out to meet them, laying all their possessions at the Spaniards' feet. Cabeza then turned over these goods to his followers and dismissed them. The Indians who had thus given up all they possessed followed the white men to the next tribe, where they were reimbursed for their loss, and so on, indefinitely.
At last they came in sight of mountains. They travelled along the base of these for some little distance, and then struck inland. After traveling many days, they came to a village, on the banks of a very beautiful river. The people here lived on prickly pears and the nut of a certain kind of pine tree, the nut being beaten into balls when it was green, and when dry pounded into flour. “We left here,” says Cabeza, “and travelled through so many sorts of people, of such divers language that the memory fails to recall them.” Then they crossed a large river, coming from the north. 4 After crossing this river, their journey lay for some time through a desert, mountainous country, where they suffered much from hunger. Again they crossed a river, flowing from the north, and from this time many of the Indians sickened and died on account of the great privations. That the Spaniards survived is a matter of marvel. But from this time on they found fixed habitations and cultivated fields.
On desiring the Indians to take them on toward the west, they found them very reluctant to do so. However, on the Spaniards showing their displeasure, the savages yielded to their request, and, having sent out women as scouts, they went on.
From this time, they were loaded down with buffalo skins, and Cabeza called the people the Cow-Nation. 5 They lived largely on beans and calabashes. Whenever these people wished to cook anything, they heated large stones and dropped them into the half of a large calabash, which had been filled with water. When the water had been thus heated, whatever was to be cooked was dropped into it.
As they went on, food became more plentiful, and settled habitations more frequent. In one town they were presented with six hundred hearts of deer, on account of which they called the town Corazones. This town was the entrance into the South Sea provinces, or the provinces on the Gulf of California. While here the Spaniards saw on the neck of one of the Indians the buckle of a sword belt, to which a nail was fastened. It came, the Indians said, from white men, who wore beards, and who had gone to the south.
Hope rose in the hearts of the Spaniards. Were they at last near the Spanish settlements, or had these men been but passing explorers? But as they went on, they found the Indians fleeing on account of this party. The villages were deserted, the fields untilled. The people were living on the roots and barks of trees, and to a like means of subsistence Cabeza and his companions were forced to resort. A few days' journey more, and the tracks of the Christians were visible. They were in the neighborhood of a party of Spanish slave hunters. Day by day they gained upon them, and at last Cabeza, leaving the others some little distance behind, came up with four Spanish horsemen. They took him to their leader, and to him Cabeza told the story of his marvelous wanderings.
Through the influence of Cabeza, many of the Indians were persuaded to return to their villages and bring out food, which they had concealed. The slave hunters, unable to find the Indians, had been hard pressed. The Indians could not be persuaded to believe that Cabeza and his companions were also Spaniards, of whom they were very much afraid.
These Spaniards gave Cabeza two guides, who should lead them to the Spanish settlement. The guides, according to their orders, took them in such a way that they should not again see the Indians, whom the Spaniards, contrary to their promises, seized as soon as Cabeza had gone. All of Cabeza's party came near perishing from hunger and thirst, and many of them did. But at last they reached the town of San Miguel, April 1, 1536, the first Spanish settlement they had seen since they left Cuba, nearly ten years before. They stayed here some time, and letters written by them to the Spanish king have been of some value in determining their route. On the ninth of August, 1537, Cabeza de Vaca, having passed through almost incredible adventures, landed at Lisbon, Spain.
That four men should thus travel through an unexplored region is a matter of marvel, and as the first Europeans to traverse this country, their route a matter of great interest.
The only data for determining this is Cabeza's account, necessarily unreliable as to dates and definite information. It is a question that has excited great interest and one that has been discussed with widely varying results. To make positive assertions is under the circumstances impossible; to make approximate ones difficult. Were proof of this needed, it is conclusively shown in the fact that after careful study on the part of three or four of our great historians, Buckingham Smith, H. H. Bancroft, A. F. Bandelier, and others, men too well known to need comment, they have each settled on a different route.
We believe it is possible to determine definitely, at least within certain limits, two points in the route of the Spaniards. Cabeza's description mentions certain physical features of the country, and dwells particularly on the plant and animal life. Certain plants that he mentions, such as the cactus and the piñon, are characteristic of limited regions of our country, and it is from considerations of this kind that we have reached our conclusions.
The place where Cabeza met his friends was probably some point on the Colorado river a few miles above its mouth, where there was a walnut grove. This conclusion is based on the following data given by the Relation.
First, Cabeza says that he crosed four rivers shortly after leaving Malhado. We know that at least one of these flowed directly into the Gulf; for in crossing it one of the Spaniards' boats was carried out to sea. 6 From his description it is also perhaps a fair inference that the other three flowed directly in, as no bays are mentioned. There is only one locality on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico where even one river flows directly into the gulf without a bay. East and west of the Brazos, we can count four such streams, at distances varying slightly from those mentioned by the Spaniards. 7 These are Oyster creek, the Brazos, the San Bernard, and Caney creek.
Cabeza says that shortly after crossing the last river they came to a bay about a league wide, which he crossed, and a few miles up a river found his friends. As they were keeping close to the coast, they probably did not notice Matagorda bay until they had gone some distance down the peninsula of that name. This is one instance in which Cabeza's distances tally very closely with the facts. He says the bay which he crossed was a league wide, and Matagorda bay is uniformly about that wide. If he crossed this bay about half way down the peninsula, he landed in the vicinity of the Colorado. He does not say he was on a river; but we know he must have been from the fact that the Indians told him he would find other whites “up the river.”
Second, we know that when the Spaniards met they were in a few days travel of certain sand hills which were sufficiently high to be seen “from a distance at sea.” This we gather from the account afterwards given by the Spaniards. Some distance along the coast at the mouth of the Guadalupe are some very high sand hills standing seventy-five or eighty feet above the bay. 8 They form one of the most remarkable features of that coast, and the surroundings coincide very closely with the Spaniards' description. East of this point on the coast there are no sand mounds worthy of notice; west of it they are numerous but insignificant.
Third, according to Cabeza's account one of the most prominent characteristics of the country through which they travelled was the abundance of the prickly pear, the fruit of which constituted the chief food through a long part of the journey. 9 Six months after their meeting, the Spaniards were taken by the Indians some thirty leagues to where they gathered this fruit, and where they remained several months living upon it alone.
The Spaniards then must have met at some point about thirty leagues distant from the prickly pear region. The cactus is a
widely distributed plant occurring in the west, northwest and south-west of Texas and in many parts of Mexico, particularly in the northeast; the region, however, in which it grows in such abundance as to constitute a food plant is limited to the country west of the Guadalupe river. The region of abundant cactus where the Indians would be likely to congregate for the purpose of living on it begins about ninety or a hundred miles west of the spot we have settled upon.
10 The migration of the Indians to this cactus region was an annual occurrence.
Fourth, Cabeza says “Cattle came as far as here.” 11 The buffaloes in Texas, according to J. G. Shea and others, probably never ranged east of the Colorado, at least not in the southern part of the state. 12 The range extended from near the point we have reached westward and northward over the great elevated table land and the Llano Estacado. 13
The point where Cabeza met his friends, then, according to the narrative must have been a short distance west of four rivers that flowed directly into the Gulf without passing through bays; it must have been within a few days journey of sand hills on the coast which could be seen some distance at sea; it must have been within about thirty leagues of the prickly pear region; finally, it must have been near the eastern limit of the range of the buffalo. These conditions are all satisfied by the locality mentioned, viz: the vicinity of the mouth of the Colorado. No two of these, moreover, are satisfied by any other point on the Gulf coast.
Furthermore, if we are correct, some thirty or forty leagues east of the Colorado we are to look for the Island Malhado on which the boats were wrecked; to satisfy the conditions of the narrative, it must be some five leagues long by one wide. We at once think of Galveston island, which fits the description with a considerable degree of accuracy.
We have studied in this connection the routes proposed by three eminent historians, Buckingham Smith, H. H. Bancroft, and A. F. Bandelier. None of these seem to us in accordance with the facts given by the narrative. We confess we can not mark exactly the path of the wanderers; but we believe we have succeeded in fixing as definitely as may be done the limits in which certain conditions alluded to in the narrative can exist. Thus we so restrict the possible variation of their path as to get at least its general direction. It is by these same limitations of physical aspects and plant life that we expect to show the incorrectness of the other theories.
Buckingham Smith died before his revised translation was published, and it lacks the two maps by which he intended to show his idea of Cabeza's wanderings. His first theory was as follows: Cabeza started on his wanderings from somewhere near Mobile bay. The long sand island near the mouth of that bay he identified with Malhado. From here, he thought, Cabeza went to Mussel Shoals on the Tennessee river, thence across the Mississippi to the junction of the Arkansas and Canadian. Then up the Canadian through New Mexico to the Pacific near the Gulf of California. 14
Everything in the narrative goes to show that the Spaniards could not have been east of the Mississippi after their shipwreck. Mr. Smith is the only one of those who have written on the subject who ever held this opinion. In the first place, it is almost certain had Cabeza crossed a stream of such magnitude, he would have described it in terms admitting of no misconstruction; still we can not be positive that he would have done so. But he does not mention crossing a single river, after starting on his inland journey, where it was necessary to use a raft. But he does call some rivers very large, which they were able to cross, the water coming only as high as the breast.
But there is abundant disproof of this view without reference to the Mississippi. It would be impossible to find the four rivers, or the cactus in the vicinity of Mobile. All the rivers in that region flow through bays before entering the Gulf. If there is any cactus in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, it is only in isolated bunches, and could not be looked upon as a food plant. Mr. Smith himself afterwards abandoned this theory, and in his last edition inclined to the view that Cabeza crossed Texas from the neighborhood of Espiritu Santo bay. 15
Bancroft says the meeting place of the Spaniards was the Espiritu Santo bay, in Texas. 16 But he simply makes the assertion, without giving the reasons which led him to adopt it. In fact, he is very brief on the whole subject of Cabeza de Vaca, dismissing it with a few pages.
A. F. Bandelier, whose reputation as an archaeologist gives his statements more importance than those of the two historians mentioned above, thinks the four wanderers started from some point in Western Louisiana or Eastern Texas. On his map he makes it the coast region around Sabine lake. The wrecking of the boats, he says, took place near the Mississippi delta. The only reason he gives for this conclusion is a rather indeterminate one. He thinks he can positively identify a certain point farther along in Cabeza's narrative. He then counts the rivers the Spaniards have crossed and identifies them with Texas rivers. Thus he gets back to the starting point. 17
We object to Mr. Bandelier's reasoning, first on this very point. If we take a definite point in western Texas and Mexico and count a certain number of rivers to the east, we will arrive at different results according as we cross the northern or southern part of the State. That is, we would cross more rivers near the coast. But we do not think Mr. Bandelier's theory will hold for other reasons.
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First, it is too remote from the cactus region, whose limits we have already mentioned.
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Second, it does not agree with Cabeza's statement about the buffaloes. They probably did not range so far east.
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Third, we can not reconcile Sabine lake region with the description of the four rivers which were crossed just after leaving Malhado. There is not even one river, as we have already stated, anywhere near Sabine lake, east or west, which flows directly into the Gulf. We are, therefore, forced to the conclusion that the Spaniards were never in the vicinity of Sabine lake.
But in proceeding with the discussion, conclusions are not so safely drawn. There is only one other point to which we feel we can safely assign any definite location. This is the southern portion of New Mexico or the western portion of Texas. This opinion is based on the following facts, taken from the Relation. Cabeza thus refers to a tree, the nut of which was used by the Indians for food. “There are in that country small pines, and the cones of these are like little eggs; moreover, the seeds are better than those of Castile, for they have very thin shells.” 18 Elsewhere, the trees are thus described by the Spaniards: “And they gave them a great number of pine nuts as good and better than those of Castile, for they have shells of such nature that they eat them with the rest of the nut; the cones of these are very small, and the trees thick in those mountain ridges in quantities.” 19 Compare with these descriptions the botanical description of the pinus edulis: “A low, round-topped tree, six to nine metres high; cones subglobose, five centimetres long; seeds brown, wingless, and edible. In mountains of western Texas and westward.” 20 The shell of this nut is so thin that it may be easily eaten “con lo demas.”
These three descriptions coincide so nearly that there can scarcely exist a doubt that the piñion of Cabeza is the pinus edulis of New Mexico and Western Texas. 21 The region in which this pine grows covers nearly all of New Mexico; but is found in Texas only on the mountains west of the Pecos river. 22 This indicates that Cabeza and his friends mush have been at least as far north as these mountains; that is, nearly as far north as the litutude of El Paso. 23
Furthermore, there is evidence of the strongest character that the Spaniards crossed the route traversed only a few years later by Coronado, which, according to the monograph of George Parker Winship, published in the fourteenth annual report of the Bureau of Ethnology, at no point east of the Rio Grande extended further south than the 35th parallel. If this be true, Cabeza must have been well up in central New Mexico. The evidence on which this assertion is based is an extract from the narrative of Pedro de Castañeda, who accompanied Coronado on this expedition. It reads as follows: “The general sent Don Rodrigo Maldonado with his company forward from here. He traveled four days and reached a large ravine like those of Colima, in the bottom of which he found a large settlement of people. Cabeza and Dorantes had passed through here, so they presented Don Rodrigo with a pile of tanned skins and other things, and a tent as big as a house. * * * When the general came up with the army and saw the great quantity of deer skins, he thought he would divide them among his men and placed the guard so they could look at them. But when the men arrived and saw the general sending some of the men with orders for the guards to give them some of the skins, and that these were going to select the best, they were angry because they were not going to be divided evenly, and made a rush, and in less than a quarter of an hour nothing was left but the empty ground. The natives who happened to see this also took a hand. The women and some others were left crying, because they thought that the strangers were not going to take anything, but would bless them, as Cabeza and Dorantes had done when they passed through here.” 24
It will be remembered that the Indians who followed Cabeza and his friends were so thoroughly under his influence that they surrendered to him all their earthly goods, and even dared not eat or drink until he had given them permission. When Coronado appeared, their remembrance of the four caused the Indians to act as above. Certainly, then, Coronado met at least one tribe that had seen Cabeza. But might that tribe not have seen him at another place further south? This is possible. Castañeda, however, when he wrote the passage quoted above, evidently believed and explicitly stated that such was not the case, but that “Cabeza and Dorantes had passed through here.”
But in tracing their route from the starting point to this place, we meet with difficulties. After traveling for some time from the cactus region, Cabeza says they came in sight of mountains. Most probably they were going up the San Antonio river, which flows down through the cactus region. This river has its source in the hills which form the southern limit of the Edwards plateau. These, it would seem, would be the first “mountains” of which he speaks. At this point, however, Cabeza states that they are still near the coast, within fifteen leagues.
Furthermore, after traveling along the plains at the foot of the hills, and inland some fifty leagues, they find themselves in the piñon region. The distance from the Colorado to the piñon region of New Mexico is more than twice as great as that given by Cabeza. This is one difficulty we have not been able to conquer. The fact remains, however, that he ate the pine nuts and came near the route subsequently followed by Coronado, and so must have been as far north as New Mexico. These facts we regard as fundamental, and matters of time and distance, recorded many months afterwards, must yield to them when found in conflict. 25
It must be remembered that the Spaniards were without means of carrying water, so their route was necessarily determined by natural water courses and a due regard for the food supply. The most favorable route, then, from the San Antonio or Guadalupe river, where they probably ate the prickly pear, to New Mexico, would be up the San Antonio river to the escarpment of Edwards plateau, thence west across the various creeks which run into the Nueces to the Pecos; then up the Pecos to the first rivers flowing into it from the west, which would offer the wanderers an opportunity to cross the desert mountains to the Rio Grande.
The probability that this was the route pursued is further strengthened by the fact that the Indians were conversant with the least difficult ways of passing from one tribe to another, and would so direct these men, who, in the eyes of the savages, had become little less than gods. Such a route we believe they pursued.
But another difficulty arises here: they do not mention ascending a river before reaching the piñon region, which is an omission hard to account for. Still, the fact remains that it would be an impossibility to reach the piñon region without carrying large quantities of water, unless they did ascend some river. 26
Still another difficulty confronts us. After leaving the tribe where they first found piñones they traveled an unrecorded distance, then crossed a great river coming from the north. Then, again, crossed thirty leagues of plain, or most probably went up the valley of some tributary from the west, then traveled fifty leagues of desert mountains to another great river. The descriptions given in the Relation fit the Pecos-Rio Grande country in southern New Mexico or Western Texas with a considerable degree of accuracy. But if that is the country described, it would transfer the piñon region to the east of the Pecos, which is not in accordance with the facts. 27
But since other data also identify this New Mexico region, we feel justified in still maintaining that his route lay in that country. The piñones, buffalo range, and Coronado's expedition, are facts so essential in this discussion that we can not set them aside for facts less essential.
Bancroft believes that, after leaving Espiritu Santo bay, the Spaniards went northward, following the general course of the Colorado river as far as San Saba. From here they went westward to the Pecos, and crossed it very near the southern boundary of New Mexico. From this point, Bancroft's description is marked by a great deal of uncertainty. He suggests two routes. One goes southwestward to the Rio Grande near the mouth of the Conchos; then up the Conchos some distance; thence across the mountains to the Yaqui, and down that and the coast to Culiacan. The other route proceeds from the Pecos due west along the southern boundary line of New Mexico to the Rio Grande near El Paso; thence almost along the United States boundary line to the upper waters of the Sonora; from here down the coast to Culiacan. 28
The theory advanced by Bancroft, at least the one which takes Cabeza very close to New Mexico, is the most reasonable one so fas as published. It is, however, exasperating that no reasons are given for the positions taken. The great objection to the route is that in following up the Colorado the Spaniards are kept out of the cactus region until they strike the Pecos. Then, too, the country from San Saba mountains west to the Pecos is dry and barren and almost impassable. It is, therefore, unlikely that they crossed it. Both routes suggested by Bancroft are, perhaps, a little too far south to pass through the edible pine region; and through this we feel sure they passed. 29 The hypothesis that they went from the Pecos to the mouth of the Conchos and up that river is entirely untenable, as it would keep them out of the piñon region. 30 Both routes are also too far south to agree with Castañeda's statement that Coronado crossed Cabeza's path in New Mexico.
We have already shown that Bandelier blundered in making Sabine bay the meeting place of the Spaniards. We believe that in his suggestion of the latter part of the route he has settled upon the impossible. He states that the Spaniards crossed the Trinity not far from the coast, thence westward to the Brazos, and up that stream for a considerable distance. Crossing this, they journeyed to the neighborhood of San Saba, where they crossed the Colorado. Then turning southwestward, he believes they crossed the Rio Grande near its junction with the Pecos. The line of march from here follows the bend of the Rio Grande to the mouth of the Conchos, thence to the mountain region westward and southward to San Miguel. 31
As we have said, there are well-founded objections to this route.
First, he excludes the Spaniards from the great prickly pear region. This plant is not to be found along the route thus marked out in sufficient quantities to serve as a food supply.
Second, if Cabeza's route lay so far to the south, Coronado would probably never have heard of him on his journey.
Third, the passage along the bend of the Rio Grande was an absolute impossibility. From the Conchos to the Pecos, the Rio Grande does not receive a single tributary, and flows through a series of rocky cañons, often as deep as two thousand feet. 32 When the boundary line between Mexico and the United States was first surveyed, long detours were made to avoid the difficulties of this route. 33 It is hardly probable that Cabeza, without any means of transportation, should have attempted this route, where not a drop of water was to be had.
From the piñon region in New Mexico, or Western Texas, somewhere reasonably near the path of Coronado, to the settlements in Mexico, we are not yet prepared to definitely locate the route of the four wanderers. Perhaps they reached the upper course of the Gila and followed that river until they could cross to the watered country to the south; or perhaps they found their way more directly to the south. Of this, we shall have more to say on another occasion.
In conclusion, we believe we have established the following points:
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First, Cabeza met his friends, after their long separation, somewhere near the mouth of the Colorado. This is the only place on the Gulf coast which satisfies all the conditions given in the Relation: (1) It is about thirty leagues from the great cactus region; (2) it is within a few days' journey from a group of sandhills seventy-five feet high, an uncommon feature on the Texas coast; (3) the buffalo range extended to this point, and probably no farther; (4) there are four large streams, east of Matagorda bay, which flow directly into the Gulf.
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Second, he passed through the southern part of New Mexico, and probably ascended the Pecos or Rio Grande to near the central part. This we believe, (1) because the piñon region does not extend into Texas beyond the Guadalupe mountains, and we know that Cabeza traveled many days north after entering this region; 34 (2) there is also positive evidence that Coronado, who did not come farther south than the 35th parallel, found traces of Cabeza and his friends.
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Third, between these two points, he probably followed the natural route indicated on the map. The evidence as to the exact route is not so conclusive, and the results not so positive as it is in regard to the two points mentioned above. But these seem to fix the general direction of the route, and nothing is found in the narrative which is contradictory; but, on the other hand, much of the description serves to strengthen this conclusion and render it fairly probable.
Relation of Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca. Translated from the Spanish by Buckingham Smith. New York. 1871.
Naufragios de Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca. This was published in 1799 in Barcia's Historiadores Primitivos de las Indias Occidentales, and reprinted in Biblioteca de Autores Españoles (1877), the last of which only we have used.
H. H. Bancroft, North Mexican States and Texas, Vol. I.
A. F. Bandelier, Contributions to the History of the Southwestern Portion of the United States.
Justin Winsor, Narrative and Critical History of America, Vol. II; article, Ancient Florida, by John Gilmary Shea.
George Parker Winship, The Coronado Expedition.
John M. Coulter, Botany of Western Texas.
The letter of Cabeza, Dorantes, and Castillo, which was used by Oviedo in his Historia General, has been accessible only in extracts quoted by Smith and Bandelier.
2. Relation of Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca. Translated from the Spanish by Buckingham Smith, p. 117.
3. Relation of Cabeza de Vaca, Smith's translation, pp. 121, 122.
4. Probably the Pecos.
5. They seem, however, not to have been in the buffalo region at this point. The Indians were accustomed to leave their villages for the hunt. The Spaniards were probably on the Rio Grande.
6. Relation of Cabeza de Vaca, Buckingham Smith's translation, p. 87; Oviedo, Historia General, quoted in Buckingham Smith's translation of the Relation p. 95.
7. According to the letter of Cabeza de Vaca, Dorantes, and Castillo, which was written in Mexico after their return, it was two leagues to the first river from Malhado; thence three leagues to the second; thence four to the third; and five or six to the fourth.—Oviedo, Historia General, quoted in B. Smith's translation of the Relation, p. 96, Addendum.
8. Report of U. S. Coast Survey, 1859, quoted in p. 325; B. Smith's translation of the Relation, p. 89, note.
9. Relation of Cabeza de Vaca, Smith's translation, pp. 91, 105, 111, 118, 120, 125, etc.
10. We are indebted for our information concerning the cactus region to the following: Robert T. Hill, U. S. Geological Survey; William L. Bray, University of Texas; J. Reverchon, Dallas; T. H. Stone, Houston; J. H. Seale, Jasper; Geo. E. Beyer, Tulane University; W. W. Clendenin, La. Geological Survey; J. V. Vandenberg, Victoria; C. H. Tyler Townsend, Las Cruces, N. Mex.; F. Vandervoort, Carrizo Springs; W. F. Woods, San Antonio; E. A. Blount, Nacogdoches.
11. Relation of Cabeza de Vaca, B. Smith's translation, p. 106.
12. John Gilmary Shea, in Winsor's Narrative and Critical History of America, Vol. II, p. 244.
13. See map for buffalo and cactus regions.
14. Relation of Cabeza de Vaca, B. Smith's translation, Appendix, p.235.
15. Relation of Cabeza de Vaca, B. Smith's translation, Appendix, p. 235.
16. H. H. Bancroft, North Mexican States and Texas, Vol. I, pp. 63, 64.
17. A. F. Bandelier, Contributions to the History of the Southwestern Portion of the United States, pp. 49-53.
18. “Hay por aquella tierra piños chicos, y las piñas de ellas son como huevos pequeños, mas los piñones son mejores que los de Castilla, porque tienen las cascaras muy delgadas.”—Cabeza de Vaca, Naufragios, p. 540.
19. “E dieronles alli mucha cantidad de piñones tan buenos y mejores que los de Castilla, porque tienen las cascaras de manera que las comen con lo demas; las piñas dellos son muy chiquitas, é los arboles llenos en aquellas serranias en cantidad.”—Oviedo, Historia General, p. 606, quoted in Bandelier's Contributions, p. 57, note.
20. John M. Coulter, Botany of Western Texas, p. 554.
21. Bandelier denies this, and says the tree must have been a North Texas cedar. Dr. V. Harvard, of the U. S. Army, in a letter on this subject, states that no juniper (cedar) in Texas bears “a fruit larger than a large berry. Bald cypress (Taxodium disticum), or Sabino of the Mexicans, sparingly found on a few creeks as far west as Ft. Clark, bears a globular fruit an inch in diameter, but no one who has seen a pine cone could mistake one for the other.”
22. We are indebted for information on this subject to the following: Robt. T. Hill, U. S. Geological Survey; William L. Bray, University of Texas; C. H. Tyler Townsend, Las Cruces, N. M.; Mrs. Anna B. Nickels, Laredo; Joseph A. Taff, U. S. Geological Survey; J. Reverchon, Dallas; Theo. D. A. Cockerell, Mesilla, N. M.; L. M. Kemp, El Paso; President Herrick, University of New Mexico; B. Coopwood, Laredo; Dr. Havard, U. S. Army.
23. A recent letter from Judge Williams, of Fort Stockton, necessitates a modification of this statement. See note 27 on p. 183.
24. George Parker Winship, translation of the Narrative of Castañeda, 14th Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, pp. 505, 506.
25. See note 27, p. 183, which partially clears up this difficulty.
26. See note 27.
27. Since this paper was read at the meeting of the Association on December 29, we have received a letter from Judge O. W. Williams of Ft. Stockton, which, it is gratifying to note, clears up some of the difficulties here mentioned. Judge Williams informs us that the piñon “is found in rough brakes near Pecos river (on each side) near the Pontoon bridge, and from there to the Rio Grande on both sides. . . . North of the Pontoon Bridge on the east side of the river, it is not found until you get high up in New Mexico.” The conditions of the Relation are satisfied by this fact; the distance from the Colorado to the Pecos is approximately that mentioned by Cabeza; the great rivers flowing from the north (Pecos and Rio Grande) no longer present difficulties. It will be noticed that the route of the Spaniards is thus drawn farther toward the south than is indicated by the body of this article. The route proposed by Bancroft becomes more probable as it is consistent with the likelihood that Cabeza ate piñones on the lower Pecos. See map.
28. H. H. Bancroft, North Mexican States and Texas, Vol. I, pp. 64-70.
29. See note 27, p. 183.
30. See note 27, p.183.
31. A. F. Bandelier, Contributions, etc., map.
32. This statement is made on the authority of Robert T. Hill of the United States Geological Survey.
33. In following the course of the river “we had frequently to make detours of twenty-five and thirty miles, in order to advance our work a few hundred feet.” Report on the United States and Mexican Boundary Survey, Washington, 1857, vol. I, p. 76.
34. This conclusion is necessarily modified by Judge Williams' statement that the piñon occurs along the lower course of the Pecos. See note 27, p. 183.
How to cite:
Ponton, Brownie, "ALVAR NUÑEZ CABEZA DE VACA: A PRELIMINARY REPORT ON HIS WANDERINGS IN TEXAS ", Volume 001, Number 3, Southwestern Historical Quarterly Online, Page 166 - 186. http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/publications/journals/shq/online/v001/n3/article_5.html
[Accessed Mon Dec 1 17:20:09 CST 2008]
