#14 Cabeza de Vaca Part 3

The History of the Americans

Jack Henneman

History

4.9 • 632 Ratings

🗓️ 25 March 2021

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We will no longer refer to the Narvaez Expedition in the title of the episode because, as you know if you listened to Episode 13, in late November 1528 schizz got seriously real. It could no longer be said that there was a Narvaez Expedition. Panfilo de Narvaez himself was dead on a raft, adrift with two other corpses in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico, and his original landing party at Tampa Bay in April of that year had dwindled from 300 men and 42 horses to two rafts of 40 or so starving men, each crew unaware of the other, castaway on opposite sides of a barrier island near Galveston on the Texas Gulf coast. Almost eight years would elapse before the final four of these roughly 80 wretches would reconnect with the bleeding edge of Spanish civil authority on the Pacific coast of Mexico.

We recorded this episode on March 25, 2021, in New Orleans, Louisiana, and if you listen carefully you can hear the birdies of spring and a couple of trains whistling in the distance.

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Selected references for this episode

Andrés Reséndez, A Land So Strange: The Epic Journey of Cabeza de Vaca

Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, The Account: Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca’s Relacion, An Annotated Translation by Martin A. Favata and Jose B. Fernandez

A New History of Old Texas Podcast by Brandon Seale

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the History of the Americans podcast, episode 14.
0:12.6	I'm your host, Jack Heneman, and this episode is Cabezza de Vaca Part 3.
0:18.3	We will no longer refer to the Narvaeus expedition in the title of the podcast,
0:23.3	because as you know, if you listen to episode of 13, in late November 1528, shiz got seriously real.
0:32.9	It could no longer be said that there was an Arvayas expedition.
0:47.0	Panfilo de Navayas himself was dead on a raft adrift with two other corpses in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico, and his original landing party at Tampa Bay in April of that year had dwindled from 300 men and 42 horses to two rafts of 40 or so
0:59.5	starving men, each crew unaware of the other, cast away on opposite sides of a barrier island
1:07.3	near Galveston on the Texas Gulf Coast. Almost eight years would elapse before the
1:15.3	final four of these roughly 80 wretches would reconnect with the bleeding edge of Spanish civil
1:22.2	authority on the Pacific coast of Mexico. We are recording this episode on March 25th, 2021, in New Orleans.
1:30.8	Thank you for listening, and please subscribe and rate us in your podcatcher. Glowing reviews on
1:36.6	Apple don't hurt either. And of course, please send your quibbles, substantive corrections,
1:42.8	expressions of outrage, and eruptions of enthusiasm to me by email at
1:47.8	the History of the Americans at gmail.com, or by commenting on the website, the history of the
1:54.5	Americans.com. Among the castaways on Cabezza de Vaca's raft was a still strong young man, Lope to Oviedo,
2:05.0	and Cabezza de Vaca dispatched to explore the area surrounding their beachhead.
2:10.3	About a mile away, he found an unoccupied Indian village.
2:14.6	Oviedo took a pot and filled it with fish and headed back down the trail to the beach.
2:21.6	Three-armed Indians followed him, and when Oviato got back to the other Spaniards, the trailing Indians stopped at a safe distance and watched.
2:30.7	The word was on the Indian street, though, because within half an hour, a hundred men all armed, had reinforced the first three, and now surrounded the Spaniards.
2:42.5	This was a fairly crucial moment. It was the conquistadors instinct to bluff and bluster when surrounded by Indians, and many a time it served them well.
2:53.6	But Cabezadeevaca was a survivor, and he knew that a hundred hail and hardy and armed Indian men
	...

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