Welcome to Cabeza de Baca.

Episode 4, Apalache. I'm Brandon Sealed.

On June 25, 1528, 300 men under the command of a one-eyed conquistador named Panfilo de Narvaise

appeared on the outskirts of a Native American village near modern-day Tallahassee, Florida.

Narvaise and his men had been guided to this spot by a charismatic native lord named D'Utanchayin,

who had convinced Narvaise that this village,

Apalache, was the wealthiest in the region. But now, D'Changayin was gone. It seems that

he had been more interested in steering the Narvaise expeditionaries away from his own village than in

becoming their allies in a war against Apalachie.

And even the one-eyed Narvaise could tell that Apalache was no tenochitlan.

Despite being the largest community they had yet encountered, it consisted of a mere 40 small

straw houses scattered amidst the checkerboard of family cornfields.

And yet Narvaise had been told repeatedly by natives that he had captured and perhaps tortured

that Apalachia was full of gold and corn and, quote,

a great quantity of everything which we esteemed in everything, end quote.

And so he remained committed to conquering this poor village, motivated by the slim hope that it might

hold some great hidden treasure, but also by the fact that it apparently did have some corn to offer

his hungry men and beasts. To lead the assault on Appalaché, he selected the expedition's royal treasurer,

our very own Alvar Nunez, Cabeza de Vaca.

And so Cabeza de Baca, with a force of 50-foot soldiers and nine horsemen,

rushed into the village, unopposed, to the surprise of the native women and children in the village chief that they found there.

The other men in the village were out hunting or something.

...