Welcome to Cabeza de Baca.

Episode 22, Crossing the Divide. I'm Brandon Seal.

Throughout the fall of 1535, the Native American spiritual movement, headed or at least figureheaded by Cabeza de Baca, Castillo, Dorantes, and Esteban stormed its way across northern Kualeula.

Their cures never failed them, culminating in the extraction in the previous episode of an arrowhead by Cabesa de Vaca

from the beating heart of an ailing Indian. Their compensation, too, increased with their fame,

whereas before, a basket of roasted prickly pears and a piece of dried venison seemed like a

fortune, now they were being gifted beads, minerals, and even worked copper rattles.

And as word of these four expeditionaries spread like a prairie fire, it drew in new recruits from

miles around until their party numbered now three or four thousand souls.

But one day, on the south side of the Rio Grande, just across from Big Ben National Park, it almost fell apart.

The four expeditionaries rise had been so meteoric. Just a year ago, they had been starving slaves,

eating out a living in South Texas, and the source of their

newfound power was so mysterious that it finally just overwhelmed them.

The four broke away from their camp of thousands and went off to brood in the brush by themselves,

leaving their followers trembling at what would happen now that their medicine men had withdrawn from them.

And sure enough, 300 of the followers promptly fell sick.

Then eight died.

Others seemed likely to follow.

The camp descended into chaos, with children screaming and women wailing at the impending

death of their loved ones.

Incidentally, this all happens just at the moment in Kaveseyaka's narrative when he

and his companions seem to be further from God than ever.

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