Castaways: The Narrative of Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca

188 Pages·1993·10.402 MB·English

by  Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca,  Enrique Pupo-Walker

CASTAWAYS
Latin American Literature and Culture
General Editor
Roberto González Echevarría
Bass Professor of Hispanic and Comparative Literatures
Yale University
1. Manuel Bandeira, This Earth, That Sky, trans. Candace
Slater
2. Nicolás Guillén, The Daily Daily, trans. Vera M.
Kutzinski
3. Gwen Kirkpatrick, The Dissonant Legacy of Modernismo:
Lugones, Herrera y Reissig, and the Voices of Modern
Spanish American Poetry
4. Pablo Neruda, Selected Odes of Pablo Neruda, trans.
Margaret Sayers Peden
5. Rosamel del Valle, Eva the Fugitive, trans. Anna Balakian
6. Jean de Léry, History of a Voyage to the Land of Brazil,
Otherwise Called America, trans. Janet Whatley
7. Pablo Neruda, Canto General, trans. Jack Schmitt
8. Doris Sommer, Foundational Fictions: The National
Romances of Latin America
9. Margarita Zamora, Reading Columbus
10. Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, Castaways: The Narrative
of Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, edited by Enrique Pupo-
Walker, trans. Frances M. López-Morillas
11. Vicky Unruh, Latin American Vanguards: The Art of
Contentious Encounters
CASTAWAYS
T HE N A R R A T I VE OF
ALVAR N Ú Ñ EZ
C A B E ZA DE VACA
EDITED BY ENRIQUE PUPO-WALKER
TRANSLATED BY
FRANCES M. LÓPEZ-MORILLAS
University of California Press
Berkeley • Los Angeles • London
This edition has been translated with the help of a grant from the Dirección
General del Libro y Bibliotecas of the Spanish Ministry of Culture.
The publisher also gratefully acknowledges a grant from the Program for
Cultural Cooperation between Spain's Ministry of Culture and United States
universities.
University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
University of California Press, Ltd.
London, England
© 1993 by
The Regents of the University of California
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, Alvar, 16th cent.
[Relación o naufragios de Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca. English]
Castaways : the narrative of Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca /
edited by Enrique Pupo-Walker ; translated by Frances M. López-
Morillas.
p. cm.
Translation of: Relación o naufragios de Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-520-07063-9 (pbk.)
1. Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, Alvar, 16th cent. 2. America—Early
accounts to 1600. 3. America—Discovery and exploration—Spanish.
4. Indians of North America—Southwestern States. 5. Southwestern
States—Description and travel. 6. Explorers—America—Biography.
7. Explorers—Spain—Biography. I. Pupo-Walker, Enrique. II. Title.
E125.N9A3 1993
970.0i'6'092—dc20 92-25645
CIP
Printed in the United States of America
15 14 13 12 11
14 13 12 11 10 9
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (R1997) (Permanence of Paper). @
Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Editor's Foreword xi
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction xv
Prologue 3
i Which Recounts When the Fleet Sailed,
and the Officers and Men Who Went in It 5
n How the Governor Arrived at the Port
of Jagua and Brought a Pilot with Him 10
in How We Reached Florida 11
rv How We Marched Inland 13
v How the Governor Left the Ships 17
vi How We Reached Apalachee 21
vn Of the Manner of the Land 22
vra How We Departed from Aute 27
ix How We Departed
from the Bay of Horses 31
x Of the Fight We Had with the Indians 35
xi Of What Befell Lope de Oviedo
with Some Indians 39
xn How the Indians Brought Us Food 41
xm How We Had News
of Other Christians 44
Contents
xiv How Four Christians Departed 46
xv What Befell Us in
the Isle of 111 Fortune 49
xvi How the Christians Departed
from the Isle of 111 Fortune 51
xvn How the Indians Came
and Brought Andrés Dorantes and
Castillo and Estebanico 55
xvm Of the Report Given to
Figueroa by Esquivel 59
xix How the Indians Separated Us 64
xx How We Escaped 66
xxi How We Cured Some Sufferers There
xxn How They Brought Us More
Sick Folk Next Day 71
xxm How We Departed after
Eating the Dogs 77
xxiv Of the Customs of the Indians
of That Land 79
xxv Of the Indians' Readiness
to Use Arms 82
xxvi Of the Tribes and Their Languages
xxvn How We Moved and
Were Well Received 86
xxvm Of Another New Custom 89
xxix How Some Indians
Robbed the Others 92
xxx How the Custom of Receiving
Us Changed 97
xxxi How We Followed the Maize Road
xxxn How They Gave Us Hearts of Deer
Contents vii
xxxra How We Saw Traces of Christians no
xxxiv How I Sent for the Christians 112
xxxv How the Mayor Received Us Well
on the Night We Arrived 116
xxxvi How We Caused Churches to Be
Built in That Land 1x9
xxxvn Of What Befell When I
Decided to Return 121
xxxvm What Befell the Others Who
Went to the Indies 125
APPENDIX A Note on the Text 129
APPENDIX B The American Cultures Described
in Cabeza de Vaca's Naufragios 133
Notes 139
Select Bibliography 147
Index 151

Illustrations
1. Approximate route of Cabeza de Vaca xvi
2. Portrait of Cabeza de Vaca 2
3. Map of Hispaniola, late sixteenth
or seventeenth century 6
4. View of Santo Domingo, ca. 1600 7
5. Tampa Bay [eighteenth century?] 12
6. Photograph of west Florida coast, ca. i860 18
7. Map of the provinces of Florida, 1768 23
8. Narvaez's men build boats near
Apalachicola, Florida 29
9. Cabeza de Vaca and his companions remove
an arrowhead from an Indian 94
10. Cabeza de Vaca with Indians in New Spain 113
11. Havana Bay, ca. 1615 122
ix