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The odyssey of Cabeza de Vaca
There is some push/pull on spine, as well as some corner bumping. Slight scuffing on the back cover. All text blocks are yellowed. Previous owner adress sticker and inscription on front inside cover. 8.9x6.2in
306 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1933
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April 30, 2023
An amazing tale about a group of conquistadors who split up after being blown of course by tropical storms and landed on the west coast of what is now Florida way back in the early 16th century. Of a group that started with about 200 men only four survived, but those four made it all the way across the swamps of the gulf states to Texas, over into New Mexico and then down through the Mexican desert to be rescued by another group of conquistadors. Along the way, they were bought and sold as slaves to various native people and learned much of the way of life before European settlement. An incredible journey, to say the least, but the hero came through it with a staunch respect for the natives he encountered along the way.
At the start of this odyssey Cabeza was part of a large, armed force, so their encounters with natives were war-like and all he learned about them was how they fought. Once their numbers were reduced and the few survivors were captured and enslaved, he learned much more about how they lived day-to-day. The text does not keep us apprised of location very regularly, because Cabeza did not know where he was at the time, but the author updates from occasionally.
I believe the survivors were lucky to be captured as they would not have survived for long in that wilderness with what little they had for equipment and knowledge of the area. Most of the story takes place in a state of extreme hunger and thirst. When they made it off Matagorda Island and into the interior, they gave us insight into a very harsh version of survival that barley rose above the animal. There were people literally mixing dirt with their food to stretch it and fill their bellies. Yet they could not go to the shoreline as that was controlled by another tribe that would kill them to protect their home. The coastal dwellers were taller and stronger and better developed, presumably because they had better food and this advantage grew over generations. Thinking about it, I am sure this scenario played out many, many times in our human history, and still does today.
After Cabeza was rescued, he made his way back to Spain and secured another position on an expedition to South America. There he tried to lead a force up the Paraguay River, through the jungle to legendary cities of gold the natives told of. Probably, they were hearing about Machu Pichu and Lake Titicaca but, of course, they never made it that far. What struck me most about this section was the barbarity, including rampant cannibalism, of the natives there. Mel Gibson's movie 'Apocalypto' comes to mind.
Remember some day:
Early in the book, our hero's grandfather had inherited the tradition of fighting against Moorish invaders and pursued them across the islands, back toward Africa. " I must not tell here the splendid tale of that difficult conquest. How Don Pedro slew the native chief Doramas, converting him to Christianity as he died, and standing, with dripping lance, as godfather for his victim's baptism; how he divided his enemies into two factions, persuading the weaker party to aid in the extermination of their own people; how, after much blood had flowed without a victory, he tempted his foes, swearing on the holy bread that they should unit in a great common expedition against the island of Teneriffe; but the holy bread was unconsecrated and the promise void, so, when the Canarians were secure below decks, they were shipped to Seville; how, at a desperate shift for funds, he pawned his two sons, the father and uncle of our Cabeza de Vaca, to a Moorish alcaide; how, when the governor of the island of Gomera was slain by the natives, he came gallantly to the beautiful widow's aid, hanging, drowning, and pulling asunder by horses all males over fifteen, and selling the women as slaves. "
"Five hundred thousand ounces of gold were brought annually from Hispaniola (now Haiti and Santo Domingo). A piece of gold was discovered there weighing over 320 pounds; a roasted pig was served on it. Ten tons of gold sank in the wreck of one vessel."
"The Spaniard has ever been accused of brutality in torture, nay of perverse delight in watching pain. His bull-fights, his blood-stained Christs and Sebastians, the ingenious agonies of his Inquisition, have given him a popular reputation which histor4y does not succeed in refuting. When, during the long reconquest of Spain, a Moorish city was taken, the inhabitants were commonly slain or enslaved. Old records tell how children were thrown into wells and pits, or were flung on the church steps to be the prey of the wolfish scavenging dogs. Returning cavaliers would carry at their saddle-bows the heads of Moors, to be tossed for playthings to the village boys. At the siege of Malaga, in 1487, a Moor who attempted to assassinate Ferdinand and Isabella was shot back into the city by a catapult. To this the pagans whimsically responded by slaying a Galician gentleman and sending his corpse astride a mule out through the gates to the Christian camp."
"There was no deck-space for the passengers to sit or stand, even when the decks were not cleared for the handling of the ship. Exercise was entirely out of the question. With the human cargo packed body to body between decks, one seasick landsman could poison life for a hundred, one verminous member could infect the whole ship's complement. The seasick landsman, the verminous member, kwere never lacking. The sea-going rats, says a contemporary, stand at bay against their hunters like wild boars, and cockroaches grow to be ocean wildfowl."
"While Cabeza de Vaca was on shore (southern Cuba), concerned with his financial duties, a terrible hurricane came on to blow. All the houses and churches fell down, and men had to go seven or eight abreast, with arms linked. And all that night they heard a great roaring and a great noise of voices and the sound of bells and flutes and tambourines, the favorite instruments of demons and spirits, then as to-day. In the morning the tempest ceased; the ships had disappeared and nothing could be found of them, only a ship's dinghy on the top of some trees, a mile from shore, and two faceless bodies, beating against the rocks, some box lids, a cloaked and a ragged coverlet. Sixty men and twenty horses were never seen again. They were spared much, those sixty men and twenty horses."
"A later method of reconciling expediency with the law was for the soldiers of the King to crawl up to an Indian village in the dead of night, read the Requirimento in a whisper to the trees, have the notary duly witness it, and then rush to massacre with the cry of 'Santiago!'"
"Just so Cortes had always addressed his men as comrades, and had appeared always to accept their decisions. Cortes having, first skillfully implanted in the minds of his men the conclusion which he wished them to adopt, gained the right to act as the humble agent of their will. Cortes might serve as a model for dictators in a democracy."
"Wisdom indeed! By what wisdom were Christians led from the estate God had indicated for them, to affront the wilderness, to violate those secret lands which God, with inscrutable purpose, chose to hold in darkness? Were these dark brutes , with canes jiggling at mouth and breast, sons of Adam, partakers of his sin? Had Christ's blood been shed to save them? Were they not rather demoniac creatures, to whom the Christians were delivered for their manifold sins and wickedness, and especially for their interference with God's designs? Cabeza de Vaca furtively crossed himself."
"Their chief fear is of horses, and by these they may be conquered. Whosoever would fight them must be cautions to show no fear, or desire to have anything that is theirs; while war exists they must be treated with the utmost rigor; for if they discover any timidity or covetousness, they are a race that well discern the opportunities for vengeance, and gather and hear better, and have keener senses than any other in the world. They are great in hunger, thirst, and cold, as if they were made for the endurance of these more than any other men, by habit and nature."
"Then at the end of May we shall go to eat the prickly pear, and snails for garnishing, the bet food of all the year. And perhaps we shall take some deer. Our method of hunting is strange, indeed; we round up a herd of them and drive them into the sea and hold them there all day until they are drowned."
"Quaint indeed was some of the savages' behavior. The children were suckled until about the age of twelve. This was no mere oddity but a measure against the constant attacks of starvation. The tender children had not yet hardened themselves to bear three of four days without food, while the mothers had learned to make milk from air and sand."
"Throughout all these countries the people who were at war immediately made friends, that they might come to meet us, and bring what they possessed. In this way we left all the land at peace, and we taught all the inhabitants by signs, which they understood, that in heaven was a Man we called God, who had created the sky and the earth; him we worshipped and had for our master; the we did what he commanded and from hi hand came all good; and would they do as we did, all would be well with the. So ready of apprehension we found them that, could we have had the use of language by which to make ourselves perfectly understood, we should have left them all Christians. This much we gave them to understand the best we could. And afterward, when the sun rose, they opened their hands together with loud shouting towards the heavens, and then drew them down all over their bodies. They did the same again when the sun went down."
"Although, to be sure, the enslavement of Indians was illegal, interest found definitions which permitted the fact of slavery under improved names. The encomienda system, by which each settler was rendered responsible for 'the spiritual welfare' of even hundreds of natives, flourished in Mexico."
"Through some such spiritual passion Las Casas had passed when, a priest in Cuba, he found for his Pentecost sermon of 1514 the text of Ecclesiasticus: 'The bread of the needy is their life; he that defraudeth him thereof is a man of blood. He that taketh away his neighbor's living slayeth him; and he that defraudeth the laborer of his hire is a shedder of blood.' From that day of revelation until his death in 1566 Las Casas had no other purpose but to comfort and succor the desolate millions of the new world."
"On the way they were joined by six Christians with five hundred slaves. It seemed vain to persuade the six Christians to part with all their wealth; but as the procession advanced, the groans of the captives, their bewildered misery, the whipping of the sick to keep up the step in the long chain, the halts to unfetter a laggard to die by the wayside, left unhealing wounds in Cabeza de Vaca's mind. And gradually a bold purpose formed within hm, as he walked. When he should come to the Court of King Charles, he would ask the privilege of returning as governor to the land of his slavery, and there give an example of rule by honor and justice. It was a pretty dream, which dispossessed little by little the familiar dreams of beds with sheets, of Spanish hams, of the wines of Jerez."
"Unavailing though they were, they probably inspired Cabeza de Vaca to ask a supplementary kindness from the king. His Majesty was pleased to hear him, and on July 1, 1540, a Royal Provision was published that no lawyer or solicitor should be permitted to enter the colony for ten years from date."
At the start of this odyssey Cabeza was part of a large, armed force, so their encounters with natives were war-like and all he learned about them was how they fought. Once their numbers were reduced and the few survivors were captured and enslaved, he learned much more about how they lived day-to-day. The text does not keep us apprised of location very regularly, because Cabeza did not know where he was at the time, but the author updates from occasionally.
I believe the survivors were lucky to be captured as they would not have survived for long in that wilderness with what little they had for equipment and knowledge of the area. Most of the story takes place in a state of extreme hunger and thirst. When they made it off Matagorda Island and into the interior, they gave us insight into a very harsh version of survival that barley rose above the animal. There were people literally mixing dirt with their food to stretch it and fill their bellies. Yet they could not go to the shoreline as that was controlled by another tribe that would kill them to protect their home. The coastal dwellers were taller and stronger and better developed, presumably because they had better food and this advantage grew over generations. Thinking about it, I am sure this scenario played out many, many times in our human history, and still does today.
After Cabeza was rescued, he made his way back to Spain and secured another position on an expedition to South America. There he tried to lead a force up the Paraguay River, through the jungle to legendary cities of gold the natives told of. Probably, they were hearing about Machu Pichu and Lake Titicaca but, of course, they never made it that far. What struck me most about this section was the barbarity, including rampant cannibalism, of the natives there. Mel Gibson's movie 'Apocalypto' comes to mind.
Remember some day:
Early in the book, our hero's grandfather had inherited the tradition of fighting against Moorish invaders and pursued them across the islands, back toward Africa. " I must not tell here the splendid tale of that difficult conquest. How Don Pedro slew the native chief Doramas, converting him to Christianity as he died, and standing, with dripping lance, as godfather for his victim's baptism; how he divided his enemies into two factions, persuading the weaker party to aid in the extermination of their own people; how, after much blood had flowed without a victory, he tempted his foes, swearing on the holy bread that they should unit in a great common expedition against the island of Teneriffe; but the holy bread was unconsecrated and the promise void, so, when the Canarians were secure below decks, they were shipped to Seville; how, at a desperate shift for funds, he pawned his two sons, the father and uncle of our Cabeza de Vaca, to a Moorish alcaide; how, when the governor of the island of Gomera was slain by the natives, he came gallantly to the beautiful widow's aid, hanging, drowning, and pulling asunder by horses all males over fifteen, and selling the women as slaves. "
"Five hundred thousand ounces of gold were brought annually from Hispaniola (now Haiti and Santo Domingo). A piece of gold was discovered there weighing over 320 pounds; a roasted pig was served on it. Ten tons of gold sank in the wreck of one vessel."
"The Spaniard has ever been accused of brutality in torture, nay of perverse delight in watching pain. His bull-fights, his blood-stained Christs and Sebastians, the ingenious agonies of his Inquisition, have given him a popular reputation which histor4y does not succeed in refuting. When, during the long reconquest of Spain, a Moorish city was taken, the inhabitants were commonly slain or enslaved. Old records tell how children were thrown into wells and pits, or were flung on the church steps to be the prey of the wolfish scavenging dogs. Returning cavaliers would carry at their saddle-bows the heads of Moors, to be tossed for playthings to the village boys. At the siege of Malaga, in 1487, a Moor who attempted to assassinate Ferdinand and Isabella was shot back into the city by a catapult. To this the pagans whimsically responded by slaying a Galician gentleman and sending his corpse astride a mule out through the gates to the Christian camp."
"There was no deck-space for the passengers to sit or stand, even when the decks were not cleared for the handling of the ship. Exercise was entirely out of the question. With the human cargo packed body to body between decks, one seasick landsman could poison life for a hundred, one verminous member could infect the whole ship's complement. The seasick landsman, the verminous member, kwere never lacking. The sea-going rats, says a contemporary, stand at bay against their hunters like wild boars, and cockroaches grow to be ocean wildfowl."
"While Cabeza de Vaca was on shore (southern Cuba), concerned with his financial duties, a terrible hurricane came on to blow. All the houses and churches fell down, and men had to go seven or eight abreast, with arms linked. And all that night they heard a great roaring and a great noise of voices and the sound of bells and flutes and tambourines, the favorite instruments of demons and spirits, then as to-day. In the morning the tempest ceased; the ships had disappeared and nothing could be found of them, only a ship's dinghy on the top of some trees, a mile from shore, and two faceless bodies, beating against the rocks, some box lids, a cloaked and a ragged coverlet. Sixty men and twenty horses were never seen again. They were spared much, those sixty men and twenty horses."
"A later method of reconciling expediency with the law was for the soldiers of the King to crawl up to an Indian village in the dead of night, read the Requirimento in a whisper to the trees, have the notary duly witness it, and then rush to massacre with the cry of 'Santiago!'"
"Just so Cortes had always addressed his men as comrades, and had appeared always to accept their decisions. Cortes having, first skillfully implanted in the minds of his men the conclusion which he wished them to adopt, gained the right to act as the humble agent of their will. Cortes might serve as a model for dictators in a democracy."
"Wisdom indeed! By what wisdom were Christians led from the estate God had indicated for them, to affront the wilderness, to violate those secret lands which God, with inscrutable purpose, chose to hold in darkness? Were these dark brutes , with canes jiggling at mouth and breast, sons of Adam, partakers of his sin? Had Christ's blood been shed to save them? Were they not rather demoniac creatures, to whom the Christians were delivered for their manifold sins and wickedness, and especially for their interference with God's designs? Cabeza de Vaca furtively crossed himself."
"Their chief fear is of horses, and by these they may be conquered. Whosoever would fight them must be cautions to show no fear, or desire to have anything that is theirs; while war exists they must be treated with the utmost rigor; for if they discover any timidity or covetousness, they are a race that well discern the opportunities for vengeance, and gather and hear better, and have keener senses than any other in the world. They are great in hunger, thirst, and cold, as if they were made for the endurance of these more than any other men, by habit and nature."
"Then at the end of May we shall go to eat the prickly pear, and snails for garnishing, the bet food of all the year. And perhaps we shall take some deer. Our method of hunting is strange, indeed; we round up a herd of them and drive them into the sea and hold them there all day until they are drowned."
"Quaint indeed was some of the savages' behavior. The children were suckled until about the age of twelve. This was no mere oddity but a measure against the constant attacks of starvation. The tender children had not yet hardened themselves to bear three of four days without food, while the mothers had learned to make milk from air and sand."
"Throughout all these countries the people who were at war immediately made friends, that they might come to meet us, and bring what they possessed. In this way we left all the land at peace, and we taught all the inhabitants by signs, which they understood, that in heaven was a Man we called God, who had created the sky and the earth; him we worshipped and had for our master; the we did what he commanded and from hi hand came all good; and would they do as we did, all would be well with the. So ready of apprehension we found them that, could we have had the use of language by which to make ourselves perfectly understood, we should have left them all Christians. This much we gave them to understand the best we could. And afterward, when the sun rose, they opened their hands together with loud shouting towards the heavens, and then drew them down all over their bodies. They did the same again when the sun went down."
"Although, to be sure, the enslavement of Indians was illegal, interest found definitions which permitted the fact of slavery under improved names. The encomienda system, by which each settler was rendered responsible for 'the spiritual welfare' of even hundreds of natives, flourished in Mexico."
"Through some such spiritual passion Las Casas had passed when, a priest in Cuba, he found for his Pentecost sermon of 1514 the text of Ecclesiasticus: 'The bread of the needy is their life; he that defraudeth him thereof is a man of blood. He that taketh away his neighbor's living slayeth him; and he that defraudeth the laborer of his hire is a shedder of blood.' From that day of revelation until his death in 1566 Las Casas had no other purpose but to comfort and succor the desolate millions of the new world."
"On the way they were joined by six Christians with five hundred slaves. It seemed vain to persuade the six Christians to part with all their wealth; but as the procession advanced, the groans of the captives, their bewildered misery, the whipping of the sick to keep up the step in the long chain, the halts to unfetter a laggard to die by the wayside, left unhealing wounds in Cabeza de Vaca's mind. And gradually a bold purpose formed within hm, as he walked. When he should come to the Court of King Charles, he would ask the privilege of returning as governor to the land of his slavery, and there give an example of rule by honor and justice. It was a pretty dream, which dispossessed little by little the familiar dreams of beds with sheets, of Spanish hams, of the wines of Jerez."
"Unavailing though they were, they probably inspired Cabeza de Vaca to ask a supplementary kindness from the king. His Majesty was pleased to hear him, and on July 1, 1540, a Royal Provision was published that no lawyer or solicitor should be permitted to enter the colony for ten years from date."
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