PDF Brutal Journey: Cabeza de Vaca and the Epic First Crossing of North America by Paul Schneider in History

Review

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful. Great Reading for the Armchair ExplorerBy Bill EmblomThis is a story you want to read about as an armchair explorer. You certainly wouldn't want to live it. It is a tale of suffering. Starvation; torture; cannibalism; slavery; and dealing with various Indian tribes in addition to endurance survivors didn't realize they were capable of all were factors that had to be dealt with in this trip from Florida across the Gulf of Mexico; down the southeast coast of Texas and into Mexico. The author uses Cabeza de Vaca's journal as his primary source for his information; and admits that guesses have to be made at times in determining what may have occurred. Cabeza de Vaca's account of the trip was written some years following the trip in an attempt to acquire recognition and favors from the king of Spain and the public for his suffering; so this must be taken into account as well in determining how factual the account is. Of close to 400 people who started out on this trip only four survived. In addition to Cabeza de Vaca the only survivors were three others named Dorantes; Castillo; and a black Moroccan named Esteban. There are many excellent books involving exploration; especially those of Samuel Eliot Morison; and this one by author Paul Schneider provides us with a neglected subject regarding North American exploration.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. US history from 1528By CokabuThis is a fascinating historical account of the first Spanish landfall at Tampa Bay; and of the few survivors who walked all the way to Mexico from there! I've read this before from the library; but enjoy it so much I wanted to my own personal copy.5 of 5 people found the following review helpful. Good commentaryBy ReaderThis is an engaging commentary on Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca's account of his eight years of wandering in North America at the dawn of the European presence. I am grateful to the author for digesting so much of the available research and producing this book for the general reader. It does not take the place of the account itself; however; which ought to be read in its entirety.Not fiction; it is the true story of the Cabeza de Vaca's unplanned early-16th-century prolonged confrontation with nature; at times without so much as a stitch of clothing; without the foggiest idea of where he was; really; except in a land where contact with natives was generally treacherous and deadly and only rarely peaceful. The Spanish title of his story is Naufragios (Shipwrecks). Of some 300 hundred in the original party; only four survived; not counting one and possibly a very few others who remained with native Americans; never to return. The account makes it clear how improbable the return of even those four was.I was a little disappointed to find no explanation in this book for something that has always puzzled me in Cabeza de Vaca's story: How exactly were the pickly pears harvested and eaten? Schneider writes; "Pickly pears that size have trunks like trees; thorns like hyperdermic needles. The fruits themselves are covered with barbed peach fuzz that is almost worse than the thorns. But no one cared: everybody's skin was too tough; and the pulpy; juicy; bittersweet taste was too delicious to be bothered by such a minor annoyance." (p. 251) Even though everybody's skin was tough; I am puzzled. This plant has a splendid defense against the harvesting of its fruit. The same part of the story calls this time the happiest and most convivial of times; because stomachs; usually empty; were then filled with the fruit. But there is nothing quite like that barbed peach fuzz to impinge on anybody's happiness. Tiny barbed thorns of that type work themselves well into the skin and are very irritating. Schneider mentions sticks used to beat paths into the thorny mazes; but this is the only utensil mentioned. Cabeza de Vaca himself simply does not go into the details; he does not say that everybody's skin was too tough. Even the tough-skinned would eventually want to use some kind of tool; it seems to me. The Indians ate this fruit in season every year. This is not to doubt the account at all; simply to say that; all in all; something remains to be explained here.There are; of course; other unanswered questions. Obviously; to deal with all in detail would have required a much longer book. How exactly were the boats made in which the Narvaez group fled westward from Florida? (This business of boat construction arises in some other exploration accounts. Many years later; for example; a missionary group under Eusebio Kino improvised construction of boats to cross the Gulf of California to Baja California and back.) This is much more easily said than done; of course; and leaves us wondering how it was accomplished. We are told that bellows were made of animal skin to improvise a forge for melting down metal. Sails were sewn from shirts. Pitch was collected from pines. And all this was accomplished by men nearly starving; continually falling sick; and threatened by hostiles. They did it to save their lives; and I do not deny that; under that impulse; it can be done; but I do wonder if anybody has ever tried to duplicate the feat after the fashion of Thor Heyerdahl and to document the attempt; just to shed some light on the subject.I appreciated the author's quotation from Cervantes prefacing the bibliography. I took it as a note of humility; one refreshing because a little unusual and therefore not pro-forma; one putting the whole writing enterprise into perspective; which seems especially called for in a book on this subject. Recently I was telling somebody about Cabeza de Vaca; and she asked if he took notes during his wanderings. I realized how far I had failed to convey the nature of the story and had to explain that much of the time he was totally lost and had absolutely nothing with him; not even clothes to wear; so there was hardly any question of taking notes.