Relates Cabeza de Vaca's travels across North America after coming to the New World in 1527.

Cabeza de Vaca is the account of his experiences with the Narvaez expedition and after being wrecked on Galveston Island in November 1528. Cabeza de Vaca and his last three men struggled to survive.They wandered along the Texas coast as prisoners of the Han and Capoque American Indians for two years, while Cabeza de Vaca observed the people, picking up their ways of life and customs.They traveled through the American Southwest and ultimately reached Mexico City, nearly eight years after being wrecked on the island.In 1537, Cabeza de Vaca returned to Spain, where he wrote his narratives of the Narvaez expedition. These narratives were collected and published in 1542 in Spain. They are now known as The Relation of �lvar N��ez Cabeza de Vaca. The narrative of Cabeza de Vaca is the "first European book devoted completely to North America." His detailed account describes the lives of numerous tribes of American Indians of the time. Cabeza de Vaca showed compassion and respect for native peoples, which, together with the great detail he recorded, distinguishes his narrative from others of the period.Cabeza de Vaca reported on the customs and ways of American Indian life, aware of his status as an early European explorer. He spent eight years with various peoples, including the Capoque, Han, Avavare, and Arbadao. He describes details of the culture of the Malhado people, the Capoque, and Han American Indians, such as their treatment of offspring, their wedding rites, and their main sources of food.

�lvar N��ez Cabeza de Vaca was one of the first Europeans to explore the vast lands of America. Setting off with expedition led by P�nfilo de Narv�ez in 1527, Cabeza de Vaca was one of only four to return alive. Over an eight-year period he and his companions travelled into the unexplored interior of what is now known as the Caribbean, the United States and Mexico. This book, first titled La Relaci�n (The Relation) was first published in 1542, shortly followed by a second edition under the title, Naufragios (Shipwrecks), in 1555. They were the first written accounts of North and Central America that made it back to Europe. Cabeza de Vaca's journey led him to encounter Native Americans who had never laid eyes upon Europeans before, indeed he has been termed a proto-anthropologist for his accounts of their ways of life. During this time travelling through America Cabeza de Vaca became a wandering merchant and medicine man to the Native Americans, but always kept his eyes open to find his way back to Christian civilization. "Cabeza de Vaca was not only a physical trailblazer: he was also a literary pioneer, and he deserves the distinction of being called the Southwest's first writer." William T. Pilkington Cyclone Covey's wonderful translation allows the reader to fully engage with this brilliant seventeenth century account. �lvar N��ez Cabeza de Vaca re-joined Spanish forces in Mexico City in 1536. He returned to Spain a year later published his account of the journey. In the 1540s he was governor of Rio de la Plata in what is now Argentina, but he was transported back to Spain and put on trial in 1545 for his contribution to the poor administration. He died in Seville before 1560.

A mesmerizing sixteenth century epic of a man's incredible expedition. It is a pleasant and adventurous experience of De Vaca to interior America with new world of challenges. It is an Odyssey of De Vaca with fresh look at the Native America. A must-read for lovers of history and adventure.

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