Cabeza de Vaca was Tougher than Nails

Cabeza de Vacas Journey

Around Arizona/California they began to see evidence of the Spaniard slave trade and the destruction it caused. Agricultural groups teetering on the edge of survival were driven into starvation by the European slavers, who destroyed homes, villages, and people. Cabeza de Vaca wrote:

Among themselves [the natives] would comment that the Christians lied because we came from where the sun rises and they [the slavers] came from where the sun sets, we cured the sick and they killed those who were healthy, and we came naked and barefoot and they were clothed and on horseback and with lances, and we were not greedy for anything, [but] rather everything that was given to us we in turn gave to others and kept nothing, and the others had no other purpose but to steal everything they found and never give anything to anyone. [taken from here]

When the survivors finally met a group of these slavers, they tried to free their captives, with mixed success (they did, however, manage to spread word to the nearby natives, so the slavers had a much harder time capturing anyone). The slavers were apparently quite angry and confused that Europeans would show such sympathy toward the natives.

Two parts of this story are of particular fascination to me. First, the description of the Native Americans is different from the sanitized version I learned in school. Not only are some (though not all) of the groups quite brutal in their treatment of the strangers and each other, the wretched condition of their societies was likely attributable to the fact that, half a century after Columbus had brought some nasty, nasty  diseases to the New World, these diseases had probably cut a devastating swath through whatever social structures existed before then. It is possible that Cabeza de Vaca encountered the remnants of peoples, more than the peoples themselves. Despite this, everywhere was populated. The castaways found almost no piece of land that was not occupied.

The second point of fascination is also very moving: Cabeza de Vaca and his companions seem to have had a Siddhartha-type experience in which their conceptions of life, morality, nations, social reality, justice, and the humanity of others were radically altered. They became new men, noticeably distinct from the men they returned to in Mexico City and Spain, and all it took was eight years of unimaginable hardship, grief, and suffering. I recommend reading up on this guy’s travels.

Many modern explorers and adventurers look a little like whining sissies by comparison.