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Expedition and Shipwreck of Panfilo de Narvaez, and Adventures of Cabera de Vaca, the Discoverer of the Mississippi. 1527 Those familiar with the history of the conquest of Mexico will recollect that after the successful march of Cortez upon the city of Mexico, and his occupation of the capital of the Aztec Empire, Velasquez, the governor of Cuba, under whose orders he had originally commenced the enterprise, became jealous of the success and position of Cortez, and sent his lieutenant, Panfilo de Narvaez, to supersede the daring adventurer. The gallant and astute conqueror of Mexico felt no disposition to have his laurels thus plucked from him, and although Narvaez had brought with him a force of nine hundred Spaniards and one thousand Indians of Cuba, while Cortez had less than three hundred at his command, yet he determined, by a sudden and bold attack, to seize his rival and frustrate his intentions. His plan, favored by a stormy night, during which his opponents slept in fancied security, was entirely successful. Narvaez was taken prisoner, having lost an eye in the melee, and his forces submitted willingly, for the most part, to the leadership of the gallant Hernan Cortez. Narvaez appears to have been a leader of some military capacity, although negligent and lax in his discipline. He possessed undoubted courage, but this quality was rendered nugatory by an overweening confidence in his own powers, which made him deaf to the suggestions of others more sagacious than himself. He was altogether deficient in that prudent and calculating foresight demanded in a leader who has to travel out of the beaten track, face unforeseen obstacles and an active and enterprising foe. Disappointed and crestfallen, after his release by Cortez, Narvaez returned to Spain, and endeavored to obtain redress at court, but his sagacious opponent had already rendered his own version of the affair, and had vindicated himself from the charge of disloyalty to the crown, while the lustre and interest attached to the report of his memorable adventures in the subjugation of the Mexican capital effaced all the detractions which had been so industriously sent home by his rival. Failing to enlist any sympathy in his complaints against Cortez, Narvaez next turned his attention to getting up some new expedition, and asked the authority of the crown to undertake the conquest of Florida, with the title of Adelantado of all the regions which he might discover and conquer within certain limits. Hitherto the march of the Spanish explorers in America had, with few exceptions, been unchecked, and the path of discovery had become the road to successful conquest. Mexico, Panama, and the Spanish Main, as well as most of the islands in the Caribbean Sea, had submitted to the Spanish rule, and a mere handful of Spaniards had sufficed to rout thousands of defenseless natives. The native was consequently despised, and successful resistance was never anticipated. Duly commissioned to conquer and govern the provinces of the mainland, extending from the River of Palms (near Tampico) to Cape Florida, Narvaez left the port of San Lucar, in Spain, on the 17th of June, 1527, with five vessels, carrying six hundred men. He stopped at Hispaniola, with the purpose of refitting and provisioning his vessels. While thus delayed, one hundred and forty of his men withdrew from the enterprise, preferring to remain in St. Domingo. After a sojourn of forty-five days, the vessels sailed to the port of St. lago, in Cuba, and there made arrangements for procuring provisions, which he found he could obtain at Trinidad, a port a hundred leagues to the west. He dispatched two of his vessels to that point, where they were overtaken by a hurricane, and totally destroyed, with all on board, some seventy souls. Owing to this disaster, he was compelled to defer his expedition until the spring. He purchased other vessels to supply the place of those which had been wrecked, and found some additional followers to accompany him. He finally embarked in April, 1528, with a company of four hundred men-at-arms and eighty horses, under the pilotage of Miruelo, before mentioned, who claimed to be familiar with the coast. They made land on the 12th of April, and on Holy Thursday, the 14th of April, they anchored near the shore, in the mouth of a bay which is conjectured to have been Clear Water Bay, (1) just north of that now known as Tampa Bay, but a long time known by its Spanish designation of the Bay of Espiritu Santo. The expedition had unwittingly passed the entrance of the larger bay, and supposed themselves to be still south of it. This error led to most fatal consequences. At the head of the bay in which they had anchored they saw Indian houses, one of which is said to have been very large, and of sufficient capacity to hold more than three hundred persons. On Good-Friday, a day of bad omen for the expedition, the governor took formal possession of the country in the name of his Catholic Majesty, and assumed the government of the province. The natives received them with a bold fearlessness, yet not in an unfriendly manner, but at once made signs to them to go back to their ships. Upon a consultation of the principal officers, and, as De Vaca says, against his decided opposition, it was determined to march along the coast to the large bay which their pilot had spoken of, and that the vessels should coast along to the bay and await them there. It was an unwise determination; but they had barely escaped shipwreck on their voyage, were weary of the sea, and anxious to try their fortunes on land. An exploring party had met some of the natives wearing gold ornaments. Inquiring by signs of the Indians as to where they obtained this precious metal, they pointed northward, and gave the name of Abalachie, and indicated that there was an abundance of it to be had there, and that it was a province a long way off. The Indians told them truly, and meant the head-waters of the Apalachee River, in the gold regions of Upper Georgia; but as the name of Apalachee attached to the whole course of the river, and there were Apalachian villages near the Gulf coast, they were misled by their Indian guides, whom they forced to accompany them. In an exploration, before starting, they had come to the shore of the Bay of Espiritu Santo, but were not aware that it was the bay of which they were in search. One hundred men remained on board the vessels, which were placed under the command of one Caravallo. The remainder, numbering some three hundred, with forty horses, which remained out of the eighty put on board, constituted the land expedition. They seem to have brought but a scanty supply of provisions with them, as the allowance on which they commenced their march amounted to but two pounds of bread and half a pound of meat to each man. On this scanty provision they marched fifteen days, without seeing a village, a house, or a single living soul. They then came to a river, which was probably the Withlacoochee, on the banks of which they were met by twelve hundred Indians, who conducted them to their village, which was near by. A party was sent to the seashore, which they were told was not far distant, to look out for the ships; they found a shoal, marshy, and sandy shore, but no appearance of the bay or their ships, and returned next day. Uncertain as to any point where they could meet their vessels, they determined to proceed to Apalachee, where they might find the treasures they were in quest of. Resuming their march, they came to a river of considerable size and rapid current, which they crossed with difficulty. This was doubtless the Suwanee, and it is likely they crossed it some distance from the coast. After passing this river, they encountered much opposition from the Indians, and their guides led them through a most difficult country, much obstructed with the trunks of fallen trees of large size. They had occasionally in their march found fields of maize, but were now seven or eight days at a time without seeing any signs of cultivation. As no mention is made of crossing the Santa Fe River, they must have passed over the Natural Bridge, or at some point below its junction with the Suwanee. From the Suwanee they marched seven days, and reached the neighborhood of what was represented to them as the Apalachee they were in quest of. Narvaez and his companions seemed to have anticipated that this famed Apalachee was almost a second Mexico, where they were to receive the reward of all the privations and sufferings they had previously endured; but, much to their disappointment, they found only a petty Indian town, of some forty small cabins, made of thatch and built close to the ground. The country through which they had passed is described as level, the soil sandy but firm, the trees large, and consisting of gum, cedar, oak, pine, and palms, with much fallen timber, and with numerous lakes. Maize was cultivated by the natives, and the country was said to abound in deer, rabbits, hares, bears, lions, and kangaroos. (2) The lions and kangaroos must have been exterminated since then, as none have been found by subsequent explorers. Falcons, gerfalcons, sparrow-hawks, merlins, and other birds are mentioned. By the name of falcon and ger- falcon they probably meant the chicken-hawk. The town of Apalachee visited by them, it is supposed, was not the principal Indian town, but a small village of the Apalachees. De Soto's expedition took up their quarters in a village called Anhayea, which is said to have contained two hundred and fifty houses, (3) the location of which is believed to have been near Tallahassee, and the existence of numerous towns of fifty or sixty houses is spoken of. The town called Apalachee by De Vaca (3) was situated on a lake, and there was another village across the lake, which was possibly Miccasukie Lake. The Spaniards remained at this Indian town of Apalachee for about a month, a grievous infliction, no doubt, upon the natives, who kept up a continued state of warfare, and discouraged them greatly as to the nature and resources of the country, telling them that there were few people in it, and that it was poor and sterile; but that nine days' journey towards the sea there was a town called Aute or Haute, abounding in corn, squashes, and gourds, and well supplied with fish, being near the sea. Narvaez exhibited no enterprise in exploring the country around him, but remained supinely in Apalachee with his whole force of three hundred men, without an effort to penetrate farther or to verify the accuracy of the accounts the Indians gave him. He was really in the midst of a rich, populous, and abundant country, but was incompetent for the position of a leader. Following the interested advice of the Indians, he set out for Aute. His march was contested at every step by the Indians, who, from behind trees and ambuscades, discharged showers of arrows, and eluded all pursuit. Some of the Spaniards were willing to make oath that the force with which the Indians discharged their arrows was so great, that they had seen red oaks, as thick as the calf of a man's leg, shot through and through ; and the narrator adds that this is nothing wonderful, for he himself had seen an arrow driven into an elm a span in depth. He says, further, that these Apalachee Indians were of such great stature, that at a distance they appeared to be giants, men of fine proportions, very tall, and of very great strength, and discharged their arrows with great force from bows eight feet in length, with entire precision at a distance of two hundred yards. After nine days of constant molestation, the forces of Narvaez reached Aute, but the inhabitants, doubtless apprised of their approach, had abandoned their village and burned their dwellings. They had on their journey passed a river which they called Magdalena, and which was probably the Choctawhatchee. Aute was one day's journey from an entrance to the sea, and has been by some supposed to have been located near St. Mark's; but the probabilities are that it was near the Bay of Apalachicola. (6) Finding the town destroyed, and neither corn nor pumpkins, they were consoled by being able to procure an abundance of fish and oysters, but they were not allowed to rest in peace; whenever they went out they were waylaid, and could not leave their camp without danger. The wearied Spaniards, with insufficient food, kept in constant apprehension by the assaults of the natives, and unaccustomed to the country, were subjected to the miasma of the lowlands about them, now, in August, becoming noxious, and soon began to be prostrated by fevers. The alluring hopes which had led them on to Apalachee, and thence to Aute, had now no further basis to rest upon.The gold and abundance which was to reward them at Apalachee had not been found, and the plenty which was to await them at Aute had vanished. Their dreams of the conquest and spoils of a barbarous and wealthy people like that of Mexico and Peru were miserably dissipated; they had now no further hope than self-preservation, or desire except to leave the country. Their vessels they had never heard of; sickness was daily thinning their ranks and lessening their ability to proceed farther, or even to defend themselves where they were. Theirs was indeed a pitiful case, destitute alike of resources for remaining in, or means of leaving, these fatal shores. The reflections of Narvaez, as he wearily and wistfully looked over the expanse of sea stretching towards Cuba and the Spanish possessions, must have been painful indeed, as he recalled with bitterness the bright hopes with which he had set out from Cuba, empowered, as the lieutenant of the powerful Governor Velasquez, to wrest from Cortez the wealth and magnificence of Mexico, and vested with almost vice-regal powers, to play the sovereign of a great empire ; then his inglorious defeat, and the renewed hopes with which he set out with a larger force to establish in Florida, as he believed, a government more than equal to that of Mexico ; and now to find himself a wanderer, cut off from even the knowledge of his countrymen, hemmed in by cruel and relentless foes, faint with sickness and discouraged by disappointment, a miserable, defeated, and helpless man. Utterly dispirited, he called a council of his followers, to consider how they could escape from the country before they all perished of disease and hunger. Their determination, as indeed they could have come to no other, was to construct boats, and endeavor to reach the coasts of Cuba or Mexico. This seemed almost a hopeless undertaking; they had no ship-carpenters, nor any materials to build with, but they had the energy of desperation and the incital of hope. A smith of the company said he could make bellows from deer-skins, and would forge the necessary bolts, nails, etc. from their swords, arms, and equipments. (7) This he immediately put into execution. Others cut timber and hewed it into shape ; others gathered palmettos and made a substitute for tow for the caulking of the seams. Such was the diligence of despair, that, with but one single carpenter, they completed within six weeks five boats one hundred and thirty feet in length. They made cordage from the fiber of the palmetto, and from the tails and manes of the horses; the sails they made from their clothing, and out of the hides of their horses they made bottles to carry water. During their stay at Aute, they lost ten men, who were killed while seeking provisions, and forty had died from disease, leaving two hundred and forty to embark in the boats. They embarked on the 22nd of September, 1528, having killed their remaining horses to furnish themselves with meat. Narvaez commanded the first boat ; the second was in charge of Enriquez, the Controller, and Juan Suarez, the Commissary; in the third went Captains Castillo and Dorantes; in the fourth. Captains Tellezand Penalosa; and in the fifth, Cabeca de Vaca, each boat carrying about forty-eight men. After the provisions and clothing had been put on board, their gunwales, it is said, were not more than six inches out of water, and they were so crowded they could hardly move. "So much," says the narrator, (8) " can necessity do, which drove us to hazard our lives in this manner, running into a sea so turbulent, with not a single one of the party having a knowledge of navigation." It was indeed a most desperate undertaking for these two hundred and forty famished, sick, and down-hearted men, to launch upon an unknown and, at that season, stormy sea, with no knowledge of navigation, and scantily provisioned, in wretched, hastily- built boats, loaded down to the gunwales, and open to every swell of the sea. How different from their disembarkation a few months before, in the Bay of the True Cross, when, with banners displayed, and the sound of trumpets, they formally took possession of the country from which it was now their chief anxiety to escape ! They named the bay upon which they launched their boats, the Bay of Cavallos, and their embarkation was probably from the head of the Bay of Apalachicola, as the boats were some days in reaching the Gulf of Mexico, and the water is said to have been shallow. When De Soto's expedition visited the country, eleven years afterwards, the Indians conducted them to the spot, where they saw the traces of Narvaez's camp, the forge used in making the spikes, scraps of iron, and the bones of the horses, and their guide pointed out to them where the ten Spaniards had been killed in the neighborhood of Aute. (9) For several days the boats kept within the sound, and went out to sea at a pass which was probably that now known as Indian Pass, formed by St. Vincent's Island and the main. They then sailed westward along the coast in quest of the River of Palms. The question naturally suggests itself, as to the motive which induced them to go westwardly to seek a port more than a thousand miles distant, when it would seem to have been so much more rational to try to regain the shores of Cuba, not more than four or five hundred miles distant. The real reason lay in their ignorance of the true position of the port which they wished to reach. The River of Palms is located on the old maps in the neighborhood of Tampico, and Panuco was the most northerly of the settlements occupied by the Spaniards on the coast of Mexico. The position of Florida, in reference to Mexico, was long misapprehended, and Narvaez and his companions supposed, when they embarked in their boats, that they would not have far to proceed before reaching the Spanish settlements in Mexico. Upon several ancient maps in existence, the Bay of Apalachee is represented as about equidistant from the Capes of Florida and the Bay of Tampico, and De Narvaez and his companions supposed it would be safer to coast along to Panuco, rather than cross over to Cuba. It is subsequently mentioned that a party of four started by land for Panuco, which was believed to be near, and, later, Esquivel refused to join De Vaca in an effort to reach Mexico, because he had understood from the friars in the expedition that Panuco had been already passed. Panuco was, in fact, twelve hundred miles distant from the Bay of Apalachee. Had they turned to the south and east, they could have coasted along Florida, often protected by islands, and procured fish and oysters in abundance, and would have been, when they reached the Tortugas, in the track of vessels going to Mexico. The remnant of De Soto's expedition, with better fortune, coasted westwardly from the mouth of the Mississippi, until they reached in safety the Spanish settlements in Mexico. After passing into the Gulf, Narvaez and his followers coasted westwardly along the shore, and soon began to suffer from hunger and thirst, and were in constant danger of shipwreck. They occasionally ran into the coves and creeks, and sometimes encountered Indians engaged in fishing. Entering St. Joseph's Bay, they landed, and were hospitably received by an Indian chief, but in the night were attacked by the Indians. In the melee, they took from the chief his blanket, which was made of the skins of the civet-marten ; with this other chiefs were occasionally seen decorated. Afterwards they landed upon an island, which appears to have been the island of Santa Rosa. Here their boats got aground, and they nearly perished from cold and hunger. The natives of this place treated them with great kindness, supplying them with fish and a kind of root which was like a walnut in size and obtained from under the water with much labor. De Vaca's party, attempting to get their boat off in order to re-embark, lost three of their number, who were drowned by the boat capsizing, one of whom was Alonzo de Salis, the Assessor. The sympathy of the Indians was much excited on their behalf, and every assistance in their power was freely given. By this disaster they lost their boat and all their clothing, and suffered severely from the cold winds of November. The boat of Captains Dorantes and Castillo was also wrecked on this island. The Spaniards soon exhausted the small amount of provisions furnished by the Indians, and were reduced to such extremity that they lived on the bodies of such as died, and in a short time, of eighty souls who had come in the two boats, but fifteen remained alive. (10) The fate of those who were in the other three boats was equally disastrous. The boat of Enriquez the Controller and Juan Suarez was wrecked near Pensacola Bay, and they proceeded along the shore to the Perdido, across which they were carried by the governor's boat. Afterwards, the rest of his men having gone on shore, Narvaez persisted in remaining on board, having with him only the cockswain and a lad, and having on board neither provisions nor water. At midnight the wind arose off shore, and his boat, being anchored with only a stone, was driven to sea, and nothing more was ever heard of this renowned Captain-General and Adelantado of Florida, Panfilo de Narvaez. The survivors of these two boats, some ninety in number, gradually died from hunger and starvation, the living subsisting upon the dried flesh of their comrades, endeavoring to prolong their own existence until they too succumbed to their fate. The fifth and last boat, that of Captains Tellez and Penalosa, continued on across Mobile Bay, and as far as Pass Christian, where they landed among a people called the Camones, and, according to the report given to De Vaca by the Indians, were all killed by the natives, having become so feeble that they could offer no resistance. (11) Of the three hundred who started on the land march from the Bay of the True Cross with Narvaez, but four are known to have escaped. These were Cabega de Vaca, the Treasurer, Captain Alonzo Castillo, Captain Andreas Dorantes, and Estevanico, an Arabian negro or Moor. Juan Ortiz, who was found among the Indians by De Soto, and was his interpreter, was decoyed on shore from one of the vessels after Narvaez had begun his march. When Narvaez began his land march, he left three vessels in the bay, with one hundred men and ten women on board, and with a very small amount of stores. These vessels were to have sailed along the coast, as near the shore as possible, and to enter the best port they could find and there await Narvaez. They accordingly followed the coast for some distance without finding any harbor, and then sailed to the southward, and five or six leagues below where they had landed on their arrival they found a bay which penetrated into the land seven or eight leagues. Two of the vessels continued the search for Narvaez for nearly a year, and then sailed to Mexico. It is a curious circumstance that a woman who was on board one of the vessels had, before they began their march, predicted to Narvaez all the misfortunes which befell the party; he assumed to place little faith in the revelation, but doubtless, in so credulous an age, was depressed and dispirited by it. (12) The survivors, Cabeca de Vaca and the others, owed their preservation to an idea which the Indians entertained that they were skilled in the healing art, and they were soon installed as great medicine-men. They rather hesitated at first about assuming the responsibilities of a profession of which they were entirely ignorant ; but the Indians insisted on their practicing, and their success exceeded their anticipations. De Vaca thus describes their modus operandi, and it may be considered quite as rational as many systems now in vogue. He says, the custom of the Indians was, upon finding themselves sick, to send for a physician, and after the cure they gave him not only everything they themselves owned, but sought among their relatives for more to add to the gift, in order to evince their gratitude. The medicine-man was also privileged to have two wives instead of one. De Vaca's style of practice was, to ''bless the sick, breathe upon them, recite a Paternoster and an Ave Maria, praying with all earnestness to God our Lord that he would give them health and influence them to do us some great good, in his mercy;" and he piously says that "He willed that all those for whom we supplicated should, directly after we made the sign of the cross over them, tell the others that they were sound and in health. (13) Prior to his advancement to the dignity of a Great Medicine, De Vaca engaged in the business of an itinerant trader, carrying shells, conchs, etc. from the coast, and exchanging them for skins, ochre, flints for arrow-heads, and other articles. He went by day entirely without clothing, having a covering of deer-skins at night. De Vaca remained six years among the coast Indians, whom he calls the Mariannes, busily obtaining such information as would enable him to find his way back to the Spanish settlements. Of a tribe called the Yezagues, he says, ''Their support is principally roots, which are very bitter, and require two days in roasting. Occasionally they kill deer, and at times obtain some fish, but the quantity is so small and the famine so great, that they eat spiders, the eggs of ants, worms, lizards, salamanders, snakes and vipers which are poisonous, and earth and wood;" and, says De Vaca, ''if there were stones in that land, I verily believe they would eat them.'' The men carried no burdens, but devolved all menial and severe labor upon the old men and the women : the latter worked hard. These Indians, he says, were great thieves, great liars, and great drunkards, from the use of a certain liquor. They were so accustomed to running that, without rest or fatigue, they could follow a deer from morning until night. In this way they killed many, for they pursued them until tired down, and sometimes overtook them in the chase. Their houses were of matting, placed upon four hoops; they carried them on their backs, and moved every three or four days in search of food. They planted nothing, but were a very merry people, considering the hunger they suffered, and, notwithstanding, never ceased to dance, or to observe their festivities. To them the happiest part of the year was the season of eating prickly pears, for then they had a season of plenty, and could eat their fill, passing their time in dancing and eating day and night. They peeled and dried them, packing them in baskets like figs. Mosquitoes were of three sorts, and all of them abundant in every part of the country, and their bite poisoned and inflamed the body. The Indians used to set the plains and the woods within their reach on fire, to drive away the mosquitoes, and to drive out lizards ; they also fired the woods to drive in the deer, and to attract the cattle to young grass. It will be seen by this brief statement of Indian customs, as given by De Vaca, that some of the usages of the pine barren regions of Florida are inherited from the original occupants of the soil. A singular custom is mentioned of one tribe, that they suckled their children until twelve years old, and the reason given was, that they might not suffer in times of scarcity of food. At the end of six years, De Vaca, Castillo, Dorantes, and Estevanico, having become thoroughly versed in the language and customs of the Indians, and, we may suppose, by exposure and the use of pigments, coming closely to resemble them, determined to carry out their cherished purpose of reaching Panuco, in Mexico. Leaving the Mariannes at a favorable moment, they came to a tribe called the Avavares, and, having effected some remarkable cures among them, the medicine-men acquired an extraordinary reputation, and were considered superior beings. As such, they were carried upon their journey in great state, by large detachments of Indians, and had every want supplied. At times they were accompanied by as many as two or three thousand of the natives. They at length came to a large river, where they saw an Indian with a sword-buckle, and learned that others had seen white men upon the river in boats, and with horses upon the land, and at some distance from them came upon traces of the presence of Europeans; shortly afterwards they encountered a party of Spaniards who had come out eastwardly from the Spanish settlements in Mexico. Cabera de Vaca and his companions, after their long sojourn of seven years among the Indians, at length reached the abodes of civilized men, and were received with the greatest sympathy by the Spanish authorities in Mexico. He was enabled to return to Spain, where, upon his arrival, he addressed to his Catholic Majesty an interesting narrative of his adventures, with observations upon the manners and customs of the countries through which he had passed. (14) It appears that he desired to secure the privilege of returning to Florida and to have the appointment of governor; but other parties of greater position and influence were seeking those privileges, and the governorship of La Plata was given to De Vaca, who failed to give satisfaction in the administration of the government of that country, and was sent home in disgrace. His narrative of the expedition and shipwreck of Narvaez and of his own personal adventures is exceedingly interesting, as containing the observations of the first European who traversed the region now known as the Cotton States, and the first white man who beheld the Mississippi and crossed the great Father of Waters. The discovery of the Mississippi has for a long time been erroneously attributed to De Soto; but Cabeca de Vaca and his companions had rested upon its banks years before De Soto set out on his expedition ; and upon some high bluff by that wondrous stream should be erected a column bearing the simple inscription: Alvar Nunez Cabeca de Vaca IN HOC LOCO PRIMUS OMNIUM EUROPORUM FUIT, (1) Buckingham Smith's Notes to Letter of De Soto, 1854.
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