"In these pages, [the author] brings us the imagined memoirs of the first black explorer of America: Mustafa al-Zamori, called Estebanico. The slave of a Spanish conquistador, Estebanico sails for the Americas with his master, Dorantes, as part of a danger-laden expedition to Florida. Within a year, Estebanico is one of only four crew members to survive. As he journeys across America with his Spanish companions, the Old World roles of slave and...

This book tells the story of an army of would-be conquerors who came to the New World on the heels of Cortés. Bound for glory, they landed in Florida in 1528. But only four of the four hundred would survive: eight years and a 5,000-mile journey later, three Spaniards and a black Moroccan wandered out of the wilderness to the north of the Rio Grande and into Mexico. The survivors brought nothing back other than their story, but what a tale it was....

"In 1528, a Spanish expedition founders off the coast of Florida. the lone survivor, Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca, discovers an ancient Indian tribe. Learning their mystical and mysterious culture, he becomes a healer and a leader. But this New World collides with the Old World when Spanish conquistadors arrive to enslave the Indians. Cabeza de Vaca must confront his own people and his past"--Container.

The story of Spanish nobleman Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, who joined an expedition to the New World in 1527. The expedition met with disaster after disaster, eventually leading Cabeza de Vaca to a seven-year stay among the Indians, first as a captive, then as a trader and healer. He came to believe that the Indians should be converted to Christianity with kindness and later attempted to put his ideas into practice.

"The story of Spanish explorer Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca brims with his adventures and misadventures throughout the North American Southwest. As of the sixteenth century, no European had journeyed over such a large extension of territory, from the Florida Peninsula to northern Mexico, and survived. This lively and informative volume goes on to examine his eight years of wandering in this unknown land, during which he learned natural medicine from...

Castaways (or Naufragios) is the first major narrative of the exploration of North America by Europeans (1528-1536). It is also an enthralling story of adventure and survival against unimaginable odds. Its author, Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, a fortune-seeking sixteenth-century Spanish nobleman, was the treasurer of an expedition to claim for the Spanish Crown a vast area that includes today's Florida, Louisiana, and Texas. A shipwreck forced him and...

Sixteen-century Spanish conquerors, known as conquistadors, came to the New World with a thirst for gold and land. When the conquistadors returned to Spain, they told fantastic stories about their adventures. One story stands out from the rest, about a conquistador whose expedition was a complete failure. Cabeza de Vaca collected no gold and conquered no one, but he accomplished a feat no other conquistador had. After spending years among the native...