by Donald E. SheppardIn mid-1527 the Panfilo de Narvaez expedition left Spain with 5 ships and 600 men, including Cabeza de Vaca, to establish a colony in "La Florida;" the name Spain used for all of North America. 300 men landing in Florida with 40 horses.
They wandered for 6 months fighting hostile Indians, malaria and dysentery. To escape they built five 30-foot barges and headed west along the Gulf Coast toward Mexico, Spain's nearest outpost on this continent.
In the Winter of 1528 two barges containing 80 sick men wrecked on East Island, Louisiana. The barges were destroyed, as were all but 15 of the men to cold weather, hunger, disease, drowning and cannibalism among themselves. The fate of the other barges was worse.
Cabeza de Vaca and 3 others spent 6 years in Louisiana before heading west again, living like the natives. In Houston, Vaca heard stories of the interior which would profoundly influence DeSoto and Coronado.
Vaca went on to New Mexico and Arizona, eating flowers, roots, bitter fruits and nuts, and practicing the science of healing, often followed by 100's of native well-wishers.
In early 1536 he found Spanish soldiers on a slaving expedition in Northern Mexico. In July he arrived in Mexico City where he wrote the oldest known history of Gulf Coast America.