Florida he sailed westward with Narvaez and off the coast of
Lousiana was shipwrecked. A combat with Indians ensued from which
De Vaca and three others escaped with their lives. After spending
six years with the Indians as captives, he reached Mexico in 1536,
meanwhile making the journey here described. He returned to Spain
in 1537, and in 1540 was made Governor of Paraguay, which he
explored in 1543. In the following year he was deposed and
imprisoned by Spanish colonists in Paraguay for alleged arbitrary
conduct and sent to Spain, where he was sentenced to be banished
to Oran in Africa, but was subsequently recalled and made judge of
the Supreme Court of Seville.




CABEZA DE VACA'S JOURNEY TO THE SOUTHWEST

(1535-1536)

DE VACA'S OWN ACCOUNT[1]


Castillo returned at the end of three days to the spot where he had
left us, and brought five or six of the people. He told us he had
found fixt dwellings of civilization, that the inhabitants lived on
beans and pumpkins, and that he had seen maize. This news the most of
anything delighted us, and for it we gave infinite thanks to our Lord.
Castillo told us the negro was coming with all the population to wait
for us in the road not far off. Accordingly we left, and, having
traveled a league and a half, we met the negro and the people coming