Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca (ca. 1490-ca. 1556)
Cabeza de Vaca was an early Spanish explorer, considered the first geographer, historian, and ethnologist of Texas. He sailed with the 1527-28 expedition of Panfilo de Narvaez to the coast of Florida. Separated from the Spanish ships, Narvaez sought to leave Florida by sea. In 1528 Cabeza de Vaca and three others were grounded on an island off the Texas coast, likely San Luis, now known as Follets Island. After being enslaved by the Mariame Indians, and serving as a merchant and medicine man, Cabeza de Vaca and other survivors left the area of Galveston Island, searching for Spanish settlements, in 1534. They reached Culiancan on the Pacific Coast of Mexico in 1536. Cabeza de Vaca and his companions Andres Dorantes de Carranza and Alonso Castillo Maldonado wrote the earliest notes known to exist describing the Indians, landforms, flora , and fauna of Texas.
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Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca: Explorer