Why This Conquistador Walked NAKED Across America

In 1527, Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca sailed from Spain as the royal treasurer of an expedition sent to conquer Florida. Eight years later he walked out of the mountains of northern Mexico barefoot and sunburned, with hundreds of Native people behind him who called him a healer. Of about 300 men who marched into Florida, four were still alive. This is the story of how a conquistador crossed a continent on foot and came out the other side as someone else: the boats built from melted stirrups and horse hair, the island the survivors called Malhado, six years as a trader on the Texas coast, the healers, and the day the slave hunters of Diego de Alcaraz could not believe they were the same people. Chapters 0:00 Cold open 0:36 The worst plan 1:36 Boats made of horses 2:40 The Island of Ill Fate 3:40 The trader 4:35 The healers 5:40 The long walk 6:44 The same people? 7:47 What came after Sources Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, La Relación (1542). English translations by Buckingham Smith (1871) and Fanny Bandelier (1905), Project Gutenberg. Wikipedia: "Narváez expedition", "Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca", "Estevanico". Texas State University, Wittliff Collections: Cabeza de Vaca exhibit and route survey. Historians still debate the exact route and the island (Galveston or Follet's Island). Numbers are the Relación's own estimates. Scout Explains: the history of the Americas, animated. #history #conquistador #texashistory