Adventures in the Unknown Interior of America

Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca (Jerez de la Frontera, c. 1488/1490 - Seville, c. 1557/1558) was a Spanish explorer of the New World, one of four survivors of the 1527 Narváez expedition. During eight years of traveling across the Southwest, he became a slave, trader and shaman to various Native American tribes before rejoining Spanish forces in Mexico. After his return to Spain in 1537, Cabeza de Vaca has been considered notable as a proto-anthropologist for his detailed accounts of the many tribes of American Indians whom he encountered. While in Spain, he wrote his journal, first published in 1542 as La Relación (The Report), which in later editions was entitled Naufragios (Shipwrecks).In 1540 Cabeza de Vaca returned to the Western Hemisphere, appointed as adelantado of the Río de la Plata in present-day Argentina, where he was supposed to re-establish the settlement of Buenos Aires. Unsuccessful, he also came into conflict with the governor, Domingo Martínez de Irala, who arrested him in 1544 for poor administration. The former explorer was transported to Spain for trial in 1545. Although eventually acquitted, he never returned to the Americas, and died poor in Seville.