ABSTRACT
The first Europeans into Texas were struck by the massive distances that spread out before them. The very first, Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, saw a great deal of Texas. Cabeza de Vaca was a member of a Spanish party of exploration that first came to grief in Florida before setting to sea in makeshift rafts which eventually came ashore on Galveston Island in late 1528. Soon Cabeza de Vaca was one of a handful of survivors and a captive slave of Indians. He remained in the Galveston area for four years before linking up with three other survivors and setting out on a journey that led him through South Texas and into northern Mexico and as far west as the Mexican Pacific coast before the tattered band showed up in Mexico City in 1536. Cabeza de Vaca’s claim to have seen golden cities on his journey intrigued Antonio de Mendoza, the Spanish Viceroy of New Spain.
