ABSTRACT
The literary fusion of desire and experience pervaded the accounts of discovery of the following century as, within an improvised and unstable colonial system of authority, there were always new frontiers to be explored, new landscapes upon which the greed of the conquerors projected dreams of wealth and providential success, although often in a context of ruthless cruelty and deprivation. The search for marvels which characterized the medieval figure of the traveller would appear to have been transferred to the New World as a result of the profound cultural continuity between the development of medieval Christian Spain and its overseas expansion. It would in fact be misleading to define Cabeza de Vaca’s discussion of American Indians as essentially idealistic. In fact, only a very superficial reading of Cabeza de Vaca’s personal account could lead the reader to believe that the Spanish managed to travel because they knew how to manipulate Indian superstitions.
