Tlec Narvaez Expedition, 1526-1536
45
Fray Juan Palos, lay brother, who accompanied Father Suarez in the unfortunate expedition of Narvaez and probably died with the others on the Texas coast, originally came from the Province of Andalucia. He was the twelfth of the Franciscans who came to Mexico and he was chosen to fill the vacancy created by the failure of Fray Bernardino de la Torre to accompany the first twelve Franciscans to Mexico. At the time of his selection he was in the Monastery of San Francisco in Seville. Upon his arrival in Mexico he soon learned the language of the Mexicans ( the Nahuatl) to whom he frequently explained the doctrines of our Holy Faith in their own language.11 Cabcza de Vaca appointed treasurer. A singular personage was < - appointed treasurer and l11gh shentt of tfie expedition, who was destined to become the hero and historian of the ill-fated enterprise. This was Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca. He came from an illustrious family, who could trace back its rank to the twelfth century. The descendants are said to have come by their designation of Cow's Head through the King of Navarre, who ennobled the first bearer of this name and his offspring for his valuable service. Martin de Alhaja, the founder of the honorable ancestry, was a shepherd. He is said to have placed the skull of a cow at the entrance to an unknown mountain pass to indicate the passage through a defile to the King of Navarre, who was leading an army against the Moors. It was to this exploit that the lineage owed its appel- lation and title of nobility.u Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca was a native of Jerez de la Frontera, a small village some twelve miles from the city of Cadiz. The exact date of his birth is not known, but it has been placed between 1487 and 1494. When a youth of sixteen or eighteen years, the aspiring soldier saw his first service in the campaigns of Italy. In 1512 he was in the bloody battle of Ravenna, where over twenty thousand men fell. Fortunately for our history, the young brave did not fall in this engagement, but he came out of it "muy destrozado," badly shattered and broken. He returned to Spain the following year and entered the service of the Duke of Medina Sidonia in Seville, under whom he played an important part in the revolt of the Comtmeros, after which he sank into obscurity until the time of the Narvaez expedition. 13 At the time of his appointment as treasurer,
11 Torquemada, Monarqufo l11dia11a, III, 447. 12 Buckingham Smith, Relation, Appendix VII, pp. 233-235. 13 Bishop, The Odyssey of Cabeza de Vaca, 8-10.
Powered by FlippingBook