What Is The Prologue Of The Disastrous Narváez Expedition

In the prologue of his account of the disastrous Narváez Expedition Alvar Núñez Cabeza De Vaca wrote, “In this way you will know and understand the manner of the lands and the provinces in them, what foods and animals grow there, the customs of the many barbarous nations with which I had contact and lived, and many other details that I was able to experience”.1 While this was directed at the contemporary Spanish Emperor Charles V it also serves to indicate to modern scholars the vast amount of information contained within the text. As a primary source document Cabeza De Vaca's Chronicle of the Narváez Expedition is invaluable in helping the aforementioned scholars to understand the interactions between the native populous of North America and …show more content…
The first of these being to find new lands and peoples and to bring them under the influence of Spain and by association the Catholic Church. This goal was of the upmost importance to Emperor Charles V due to his extreme religious fervor. Because of this Cabeza De Vaca leaned heavily on religious imaginary in his writing often invoking the name of God in either prayer or thanksgiving2 or invoking the sign of the cross3. He also often attempted to evangelize the native peoples by adapting there cultural practices and beliefs and imparting in them Christian elements. This is most evident in chapter thirty-five. In it he learned of a supposed supreme sky god who has cursory similarities to the Christian God4. He proceeded to play on those similarities and told the native people that “This being of which they spoke was the same one we called God and there after they should give him that name and worship and serve him as we commanded”5. While it is doubtful that in reality the Native beliefs lined up with Christian views of God, it is clear that De Vaca wanted to believe that the native population is ready and willing to adopt …show more content…
The second directive was that of profit. Under the Adelantado system the leader of the expedition paid for the venture out of pocket. However in exchange he gained exclusive rights to any wealth gained from the expedition. This caused a major focus on finding ways to turn a profit. The main means of accomplishing this were through mineral wealth and through the acquisition of labor. It's in this acquisition of labor that we see the major conflict in the two directives. The acquisition of labor in layman’s terms is forced servitude or slavery.7 The Native population was the source for these slaves which in effect made them a commodity which is in stark contrast to the idea of them being fellow Christians. Interestingly enough De Vaca is able to have both ideas coexist in his writing. While he comes to know the Native population as people worthy of compassion, he still describes and compares tribe to tribe like they are some sort of live