How Did Cabeza De Vaca Survive?

The blazing hot, gritty sand, felt like a million fire ants, stabbing at his skin. The sun's blinding rays beamed onto his face, and all of the others that had washed up with him, on the rafts. Two out of five rafts, were the only ones that had made it. Cabeza de Vaca, was among the Narvaez expedition, that set sail in the Spring of 1527. They had set sail to Northern Mexico, but they were blown off course by tricky currents, and according to the background essay, made accidental landfall near Tampa Bay, Florida. Navarez soon ordered men to leave the ship, only to leave them to fend for themselves. Cabeza de Vaca was among these men and ordered that firearms were melted into rafts to sail out, only to be blown off course again and ended up in what is now known as Galveston “island”, Tx. How did he survive? Well, his useful wilderness skills, his ability to heal, and the respect the indians had for him were the main things that kept him alive. Cabezas ability to help people, and being a Healer, helped him survive through his …show more content…
Cabeza went ran into various different problems from, “ wandering lost and alone, in swampy wetlands. With every step, the thick mud sucks on your bare feet. The June sun is setting and swarms of mosquitos cover your body, entering your nostrils and mouth with every breath,”(information provided by the hook exercise), to, “You decide to walk to the closest Spanish outpost. One huge problem is that you must cross a deep river nearly 200 yards wide- and neither of you know how to swim. You have seen signs of native people in the area, and are terrified by shipboard tales of cannibalism,” (also provided by the hook exercise). Cabeza had overcome some of these awful things, that seem as they are impossible, and then on top of that, many more problems occurred, but he fought his way through it, for