Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Part Three--VeryEarly Texas History--Panfilo de Narvaez--Conquistador?

                               

     In the two decades following Columbus’ discovery of the West Indies, Spain launched dozens of expeditions to explore and colonize the New World.   King Ferdinand richly rewarded Columbus, his descendants, and other explorers.   The native inhabitants of the islands, docile and gentle Tainos, were easily dominated, and the New World was brimming with opportunity.

     To encourage colonization, the Spanish established an encomienda system, whereby Spanish noblemen were awarded tracts of land and assigned Taino slaves.  The landowners made huge fortunes and part of the profit from these colonies was paid directly to the king as tribute.  Spanish soldiers-of-fortune flooded the islands, seeking riches.  Encomienda grants were doled out on a first-come, first-served basis, and the competition was fierce.

     Panfilo de Narvaez, a tall, blond native of Castile, came to the Caribbean as a soldier determined to make his fortune.  Even though he was of noble birth and had friends in high places, Panfilo exhibited a natural tendency to screw-up.  According to contemporary reports, he had an authoritarian personality and was unusually cruel to the Taino natives.  Considering some of his decisions, he was less than bright.   Indications are that de Narvaez was an arrogant, cruel and stupid soldier, dependent on relatives for his position and oblivious to the needs of his subordinates.

       In 1511, Panfilo’s uncle, Diego Valazquez de Cuellar, the first governor of Cuba, put him in charge of the army with orders to conquer the unarmed Tainos and subject the island to Spanish rule.  Father Bartolome de Las Casas watched as de Narvaez’s troops murdered 2500 peaceful natives whose only crime was bringing food offerings to the soldiers.  Watching the massacre, the priest changed his attitude toward the Tainos and fought against the encomienda system, slavery, and mistreatment of Indians for the rest of his life.

     When Cuba was secure, Governor de Cuellar sent Hernan Cortes to conquer Mexico for him.  After launching the expedition, the governor realized the ambitious Cortes might take over Mexico and keep it for himself.  He ordered Cortes back to Cuba.  Cortes ignored the order.  In 1520, de Cuellar appointed his nephew governor of Mexico and sent him with 1400 men to arrest Cortes, put him in irons, and bring him back to Cuba.

       Cortes, with 250 troops, proved his military worth by whipping de Narvaez and his army.  De Narvaez not only demonstrated military ineptitude, but lost an eye in the battle and Cortes threw him into prison in Veracruz for two years.   The Cuban soldiers, promised gold and recognizing competent leadership, deserted Narvaez and joined Cortes.  With his new army, Cortes decided to keep Mexico for himself, showing that de Cuellar was a shrewd judge of character.

     When Panfilo de Narvaez was released from prison, he made his way back to Spain.  Working through contacts in the government, he convinced King Charles V to back him in a mission to explore and colonize the land along the Gulf coast, from Florida to Mexico.  The king provided ships, soldiers, and colonists, and de Narvaez led the expedition.  In June of 1527, with five ships and 600 men, de Narvaez sailed back to the New World, planning to conquer and colonize all the land north of the Gulf of Mexico.

     King Charles, wishing to protect his interests, sent a bright young man along to keep records for the king and to act as second in command.   Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca joined the expedition for his first trip to the new world.  Most of what we know of the expedition is because of his writings.

     The expedition first landed at the island of Hispaniola, where about one-fourth of the crew deserted.  The soldiers had no confidence in their one-eyed commander, and desertion was a constant problem.   Two ships and more men were lost in a hurricane off the Cuban coast.  De Narvaez planned to start at the mouth of Rio de Las Palmas, north of Vera Cruz, and work his way east, but became lost and confused.  Very confused.  He managed to land some three hundred men on the east coast of Florida, near present Tampa Bay.  Because of the confusion, de Narvaez decided to work west to the Rio de Las Palmas, which he thought to be about fifty miles.  The expedition most likely used the crude map drawn by Alavarez de Pineda eight years before, which showed Florida to be a peninsula and not an island as Ponce de Leon believed.

     De Narvaez, in a decision openly opposed by Cabeza de Vaca, sent the ships back to Havana and decided to march his troops overland to explore and occupy the country.  Local Indians, having learned from de Leon that Europeans could not to be trusted, were less than happy to see de Narvaez’s expedition.  Unable to fight the well-equipped Spaniards in the open, they hid in the jungle and picked off the Spaniards one or two at a time with arrows or lances.   Rather than allow the soldiers to occupy their villages, the Indians burned them.   There was no gold or silver and very little food.  The Spanish were soon reduced to eating their horses.

     Six months of struggling through the swamp, fighting Indians and starving, convinced de Narvaez to abandon his ambitions and return to civilization.  There was, however, a problem—no ships.  Cabeza de Vaca felt the expedition should go to Mexico across country, but de Narvaez overruled that notion.  The soldiers built a forge, and melted down every bit of metal they could find—horseshoes, stirrups, bits, fasteners, buttons, armor, anything metal—and made tools and nails to build rafts.  They built five rafts, each designed to hold forty men with oars, and used their clothing to make sails.

      De Vaca protested separation of the rafts, thinking it best that they work together.  Instead, Narvaez picked the forty strongest men to row his raft and made it clear that each barge and every man was on his own.  As they sailed and rowed close to shore, the heavy current of a river, probably the Mississippi, swept de Narvaez’s raft and two others out to sea, leaving Cabeza de Vaca to make his way along the coast with the two remaining rafts.


De Narvaez's raft was washed out into the Gulf, probably by the force of the Mississippi River. He and 150 men were lost in the Gulf of Mexico.


     Cabeza de Vaca, with two rafts and eighty-six men, kept close to shore and made his way west, planning to follow the coast to civilization in Mexico.   A hurricane washed them ashore and destroyed the rafts on a barrier island off the coast of Texas.   It may have been Galveston Island, but most historians believe it was a bit farther down the coast at Follets Island.  De Vaca named the island “The Isle of Misfortune.” 

     Only fifteen of the eighty-six men survived the winter.   Naked, without tools or weapons, and lost on a barren island, some drowned, many starved to death and some were killed by Indians for “sport.”  Cabeza de Vaca made his way to the mainland where he almost died of an illness.   Nursed back to health by the Indians, he stayed on the mainland several months.

     When de Vaca regained his health, he made his way back to the “Isle of Misfortune” and discovered that twelve of the survivors had swum to the mainland, planning to walk to Mexico.  Two men remained and de Vaca joined them to live on the island.  The Indians permitted the trio to stay, and sometimes traded food for menial labor.  De Vaca collected seashells and bartered for hides and other items with mainland Indians.  In a short time, he became a well-known trader and travelled extensively among the tribes along the coast.

 

 

More to come----

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