On the Texas Trail of Cabeza de Vaca

In 1527, the conquistador Cabeza de Vaca set sail for the Spanish territory of “La Florida." His aim was to explore and colonize an unknown land that stretched from present-day Florida to Texas. The mission met with disaster. In an attempt to sail back to Cuba, de Vaca and his crew crashed near the shores of Galveston Island. From there de Vaca embarked on one of the greatest adventures in history. His quest to return home took him ten years. He became the first European to live among the native people of Texas, the first to walk across the North American continent, the first to describe the people who lived there, the first to see possum and bison, the first to see the Mississippi and Pecos rivers, and the first to see the Pacific Ocean. Following historical clues, Peter Lourie traces the conquistador’s trail across Texas and into Mexico, as he tells the extraordinary story of Cabeza de Vaca, who survived hurricanes, shipwrecks, starvation, and trekking thousands of miles in the Mexican desert. What a tale it is.

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