The Ill Fated Journey of Conquistador Cabeza de Vaca Part 1 Florida

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
My name is Eric Gasco, and you're listening to the
Distorted History podcast, and I can't give you many names,
and you're a bladery. Look I'm reasoning. I'm got the

(00:24):
barah A long struggle for freedom, it really is a
revolution for this series, returning the clocks way back to
the fifteen hundreds to tell the story of Spanish conquisa
or Alvar Nunez Cabeza Devoka, who is most commonly known

(00:47):
as Cabeza Devoka. His story is an important and interesting
one because he and his companions on this let's say,
unplanned journey were more than likely the first Europeans to
see for themselves the region that now consists of the
American Southwest and northern Mexico. Through them, then we get
a rare glimpse of the continent and the people who
lived there at the time, a time when the lands

(01:07):
themselves were largely untouched by European colonies, although not absent
on their touch completely, as by this point the indigenous
population of the American continents were in rapid decline due
to the diseases unintentionally brought over from Europe by the colonizers.
Epidemics of these diseases and had torn through the native population,
including those who had not even had any direct contact

(01:27):
with these invaders. Yet, even with this, Cabeza de Vacan
and his companions grant us an important glimpse into the land,
the people, and the way they lived in this time
of transition and change. In doing so, to vakas able
to painty for a different picture than the one other
European connus would in subsequent centuries, as by the time
they arrived, the native populations were decimated to the point
that lands and areas that had once been carefully cultivated

(01:50):
were reconsumed by nature. It was then this devastated content
that spawned tails about how wild North America was and
how its residents and not deserve to keep it as
they were and capable of properly timing it. Granted that
or some other similar rationalization would have been found to
justify the eventual conquest of the lands in North America,
but still the reality was many of those so called

(02:11):
wild lands had not been so in the centuries prior
to that time. Devaka then gives us a glimpse into
the condom before the full devastation had taken place. Meanwhile,
his journey also reduced a change in the would be
conquisadore as the man who initially landed in Florida contend
to take part in the normal process of forceful conquest,
by the end of his journey infficiently wholly different approach

(02:32):
at conquering this new world, an approach that was more
just and more humane when there was more base in
the religion and the law that he and the other
Spanish conquisadores claimed to follow. Now, to be clear, he
very much held on to the assumption that the native
peoples of this new land would be better off thanks
to the influence of quote unquote civilized Christian Spaniards like himself,

(02:52):
But he ultimately wanted to spread their laws, the religion,
and their empire in a more humane way than the
other conquisodors. Ye, before I go any further into this tale, first,
like always, I want to give credit to my sources
for this series, which include Andres Zendez's A Lands So Strange,
The Extraordinary Tale of a shipwrecked Spaniard who walked across
America in the sixteenth century, Paul Schneider's brutal Journey Cabeza

(03:16):
de Vaca, in the epic First Crossing in North America,
David A. Howard's Conquisador and Chains, Cabeza de Vaka in
the Innings of North America, and Alex D. Krieger's We
Came Naked and Barefoot The Journey of Cabeza de Vodka
across North America. And like always, a full list of
these and any other sources like websites that I used,
will be available on this podcast, Blue Sky and KOFE pages.

(03:38):
Plus for anyone who doesn't want to be bothered skipping
through commercials, there is always an ad free feed available
to subscribers at Patreon dot com Slash Distorted History. And
with all that being said, let's begin. Alvar Nunias Cabeza
de Vodka was born in Spain somewhere between fourteen ninety
and fifteen hundred. His father was Francisco de Vera and
his mother was Donna, to raise a Cabeza de Vodka.

(04:00):
Both of his parents, however, would die round about the
time mark of Beza Devoca turned eighteen. His five younger
siblings were then sent to live with an aunt, while
Devaka himself continued down the path he had been on
ever since. He was twelve and that was becoming a soldier.
Devaca would serve in Italy, where he would participate in
the battle in Siege at Bologna before being seriously injured
in April fifteen twelve in the Battle of Ravena. Then

(04:23):
later in fifteen twenty he would take part in the
Revolt of the comun Narrows, where Castile citizens revaulted against
King Charles the First. Cabeza. Devaca, who was in service
to the Duke of Medina, then fought on behalf of
Charles the First against rebelling citizens. Following the service to
the King, Devaca would also participate in fighting against a
French and Navar before ultimately heading to America in fifteen

(04:44):
twenty seven. At this time thirty five years since Columbus
had quote unquote discovered it. The New World in the
imagination of Spanish Conquisadores was a land of heathens awaiting
civilization and the salvation of Christianity. But more importantly, it
was a land of empires of gold which men had
presented a grand opportunity to seize riches and power. For
these men, who were the product of hundreds of years

(05:06):
of private warfare involved with the effort to quote unquote
reconquer Spain from the Islamic Moors. The potential for riches
in the Zoo Lands, in fact, had first fully been
revealed by her Nancortaz in his conquests of the Aztecs
just seven years prior to gabas At of Vaka setting
off for the New World, a fact that the man
who was leading the expedition that the Vaka would be
a part of Pantheilo de Norviz was very much aware

(05:28):
of the revised you see had before this played a
major role in the conquest of the Caribbean, as he
had assisted the well connected and older Diego of the
Alasquez in the conquest of Cuba. This, however, was only
a minor prize, which was only reinforced when in fifteen seventeen,
one of the Last Quest's expeditions exploring the region were
blown off course, only to find themselves on the Yucatan Peninsula.

(05:51):
As it was here were the members of this expedition
first glimpsed the massive stone temples of the Maya, and
even more importantly, the normals, wearing extravagant head dresses and
various other ornaments made of gold and silver. Upon hearing
back from his men, Velasquis hastily assembled another expedition which
would not only confirm what the lost sailors had seen,
but also managed to bring back some valuable golden objects.

(06:12):
There were value between sixteen and twenty thousand pesos, which
made this latest discovery far more valuable than Cuba. The
problem was Vlalasquis found himself in a bit of a
mind as to procure the wealth in this newly discovered land.
He needed money, someone you see, had to foot the
bell for the military expedition to claim said land and
its wealth. Velasquiz, though after funding the back to back

(06:35):
expeditions it had produced this discovery, was now low on cash,
which meant he needed someone to join him in this
conquest who could fund the expedition. Now, Narviz likely would
have been the Velasquez's choice to partner with in his
latest conquest, after how successful their previous partnership had been
in conquering Cuba. Unfortunately, though for both men, Narvius had
been dispatched back to Spain so as to represent Cuba

(06:57):
in the Spanish court. Now Velasquez could have feared Oretically,
waited for Narviz to return, as the assignment was a
temporary one. However, he wasn't willing to do so, as
rumors of his discovery were already leaking out, which meant
that some other concusador might seize the opportunity and capture
the territory and its riches before he had the chance.
Velasquis then turned to his once trusted personal secretary, her

(07:19):
Nan Cortes, who had also taken part in the conquest
of Cuba. Cortezo had subsequently lost his position under Velasquez
when in fifteen fourteen, Cortez, apparently tiring of being under
Velasquez's command, attempted to return to Spain with a number
of letters outlining his superiors crimes. Before Cortes could set sail, however,
for Alasquez discovered his betrayal and had his former secretary arrested,

(07:42):
fully intending to hang him, before eventually relenting and releasing
him some time later. Ever, since this phil betrayal, Cortes
had been harder work tried to regain Velasquez's trust, and
this opportunity to jointly conquer the Yucatan seemed to be
the chance that Cortes had been waiting for Velaskus's former secretary,
they began the process of raising the funds for this

(08:02):
venture from his friends and neighbors. Yet, months into this process,
just as Cortes was about ready to set off, Velasquez
began to have doubts about the loyalty of a man
who had betrayed him months already, and thus he attempted
to remove him from command. This, however, did not work,
as instead Cortes took his forces and left Cuba on
his own in November fifteen eighteen, which was an incredibly

(08:24):
risky move for Cortesis, part as Velasquis was very well connected,
which very much made him not the type of man
to cross lightly. Indeed, following Cortesi's unauthorized departure, velasqus began
preparations for his own larger and better supplied expedition, which
would not only be backed by King Charles himself, but
would also be led by someone who he knew he

(08:44):
could trust, his own partner, Panfilo de Narviz. Yet, during
the time in which Velasquis was getting his new forces together,
Cortes had already brought his men to the mainland notably
in doing so, they landed not in the lands of
the Maya, but in an even more powerful empire, that
of the Aztecs and its ruler, Montezuma, who would make
the unfortunate mistake of giving Cortes a number of lavish

(09:06):
gifts of gold, silver and jade, and the hopes of
contending these strangers and sending them back to wherever they
had come from. Unfortunately, what Montezuma could not understand was
the greed of these Europeans, as these gifts did not
satiate them, but instead made them must even more. For
the wealth this empire contained, as a single offering of here,
take this, and scram was more wealth than the Spanish

(09:28):
had seen since arriving in this new world. This, in
turn gave Cortesi kind of bargaining chip that he needed
when dealing with the well connected Velasquas, and so he
sent his prices directly back to Spain, intending to avoid
Cuba and Velaskis altogether. By doing so. However, despite orders
to the contrary, the ship carrying the riches he had
been gifted briefly landed at an out of the wayport

(09:49):
on the island. Doing so briefly, but still it was
long enough for word of what the ship contained and
its ultimate goal to leak out. In response, Velasqus dispatched
a pair of ships after Corteses, hoping to capture them,
while at the same time also launching a force of
his own destined for the mainland, a force roughly dumble
the size of Cortezes, consisting of eighteen ships, eighty horses,

(10:09):
and over a thousand men, all under the command of
his trusted ally Narviz. However, before landing on the continent,
six of their ships would be damaged, with one capsizing,
drowning forty men in the process as they were unexpectedly
struck by high winds coming from the north across the
Gulf of Mexico. Additionally, sixty men from the ships also
took ill, and which point ArviZ put them ashore before

(10:30):
continuing his pursuit of the rebellious Cortes. Unfortunately, for all
of these men and the various women who accompanied them,
within a few weeks of being put ashore, they would
all be slain by the local residents, who apparently did
not take too kindly to these unwelcome invaders. Meanwhile, Montezuma,
upon receiving word from his scouts to another group of
foreign ships and landed on a shore, reached out to

(10:50):
these newcomers. The Aztec ruler was ended very much pleased
by the news that this latest group of strangers were
there to apprehend Cortez and take him back to where
he had come from. Montezuma then, much like he had
with Cortez, sent a number of gifts in Narviz, while
also informing him that the man he was after was
currently in tenach Teitlan. Narviazen knew where his quarry was,
and not only un numbered as forces, but potentially even

(11:13):
had the assistance of the locals. Yet, despite his claims
that he and the other Spaniards would leave these lands
after capturing Cortes, Narviz, instead of immediately pursuing his quarry,
began the process of establishing a settlement in what is
today likely Vera Cruz. Within weeks, and there were over
eighty houses, a church, and a jail already set up
at the site, strongly suggesting that this was in some

(11:34):
temporary outpost. Also not speeding matters along was the fact
that a raw judge have been dispatched by the Spanish government,
whose mission was to try and prevent a clash between
the Conquisadores. After all, the whole purpose of the Conquisadores
was to conquer these lions and bring their wealth back
to the crown. Fighting among themselves then in no way
further these goals, the judged and helped to honormind the

(11:57):
Lasquez and Narviz's rhetoric against Cortes. And when Narvius continued
to repeatedly clash with the judge, the royal official and
his colleagues within the Spanish court began shifting their allegiances
towards supporting Cortes. Meanwhile, also shifting their alitnesses where Narviz's
own soldiers, as to begin with, some had literally been
forced to take part in this expedition by Velasquez and

(12:19):
thus sympathized with Cortes's rebellion. Meanwhile, some others who had
voluntarily joined this mission did so not because they wanted
to go after Cortes, but because they saw this as
an opportunity to pursue golden riches for themselves. Members of
both of these groups and were quite receptive to offers
of gold if these switch sides and or aided Cortes
in one way or another. As you see, Cortes, upon

(12:40):
learning of Narviz's arrival, split his already smaller forces, leaving
some of his men to hold on the tenach Teelan
while taking others to square off against ArviZ, a plan
which on its face seemed almost suicidal, considering that this
meant Narviz now had a four to one advantage in
numbers against Cortes's divided fours. The thing was, Cortes was
planning on utilizing these the same tactic he had been

(13:01):
using to keep his own men level to him they
shift the odds in his favor, that tactic, of course,
being using golden riches to bribe them. To that end,
Cortes sent spies ahead of his main force, who then
infiltrated our Viz's camp. These spies and started making offers
to the various officers to switch signs or otherwise under
mine or advis's defenses. For example, one artillery officer was

(13:22):
paid eight thousand pasos to puck up the main canon's
fusel with wags, thereby preventing it from being fired. Unaware
of any of this, Narviz remained supremely confident in his
overwhelming forces, so confident, in fact, that he never believed
that Cortes would actually dare to take on a force
four times the size of his own. As a result,
after weeks of negotiations, despite knowing that Cortes has started

(13:43):
marching on his position, Narvis was stone taken by surprise
when his rival Cankisador actually started attacking the city he
was occupying. He was an equally surprised when his artillery
proved to be largely ineffective, as they managed to fire
something like just four shots before being overrun and captured
by Cortez's smaller forces, never realizing the extendedly barbery that

(14:05):
had undermined his defenses. This had led to hours of
vicious hand to hand fighting between Cortesa's forces and the
men who were still loyal to Narviz. Conquisodor fought Conquisodor
on these steps of Stone Pyramids until Narviz, who was
fighting with a large two handed broadsword, lost his right
eye to a pike. This blow might as well have
signaled the end of the fighting, as Arvised, despite a

(14:27):
superior numbers, would be defeated and captured by the abstar Cortes,
who then went on to conquer the Aztec Empire and
in doing so secure a vast amount of riches for himself,
his men, and most importantly, for the Spanish crown. By
doing so, the obstar Cortez effectively reignited the loss for
further conquest and exploration on this new world than had
by this point faded to some degree after Columbus's initial

(14:50):
so called discovery. As for Narviz, he would remain in
chains in prison by Cortez for another three years, during
which time his benefactor of Velasquez would lose bone, power
and influence, while the man who had betrayed him grew
richer and more famous. This was because the King of
Spain care less about Velasquez, a man he had given
his world backing too being betrayed, than the amount of

(15:11):
golden riches that Cortes brought to him as a result
of said betrayal. As you see, the King of Spain
at that point wasn't tremendous tat after spending a fortune
again himself named the Holy Roman Emperor. As such, he
really only cared about who was giving him the gold
to get him out of that debt. So while Velasquez
had the paperwork giving him moral permission to conquer Mexico,

(15:32):
Cortes was the one who had actually done so, and
was in the one in possession of all the weath
that had come from that conquest. The now greatly diminished
of Alasqush then dined fifteen twenty four, at which point,
possibly knowing that without velasquezz A, Narvius was no longer
a threat, and also because he himself had been formally
named the Marquise de Ville by the king, Cortes finally

(15:53):
released his rival, sending him back to Cuba. Narvius was
now fifty years old, missing an eye, and had lost
his connection to greater in Velasquez. Yet despite this, the
loss he was most consumed by was the wealth in
power that would have been his had he been the
one to have conquered Mexico instead of that usurper Cortes.
As again, Velasquez had been the one to quote unquote
discover those lands and who had gone through the proper

(16:15):
procedures to get the royal permission at conquer Mexico. While Narviz's,
Velasquez's right hand man would have been the one to
actually lead his military forces in this effort. Narvizan, upon
receiving his freedom, was most eager for another opportunity, one
last expedition in which to redeem his name or in
the riches that he had missed out on, and if possible,
show up that upstart Cortes. Now. Narviz's friends and family

(16:39):
very much counseled against such a course, after all, it's
not like Narviz's destitute. Indeed, in his absence, his wife
aduced her enslaved Native Americans to mind enough gold that
he would return to a sizable fortune of some fourteen
thousand gold pesos. He then very much could simply retire
and be with his wife and family and not really
worry about anything. Narva, though in his mind at least,

(17:01):
had been humiliated, as not only had he lost an
eye and been captured, but his rival had achieved that
historic conquest that by all rights should have been his.
The now and bitter narviz And returned to Spain to
begin the process of politicking and calling in favors, as
he spent his time eagerly trying to secure for himself
one last chance at conquest in glory as he did

(17:22):
trying to ruin his rival's reputation, as he was among
those who accused Cortes of not only poisoning the governor
of Jamaica but also his own wife as well as
both had died under mysterious circumstances. For the time being,
though Cortes would remain untouchable due to his conquest of Mexico.
As for the opportunity that he was after, Nerdvised was

(17:42):
eyeing the lands at Juan Pasta Leona being granted before
ordibly dying as a result of being shot by an
arrow fired by one of the local Florida tribes, which
then left that territory available for someone to receive royal
permission to conquer. Meanwhile, also meeting an untimely death was
Francisco Dega Ray, who was a governor of jama that
had allegedly been poisoned by Cortes. Before his death. You see,

(18:04):
Daigo Ray had been granted the rights to conquer the
territory that lay to the north of Cortes's Mexico holdings.
Narvaizan was looking to pursue the right of conquering both
these lands and to Sodas Florida noting in his petition
as he did quote consider that to other persons have
been given more than I ask for, though they have
not served as much as I have. Yet, despite feeling

(18:24):
that his years of service to the crown was enough
to earn him such an opportunity, it would still take
to revise a full year of following the Spanish quart
a round, as well as repeated filings of his petition
before the king finally agreed. As ultimately, the King of Spain,
who was now also the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire,
was eager to see these lands conquered, especially since he

(18:45):
did not trust his fellow European monarchs, who, following spain successes,
were now starting to turn their gaze upon the New
World as well, potentially hoping to find their own opportunities
to capture the vast wealth that they believe these lands
to contain. Narvaizan was granted the World Contract to conquer
not just Florida, but also basically the entire Gulf Coast
region of what is today in the United States. This,

(19:07):
he believed, slash hope, was that long lastest chance to
have a conquest like Cortes had in Mexico. As Narvaz,
like many in Spain and beyond, were convinced that there
just had to be more empires like the Aztecs, just
winning to be conquered and looted. They just had to
find them. Narvizo had to move fast, as this contract
with the Crown gave him only a year in which
to gather his initial army and then set off from

(19:29):
Spain on this mission of conquest. Furthermore, the contract also
required the conquisador to establish at least two towns with
a population of one hundred people each, in addition to
setting up and manning an additional two forts, so as
to be gim the process of colonizing and holding these
lands for Spain. As for the people already residing in
these lands, the World Contract gained Narvi's orders to be
gimny process of ensuring their conversion to the Catholic faith.

(19:52):
That being said, it also noted that Narvis was free
to enslave any who resisted. Now, it should also be
noted that none of these efforts were active funded by
the crown itself. As you see, the extent of the
King's role on this whole deal was simply to give
their permission to undertake these missions of conquest, which then
left and up to those who received these role contracts
who actually fund and organize these efforts, which is to say,

(20:14):
was to concuiston or some selves using their own wealth,
and that is some private investors who actually funded these efforts. So,
with this contract in hand or advice, put out a
call for volunteers to join his expedition of conquest, a
call that was answered by the young sons of the
members of the lesser gentry. Basically, these were young men
on the lookout for opportunities as they were not in
line for their father's estates and who, per their code

(20:36):
of honor, could not work the landlike peasants or even
work with their hands like tradesmen. These young men then
more or less had to be in the military to
make their livelihoods and hopefully secure some measure of wealth
for themselves. Yet, after seven hundred years of on and
off fighting to quote unquote reconquer Spain for the Moors,
there wasn't much in the way of such opportunities in
Europe any longer, so such young men were left to

(20:58):
take their chances on these these kinds of expeditions in
the New World. Among these modern nobles who signed up
was Andres Dorantes, who brought along with him at least
one slave, a quote blackmore named Estebon, who hailed from
the fairly wealthy town of Asimoor and Morocco. Estebon had
likely been born and raised a Muslim bon Upon being
captured by the Spanish, he had likely been forced to

(21:19):
convert to Christianity, namely Catholicism, and likely also had his
name changed as well. Now they were likely other black
men taking part in this expedition, both enslaved and free,
but we know even less about them than we do Esteban,
because of the color of their skin and the simple
fact that, unlike Esteban, the spoiler would not survive this expedition.

(21:40):
Also likely among the more anonymous lower ranks of this
expedition were a number of the Jewish residents of Spain, who,
despite being forced to convert to Christianity after their faithless
outlawed they stoleth On it best to get out of
the country and away from the ongoing inquisition. As for
to Arrantes, he, much like a bezon Avaka, had also
sided with the king and the nobles against the upstar

(22:00):
COmON neuro rebels. He then wasn't just some random noble,
and as a result, his tenus granted him a captain's
position in the army. Also appointed as a captain on
this expedition would be Alonzo Dena Castillo, who had been
educated at the University of Sana Monca, Spain's foremost university
at the time. Castillo then could have had a pretty
comfortable life in Spain, especially with his prominent familial ties. Instead, though,

(22:22):
he would opt to seek his own fortune by taking
part in this expedition. In particular, Castilla would earn his
rank as being a partner of sorts in the expedition
by selling a portion of his estate so as to
buy arms and other supplies. As again, someone had to
foot the bell for outfitting this army of conquest, because
the crown wasn't doing it, which is why these young
noblemen were so vital to this effort and why they

(22:44):
were so eager to join up, because they were a
source of funding, and by doing so they would receive
a cut of whatever wealthy discovered as a part of
their efforts. That being said, the crown was still very
much owed a cut of its own, which is where
Cabeza Avaka comes in, as he was the expedition's treasurer
in chief Constable, which made him the second most powerful
member of the expedition, as his primary job was to

(23:07):
report back to the King and to ensure that the
Crown got its five percent count of any gold of
precious stones captured by the conquistadors, in addition to whatever
other fees slash taxes that the game was owed, a
position that Devaka Munchig Nerviz had pursued as a repayment
of sorts for all his years of law service to
the Crown. Ultimately six hundred which sign up to join
this expedition to the Gulf Coast, four hundred and fifty

(23:29):
of whom were soldiers, officers, or slaves, while the raster
either these sailors who were responsible for sailing the five
ships that would ultimately take them to their destination, or
the people who intended to become the settlers in the
towns that Norfis had to establish as per his world contract.
This included various notaries, secretaries, physicians, and friars. Additionally, any
of the men who were married, as per Spanish law,

(23:51):
had to bring their wives with them on this mission,
unless they received special permission otherwise. Additionally, in number of
single women also came along on this year, because while
there was an over abundance of women in Spain, the
opposite was to in their new world holdings Thust. The
prospects for marriage there were greater, and the hope was
it could marry a wealthy conquisador. Following their successful campaign,

(24:13):
the six hundred individuals, primarily from Spain, Portugal, and to
some extent Italy, then set off from Spain in June
fifteen twenty seven, intending to explore the lands of Florida
and the Gulf Coast, hoping that in doing so they
would find some empire comparable to the one that Cortez
had conquered in Mexico, and after conquering it, become incredibly wealthy.

(24:34):
As we will see, though that's not exactly what happened. Now.

(24:56):
Things did not get off to the most auspicious start,
as after a hard month crossing on the Atlantic, which remember,
was no easy thing in those days, the expedition suffered
a significant number of desertions upon arriving in the Caribbean.
This was at least partially due to the bad news
coming out of the mainland round about the time they arrived,
namely the news and one of Narviza's rivals, who had

(25:17):
been given permission to conker lands north of those he
had been granted, had come a empty. This rival, you see,
had siddenly been convinced of his own impending great wealth
after hearing tales of pearls, olive groves, vineyards, and even
rumors of an island of giants that all existed in
any lands he had been granted, rumors that all seemed
to have stemmed from stories that had been told by

(25:37):
Native American man who was the sole survivor of sixty
individuals who had been kidnapped from the region that is
now South Carolina. This man had then begun weaving stories
for his captors about how where he had come from
there was an endless supply of pearls, as well as
a people with quote blonde hair to their heels, who
he claimed were led by a giant king. The thing was,

(25:59):
this survivver was basically just telling a Spanish captors these
outlander stories in an effort to get them to bring
him back to where he had come from. Essentially, what
he was doing then was saying, hey, take me back
where I came from, because it can show you all
this crazy shit that I made up just to get
your attention. The Spanish expedition then predictably failed, as, in
addition to finding pine barns instead of giants, vineyards, and

(26:21):
olive grows, their flagship would also run aground off the
coast and lose more of their supplies in the process. Starvation, sickness,
and death, then, were the mean results of this expedition.
Tales of this film mission then convinced some of the
members of the Revis's expedition to abandon their own attempts
to explore such unknown lands and seek safer and more

(26:41):
reliable pursuits of wealth, as they either saw to try
and latch on the Cortez's proven command in Mexico or
otherwise stay on the islands where they could try and
marry widow and grow sugar. Meanwhile, another seemingly less an
auspicious sign for their success was to fend them. While
anchored off a Cuba, Nervisa's fleet was struck by a
powerful hurricane, a storm the likes of which the Europeans

(27:03):
had never encountered before their arrival in the New World.
The hurricane then claimed two of their ships, twenty horses,
and the lives of sixty men. This then further delayed
the start of their mission to explore and conquer the
lands that Narvas had been granted becausing now how to
procure new ships, more colonists, and more soldiers to replace
those they had lost Norvaiza, and ultimately chose to winter

(27:24):
in Cuba rather than pressing on immediately half repaired, because
as much as anything else, he feared to repeat of
his failure in Mexico. Meanwhile, it would prove to be
easier to find replacement ships, and it was to find
more men for this expedition, As it does not seem
like many were all that enthused about the prospects of
this mission now. Chief among their needs was a pilot,
a man to guide the ship whose jaba was to

(27:45):
read the weather for storms, estimate the depth of the
sea ahead of them, to avoid getting beached or suffering
damage to the hull, and to navigate potentially treacherous coastlines.
Such individuals, as you might expect, were exceedingly rare and
highly sought after, as ideally you wanted more who was
familiar with the coastline you were heading to, but I
few had any familiarity with the lands and Nearvis had

(28:05):
been granted to explore and conquer. As a result, he
had been unable to find one in Spain and now
struggled to find one in the Caribbean. Narvaza would finally
settle for one day, or Morello, who had the reputation
at least of being a quote very fine pilot on
the northern Gulf coast, having potentially gained such knowledge as
a part of previous attempts to scout and conquer the region.

(28:26):
Yet when they looked too set off after wintering in Cuba,
things once again did not get off to an auspicious start,
as the new pilot land the fleet to run and
ground in a Cana railro shores in the bay bought
the bano between Cuba and the Islo Pines, thirty five
miles off its southwest coast, a relatively well known hazard
that both Darviz and Morello should have been aware of. Granted,
the shoals are infamously shift in nature, meaning there was

(28:49):
no set path to navigate through, but still the fact
that their supposedly expert pilot had failed in this The
initial test of his skills seemed to be an ominous sign.
The would be quisador ship then remained trapped in these
shoals for two weeks, as it would periodically be freed
from one shoal thanks to high tides, only to almost
immediately find themselves in another sandy trap. Of this time,

(29:11):
Cabeza de Vaka would note that quote, we were in
this predicament for fifteen days, the queues of her ship's
frequently touching bottom, which you know, is not how boats
are supposed to work. Meanwhile, their supplies, which were already
fairly depleted thanks to their unplanned winter stop in Cuba,
really started to run low during this time period, while
their animals started to die off. This, though, at least

(29:33):
gave them fresh horse meet to survive off of, but
this did not exactly make any of the once hopeful
Conquisadors happy. Narviaza's fleet was then only freed when a
storm blew in from the south, which forced enough wooter
into the region to free the ships from their sandy prisons. Yet,
while one storm rescued them from their predicament, another storm
further upset their plans as it prevented them from making

(29:54):
porttery plish their supplies as planned, and instead cast a
fleet into the middle of the Gulf of Mexico. Nervus
and decided that he could not risk return to Havana,
as surely his men would desert him and abandon the mission,
at which point there would be no recovering from such
a series of disasters. So unwilling to risk such a
mass desertion and the failure of this his last chance

(30:15):
at glory, riches and fame, Nirvanas decided to press on
his plan, now being there would land on the gulf
coast that he intended to claim and make his own first,
and then send a ship back for additional supplies. Now,
Nervisa's first choice of a landing spot was the mouth
of the Rio Dalis Palmas in northern Mexico, with the
whole being that since it was near the Empire the
Aztecs that Cortes had stolen from him, there would be

(30:37):
goldenly nearby mountains. Then from their Nerva's plan to head
east toward Florida, conquering as he went. Additionally, the Rio
Dalus Palmas was also further estimates fairly close to their
position after getting launched into the Gulf in Mexico by
the storm, which made it a fairly logical police to
head to. This, however, did not mean it would be
easy to reach those shores, as he seen the winds

(30:58):
apparently had different nights ideas, as the gulf stream and
the winds both saw to push the ships to the east.
Narviza's fleet would then try to fight against these forces
for a solid month before finally spotting land on the
twelfth of April fifteen twenty eight. The problem was, the
landy spoted wasn't to the west like it should have
been if they had finally reached their target destination. Instead,

(31:19):
it was to their east, which meant then instead of
reaching Mexico they had intended, after a full month of trying,
they had reached the western coast of Florida, some nine
hundred miles away from where they had originally been heading. Now,
there is some debate on how this happened, as it
is possible that the currents and winds of the Gulf
of Mexico had really done a number on the fleet
and forced them here completely against their will. Alternatively, It's

(31:42):
also possible that, after struggling for a while to make
any kind of westward progress, the decision was made to
stop fighting and instead follow the courage to the east,
opting then to purposely head for Florida. Then there's also
the possibility that their pilot, Morello, was simply stunningly incompetent
and had no idea what he was doing, regardless the
fact that the matter was they now had been at

(32:03):
sea long enough to have traveled all the way back
to Spain, and the only thing keeping them alive at
this point was the rat at which their horses were dying,
which provided them with a steady stream of fresh meat.
Plus the fact that the matter was, even though they
were some nine hundred miles away from their originally intended destination,
they were still within the territory that Nirviz had been

(32:23):
granted permission to conquer. Therefore he could still very much
undertake his mission. They, however, did not seek to put
ashore immediately, as instead, the fleet of five ships cruised
along the coastline, which served two purposes and theoretically would
helped to confirm where they were, and in doing so,
they were also looking for a spot to start one
of the colonies the Nervis was compelled to set up

(32:45):
per his agreement with the Crown. As they sailed along
looking for a good spot, however, one of their five
ships was, according to Kabeza Devaka quote lost on the
rugged coast. Now, what exactly this means and the extent
of this disaster is unclear, as we are by by
this point relying on Kabeza Nevaka's writings, and that is
the extent of which he writes of this moment. Regardless,

(33:06):
it was around this pont in time that Nerviaz gave
orders to make landfall, and so the four remaining ships
sailed into what's believed to be Bocas Siaga Bay, just
north of modern Tampa Bay. Now I say believed to
be because there is some scholarly disagreement over this and
a number of the other locations where this story took place,
as they didn't exactly leave an abundance of evidence behind
to give us an idea where exactly they had been yet,

(33:29):
regardless of where exactly the main landfall. Upon reaching the shore,
they found a Native American village consisting of round thatched haunts,
one of which was apparently quite large and could quote
hold more than three hundred persons. Additionally, some of these
structures apparently sat atop large earthen mounds that were said
to have been quite impressive, which all presented a suggestion

(33:49):
that these people might have access to the kind of
wealth men like Norviaz and his fellow Knkuisador's rafter. For
the time being, though, the kN Qisador's main concern was
fresh wood in food, which these people seemed to have
plenty of. Indeed, upon landing, the first thing they did
was attempt to trade with the local inhabitants all these
lands that they intended to conquer, starting out by asking

(34:10):
if they had corn or gold, basically by holding out
examples of each. The people they encountered responded they had
neither of. What they did have was fish and venison,
which they were willing to trade to these strangers in
exchange for glass beads and some brass bells. As they
made these trades, these Spaniards would know that these people
were not only to stay from the Tino and the
Ararak they were familiar with from the Caribbean, but also

(34:32):
to stank from the people they had encountered in Mexico,
they wore simple breech clouds or loincloths and skirts woven
from Spanish moss, their bodies being while intended to be
elaborately tattooed, and piercings also weren't uncommon, with the most
powerful among them having piercings or pennance made from copper
that they had likely procured through the vast trade network
that existed on the continent before a European arrival. Now,

(34:55):
of course, what these Spaniards were most concerned with was
whether or not they had gold, and so once somewhat
disappointing to not find any immediate sign of the precious
metal among these people, but all hope was not lost,
as gold, in their experience, tended to be found fur
their inland, closer to the mountains where was mine. They
then still had reason to hope that they could still

(35:15):
find gold in these lands. They just had to continue
pressing inward. Meanwhile, despite their initial successful trading attempts with
these uncles, when Narvas could base it, a vodka and
a number of others rode ashore the following morning, they
were surprised to find the village that had been full
of people in life just the day before, now totally abandoned,
as everyone had apparently all fled in the middle of

(35:36):
the night. It seems and that despite their initial friendly interactions,
these were not the first Spaniards who have landed on
these shores, as even if these particular people had not
encountered their light before, they unlikely heard many a tale
and rumor about these strange pill people and the tall
ships they arrived in. Indeed, slavers in particular had made
multiple trips to the mainland by this point, after having

(35:57):
largely depopulated the Bahamas. Additionally, it's possible that they might
have been visited by people like the China or the
Araraq who had fled the Caribbean after the Spaniard's arrival,
as the residents on the Caribbean had not only navigated
those islands in their carved out canoe like longboats, but
had also seemly reached the mainland in the past as well. Indeed,
when ponstane Leon had first landed in Florida years earlier,

(36:20):
he and his men were met by a Spanish speaking
Native American man who had clearly fled there along with
other refugees from the Caribbean. So even if the residents
on this village did not have first hand experience with
the warlike tendencies of these Conquisadores, they had likely heard
tailor members of other tribes and civilizations being kidnapped and
ensaved by such people. It was and for this reason,

(36:41):
that ponsdane Leon had not found a war welcome during
his previous attempted exploration of Florida. Now, the actual reason
for their departure was less important than the fact that
they were now gone. So the conquisador spent part of
the day, which also happened to be Good Friday, searching
the village and its various buildings, uncovering as they did,
a single piece of gold that has been described as

(37:01):
either a disk or a rattle. Regardless, it was gold
and a hit that further ridges awaited them inland, or
at least it's what they believed slash hoped. However, the
reality was any gold in Florida more than likely arrived
on their shores thanks to wrecked Spanish ships that had
been attempting to bring their ill gone ridges from Mexico
back to Spain. Not realizing this and with honestly little

(37:22):
other choice. The decision was made that night to land
their entire force the following day, at which point, after
a formal reading of the official documents from the Spanish Crown,
nor Advised formally claimed this land in the name of
the King of Spain, doing so to maintain the illusion
that everything they were doing was legal, as they followed
all the proper procedures. Indeed, after officially claiming these lands,

(37:44):
they began yet another formal reading, this time of the
rights and duties that the native people could expect now
that they were, in theory under Spanish rule, specifically noting,
as they did if there was any resistance to Spanish
rule or the Catholic faith, quote, with the help of
our Lord, I will enter with force, making war upon
you from all directions and in every manner that I

(38:05):
may be able, further, adding, as they went on, that
the Concuisidors would quote subject you to obedience to the
Church and the yog of their majesties, and I will
take the persons of yourselves, your wives, and your children,
to make say you sell and dispose of as their
majesty shall think fit. Making these proclamations despite the fact
that the residents all the local village had fled, and

(38:25):
the fact that even if there was anyone close enough
to actually hear them, they likely would not have been
able to understand what was being said. Yet they were
doing so because this was part of a near legality
that served to primarily easy conscience of any conquisodors that
might feel any qualls about what they were doing. Although
by this point in history the idea of a holy
war of conquest and forced conversions was deeply baked in

(38:48):
the Spanish culture, and so this was not really all
that outside of the norm for them. Yet, regardless of
their grand proclamations, the reality of this moment was Narviza's
people were at this point fearly weakened due to their
extended and troubled journey. Additionally, on the eighty horses they
had started out with, nearly half had died along the way,
and the forty two that remained were too weak and

(39:10):
sick to be useful at the moment, which was notable
as horses, especially at this point, were quite possibly the
greatest tactical advantage these Spanish had over the need of
Americans they intended to conquer, as a reason their main
focus this stay after reading their proclamations, was unloading both
their people and once supplies they had left, and just
generally trying to recover. The day after they began this process, though,

(39:32):
a contingent of twenty or so Native Americans, all painted red,
arrived at the beach in question. Now, while the Spanish
could not understand the words spoken by this group, according
to Kebeza Devaka quote, they made many signs and threatening
gestures to us, and it seemed to us they were
telling us to leave the land. Then, after delivering this
message slash warning, the contingent departed peacefully, likely assuming they

(39:54):
had made their point. However, Nerphis and the other Spanish
would ignore this warning and would getntinue to unload their ships.
While this process was underway, Norvis thought it was a
good idea to take his most fit men and begin
the process of scouting around to learn more about this
land that he now claimed as his and by extension, spains. Notably,
as they did, Norviz and his men weren't hacking their

(40:17):
way through so mild untamed land, but were instead following
the clearly established roads and trails that had been created
by the people who lived here doing so because, as
much as anything else, there were primarily in search of
people in population centers. This was because where there were people,
there was potentially gold and other riches for the Spanish
to steal, and feeling that they could always enslave them

(40:38):
as long as they found the proper excuse to do so. Plus,
in the short term, they very much needed food, and
thus a population capable of growing enough food defeat his
men was incredibly important. It was and as a part
of this initial exploration, that Norviz and his men discover
what many now as seemed to be Tampa Bay. Quickly
recognizing that this lit us find was a far superior

(40:59):
harbor for their ships in the one they had initially landed,
Nerviz and his men returned to bring word to Morello,
their pilot, and to the captains of their ships, instructing
them to begin searching for this large bay and then
anchor there, while also noting that should they, for whatever
reason fail to find the opening to the bay, Morello
was to return to Cuba to retreat the supply ship
that had been waiting for them in Havana ever since

(41:21):
they were blown out into the gulf. A month earlier.
In the meantime, Nervaz and the others, including Cabeza Devaka,
returned to presumably Tampa Bay to set about exploring that
area some more as they waited for their ships to arrive.
As they did so, they came across a group of
four Native Americans who the Spanish captured and again proceeded
to show examples of corn and gold as a way

(41:42):
of asking if they had any. While they showed no
reaction to the gold, they did indicate that they were
familiar with corn, and were thus compelled by the Spaniards
to lead them to their village, which proved to be
a sizeable town consisting of impressive mounts and overlooked the
bay and well made houses at Santa Rai on a
central plaza. That being said, the cornfields that the invaders

(42:03):
were shown weren't exactly impressive, primarily because corn was not
a huge part of their diet, so while they had some,
it wasn't much, and were still from Narvis, the crop
wasn't ready for harvesting. Meanwhile, as these Spanish soldiers continued
looking around this town, they found it quite similar to
the one they had first landed. Ear There was However,
one significant difference in this village juice. They found some

(42:26):
crates that were of a type used by Spanish merchants
to ship goods, items that had likely washed ashore and
been subsequently so much by these people following one of
the numerous Spanish shipwrecks in the area. The issue, however,
wasn't the fact that these people had these crates, it
was what the conquisadors found inside of them, as instead
of goods, they were shocked to find the bodies of
dead men, presumably Spaniards, who had been wrapped in painted

(42:49):
deer hides. Now this was quite likely a way of
showing respect to the dead in this culture, meaning that
upon finding these crates and these dead men washed up
on their shore, these people treated them with respect and
reverence per their traditions. Unfortunately, the friar who was accompanying
ArviZ and the others on this mission, was apparently incapable
of grasping this difference in culture, and thus declared what

(43:11):
they have found to be devilish idolatry. This friar then
ordered that the creage and the structure they had been
found and had to be burned, meaning that these Spaniards
then set fire to a structure that more than likely
was an important part of the way that these people
honored their dead, including their venerated ancestors, which, to be clear,
is not a great way to make friends and ingratiate

(43:32):
yourself to a people you just met. Now. Kebeza Nevaka,
in his later writings of this time, makes no mention
of any attempt by the villagers to stop these Spaniards
from burning down the structure and its contents, implying that
they did not resist, which seems unlikely. Instead, what seems
more probable is that Devaka simply did not include these
details or the brutality that wasn't involved in putting a

(43:54):
stop to their resistance. Indeed, he had similarly been less
a descriptive when explaining how they had come to this village,
which in the first place, only stating that they had
taken some prisoners without mentioning how they had done so
or whether they included putting those they had captured in
steel collars and chains, as the Spanish were wont to do. Indeed,
it is known that nor Viz in the past had

(44:14):
utilized brutal and shockingly violent tactics to force local populations
into submission. This included overseeing massacres and unleashing attack dogs
on local populations. Yet regardless of how they achieved it,
the Spaniards set fire to the barrel house, at which
point they began questioning the people of this community about
the two things they wanted most in that moment, corn

(44:35):
and gold, by holding up examples of each and inquiring
where they could find more. The answer they received these
questions was seemingly universal, very far from here, in some
place called Appalachi. With the most important thing they wanted
to get across was the fact that this place, which
had a lot of both of the things these invaders
were after, was very far away from here. In other words,

(44:56):
it seems that they were very much just telling the
Spanish what they wanted to hear as long as it
got them as far away from them as possible. Basically,
upon being shown corn, they were like, oh you want corn, yeah,
they have that way up north in Appalachi. And all
you want the shiny rock too, well, they have a
lot of that as well. Go there, go far away
from here. This, however, was more than enough for our

(45:17):
vis who was now convinced that they had been given
directions to a great city that might potentially robble those
at Cortes had captured in Mexico. He then intended to
set off immediately, heading both further north in inland to
where the conquest he so desired awaited him, a path
that Kabas in Avoca apparently opposed, as this was after
all a risky gamble. They were still very much not

(45:39):
in the best shape due to their prolonged and problematic voyage,
and they had not even reunited with their ships yet.
Now Narvis just wanted to march off into the unknown.
They knew nothing of what kind of resistance might await them,
and they had no interpreters whom they might use to
gain more information, with the Voca leader writing quote, we
were traveling mute, that is, without interpreters, through an area

(46:00):
where we could hardly make ourselves understood by the Indians
or learn about the land what we desire to know.
And that we were entering into a land which we
had no information, nor did we know what it was like,
nor what was stored in it, nor by one people
it was populated, nor in which part of it we
were located. Indeed, their pilots weren't even entirely sure where

(46:21):
they were. Plus, traveling into an unknown situation was especially
dangerous being as low on supplies as they were. For
Devaka then, as much as anything else, it was simply
a bad idea to go into battle with a force
that was weakened from hunger. In fact, their horses were
still so weak they would be of no use in battle.
To that end, he wanted to wait until they had
a secured port and brought in more supplies. And our avis, however,

(46:44):
would not be dissuaded, especially now that he believed his
chance at fame, glory, and riches was at hand. In
response and their viz when mockingly offered Avoka the option
of staying behind with these ships while he led the
armed expedition, something which Ka, based a vodka's honor, would
not allow him to do, as the our advice was
basically calling him a coward. Place Devoca also very much

(47:05):
seemed interested in this opportunity for gold as well. Additionally,
it should also be noted, and thus taken with a
grain of salt, that we are relying upon Kabeze Nevoka's
own later accounting of events which depicked him as kind
of the lone voice of reason advising against what will
prove to be an immensely disastrous campaign. Now, regardless of

(47:36):
whether Coubza Nevaka was the lone voice of reason speaking
against our visor's plans or not, the fact remains that
he and the other three hundred soldiers, forty of whom
were on horseback, all set off on their inland trek.
As these quote unquote fittest members the expedition set off,
the one hundred or so women who were with them
would stay behind with these sailors and these ships as
they continued to head along the coast, looking for the

(47:58):
bay they had found so they could set up their
base of operations proper. Meanwhile, revised, his men would spend
weeks struggling through forests and swamps as they pushed on
in the direction that they had been told Appalachian all
its riches, lay through. How much time The question of
food had to have been prominent in the minds of
the Conquisadores, as they had only departed from the ships
with two pounds of hearttack and a half pound of

(48:19):
salted pork each, which then forced them to try and
figure out how to live off the land in what
was a foreign and strange environment. Now, as you might expect,
wildlife was apparently fairly plentiful. As an addition to seeing geese,
knight herons, bears, and panthers, they also spotted three different
types of deer, rabbits, and even possums, which Tovaka would
describe as quote other wild beasts, among them one that

(48:42):
carries its young in a pouch. The thing was, even
though wildlife was platiful, that did not mean they were
easy to hunt, as remember, these men knew nothing about
these lands or these animals, plus none of them were
experienced hunters, so instead they managed to survive simply by
eating the hearts of certain palm trees. Food also wasn't
the only concern facing their vices hopeful concasadors, as they

(49:05):
got little rest due to having to be pretty much
constantly on guard. As remember, they knew absolutely nothing about
these lands of the people who occupied them. They had
just sent off after hearing the Appalachi had golden corn.
Their caution was seemingly justified when, after traveling for a time,
they were met by a group of some two hundred
Native Americans who apparently weren't exactly welcoming to these strange invaders,

(49:28):
whose reputation even in these early days somewhat preceded them
now in our vice, and as men attempted their usual
method of communicating, which consisted of holding out corn and
gold as a worthy objects they were most after. While
doing so, they might have also potentially mentioned the word
appalachi as a way of communicating their destination and inquiring
after directions. Things, however, did not go well when trying

(49:50):
to communicate with this group. What exactly happened we don't know,
as all Devaka said of this encounter was quote, they
gestured to us in such a way that we had
to turn on them now. The reason why this group
was not all that welcoming was likely because the Spaniards
had encountered them after crossing them with the Couchee River,
which is notable as rivers in Florida tended to service

(50:11):
boundaries between different groups. As such, this group of two
hundred or so Native Americans were probably there to guard
their people's territory and the Spanish were now trespassing. Not
that this matter to the Spanish, though, as upon interpreting
that the locals are not being welcoming with their gestures,
the Conquisadors lashed out, ultimately capturing five or six members
of this group, who were then subsequently convinced to lead

(50:33):
these Spaniards to a nearby town, which, while abandoned and
not the kind of rich city filled with gull that
they wanted, did at least have something of almost equal
value to the Conquisodors in that moment, a healthy crop
of corn. As a group they had encountered, and the
residents of this village were from a different culture than
the one they had encountered previously. These were a people
who had likely come from somewhere to the north and

(50:55):
were then more dedicated to growing corn, which was very
beneficial for the health green vaders. The Spanish then quickly
swept up the corn supply and spent the next several
days in this little community. Feasting of this moment, Devaka
would write quote, we gave infinite thanks to our Lord
for having aided us in so great a need, because
since we were most certainly new to these hardships, beyond

(51:16):
the fatigue we suffered, became very worn out from hunger.
Yet even with this reprieve, it was obvious to Devaka
at least that things were not going well. He then
argued with Narvaz, again, insisting that they should make for
the coastos to try to reunite with their ships, which
were again their only connection with the rest of the
Spanish Empire. Nirvaz, however, remained fully focused on the ridges

(51:37):
supposedly held in Appalachi. He then only reluctantly, after an
extended argument, agreed to send Cabeza, Devaca and a few
others to seek out the coastline. When they did, however,
Devaka and the others found the wood are there too
shall to serve as a port, so even if they
by chance having to spot their ships, there would not
be anything they could do for them. So the expedition

(51:58):
pressed on, all the while being constantly harassed by mosquitoes,
which only grew worse whenever they came near swampland, which,
given that they were in Florida, was often As a
result of all this, the army began to weaken even further.
The men were exhausted, and some even started suffering from
chillsen fevers, which would prove to be the early signs
of an illness that they weren't familiar with, but which

(52:20):
would become more apparent in the weeks to come. It
wasn't all bad, though, because as they went, these Spaniards
would encounter one group, the Temacua, who were apparently not
on friendly terms with the Appalachi. Leading the Timmacoua then
encountered was a noble slash lord who spoted long and
pointed nails, and who wore a painted deer hide. This
nobles arrival was also notably preceded by the sounds or

(52:42):
reeds with two holes in them that served as a
kind of flute, in which produced a sound that, to
the Spaniards ears was discordant. Yet still the most notable
part of his appearance was the fact that he arrived
seated on the shoulders of a porter. This nobles arrival,
then was a strange sight, but not an unwelcome one,
as since he and his people were not friendly with
the Appalachi, they were more than happy to point these

(53:04):
strangers in the direction of their enemies. The prospect of
an alliance with these people was probably very tempting to
nervise who knew they cortessed. Do such animosities between the
native residents of this continent to aid in his conquest
to Mexico. These two groups had proceeded to exchange gifts,
which included the Lord gifting Nervis with his elaborately painted
deer hyde before leading these Spaniards back to his village,

(53:25):
where he provided them with food including corn, beans, squash,
and pumpkins. However, as they camped outside the timical A
town that night and hour was apparently shut at one
of the Spanish soldiers. Now exactly why this happened is unclear,
although it is possible that this might have been the
result of the locals seeing one of these soldiers and
their horses die after failing to cross the river. As

(53:46):
keep in mind, these Spaniards not only lowke strange and
wore strange clothes, but they also rode on the backs
of animals see lines of which these people had never
seen before. So seeing one of these strangers and her
animals died just like any other person or animal they
were familiar with might have had the effect of demystifying them,
as it would have been the end of any idea
that these were special or magical creatures. But again we

(54:08):
don't know if that was the case. Perhaps one of
the Spaniards had done something to offend the people, but regardless,
since the attack happened that night and there were no
further attempts to the Spanish plan to wait until morning
to speak with their host and to decide what to
do next. However, the following morning they found the village
completely abandoned. The Concusadors then took what food they could

(54:28):
find and once again set off in the direction where
they had been told their goal Appalachi lay. Notably, though,
as they pressed on now, they regularly spotted a number
of Timikua behind them, apparently armed for war. Yet whenever
the Spanash attempted to do battle with them, the timikua
disappeared into the wilderness, only to reappear again when the
Spaniards resumed their marching. Eventually, though, the Concusators tired of

(54:51):
these games and set a trap for their pursuers. In
doing so, they likely killed a number of the Timicua,
while also ticking others captive so as to act as
guides going on forward. Finally, then, sometime around mid June,
nearly two and a half months since first landing in Florida,
Nervaz and his men found the fabled land of Appalachi.
Yet what they found was not the glittering city of

(55:12):
riches that they had been anticipating. Indeed, the community of
forty small houses did not in any way resemble tanach Teitlan,
the capital city of the Aztecs at Cortes had conquered,
and strangely enough, it also did not contain any stockpiles
of gold. In fact, as it turns out, when the
Apalachian Mounds bear the name of the Apalachi people, because
Spatch believed that their gold had to have come for

(55:32):
the mounds, there was actually a lot wrong with those assumptions,
as the Apolachi did not have gold, their territory did
not extend to send mountain range, and those mounds also
did not have any gold. Meanwhile, Nerviz was seemingly so
defeated it just he said of actual Apalachi that he
did not even bother going at the town himself, as
he in no way expected to find the ridges he

(55:53):
was after there. Instead, he would only send Cabeza Devaka,
some fifty foot soldiers and nine men on horseback to
secure the town, a force that met little to no resistance,
at least in part because the men actually weren't in
town at that time. The conquisitors then satisfied themselves by
taking the women and children of the village captive. In
doing so, though the Spanish failed and noticed the fact

(56:13):
that someone had escaped to bring news of the men
of the village and to the surrounding communities of these invaders.
The Conquisadores were then taken by surprise when the men
returned without warning loose a hill of arrows upon them. Unfortunately,
only a horse would be followed by this attack, and
the townsmen wouldn't be quickly run off. Now, the one
good thing that could be said about the Appalachi from

(56:34):
the perspective of these Spaniards was the fact that they,
far more than any other people they had encountered thus far,
had tremendous amounts of corn. This was because they were
a part of the Mississippian culture, who had built cities
and huge earthen mounds, and who were very much a
corn growing people. Corn, you see, was a primary factor
in supporting their large population. Indeed, they typically grew three

(56:56):
types of maze that ripen at different times and which
were used to repair numerous different types of foodstuffs to
either be consumed by itself or to go along with
a number of different kinds of fish, game, berry, squash,
and beans that they also relied upon. Now, at this point,
while some parts of the Mississippian civilization had gone into decline,
there were some parts at were still actually going strong. However,

(57:17):
by the time the French and English started exploring these
land centuries later, the Mississippians were only a shell of
their former grandeur due to repeated pandemics, which had devastated
their population and eventually their civilization broke in the smaller
and less complex groups. At this time, however, what the
Spanish did not quite grasp was the fact that the
Appalachi town they had come across was actually just a

(57:38):
small community on the outskirts of their civilization. There were
more than larger and more impressive communities that might have
at least appeared more attempting, but they did not realize this. Instead,
they felt pretty defeated as a result. Two days after
initially capturing the town when the men of the community returned,
this time without attacking, and instead just asked if these
strangers might release their families. Actually did as he asked,

(58:01):
which strongly indicates both how crushed he was upon not
finding the glittering kingdom be expected, and also how weat
the Conquistadors really were at this point. Again, if he
hoped to take a more peaceful approach to ArviZ very
much misstepped by keeping their chief as a hostage. Now
this was a pretty standard tactic of the conquistadors. In fact,
Cortes had done much the same with Montezuma. The problem

(58:23):
was Cortes, with Montezuma had the emperor of the Aztec nation,
while Narviz had won amounted to a mayor of a
small town on the askirts of the apple Lachi nation,
which is to say, he did not have a figure
of such importance so as to bring an empire to
its knees, but instead more of a person of just
enough importance to kind of piss off the rest of

(58:43):
the nation. Cabeza Avaka, in fact, would later note that
Narviz's decision had keep the mayor hostage was the cause
of the Appalachi people being quote greatly offended. Indeed, unlike
the other Varida tribes that had encountered, which seemed to
have been fairly egalitarian, The Mississippi culture that the Apalachi
were a part of had a fair degree of stratification
and hierarchy. People were apparently ranked according to their relation

(59:07):
to certain ancestors, which in turn determined stuff like whether
or not they had political power, could own certain items
like jewelry, or even eat certain types of food. Theirs
was a society, then, where everyone had a place, and
they all seemed to know what it was, from the
bottom rung of the latter, all the way up to
the leading family of their civilization, a family which the
chief of these Spaniards had captured was certainly not a

(59:28):
part of. In fact, it seems that the reason why
the men from the village had been gone for two
days before returning to ask for the return of their
families was because they had gone off to report to
a larger and more important town and the authorities therein
so as to inform them of what had happened and
to ask how to respond. As it turns out, these
authorities rightly saw this as an invasion, and thus began

(59:49):
preparing an appropriate response. First, though, they wanted to try
and get the women and children from the town to safety,
and so once that was done, it was apparently decided
that the remaining hostage to the may was expendable, as
soon some childre Appalachi warriors attacked the town with flaming arrows.
In doing so, they specifically settle blazy structures where the
Spanish had been sheltering. That being said, none of the

(01:00:11):
Spanish were killed in this attack, while one of the
Apalachi warriors was slain. The following day then brought another
children warriors to attack the town from a different direction,
having likely been dispatched from another Apalachi community. Now the
Spanish were even better prepaired this time around, so again
the Apalachi would be forced to depart, having failed to
inflict any casualties while losing one of their own. For

(01:00:33):
the Apalachi, these encounters were proof enough that their current
tactics weren't working. They had lost to men and failed
to kill any of the invaders or even drive them off,
so they decided to shift gears, a bending the idea
of large scale attacks to instead focus on harassing the
invaders constantly with hit and run raids. The Spaniards said
on a daily basis, would be attacked by the Appalachi
from the shelter of nearby woods and swamps, as the

(01:00:55):
basically would fire arrows at any conquistore who wanted offer
was isolated from the rat By doing so, the Appalachi
were able to strike at the Spanish at any time
without warning, and the conquisadors could do nothing about it.
According to the Vaka himself quote, the idiots made more
on us, continually wounding the people and the horses when
we were at places where we went to get water,

(01:01:16):
and doing this from the lagoons, and so safely that
we could do them no harm, because they shut arrows
at us while being submerged in them. This was because
the Appalachi were incredibly skilled archers who wielded sizeable bosa
were some eleven to twelve hands spans long, which meant
they were, per Devaka's description, about us tall as the
archers and about us thick as a man's arm, weapons

(01:01:37):
that the well trained and powerfully built Appalachi could pull
back with ease, but which the smaller and comparably weaker
Spanish men could not. Besides, of these bows and made
it so the Apalachi could strike any distance that the
Spanish could not answer back with their crossbows indeed could
beza Evaka would describe how he'd personally seen arrows fired
from these massive bows penetrate six inches into a poplar

(01:01:57):
tree plasi appalachi. They weren't just physically imposing specimens, as
they also knew how to use their weapons as they
were hunters and were also used to clashing with other chobs,
especially those who lived out here on the frenches of
their society. These skills would then be put on display
some four decades later, when some captured Native Americans from
Florida were brought to Europe, where they outperformed some of

(01:02:19):
the best archers the kind of had to offer. Now
to be clear that Conquisadors were well armed and armored
in their own right. As to protect their bodies, they
wore either steel carasses or chain mill shirts, although some
who had been to Mexico also adopted Aztec style quilted
codes that offered surprisingly good protection against arrows. They also
tended to wear galllets complete with metal plates so as

(01:02:40):
to protect their hands and forearms, and metal helmets that
weighed up to ten pounds. That being said, not everyone
could afford the same equipment, so those who could not
afford metal armor, wore leather helmets and the like. Some
also used shields that were made of leather and wood,
or even metal. In some cases. They also wielded weapons
like nine to twelve feet long steel tip glances, swords, daggers,

(01:03:01):
battle axes, maces, or even halberds. Then, for longer distance combat,
they also had crossbows, while musketeers with a long barreled
so firing matchlocks. Now, all these arms and armour typically
gave the Spash a decided advantage over the native inhabitants
of these lands. Indeed, these tools that allowed Cortes to
conquer the Aztec Empire with a relatively small contingent of men.

(01:03:23):
In this moment, though they had nothing to answer these
strength of the bows of the Abalachi. Still, the fact
remained that these attacks were more of a nuisance than
a serious threat, as despite this regular harassment, Nervis and
his men would remain in the village for twenty five
or so days, largely because there was food there and
thus were able to regain some of their lost strength. Also,
during this time, when the village, Narvis would send out

(01:03:45):
three scouting expeditions in the hopes of getting some more
information about the landing now found themselves in, and maybe
even some son of the riches they were after. Additionally,
they also spent this time questioning their various hostages, which
included the individuals they had captured on their journey here,
as well as the village chief. These various hostages, then
all seemed to tell the invaders the same story, which

(01:04:06):
was this was the largest town in the area. Indeed,
they all claimed that other than the singular outpost, the
region was sparsely populated, and that the only other residents
of the area were even poorer than the residents of
this village, all of which was not strictly true. Indeed,
a later Spanish expedition would describe this area as being
quote unquote heavily settled. This, then, all had to be

(01:04:28):
a cleverly calculated lie by the chief and the other captives,
designed to convince the invaders not the probe any deeper
into their kingdom, a lie that the now dispiritic and
ki Sners were more than prepared to accept at face value.
After all, everything about this mission had gone wrong from
the very beginning, so they were more they prepared to
believe that, of course, their bad luck had continued. The

(01:04:49):
defeated Spaniards then started asking their captives for directions to
the coast, directions which the chief was very careful in giving,
as should the Spaniards head to the north of the west,
they would definitely into the larger population centers of the
Appalachi Kingdom and their ample farms, so he was careful
to direct them to the south, where the population was
much more disperse and better match the Lizi had told. Then,

(01:05:11):
To further tempt these strangers into heading in that direction,
the chief told them of a village called Aunt that
supposedly had quote a great deal a maze, and they
had beans and squash, and because of being so close
to the sea, they obtained fish, and that these people
were their friends, with that last bit about being their
friends most likely being among the biggest lies he told.
As from his other actions, the last thing that this

(01:05:33):
chief wanted to do was send these invaders to people
that he cared about. He then was likely sending them
towards some of their traditional enemies. That being said, it
seems that another reason for aiming these Spaniards in that
direction was that it took them directly through a massive
swamp one which they encountered on their second day out
from the village. The Conquisodors, with their weighty arms and armor,
now found themselves drudging through chestyp butder which none have

(01:05:56):
frequently hid submerged trees that they had to navigate around. Meanwhile,
as they were wading through the swamp, the Spanish were
still regularly being harassed in The Conquisadors still could do
nothing about it, as now on top of everything else,
their guns were now inoperable, as now their powder was
to what to use. Additionally, their horses, which had so
often given them an advantage in battle war, of little

(01:06:17):
use in these swamplands. Then there were their crossbows, which
they could still fire, but they were only able to
do so one time, because the normal process of reloading
them involved placing the weapon on the ground and bending
over to crank the mechanism back into the firing position,
a process which they couldn't exactly do while standing in
water up to their chests. Meanwhile, their various forms of armor,

(01:06:38):
while providing protection from these errors, also weighed them down,
thereby making progress even more difficult. This all added up
to an extremely exhausting journey that lasted for nine days
before reaching their destination in the village of Aught, which
did indeed have some beans mason squash ready to be harvested. However,
there was nothing else there, not even any kind of shelter,

(01:07:00):
as the residents on this community had all fled upon
learning of the approach of these invaders, and in doing
so had burned the town to the ground. Meanwhile, the
sickness that had been solely taking effect within the ranks
the Europeans was now starting to kick in the full gear. Indeed,
about a third of the Concuserer's ranks were so ill
that they struggled to simply move about, much less do

(01:07:20):
so while carrying their heavy equipment, with this disease likely
being typhus or typhoid, diseases that present very similarly but
have different causes, while malaria has also been suggested as
a possible culprit. Regardless, forty men would ultimately die of
this disease before all was said and done. This means
that of the three hundred who had originally set off
with Narviz on this mission, there was now something like

(01:07:42):
just over two hundred and fifty left. Between these losses
and the handful of men who had fallen through the
endless attacks in the native residents of this area. Meanwhile,
even those who ultimately did not die from this disease
were left weakened in l for an extended period, among
whom must the leader of this expedition, Narviz himself. It
had now been five months since they had set off
from their ships, and just about everything that could have

(01:08:04):
gone wrong had. Close to fifty men were dead, many
more were sick, and they had regularly been attacked by
the inhabitants of these lands, and in doing so they
had won no great victories, much less found the kind
of wealth that they had been after. It was and
decided at this point to march straight for the shore,
as at least that way there was a chance, albeit
a slim mun, that they might find aid from their ships,

(01:08:26):
with the hope apparently being that they would be searching
for them and could signal them from the shoreline, a
decision that very much spoke to the morale of the Conquisadores,
as by this point their spirits and their dreams of
glory and gold had all but been shattered. The only
dream they had left then was simple survival. The coastline, though,
as they would discover upon reaching it, brought them no hope,

(01:08:47):
as they found themselves in a large, shallow bay where
they would it was only way steep, and there was
a chain of barrier islands sheltering it, which made it
essentially inaccessible to their ships, meaning that even if by
some chance they ships happened to come along the coast,
they would have no way of reaching them, a discovery
which must have been crushing for these Spaniards, so much

(01:09:08):
so that Kabeza Avaca would shy away from focusing on
this moment, writing only quote. I refrain here from telling
this at greater length, because each one can imagine for
himself what could happen in a land so strange and
so poor, and so lacking in every single thing that
it seemed impossible either to be in it or to
escape from it. Cabeza, Avoka, Norviz and all the others

(01:09:29):
were now trapped in a strange land that they almost
seemingly had no means of escaping from and no knowledge
of how to survive in Devaga's journey was just beginning, though,
But that story and how he eventually made it almost
to the Gulf of California and ultimately reached the Spanish
colonies in Mexico. Will have to for now remain a
story for another time. Thank you for listening to Distorted History.

(01:09:55):
If you would like to help out, please rate and
review the podcasts and tell your friends if you think
they'll be interested. If you would like ad free in
early episodes, I set up such a feed over at
patreon dot com slash to started History. By paying ten
bucks a month, you will gain access to the special
ad free feed available on Spotify or likely through your
podcast app as long as it uses an RSS feed.

(01:10:17):
I will continue to post sources on koffee and Twitter, though,
as it's just a convenient place to go to access
that information regardless. Once again, thank you for listening and
until next time,

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The Ill Fated Journey of Conquistador Cabeza de Vaca Part 1 Florida

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