Cabeza de Vaca |
Conquistador Who Cared |
by Mary Dodson Wade |
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A conquistador with the improbable name of "Head of a Cow" came to the New World to settle in Florida in the early 1500s, but things turned out very differently. Shipwrecked on the coast of the place we call Texas, he and three companions survived incredible hardships during the next eight years. He returned to Spain and wrote a book about his fantastic adventures, describing things people they had never seen — hurricanes, racoons, and bison. Later, in South America, he made enemies when he complained about the way the Guarani Indians were being treated. He was sent home in chains and spent the rest of his life and his fortune defending his name. |
| WHAT OTHERS HAVE SAID ABOUT THIS BOOK: Books of the Southwest: "Written for children, this is an intelligent retelling of Cabeza de Vaca's accidental, and sometimes downright mysterious, crossing of the Southwest. This book also explores the lesser-known aftermath, Cabeza de Vaca's disastrous career as a bureaucrat in South America." |
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