attempt the trip overland through unexplored
mountainous jungles. The journey proved to
be difficult, but Cabeza de Vaca and his men
became the first Europeans to see the spectac-
ular Iguaçu Falls, where the current bound-
aries of Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay meet.
When he finally arrived at Asunción on
March 11, 1542, Cabeza de Vaca’s royal
appointment allowed him to displace
Domingo Martínez de Irala, who had been
elected governor by European colonists.
Cabeza de Vaca instituted new laws to protect
the rights of Indians, irritating many of the
colonists. The new governor left Asunción for
western Paraguay in September 1543, plan-
ning to defeat tribes that were harassing Euro-
pean settlers and friendly Guaraní Indians.
Reports of silver and other treasures to the
west inspired Cabeza de Vaca to linger there
and send exploratory parties into the desolate
Chaco region, but his attempts to find an
overland route to Peru resulted only in the
expedition being worn by starvation, Indian
attacks, and disease. When Cabeza de Vaca
returned to Asunción after a six-month
absence in the Paraguayan interior, he was
arrested almost immediately by resentful
colonists, who returned Irala to power.
Cabeza de Vaca was shipped to Spain in
chains and tried for an assortment of crimes,
including the seditious offense of declaring
himself ruler of La Plata. Although the charges
were manufactured by Irala’s supporters,
Cabeza de Vaca was imprisoned and sentenced
to banishment in North Africa. Charles V light-
ened the sentence, but the damage to Cabeza
deVaca’s career was already done. He died
around 1557 in Spain, poor and forgotten.
Although Cabeza de Vaca died shunned by
his contemporaries, the story of the Narváez
expedition survivors had an enormous effect
upon exploration, encouraging de Soto and
directly inspiring the expeditions of Niza and
Coronado. Cabeza de Vaca provided Euro-
peans with the first realistic east-to-west
dimensions of North America, valuable
accounts of flora and fauna, and detailed
descriptions of primitive societies living
between the Gulf of Mexico and the northern
boundaries of Spanish-held Mexico. The value
of his information was ignored by some 16th-
centuryexplorers who were devoted to dis-
covering wealth, but time has transformed
Cabeza de Vaca’s narrative into a unique por-
trait of the American continent before the
European conquest.Cabeza de Vaca documented his experiences
among Native American tribes in Navfragios,or
Relation of Núñez,which was published in 1542.
(Library of Congress)Cabeza de Vaca’s Epic Journey B 91