Cabeza de Vaca’s party enjoys their hospitality for
six years before deciding to embark on foot toward
Spanish-held lands in what is now Mexico. Their
6,000-mile journey will take them across present-
day Texas and northern Mexico, making them the
first non-Indians to travel through the region. (See
also entry for 1536.)
“At sunset the Indians, think-
ing that we had not gone,
looked for us again and
brought us food.... I let them
know through sign language
that one of our boats had sunk
and that three of our men had
drowned.... The Indians, see-
ing the disaster that had come
upon us and brought so much
misfortune and misery, sat
down with us. They felt such
great pain and pity at seeing
us in such a state that they
all began to cry so loudly and
sincerely that they could be
heard from afar.”
—Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca,
on his Indian friends’ reaction to
finding him shipwrecked1531The Yaqui repel Spanish slavers.
Soldiers led by Nuño de Guzman trek through
what is now the American Southwest on the first
Spanish expedition to capture Indian slaves. When
they reach Yaqui territory in what is now southern
Arizona, the Indians draw a line in the sand and
tell the Spaniards they will be attacked if they cross
it. Guzman’s men ignore the threat but are soon
forced to retreat by Yaqui warriors in the fighting
that follows.1534Jacques Cartier explores the St. Lawrence
River region for France.
French king Francis I sends explorer Jacques Cartier
to North America to claim lands for France and to
search for the Northwest Passage—a water route
between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. When
he arrives, he kidnaps two Iroquoian men to serve
as guides for the expedition. The Indians tell the
Frenchmen about great Indian settlements close by,
which excites the Europeans with visions of enormous
riches like those confiscated by Spanish conquistado-
res in Mexico (see entries for 1519 and for 1521).
Eager to find the settlements, Cartier explores what
is now the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the mouth of
the St. Lawrence River before the approach of winter
compels him to return to France with his Indian cap-
tives. (See also entries for 1535 and for 1541.)1535French explorer Jacques Cartier makes a
second voyage to North America.
The French explorer Jacques Cartier returns to the
St. Lawrence River region in search of the North-
west Passage and Indian settlements full of riches
(see entry for 1534). He and his men visit the vil-
lages Stadacona and Hochelaga and establish a base
at the site of present-day Quebec City. There, the
Frenchmen are nursed by nearby Huron Indians
when they fall prey to scurvy.
In 1536 Cartier, eager to convert the Indians to
Catholicism, takes Indian leader Donnaconna and
nine of his followers captive and returns with them
to France. The captives are baptized and soon after
die from non-Indian diseases. Before his death, how-
ever, Donnaconna entices the French king Francis I
with stories of the “many mines of gold and silver”
in his native land. (See also entry for 1541.)P