Discovery of the Americas, 1492-1800

(Marvins-Underground-K-12) #1

Cabeza de Vaca’s Epic Journey B 87


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Spanish explorers were often impressed when they encountered bison, which lived
across much of North America and differed greatly from the cattle they were
accustomed to seeing.(Bureau of Land Management)

(continues)

Conquistadores and “Cows” =
THE AMERICAN BUFFALO

The animals commonly known to English speakers as American buffalo, or sim-
ply buffalo, are called bison by zoologists, who reserve the term buffalofor
species native to Africa and Asia. Hernán Cortés’s men saw bison in
Moctezuma’s royal menagerie as early as 1521. A decade later, however, the sur-
vivors of Pánfilo de Narváez’s expedition were the first Europeans to encounter
bison in their natural habitat. In his memoir, La Relación,Cabeza de Vaca
described the reliance of the tribes of central Texas on these “cows,” which he
compared to Old World cattle:

They have small horns like the cows of Morocco; their hair is very long and
flocky like merinos’. Some are tawny, others black. In my opinion the meat is
finer and fatter than the beef of this country. The Indians make blankets out of
the skins of cows not full grown; and shoes and shields from the full-grown.
These cattle come from as far away as the seacoast of Florida, from a northerly
direction, and range over a tract of more than 400 leagues [about 1,000 miles].
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