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to save the people and the horses when the south wind blew, and to beach the ships if they found themselves in danger, for winds from that direction wreck many vessels. Then I left. I wanted some people to accompany me, but they did not wish to…

But having gone half the distance and having reached a port called Cape Santa Cruz, it seemed to him that the fleet should wait there and send a ship to bring the provisions. For this purpose he sent a certain Captain Pantoja there with his ship…

CHAPTER ONE
Which Tells When the Fleet Sailed, and of the Officers and People Who Went with It

On the seventeenth day of the month of June of 1527, Governor Pánfilo de Narváez departed from the port of San Lúcar de Barrameda by authority and…

Coat of Arms of Cabeza de Vaca from the Archivo de Indias, Sevilla, Spain. Reprinted in The Odyssey of Cabeza de Vaca by Morris Bishop. New York: The Century Co., 1933

A seventeenth-century coat of arms of the House of Cabeza de Vaca. By permission of the Houghton Library, Harvard University.

But, since my counsel and my diligence were of little avail in accomplishing the task for which we went in the service of Your Majesty, and since God permitted, because of our sins, that of all the expeditions that ever went to those lands, no other…

Proem

Holy, Imperial, Catholic Majesty:

Among all the princes we know to have existed in the world, I think that none could be found whom men have endeavored to serve with such great diligence and desire as we see that they serve Your Majesty…

THE KING

Since you yourself, Governor Álvar Núñez Cabeça de Vaca, resident of the city of Seville, gave us an account, saying that you had written a book entitled Account of What Occurred in the Indies, in the fleet with which you went as…