Chronicle of the Narvaez Expedition

In 1526 Carlos I of Spain granted Panfilo de Narvaez a license to claim what is now the Gulf Coast of the United States. Panfilo de Narvaez set sail in 1527 to conquer and settle present day Florida. Setting out with a crew of approximately 600 members ultimately only four members would survive the ill-fated expedition. The journey would take these four survivors from Spain to Hispaniola and Cuba and then onto Florida. Sailing through a hurricane and other storms the expedition would finally land near Tampa Bay. Suffering from Indian attacks and the effects of poor food and disease the crew, of which there was now only eighty, decided to sail from Florida to Mexico. In 1536, the four survivors-Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, Alonso del Castillo Maldonado, Andres Dorantes de Carranza, and his enslaved Moor Estevanico-finally managed to rejoin Spanish countrymen in present-day Mexico City. Upon returning to Spain Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca would receive considerable notoriety for his published account of the ordeal.