[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 196 (Wednesday, December 12, 2018)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1655]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            CABEZA DE VACA: EXPLORER OF THE LONE STAR STATE

                                 ______
                                 

                              HON. TED POE

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, December 12, 2018

  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, in November of 1528, Conquistador 
Alvar Nuncz Cabeza de Vaca and his crew of 90 Spaniards crashed on 
Galveston Island. He was the first European to set foot on the land 
that would become the Lone Star State and is considered to have 
undertaken one of the most remarkable journeys in the history of 
American exploration.
  From 1528 to 1532, the crew steadily died off from illness, 
accidents, and attacks until only Cabeza de Vaca and three others 
remained. During those four years, Cabeza de Vaca became a merchant, 
and traded seas shells and ``beads of sea'' (though now called pearls) 
for bison skins and red ochre. He also gained a reputation as a healer, 
which gave him freedom to travel between different tribes.
  The Karankawa Indians, a group of Coahuiltecans known to be 
cannibals, enslaved these men until, in September of 1534, the four men 
snuck away from the Karankawas and fled south towards the Rio Grande 
River. The following spring, they finally crossed the Rio Grande and 
made it to Mexico. To avoid hostile tribes, the men turned west towards 
the Pacific and crossed northern Mexico.
  Cabeza de Vaca and his companions eventually arrived in Mexico City 
in 1536.
  They had traveled nearly 2400 miles over eight years in Texas and the 
Mexican borderlands.
  Cabeza de Vaca spent years interacting with Native Americans and 
learning their language. This allowed him to write and publish in 1542 
the first book about Texas, the Relacion, which contained information 
about the region's geography, landscape, and Coahuiltecan tribes. This 
account of his journey inspired other conquistadors and Spaniards to 
cotne and explore Texas.
  And that's just the way it is.

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