Study Questions for Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, Relación

"TURNING FAILURE TO SUCCESS"

  1. To whom does CdV address the Proem? (p. 28)

  2. To what does CdV attribute the differences that separate the men who serve the Emperor? (p. 28)

  3. According to CdV, despite his best efforts and advise, what happened to the expedition? In the face of that result, what does CdV call his service to the Emperor? (p. 28)

  4. To what use does CdV say his service ultimately can be put? (p. 28)

  5. How many men depart from San Lúcar de Barrameda? How many mend do they lose in Santo Domingo? (p. 30) How many more do they lose at the port of Trinidad? (p. 32)

  6. What does CdV send the Emperor after the great storm? (p. 32)

  7. Who does Pánfilo de Narváez hire in Trinidad? What happens to the expedition as a result of this man’s work? (p. 33)

  8. When the Spanish land in Florida, what ceremony do they perform? (p. 34)

  9. When the Indians take them to their village, what do the Spaniards find? What does the Commissary order they do with their find? (p. 35)

  10. Why do the Spaniards want to go to Apalachen? (p. 35)

  11. Why does CdV not want to march inland? Why does he ask the scribe to put his opinion on record? (p. 36)

  12. How does CdV describe the Florida Indians? What does he say about their weapons? (p. 44)

  13. When CdV convinces the horsemen not to mutiny, what do they say about the fate of expedition? (p. 46)

  14. What did the Spanish use for tools to make the rafts? What did they eat to survive while they made them? (p. 47)

  15. When the rafts are in danger of getting separated, and CdV asks the Governor what he he should do, what did the Governor answer? (p. 53)

  16. After their raft sinks while they are trying to set out again, how does CdV describe their condition? (p. 56)

  17. Why can it be said that with the Isle of Misfortune CdV’s discourse becomes anthropological? (pp. 59-60)

  18. How do the Spaniards become physicians? How do they heal? (p. 62)

  19. When CdV escapes from the tribe that is working him death, what does the next tribe allow him to become? What does this job let him do? (pp. 64-65)

  20. What does CdV find out about the Governor’s end? How did the last survivors of the Governor’s party survive? (p. 69)

  21. When CdV is left alone and gets lost, how does he survive the cold night? (p. 77)

  22. How does CdV resuscitate a dead man? After this episode, what do the Indians start to call the Spaniards? (p. 80)

  23. When CdV describes how he shed his skin and often bled from work or thorns, what was his only comfort? (p. 82)

  24. What advice does CdV have for anyone who may have to do battle with the Indians. (p. 87)

  25. When the Spaniards begin to travel from village to village who guides them? What new custom develops among the Indians? (pp. 92-93)

  26. What do the medicine men give the Spaniard that increases their authority? (p. 96)

  27. What operation does CdV perform? (p. 97)

  28. How does CdV describe the feeding of the multitudes? (p. 98)

  29. How does the custom of exchanging goods change after the feeding scene? (p. 99)

  30. Why do they follow the Corn route instead of the Buffalo trails north? (p. 103) What do they hear about the north? (pp. 103-4)

  31. How do the Spaniards bring peace to the Indians? (p. 104)

  32. When the Spaniards find the country empty and fields abandoned, how do the Indians explain their actions? (pp. 106-7)

  33. When CdV meets the Christians on horseback, how do the react to him? What are they searching for? What does CdV ask of them? (p. 108)

  34. Why does CdV quarrel with the Christians?(p. 109)

  35. How do the Indians distinguish between the Christians and CdV’s group? (p. 110)

  36. What do the Christians do to CdV’s Indian followers? (p. 110)

  37. What does the Mayor want CdV to do in service of the Emperor? (p. 112)

  38. What does CdV promise the Indians if they became Christians? (p. 113)

  39. What does CdV instruct the Indians to do in order to live as Christians? Under what sign does he tell them to live? (p. 113) Who witnesses the event? (p. 114)

  40. What does CdV wish to happen in the Emperor’s lifetime? (p. 115)

  41. On his trip back, by land and then sea, how does CdV emphasize the presence of the slave trade? (pp. 116, 118)

  42. What had a woman foretold to the Governor before the ships had left the expedition on the Florida coast? (p. 120)

  43. When CdV recalls the bodies in the boxes from Ch. 4, what information does he add about them? (p. 121)

  44. What is the last information that CdV gives about himself before ending his account? (p. 121)