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  • The South American Expeditions, 1540–1545. Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca by Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca
  • David J. Robinson
The South American Expeditions, 1540–1545. Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca. Translated by Baker H. Morrow. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2011. xxiv + 240 pp., maps, illustrations, notes, bibliography, $39.95 cloth (ISBN 978-0-8263-5063-3).

This is an elegant modern translation of Cabeza de Vacas’ Comentarios, published in Valladolid in 1555, the first eye-witness account that describes what later were to become portions of Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina— know in the context of his travels as the “New Province of the Río de la Plata”. We are fortunate to now have an English version that does not suffer from the archaic and stultifying character of the 1891 Hakluyt volume. As is the case with many of the early Spanish colonial appointees/explorers exactly who wrote the text is not clear; it is probable, since much of it shifts from first to third person, that it was a compilation completed by Pedro Hernández, his secretary and notary public. An examination of the extensive court records (lawsuits and pleas) that marked the end of Cabeza de la Vaca’s career back in Spain, demonstrates that it is in those that one finds the information base and the outline for the preparation of the Comentarios. One should note before appraising this volume that this explorer was already famous for his extensive exploits in traveling from Florida through North America in the 1520s and ‘30s, the basis for his Relación (best translated in the exhaustive three-volume Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca: His Account, His Life, and the Expedition of Pánfilode Narváez by Rolena Adorno and Patrick Pautz, 1999).

His appointment as governor of the province of Río de la Plata came as a result of the death of the first governor, Pedro de Mendoza, and the fears of the Crown that the fragile outpost of Buenos Aires might be lost through Indian warfare. As was the custom of the time, Charles I offered a capitulación to Cabeza de Vaca, a contract that guaranteed “one twelfth of everything there and all the commerce of the place”, in return for financing the costly expedition and providing materials, including horses, ships, men and provisions. Setting sail from Cádiz in 1540, the trans-oceanic passage was marred by leaking ships, spoiled foodstuffs and a shortage of water, frequent hazards of the period. Finally, after recuperating in the Cape Verde islands, they reached the island of Santa Catalina adjacent to the Brazilian coast. [End Page 271]

From that location the route took Cabeza de Vacas’ main party across land to the Paraguay River which was followed north to its headwaters, arriving in what is today the Bolivian department of Santa Cruz. The text describing the many events that occurred is divided into 84 brief “chapters” which essentially represent notes on each of the stages of the journey. The first key element is the use of rivers, such as the Iguazú, as penetration routes by the travelers. Since Cabeza de Vaca had already established his credentials as a friend of the Indians in North America, on route west from the coast, and throughout the journey his first priority was to contact the local Indians, befriend them with gifts (trinkets, knives, scissors, pieces of iron, etc.), protect them from any hostile intentions of those under his command, and seek their advice as to what lay ahead. It is clear from the comments in the text that this meant that word of the arrival of these strange men and even stranger animals (horses) spread rapidly though the Indian settlements that they periodically encountered. When miles of unpopulated landscapes confronted the travelers, food shortages became critical; the swamplands and dense vegetation of the Pantanal proved more than difficult to traverse. Descriptions were made of strange new animals: tapirs, river rays, vampire bats, rheas, peccaries, monkeys and “chickens” (like those of Spain) and ducks. The Guaraní Indians were hesitantly friendly and exchanged food and gifts. They were seen to plant maize and manioc...

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