Tracking Cabeza de Vaca's Journey

Does history see Narváes as a good leader or a bad one? Explain.

Based on Cabeza de Vaca's own words, did the Spaniards think they were going to survive long enough to make it back to land?

• They didn't have any fresh water, the food they were eating was rotten, and they believed they were going to die.

• The trip had gone well so far, and they were optimistic that their supplies would last until they found land.

What do you think of the native tribe's reaction to Cabeza de Vaca's group?

Of the more than 300 men that were part of the Narváez expedition, how many survived?

How did historians use the original printed text of Cabeza de Vaca's journey to determine where he travelled?

How did the historian find the nuts with thin shells that Cabeza de Vaca spoke about in his writings?

• They looked up different trees in books.

• They went to the area they believed Cabeza de Vaca was and asked local people where they could find a tree with nuts that have thin shells.

• Cabeza de Vaca's story told the historians exactly where to look.

True or False: The ancestors of today's New Mexican Native Americans mined metal and made things out of them.

• True

• False

How do we know that Cabeza de Vaca wasn't lying when he said they were surviving by eating worms and spiders?

• Historians found evidence of the food people at in the human excrement at ancient trash sites.

• Historians found several other writings that describe the same things.

• Actually, historians don't know whether or not people were eating worms or spiders.

How did the Native Americans boil water?

• In a metal pot hung over a fire.

• By adding hot rocks that were heated in a fire to the water they wanted to boil.

True or False: The Native Americans saw Cabeza de Vaca as a healer.

• True

• False