Cabeza de Vaca and the Spanish Explorers in Texas

On November 6, 1528, a group of Spanish explorers washed ashore in Texas after their ship was wrecked in a terrible storm. They were lost, hungry, and the first Europeans to ever set foot in Texas. What is amazing about their arrival in Texas?

• They planned to explore Texas

• They never planned to be in Texas

• They found gold immediately

• They were rescued by another ship

Read the passage below and answer the question: Most of the Spanish explorers did not survive, but how many managed to make their way from Texas back to Spanish settlements in Mexico?

• Two

• Four

• Ten

• Twenty

Read the passage below and answer the question: Who was the leader among the survivors who made it back to Spanish settlements?

• Hernán Cortés

• Cabeza de Vaca

• Christopher Columbus

• Francisco Pizarro

Fill in the blank: Cabeza de Vaca described a beautiful landscape that stretched from lush forests in East Texas to ________ lowlands along the coast, to harsh deserts and bison-filled plains in South and West Texas.

• swampy

• rocky

• mountainous

• arid

Cabeza de Vaca reported that the people living in Texas were:

• generous and peaceful towards strangers

• hostile and aggressive to outsiders

• skilled in building large cities

• uninterested in trade with others

True or False: The arrival of Europeans like Cabeza de Vaca had no significant impact on Texas.

• True

• False

According to the passage, what were the Spanish explorers hoping to find in Texas?

• Gold or silver

• New trade routes

• New crops

• Friendly Native American tribes

What was one of the terrible consequences of Spanish explorers coming to Texas, as described in the passage?

• They destroyed all the crops

• They introduced European diseases

• They built large cities

• They found gold

Fill in the blank: The Spanish explorers accidentally left behind ______, which transformed Native American life by improving hunting and warfare capabilities.

• horses

• guns

• boats

• wheat

The Spanish explorers found large amounts of gold in Texas, which made Spain very interested in the region.

• True

• False