Castaways

This enthralling story of survival is the first major narrative of the exploration of North America by Europeans (1528-36). The author of Castaways ( Naufragios ), Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, was a fortune-seeking nobleman and the treasurer of an expedition to claim for Spain a vast area that includes today's Florida, Louisiana, and Texas. A shipwreck forced him and a handful of men to make the long westward journey on foot to meet up with Hernán Cortés. In order to survive, Cabeza de Vaca joine