Cabeza De Vaca: How did he survive?

In 1528, a Spanish explorer by the name of Cabeza De Vaca washed ashore the east side of Texas on a raft, he arrived naked with no shoes, and later, an Indian band of natives acted as Cabeza’s caretaker, but then later enslaved him. In 1530, two years later, Cabeza finally escaped from his Indian captors and he joined an Indian tribe called the Charrucos. They gave Cabeza the freedom to trade their goods among nearby Indian groups, exchanging shells for hides and flint for animal hearts. Cabeza De Vaca survived because of this, joining this Indian tribe and learning different languages. After learning these languages, Indians liked him more and traded more and better things with him, also giving him food and shelter. Cabeza grew popular, to Indian bands after this, so they didn’t kill him for that reason. In 1542, Cabeza was brought an Indian man that was in need of medical help, there was an arrow that wounded his right shoulder and right over his heart. Cabeza grabbed the knife he had, and cut his chest open to the wound, and dug the arrow out. With a deer bone, Cabeza gave the man two stitches, and two days later, Cabeza removed the stitches and the Indian man was healed. After this medical procedure, he had a great reputation among the land. Cabeza De Vaca …show more content…
Cabeza survived captivity by finding himself his own food, since he wasn’t fed. Cabeza got trading rights for befriending his captors, and was able to trade whatever he found for food. Cabeza died shortly after reaching Mexico. Without his trading rights he’d have to hunt for himself, and possibly the animals he hunted would have killed him. Cabeza De Vaca survived years on the East side of Texas before reaching Mexico, and then he finally