Cabeza De Vaca

His Journey Surviving in the wild, alone is not an easy thing to accomplish. Cabeza de vaca was one of the 4 men who was able to do that out of a total of 400. His 5 ships got shipwrecked, and he and people were slowly dying during this period of time. Cabeza de Vaca: How did he survive? Cabeza de Vaca survived because of success as a healer, respect for the Indians, and wilderness skills. Firstly, Cabeza de Vaca survived because of success as a healer. “With a knife that I had, I opened his chest to that place…. I inserted the knife point, and with great difficulty, at last I pulled it out” (Document C). Cabeza was able to survive because he was able to perform surgery to save the Native americans as well as himself. “That we cured the sick, and that the Spaniards killed those who were well” (Document D). Cabeza was also

“Cabeza learned four Indian language, including Charrucos, plus sign language” (Document B). Cabeza respected the Native Americans enough to learn their languages so he could communicate better. “The Indians were … not at all convinced…. Some talked … among themselves, saying that the Christians were lying and that we did not covet anything but rather, everything (the Indians) gave us we later returned… (Document D). Cabeza and his fellow survivors respected the Native Americans enough that they always returned the favor one way or another. Most importantly, Cabeza de Vaca survived because of his wilderness skills. “Four rafts shipwrecked on Isle de Malhado November, 1528. Cabeza arrives in 1536” (Document A). Cabeza used a lot of wilderness skills to be able to survive in an uncharted land with nothing more than the clothes he had on for 8 years. “As a slave, Cabeza ate what was available, including berries, mollusks, rats, lizards, snakes, and spiders” (Document B). Hunger was only one of the problems Cabeza had, but was able to fix with his use of survival