Cabeza+de+Vaca

=__//Explorer's Background-//__= Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca was born in Jerez de la Frontera in Andalusia, Spain in 1490. His parents were names Fransisco de Vera and Teresa Cabeza de Vaca. Cabeza was well educated as benifitted his status and would have been taught several languages, physics, geometry, mathmatics, cartography*, and astronomy. Cabeza left Spain in 1527 to go explore "The New World."

=__//Exploration and Purpose-//__= Cabeza heard the stories about "The New World" and left Spain to go see for himself. The expedition consisted of 600 soldiers, conolists, and horses. The set sail in 5 ships on June 17th, 1527. Cabeza was appointed treasurer of the expedition and high sheriff by the King of Spain.

=__//Arrival Point-//__= 1528, Cabeza ended up near present-day Tampa Bay, Florida. He was 1 of the 4 that survived. When they got there, they encountered some natives, they weren't unfriendly, they just made it known that they wanted the Spanish to leave. In the Native Villages they came across 10-15 woven mats, he traded sea snails, shells, hides, orche (colored clay for face and body paint), and flint for arrow heads.

=__//Explorer's Contribution-//__= Cabeza de Vaca is famous because he was the first European to explore Texas and Southwest America. He had completed a total of 4 voyages. During his last voyage he died of illness in 1557. He was 67 years old when he died.

// *__Cartography: The science of drawing maps.__ //