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Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca was one of the first Europeans to explore the vast lands of America.

Setting off with expedition led by Pánfilo de Narváez in 1527, Cabeza de Vaca was one of only four to return alive.

Over an eight-year period he and his companions travelled into the unexplored interior of what is now known as the Caribbean, the United States and Mexico.

This book, first titled La Relación (The Relation) was first published in 1542, shortly followed by a second edition under the title, Naufragios (Shipwrecks), in 1555. They were the first written accounts of North and Central America that made it back to Europe.

Cabeza de Vaca’s journey led him to encounter Native Americans who had never laid eyes upon Europeans before, indeed he has been termed a proto-anthropologist for his accounts of their ways of life.

During this time travelling through America Cabeza de Vaca became a wandering merchant and medicine man to the Native Americans, but always kept his eyes open to find his way back to Christian civilization.

"Cabeza de Vaca was not only a physical trailblazer: he was also a literary pioneer, and he deserves the distinction of being called the Southwest's first writer.” William T. Pilkington

Cyclone Covey’s wonderful translation allows the reader to fully engage with this brilliant seventeenth century account.

Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca re-joined Spanish forces in Mexico City in 1536. He returned to Spain a year later published his account of the journey. In the 1540s he was governor of Rio de la Plata in what is now Argentina, but he was transported back to Spain and put on trial in 1545 for his contribution to the poor administration. He died in Seville before 1560.