As the number of survivors of the…

As the number of survivors of the Narváez expedition dwindled, they had been enslaved for a few years by various native tribes of the upper Gulf Coast.

Because Cabeza de Vaca had survived and prospered from time to time, some scholars argue that he was not enslaved but was using a figure of speech in his later writings.

He and other noblemen are accustomed to better living.

Their encounters with harsh conditions and weather, and being required to work like native women must have seemed like slavery.

The tribes to which Cabeza de Vaca had been enslaved include the Hans, the Capoques (a branch of the Karankawa), and the Coahuiltecs.

Traveling mostly with this small group, Cabeza de Vaca, traveling on foot, explores parts of Texas as well as the northeastern Mexican states of Tamaulipas, Nuevo León, and Coahuila, and possibly smaller portions of New Mexico and Arizona.

By 1532, only four members of the original Narváez expedition survive: Alonso del Castillo Maldonado, Andrés Dorantes de Carranza, Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, and Estevanico, the enslaved Moor.

They head west and gradually south, hoping to reach the Spanish Empire's outpost in Mexico.