The Spaniards accompany the survivors to Mexico…
August 1536 CE
The Spaniards accompany the survivors to Mexico City, where their story is already known; they are received with great honors.
Mendoza offers Dorantes a position leading a new expedition, but Dorantes refuses and instead makes plans to return to Spain.
Dorantes sells Estevanico to the Viceroy.
However, when he is preparing to leave, his ship is pronounced unfit to sail, forcing him to return to the port of Veracruz.
After this, Dorantes will never leave New Spain again; he will die in the 1550s.
Estevanico will later serve as a guide for other expeditions.
Alonso del Castillo will marry in Mexico and become the beneficiary of the encomienda of his wife in Tehuacan, Puebla.
As "comendero" he wins a quarter of the income of Tehuacan.
Cabeza de Vaca will return in 1527 to Spain, where he will write a full account, especially describing the many indigenous peoples they had encountered.
He will later serve the colonial government in South America.