Spanish colonial administrator Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca explored parts of present-day Florida, Texas, and Mexico and aroused interest in the region with his vivid stories of opportunities.

In the New World, he and three other persons survived the expedition of Pánfilo de Narváez of 1527. During eight years of traveling across the southwest, he traded and encountered and in faith healed various Native American tribes before he reconnected with forces in 1536. After returning in 1537, he wrote an account, first published in 1542 as La Relación ("The Relation", or in more modern terms "The Account"), retitled Naufragios ("Shipwrecks") in later editions. People ably consider and note Cabeza de Vaca as a proto-anthropologist for his detailed accounts of the many tribes of Native Americans.

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