Read the following introduction: Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca (1490-1556) was part of the Panfilio de Narvaez expedition that explored the Gulf coast in 1528. Out of several hundred men only 4 of Narvaez’s expedition survived after 7 years. The troops had made rafts and floated from Florida to Texas, losing contact with Narvaez near the mouth of the Mississippi River. Cabeza de Vaca suggested in his account that they had been abandoned by their leader so that he could save himself. Shipwrecked and abandoned, their numbers dwindled. The survivors were enslaved by Native Americans and held for several years, during which many died. Cabeza de Vaca and 3 others survived by acculturating to the point where they were allowed to move freely among the tribes. They traveled in search of Spanish settlements through the present-day Southwest into northwestern Mexico.