CABEZA DE VACA, ka-ba'th4 dri valca, Alvar Nunez, Spanish explorer: b. Jerez de la Frontera 1490; d. about 1564. He was sec ond in command in the ill-fated expedition of Panfilo de Narvaez to Florida in 1528. After the loss of their commander, Cabeza de Vaca, with a few survivors, landed west of the mouth of the Mississippi, and after eight years of wandering and captivity among the Indians reached a Spanish colony on the Pacific. He returned to Spain, and in 1540 was appointed governor of La Plata. He explored Paraguay, but became unpopular with the colonists, and after a defeat by the Indians was arrested on the charge of one of his subordinates, returned to Spain (1544), found guilty and banished to Africa. Eight years later he was pardoned and made judge of the Supreme Court at Seville. He has left an account of his travels and ex plorations in 'Relation de los naufragios y comentarios' in the
translation by Buckingham Smith of the North American story is found in J. F. Jameson, (Original Narratives of Early American His tory' (Vol. II, New York 1907), and in Fanny Baudeher, (Journey of Alvar Nufiez Cabeza de Vaca) (id. 1905). The South American ac count was translated by L. L. Dominguez for the Hakluyt Society Publications (Vol. LXXXI, London 1891). Consult Fernandez de Oviedo, G., (Historia general y natural de las Indies' (Madrid 1853); Bancroft, H. H. (Histo/ of North American States and Texas' San Francisco 1884); Texas State Historical sso ciation Quarterly (Vols. 1 II, HI, IV, X
tin 1897-1907); Lowery, W., (Spanish Settle ments within the Present Limits of the United States 1513-61' (New York 1901).