Cabeza de Vaca, Proem to Adventures in the Unknown Interior of America
[1542]
Sacred Caesarian Catholic Majesty:
AMONG ALL THE PRINCES who have reigned, I know of none who has enjoyed the universal
esteem of Your Majesty [Emperor Charles V] at this day, when strangers vie in approbation with
those motivated by religion and loyalty.
Although everyone wants what advantage may be gained from ambition and action, we see
everywhere great inequalities of fortune, brought about not by conduct but by accident, and not
through anybody's fault but as the will of God. Thus the deeds of one far exceed his expectation,
while another can show no higher proof of purpose than his fruitless effort, and even the effort
may go unnoticed.
I can say for myself that I undertook the march abroad, on royal authorization, with a firm trust
that my service would be as evident and distinguished as my ancestors', and that I would not
need to speak to be counted among those Your Majesty honors for diligence and fidelity in
affairs of state. But my counsel and constancy availed nothing toward those objectives we set out
to gain, in your interests, for our sins. In fact, no other of the many armed expeditions into those
parts has found itself in such dire straits as ours, or come to so futile and fatal a conclusion.
My only remaining duty is to transmit what I saw and heard in the nine years I wandered lost and
miserable over many remote lands. I hope in some measure to convey to Your Majesty not
merely a report of positions and distances, flora and fauna, but of the customs of the numerous,
barbarous people I talked with and dwelt among, as well as any other matters I could hear of or
observe. My hope of going out from among those nations was always small; nevertheless, I made
a point of remembering all the particulars, so that should God our Lord eventually please to bring
me where I am now, I might testify to my exertion in the royal behalf.
Since this narrative, in my opinion, is of no trivial value for those who go in your name to
subdue those countries and bring them to a knowledge of the true faith and true Lord and bring
them under the imperial dominion, I have written very exactly. Novel or, for some persons,
difficult to believe though the things narrated may be, I assure you they can be accepted without
hesitation as strictly factual. Better than to exaggerate, I have minimized all things; it is enough
to say that the relation is offered Your Majesty for truth.
I beg that it may be received as homage, since it is the most one could bring who returned thence
naked.