USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Spanish explorer Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca first set foot on land that would become Texas in 1528, when his crude raft ran aground near Galveston Island. The raft held survivors of an ill-fated Spanish expedition to settle Florida.

Detailed explanation-2: -The Spanish conquistador Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca is shipwrecked on a low sandy island off the coast of Texas. Starving, dehydrated, and desperate, he is the first European to set foot on the soil of the future Lone Star state. Cabeza de Vaca’s unintentional journey to Texas was a disaster from the start.

Detailed explanation-3: -After various shipwrecks, Cabeza de Vaca became the captain of a greatly diminished force of Spaniards who, in order to survive, wandered for eight years across the Southwest from Texas to California and finally to Mexico.

Detailed explanation-4: -They would never see their ships again. Historians now believe that Cabeza and his fellow castaways landed on modern-day Galveston Island, Texas. A second raft was blown ashore on the same island, which the men named Isle de Malhado, the Island of Bad Luck.

Detailed explanation-5: -His records from The Relation of Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca are today regarded as one of the most important historical recording of early North American colonization, showcasing not only description of local Native American tribes and their customs, but also geography, flora and fauna.