What physical effect did the Narváez expedition have on the Karankawas?

Answer 1

The about 40 survivors of the expidition were washed ashore on Galveston Island in Karankawa territory in 1528. The expedition had started in Florida with 600 men. For the next f2 years they lived there as slaves of the Karankawa. By 1532 there were only 4 Spanish left. They were Cabeza de Vaca, Andrés Dorantes de Carranza, Alonso del Castillo Maldonado, and an enslaved Moroccan Berber named Esteban. They then left the area and made their way to the Pacific coast of Mexico and rescue in 1536.

It is not known what effect they had on the Karankawa. It is assumed that European diseases would have had a bad effect on them. It did everywhere else. The next contact with Europeans was in 1697. Later they were decimated by European diseases. Cabeza de Vaca's book, The Relation of Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca,describes many customs and people but does not mention physical effects of this first contact.

Here are some of the things he says about them and the neighboring Han:

• They are a tall, well built people who use only bows and arrows. Additionally, they pierce their nipples and hips. The women of the two tribes "toil incessantly" (42).
• They eat roots and fish from October to February.
• They have great love for their children and treat them well.
• The funeral practices of this group of people include great mourning for those who die young, but no mourning for those who die in old age. Additionally, mourners are provided by their neighbors with food for three months because they do not leave their homes for that period of time.
• Men have only one wife each, with the exception of the medicine men, who may have three or four wives who live in harmony with one another.
• Men have no relationships with their in-laws, but women have relationships with their parents and the parents of their husbands.
• For three months of the year, the people eat only oysters and 'bad' water.
• April is a time of fiestas and dances for these people.
• They eat corn, pecans, acorns, certain roots, and fish.