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| Frontispiece from the 1555 version of La Relacion, Cabeza de Vaca's account of his journey and struggles in Texas and Mexico. In 1528, Cabaza de Vaca was shipwrecked on the upper Texas coast on Isla del Malhado” (Island of Misfortune), which many scholars have identified as Galveston Island. Cabeza de Vaca’s observations are highly significant as the earliest ethnohistoric account documenting the native people of the area and aspects of their lifeway prior to the effects of European colonization. Image courtesy of the Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin. |