Narvaez Expedition Lands in Florida

1528

Panfilo de Narvaez landed in Tampa Bay with four hundred men and marched inland in search of gold. Starvation, hostile Apalachee, and hurricanes reduced them to eating their horses. Only four, including Cabeza de Vaca, would survive an eight-year walk back to Spanish Mexico. Cabeza de Vaca's subsequent eight-year odyssey produced one of the most extraordinary travel narratives in Western literature.