Born c. 1500,
Azemmour, Morocco
Died 1539,
Hawikuh [a Zuni pueblo in New Mexico]
Estevanico was a Moroccan slave who, along with Spanish explorers, traveled from Florida along the Gulf of Mexico and into the southwestern United States. He was captured by Native Americans and escaped to become a successful “medicine man.” After an epic overland journey he finally reached the Spanish outpost of Mexico City. He was the first Westerner to reach some areas of the southwestern states. He preceded Francisco Vásquez de Coronado (see entry) in visiting the “Seven Cities of Cíbola,” seven pueblos in northern Mexico about which there had been mythical stories, where he was killed by Zuni warriors.
At the beginning of the sixteenth century, when Estevanico was born, the Arabs of Morocco were in constant warfare with their Spanish and Portuguese neighbors to the north. At some point during one of these conflicts, Estevanico was captured and sold as a slave in Spain. The Spanish often referred to him as Estevanico the Black. Estevanico may well have been descended in part from black Africans, since for many years the Arabs and Berbers—native Caucasian people—of North Africa had contacts with blacks who lived south of the Sahara Desert.
Estevanico came into the possession of Andrés Dorantes de Carranca, a Spanish nobleman who took Estevanico with him and joined the expedition to North America led by Pánfilo de Narváez. Another Spaniard, Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca (see entry), who would later become one of the most famous explorers of North America, also took part in this voyage.
The Spanish ships landed on the Florida coast in April 1528. Disregarding the advice of his captains, Narváez abandoned his ships and marched into the interior on May 1 in search of gold. The history of his trek comes from the report that Cabeza de Vaca made after his return to Spain. Narváez’s expedition was attacked by Native Americans near the site of present-day Tallahassee, Florida. The Spaniards went from there to a bay on the Gulf of Mexico and constructed five boats, with which they hoped to sail along the coastline to a Spanish outpost in Mexico. They set sail on September 22, 1528; Estevanico was in the boat commanded by Dorantes.
In November the small fleet was hit by violent storms. Dorantes’s boat and the one captained by Cabeza de Vaca were wrecked, possibly on Galveston Island or Mustang Island, off the coast of Texas. The survivors spent the winter on the island; by the spring of 1529 only 15 men were still alive. Thirteen of them, including Estevanico, left Galveston to try to reach Mexico by walking overland. Cabeza de Vaca was too sick to travel and was left behind, presumably to die.
The party led by Dorantes headed west and south. Several men died along the way; the rest, including Dorantes and Estevanico, were captured by Native Americans at San Antonio Bay on the Texas coast. They were harshly treated by their captors, and by the autumn of 1530 only Dorantes, Estevanico, and Alonzo de Castillo were still alive. Dorantes managed to escape, traveling inland to a village of the Mariame tribe, where his life was easier although he was held in captivity. In the spring of 1532 Estevanico and Castillo also escaped and joined Dorantes at the Mariame village.
During the winter of the following year Estevanico and the others were surprised to encounter Cabeza de Vaca; he had not only survived but had been working as a trader among the various Native American tribes. The four Europeans were not allowed to stay together, but they planned to meet and then make their escape in the autumn at the annual Native American festival to celebrate the harvest of prickly pears. In September 1534 the four men managed to flee from a site near the present-day city of San Antonio. They encountered a camp of the Avavares tribe, where they were warmly welcomed as medicine men with special powers, probably because of their foreign appearance.
Estevanico, Cabeza de Vaca, Dorantes, and de Castillo performed healing rituals for the Native Americans. Estevanico was especially noted for his ability to learn other languages and to use sign language. When the four men left the Avavares in the spring of 1535, they found that their reputation as healers had preceded them and they were welcomed wherever they went. As they traveled farther west, they saw evidence of many different cultures. Visiting the Pueblo tribes of the area that is now New Mexico, they saw metal bells and medicine gourds the Pueblos had made. Estevanico kept one of the gourds to use in his healing rituals.
When they reached the Rio Grande at the end of 1535, Castillo and Estevanico headed upstream. They came upon the permanent towns or pueblos of the Jumano tribe. When Cabeza de Vaca and Dorantes joined Castillo and Estevanico, they found Estevanico surrounded by Native Americans, who treated him like a god.
As they traveled toward Mexico, the men heard tales of a group of wealthy cities in the interior, called the Seven Cities of Cíbola. The Spanish search for wealth in these mythical cities would later have fateful consequences for Estevanico. From the Rio Grande, Estevanico and the three Spaniards traveled into what is now the Mexican state of Chihuahua. As they moved south, they began to see more and more evidence of contact with Europeans; they met a party of Spaniards in March 1536. They reached Tenochtitlán (present-day Mexico City) the following July, more than eight years after they had landed on the Florida coast.
Viceroy Antonio Mendoza welcomed the three Spaniards and Estevanico in Mexico, treating them to generous hospitality. Eventually Dorantes sold or gave Estevanico to Mendoza. Intrigued by the tales Cabeza de Vaca told of wealthy cities to the north, the viceroy commissioned an expedition to find the Seven Cities of Cíbola. He accepted the offer of a Spanish friar, Fray Marcos de Niza, to lead the exploring party, and he appointed Estevanico to be the friar’s guide.
Estevanico and Fray Marcos began their journey on March 7, 1539. Two weeks later Fray Marcos decided to camp while Estevanico went ahead to scout the trail. After four days Native American messengers returned to Fray Marcos to report that Estevanico had heard news that he was within 30 days’ march from Cíbola and he wanted Fray Marcos to join him.
Fray Marcos immediately started northward, but Estevanico did not wait for him. As the friar entered each new village, he found a message from Estevanico saying that he had continued on. Fray Marcos chased after him for weeks but was unable to catch up. Estevanico headed through the vast desert region of the Mexican state of Sonora and the area that is now southern Arizona. He was the first Westerner to enter the area of Arizona and New Mexico. In May he reached the Zuni pueblo of Hawikuh, which was supposedly the first of the Seven Cities of Cíbola.
Wherever he traveled, Estevanico was in the habit of sending his medicine gourd ahead of him with Native American messengers to announce his arrival. Usually this token assured him a welcome. At Hawikuh, however, the reception was not so warm as he had expected. When he displayed his “magic” gourd, the Zuni chief threw it down in anger. Then the chief took all of Estevanico’s possessions and put him in a house on the edge of the town without food or water. The next morning Estevanico was attacked by warriors and killed.
When they were later asked why they had killed Estevanico, the Zuni said that Estevanico had claimed that there was a huge army coming behind him with many weapons. Meeting in council, the chiefs had decided he was a spy and that the safest course of action was to kill him. After Estevanico was dead, his body was cut into pieces and distributed among the chiefs. Several of Estevanico’s Native American escorts escaped the Zuni village. When they found Fray Marcos they gave him the news of Estevanico’s death.
Later, in his report to Mendoza, Fray Marcos said that he traveled north until he could see Hawikuh, or Cibola, but that he did not enter the pueblo. In his report he claimed it was a rich place, even grander than Mexico City. Since Hawikuh is in fact only a small pueblo, it seems likely Fray Marcos lied about seeing the town.
Fray Marcos’s report inspired Mendoza to send out another expedition led by Francisco Vásquez de Coronado. When Coronado’s party reached the small village of Hawikuh, the only traces of Estevanico they found were his green dinner plates, his greyhound dogs, and his metal bells. All of these items were now in the possession of the Zuni chief.
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