Just finished reading Adventures in the Unknown Interior of America. Though many of the translators [bracketted] notes drove me crazy, it was a rather interesting voyage of a lost conquistador wandering his way around enslaved by half the native population and idolized by the other half. It had sort of a Dances with Wolves feel to the end of it when, after eight years, he and his three companions find more prosperous invaders who instead of "spreading Christianity and peace" (mainly through idolatry and superstition)enslaved and scattered the people they met.
Cabeza de Vaca and his troop would send a few runners off to the next village informing them that the white men were from Heaven. When the Christians and their former hosts arrived to the next village, the villagers would give all their possessions to the host villagers who would happily return home. The new hosts would then start the process over again and raid the next village. They managed to get all the way from Florida to Arizona, down to Mexico in this manner. He argued that even if the tribes were at war with each other, when the Spaniards left, the villages were at peace which justified the constant plundering.
Rather odd...
Now I've got to read Thelma and Louise. Brain is beginning to fog.
Wednesday, June 30, 2004
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