Estévanico is also known as Estevan, Esteban, Estebanico, Black Stephen, and Stephen the Moor. He was born circa 1503 in the Islamic town of Azemmour, Morocco. In 1513, the Portuguese took control of this area. When they fell on hard times during a drought in the early 1520s, the Portuguese started selling Moroccans as slaves to European customers. Estévanico was sold to a Spaniard name Andrés de Dorantes, under whose ownership he was baptized under the Christian name we know him by today.
Estévanico had a relatively positive relationship with his master and the two were said to be friends. In 1527, Dorantes signed them up to join an expedition organized by Pánfilo de Narváez to conquer the unexplored territory between Florida and Mexico, along the Gulf of Mexico. Narváez had twenty years of experience in conquering Mexico, and Spain had just appointed him Governor of the unconquered Florida. Hurricanes caused the crew to spend the winter in Cuba until they recouped and could travel safely. After more severe weather, on April 12, 1528, Dorante and Estévanico landed on the shores on Florida with more than three hundred other men, including Álvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca and Alonso del Castillo Maldonado. They landed just north of Tampa Bay.
Narváez and his crew were given many gifts and food by the first natives they met. Feeling confident, he set out to claim the land with a compliment of three hundred men and 40 horses. After three months of traveling in hostile land and encountering hostile natives, they arrive in Aute with no sign of their ships. With disease and desperation running high, the leaders became determined to see civilization again and set out to build five watercrafts. After six weeks, they had eaten all of their horses and on September 22, 1528 loaded fifty men on each barge and set sail. Two days later, Estévanico's company was left with nothing but maize and water held in bags made of rotting horse skins.
Álvar Nuńez Cabeza de Vaca wrote of this journey, "So great is the power of need that it brought us to venture out into such a troublesome sea in this manner, and without any among us having the least knowledge of the art of navigation." The men all tried to keep their boats within sight of land, but many drifted. In October, the men were already drifting, but were caught off-guard by the strong currents at the mouth of the Mississippi River. Slowly, the boats separated and disappeared. The newly appointed Governor Narváez drifted out to sea and become lost with more ships to follow.
Dorantes' boat capsized near what is now Galveston, Texas where they joined the group led by Cabeza de Vaca where the combined group numbered 80. In journal entries, we find out that the Indians felt so sorry for the miserable crew that they wept. In a relationship balancing between pity and fear, the men spent the winter on the island they named Malhado (Misfortune). After the winter ended, only 15 men were left. One group of Spaniards committed the same horror they had feared when first landing in the presence of these natives - cannibalism.
In April 1529, Estévanico, Dorante and Castillo gathered the survivors from their original group and left Cabeza de Vaca's company behind. The Natives in the area accepted the men, but eventually enslaved them for more than five years. During this time, five men died from trying to escape, while more died from disease and hunger. During this time, Cabeza de Vaca lived on the island while trying to convince his partner, Lope de Ovieda, to search for the lost party. Dorante faced the same problem in trying to convince his men to attempt a getaway. The desperation at sea had unnerved the men who couldn't swim.
In 1535, they finally escaped and landed in another among more natives, where the men had to use their healing skills to befriend the Indians. This was not a skill of science, but of prayer. They soon had a reputation for healing everything from headaches to people near death. Not only did this make them friends with the locals, but also it ensured their survival and created a reputation that opened up the opportunity for travel again. Estévanico also helped the group with his ability to learn more than six Indian languages. The Spaniards wanted to maintain their mystique and authority, so Estévanico was constantly among the Indians acting as ambassador.
With the aide of thousands of Indians, they made their way west by way of the Rio Grande, Presidio, and crossing into Mexico at what is now El Paso. They were nicknamed ""children of the sun" by the Indians because the men traveled from east to west. Because their reputation was so great, when a patient died, the people assumed the fault was with the patient. In May of 1536, they arrived at San Miguel de Culiacan (Sinaloa, Mexico). In July, they arrived in Mexico City.
Once in Mexico, they impressed the Viceroy of Mexico with their adventures and survival. Dorante wanted to lead an expedition to the legendary Seven Golden Cities of Cíbola - cities paved in gold. His proposal was rejected. In February of 1539, Fray Marcos de Niza led the expedition. Estévanico was the only member of his original party to go along. Fray Marcos de Niza didn't want to appear undermined by the Moor and since Estévanico felt comfortable among the Indians and was hungry for recognition, Estévanico constantly traveled ahead of the Franciscan priest to assure the area was safe. He regularly sent messengers back with wooden crosses.
When Estévanico arrive at Hawikuh in northern New Mexico, a Zuni pueblo with multilevel stone buildings, he sent back a large cross - indicating that the promise of the new land was very great. They hesitated to talk with Estévanico. The owl feathers worn on his medicine gourd, which was a symbol of death to the Zuni, alarmed them and perhaps told of Estévanico's fate. This is the same gourd and feathers given by the tribe that first witnessed the healing miracles. The Zuni leaders were fed treacherous information spread by nearby tribes, that Estévanico had murdered and assaulted women and was spy for invaders. Ultimately his fate might have been sealed by the simple message that he carried with him - that a white king from across the sea and his god will have domain over the Zuni people.
He spent the night just outside of the village. In the morning, the Zuni descended upon his camp and he was killed. Fray Marcos, who hadn't seen the land, ran back to the viceroy and returned to the area in 1540 with Francisco Vásquez de Coronado with the unfulfilled promise of gold and riches.
Elsewhere on the Web:
The Estévanico Society
The Estévanico Society is dedicated to scholarly research into the life and journeys of Estévanico (also Esteban or Stephen the Black.) The society aims to explore his origins in Morocco, his enslavement by the Portuguese and Spanish, and his historic journey through the American Southwest, ending with his death at the Zuni Pueblo of Hawikuh.
Estévanico the Moor
Tales of the adventures that befell three conquistadores and their Moorish slave during the sixteenth century led to Spain's Francisco Vásquez de Coronado's exploration of what is now the American Southwest by Anne B. Allen.
Estévanico, explorador importante
A Spanish and English article about the accomplishments of Estevanico. From Gerald Erichsen, your Guide to the Spanish Language.
<Back to Last Page> <Bio Index> <>