Alonso del Castillo Maldonado | |
|---|---|
| Born | Unknown |
| Died | after 1547 |
| Occupation(s) | Explorer and Treasurer (1547) |
Alonso del Castillo Maldonado (died after 1547) was an early Spanish explorer in theAmericas. He was one of the last four survivors of the original members of the 1527Narváez expedition, along withÁlvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca,Andrés Dorantes de Carranza and his African slaveEstevanico. They were the early non-native people to travel and be enslaved[1] in the Southwest region of the modern United States. Castillo Maldonado lived with a Native American tribe inTexas in 1527 and 1528.
Alonso del Castillo Maldonado was born inSalamanca,Spain, to Aldonza Maldonado.[2][3]He was a close cousin of theAlcalde Mayor ofSanto Domingo, Alonso Maldonado, and of Martín de Guzmán.[4]Raised in a poor family of minor Spanish nobilityHidalgos, Castillo travelled to the Americas to get rich. He took part inPánfilo de Narváez's 1527 expedition, which traveled toFlorida.[2]
On 17 June 1527, a fleet of five ships with 600 men led by Narváez set sail from the coast ofSanlucar de Barrameda. After several weeks, they arrived at the island ofLa Española where they were provisioned and stayed for a time. When leaving the island and entering the waters of theGulf of Mexico, one ship of the expedition was put under the joint command of Alonso del Castillo Maldonado andAndrés Dorantes de Carranza.[5]
In early November, this ship captained by Andrés Dorantes de Carranza and manned by Castillo,Cabeza de Vaca, the slaveEstevanico, and about 40 other men, was wrecked by storms[2][5] on or near theGalveston Island, on the coast of what is now Texas. The fifteen survivors, who had no clothing, food, or weapons, suffered heavy privations and were forced to feed on the cadavers of their peers. Through the good grace of the Native Americans that were present on the island, Castillo and the group managed to survive the winter and took up positions among the natives as spiritual healers.
In the spring of 1528, thirteen of the fifteen survivors decided to leave the island, abandoning Cabeza de Vaca (because he was sick and unable to travel) and one other member of the expedition.[inconsistent] In April 1529, this group, led by Dorantes and Castillo, reached the coast and landed atMatagorda Bay. However, most of the members of this expedition were killed by Native Americans. Only three survived: Dorantes de Carranza, Castillo and Estevanico.
For almost seven years they lived enslaved by a Native Americans tribe,[1] until the three men managed to reunite with Cabeza de Vaca in September 1534, somewhere west of theSabine River. Cabeza de Vaca taught his companions the Native American art of medicine. In August 1535, the men fled from the Avavare tribe, with whom they were living as medicine men. They fled inland,[5] crossing what is nowTexas (being, apparently, the first Europeans to do so)[2] until they arrived inEl Paso in late 1535.[note 1] Finally, they headed south, and in late 1535 they explored the territory of the modern-day Mexican state ofChihuahua,[2] crossing through the territory of the Mexican state ofSonora.[2][5] They temporarily settled in the land of thePimas and theSierra Madre,[5] where they lived with a Native tribe for three days. After hearing the natives speak of a Spanish village located further south,[2] they travelled to the modern-day Mexican state ofSinaloa in 1536.[2][5] They were accompanied by hundreds of Native Americans, and despite encountering a party of slave hunters led by Diego de Alcaraz, managed to ensure their safe passage.[5] Later, Castillo and his companions reunited with other Spanish groups residing in northCuliacán – included among them the future explorerMelchor Díaz, who received them.[5] From there, they traveled to Compostela,Nueva Galicia's capital.[5]
When the governor of New Galicia,Nuño de Guzman, received news that Spanish castaways had reached land under his jurisdiction, he provided them with horses and clothing and sent them toMexico City to provide accounts to the viceroy ofNew Spain,Antonio de Mendoza.[2] Their story was already known in the city, and they were received with great honors.[5]
Alonso del Castillo married in Mexico and was the beneficiary of theencomienda of his wife inTehuacán,Puebla.
In 1541, he traveled to Spain to claim his inheritance because his father had died while he traveled acrossNorth America and some relatives had already inherited. He stayed briefly in Spain before returning to theAmericas, living the rest of his life in New Spain. In 1545, Castillo served astreasurer atGuatemala. In 1547, Alonso del Castillo was listed as a witness in a trial. It is believed that he died in the late 1540s.[2]
They were later captured and enslaved by Coahuiltecan Indians who lived southwest of the Guadalupe River. In fall 1532 the three men were joined in slavery by Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, the sole survivor from a second raft