[2] On 17 June 1527, a fleet of five ships with 600 men led by Narváez set sail from the coast of Sanlucar de Barrameda.
When leaving the island and entering the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, one ship of the expedition was put under the joint command of Alonso del Castillo Maldonado and Andrés Dorantes de Carranza.
The fifteen survivors, who had no clothing, food, or weapons, suffered heavy privations and were forced to feed on the cadavers of their peers.
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 two other members of the expedition.
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 the Sabine River.
[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 north Culiacán – included among them the future explorer Melchor Díaz, who received them.