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Estevanico Slave and Explorer
Estevanico (1500-1539) was an explorer of North African origin. He was sold as a slave to Portugese buyers when he was a teenager. He later became the first person of North African Origin to step foot in what is now the United States.
Estevanico : The Early Years
Estevanico was born in, what would be modern day Morocco. At the time the Arabs were at loggerheads with the Spanish and Portuguese.
Estevanico was captured and sold to Portuguese slave traders while he was still a teenager. He was eventually traded into the hands of Andres Dorantes De Carranca,a nobleman of the Extramadura region of Spain.
Throughout this time, it is believed that Estvanico,who was often referred to as Esteban or Estevanico the Black, changed his religion to Roman Catholicism. He was said to be of part Arabic and part North African Berber descent.
Estevanico : The Slave and Explorer
After being bought by Andres Dorantes De Carranca, Estevanico travelled with him to Hispaniola(in the Caribbean) and Cuba on an expedition to North America with Panfilo de Nervaez.
They landed at Galveston Island, shipwrecked by a hurricane. Thereafter began a battle for survival as most of the crew perished either of hunger, drowning or were killed by natives. By the spring of 1529 only fifteen men were alive from the whole crew.
Narvaez himself was no more. Estevanico, Dorantes and a third crew member were the only ones left by the autumn of 1530. Eventually all three were captured by native tribes.
While Dorantes escaped soon, Estevanico and the other survivor could not escape for a while. Eventually all three of them managed to meet each other again and they continued their quest towards Mexico in order to find a Spanish regiment there. They reached Mexico City somewhere in 1536.
The Final Years:
In 1539 Estevanico accompanied Marcos De Niza, a French friar, as a guide on his quest to search for the legendary 'Seven Cities Of Cibola'. Legend has it that Estevanico travelled alone when the rest of the party took ill and reached the tribal town of Zuni in present day New Mexico where he was killed by the native tribe.
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