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Esteban (c. 1503 - c. 1539)

By Kai Butler

Born in Azemmour, Morocco around 1503, Mustafa Azemmouri, better known by his Spanish name Esteban and condescending nick name Estebanico, began his journey when he was forced into slavery and sent to Spain in 1522. In Spain, he was sold to Andres Dorantes de Carranca. In 1527, when Dorantes was recruited to take part in the expedition led by Pánfilo de Narvaez, Esteban became an unwilling participant in the Age of Exploration. Thus began the story of Esteban, one of the first Black conquistadors. Two months after they sailed away from Spain, the crew arrived at the island of Hispaniola, docking in the city of Santo Domingo in 1527. Forty-five days later, after acquiring supplies and equipment, including horses, Narváez and his crew sailed onward to St. Petersburg, stopping for a few days at Santiago de Cuba, where the governor reinforced their fleet with supplies such as men, arms, and even more horses.[1] From Santiago, they sailed to Trinidad (Cuba), where they obtained more supplies, and, from there, to St. Petersburg, Florida, where they arrived in April 1528. Once in Florida, indigenous people pointed them in the direction of Apalachen. After about two months of searching, they found the village and found that the men of the village were not around; only women and boys were there. A brief battle between the conquistadors and the Indians ensued, which ended with the natives fleeing. After about a month in this village they traveled to the village of Aute, off the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Continued attacks by the Apalachee warriors caused the expedition to flee on crude ships they built themselves. They floated along the Gulf Coast until they washed ashore on Isle de Mulhado, near Galveston, Texas in November 1528. Unfortunately for Esteban, Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca and the other survivors of the expedition, the inhabitants of this island were even less hospitable than the Apalachee. Esteban and the others remained on this island for six years as slaves to the Karankawa Indian tribes. They eventually escaped their captors and traveled all throughout the modern-day southwestern US. In western Mexico, Esteban and Cabeza de Vaca met conquistador slave hunters and traveled in escort with them to Mexico City. After staying in Mexico City for over two years with some excursions to west central Mexico, Esteban traveled north from Culiacán with Friar Marcos, a priest in the service of the Spanish viceroy, in search of the Seven Cities in March 1539. Esteban was chosen by the viceroy to guide Spain’s first expedition north of Mexico; he was finally able to live as a freeman. Esteban went ahead of Friar Marcos, on order, and arrived at the Zuni village of Hawikku in western New Mexico, near the Arizona border. The Zuni village is the last known location of Esteban before he disappeared from the historical record.[2]

Forcefully transported from northern Africa to Spain and then to the Americas, Esteban was one of the most experienced explorers on the North American mainland during the 1520s and 1530s.

Florida.png

Florida warriors attacking a village with flaming arrows as occurred during the Narvaez expedition. Image from Jacques Le Moyne, Brevis narratio eorum quae in Florida Americai provinvcia Gallis acciderunt (1591).

As a slave, Esteban had a unique experience unlike most other known conquistadors. From the moment of his capture in Morocco up until his eventual split from owner Dorantes and the rest of the crew, Esteban was a slave. As such, his role on the Narvaez expedition was often underreported and underappreciated. As a result of racial bias, Esteban’s first mention in history came in 1529, two years after he joined the Narvaez expedition when his role became too important to ignore anymore. Additionally, there was never a direct quote from Esteban written down although there exist a few paraphrases of things he said. All of what is known about Esteban comes from the account of a white man, Narvaez’s Relación. There are many fictional novels about Esteban and his legacy is often tarnished by racism. He is often written as conniving, greedy, and lustful. An author once reported that he was impatient with Friar Marcos and that was the reason that he went ahead to the Zuni village, when in actuality, those were his instructions. Finally, many of his achievements are often attributed to other, presumably white, adventurers. It was unfathomable that a black slave from Morocco would be able to accomplish what he did.[3]

Unlike the vast majority of African slaves in the New World, Esteban was not subject to a life of servitude working in fields picking cotton or growing tobacco. Esteban had an active role in the Narvaez expedition which surprisingly, was not unique. A number of African slaves were involved in expeditions, although their leading roles were consciously silenced in probanzas de mérito (proofs of merits).[4] Esteban found himself a role in the expedition as a communicator between the conquistadors and the indigenous peoples they encountered. Esteban was a polyglot, speaking Arabic, Spanish, Berber, and Portuguese. He was so adept with languages that he was able to quickly pick up the different tongues spoken throughout the New World. Often understated, Esteban just might have had the most important role on the expedition. If it were not for the assistance of various Native tribes the expedition would not have made it as long in the New World as they did.

Salviati Planisphere.jpg

The 1525 Salviati Planisphere shows the Spanish view of the Americas at the time of the Narvaez Expedition. Image from Wikimedia Commons.

[1] Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, Chronicles of Narvaez, 5.

[2] Herrick, Esteban the African Slave, 4.

[3] Herrick, Esteban the African Slave, 8-10.

[4] Restall and Fernández-Armesto, The Conquistadors, 9.

​References

  • Herrick, Dennis F. Esteban the African Slave Who Explored America. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2018.

  • Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, Alvar. Chronicle of the Narváez Expedition: a New Translation: Contexts, Criticism. Edited by Ilan Stavans. Translated by David L. Frye. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2013.

  • Restall, Matthew, and Felipe Fernández-Armesto. The Conquistadors: a Very Short Introduction. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2012.

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