Nine against the unknown
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I3O NINE AGAINST THE UNKNOWN
record. And amid them is here and there a star-follower or
two who kindles to our touch with authentic glow—of them
all Cabeza de Vaca the most noteworthy.
He was neither the greatest nor the best; but the chances
of his life gave him to a great venture into the wild lands of
the North American Continent, one almost equally great in
the tracks of that expedition of Garcia’s which was whelmed
by the Paraguay River. And on both of these ventures—as
confused as Columbus, his search for the land of gold and his
quest for the City of God inextricably mixed—he trod a
unique track.
§ 2
Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca was born in Jerez in Southern
Spain about the year 1492—the year of the discovery of the
American sailing-route by Columbus, twenty years after the
subjugation of the Canaries by his grandfather, Pedro de
Vera.
His was a noble family, if the nobility in legend had been
endowed it only a short three centuries. That legend led back
to the year 1212 when a shepherd guided a Christian army
across the Sierra Morena by a secret pass he had marked with
the skull of a cow. For this service the Vera of that time
was ennobled, his descendants using indifferently the honorific
“Cowhead” (Cabeza de Vaca) or the family name, de Vera,
with a happy improvidence greatly confusing to the historian
but apparently undisturbing to themselves.
Little or nothing is known of early life of Alvar Nunez.
All Spain was aglow with rumour of great treasure and great
fighting at that time; his grandfather, the conqueror of the
Canaries, no doubt refought his battles over again in the
presence of the young and impressionable lad. One builds up
of him a portrait, modified from that self-painting of later
days, of one cool and watchful—and even then oddly, quietly
doubtful. That indeed was to become his dominating character¬
istic—a quiet, questioning doubt of everything affirmed or
believed of this terrestrial scene. Only the celestial scene itself
he was never to question; he grew to the devoutest of Catholics:
his devoutness was to become of a quality almost comparable
to that of St. Francis of Assisi.
Yet such devoutness was no bar to share in warfare:
record. And amid them is here and there a star-follower or
two who kindles to our touch with authentic glow—of them
all Cabeza de Vaca the most noteworthy.
He was neither the greatest nor the best; but the chances
of his life gave him to a great venture into the wild lands of
the North American Continent, one almost equally great in
the tracks of that expedition of Garcia’s which was whelmed
by the Paraguay River. And on both of these ventures—as
confused as Columbus, his search for the land of gold and his
quest for the City of God inextricably mixed—he trod a
unique track.
§ 2
Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca was born in Jerez in Southern
Spain about the year 1492—the year of the discovery of the
American sailing-route by Columbus, twenty years after the
subjugation of the Canaries by his grandfather, Pedro de
Vera.
His was a noble family, if the nobility in legend had been
endowed it only a short three centuries. That legend led back
to the year 1212 when a shepherd guided a Christian army
across the Sierra Morena by a secret pass he had marked with
the skull of a cow. For this service the Vera of that time
was ennobled, his descendants using indifferently the honorific
“Cowhead” (Cabeza de Vaca) or the family name, de Vera,
with a happy improvidence greatly confusing to the historian
but apparently undisturbing to themselves.
Little or nothing is known of early life of Alvar Nunez.
All Spain was aglow with rumour of great treasure and great
fighting at that time; his grandfather, the conqueror of the
Canaries, no doubt refought his battles over again in the
presence of the young and impressionable lad. One builds up
of him a portrait, modified from that self-painting of later
days, of one cool and watchful—and even then oddly, quietly
doubtful. That indeed was to become his dominating character¬
istic—a quiet, questioning doubt of everything affirmed or
believed of this terrestrial scene. Only the celestial scene itself
he was never to question; he grew to the devoutest of Catholics:
his devoutness was to become of a quality almost comparable
to that of St. Francis of Assisi.
Yet such devoutness was no bar to share in warfare:
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| The books of Lewis Grassic Gibbon > Nine against the unknown > (150) |
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| Permanent URL | https://digital.nls.uk/205219892 |
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| Description | A record of geographical exploration / by J. Leslie Mitchell and Lewis Grassic Gibbon. |
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| Shelfmark | S.72.d.10 |
| Attribution and copyright: |
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More information
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| Description | Sixteen books written by Lewis Grassic Gibbon (1901-1935), regarded as the most important Scottish prose writer of the early 20th century. All were published in the last seven years of his life, mostly under his real name, James Leslie Mitchell. They include two works of science fiction, non-fiction works on exploration, short stories set in Egypt, a novel about Spartacus, and the classic 'Scots Quair' trilogy which includes 'Sunset Song'. Mitchell's first book 'Hanno, or the future of exploration' (1928) is rare and has never been republished. |
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