![]() When they finally reached a Spanish colony in present-day Mexico, only four survivors remained - Estebanico, his master Dorantes, a man named Castillo, and the aforementioned Cabeza de Vaca. Hundreds of men lost their lives to disease, dehydration and hostile Indians while traipsing through Florida, sailing around Galveston Bay on makeshift rafts, and wandering about in Texas, with a few engaging in cannibalism of colleagues who died along the way. Lalami’s book is loosely based on treasurer Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca’s famed report chronicling the disastrous Narváez expedition of 1528-1536. Imagine all of this, and you’ll have an inkling of the travails undergone by Estebanico, narrator of Laila Lalami’s new novel, “The Moor’s Account.” And say that the intrepid idiot leading this venture has little knowledge of the region’s geography, so that he loses contact with his ships after ordering most of his men - you and your owner included - to disembark and march inland with him. ![]() Imagine that you’re a North African slave whose owner is part of a blinkered 16th century Castilian expedition to claim present-day Florida and other states for the Spanish Crown. ![]()
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