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es·te·van·i·co

Estevanico (c. 1500–1539) ("Little Stephen") was an Moroccan explorer from Azemmour, he became the first African explorer of North America. He has been referred to as "the first great black man in America". . He is known as Esteban de Dorantes, Estebanico, and Esteban the Moor, or Mustafa Azemmouri. He was sold to a Spanish nobleman in Spain in about 1521, and taken in 1527 on the Spanish Narváez expedition to establish a colony in "La Florida", which at the time was composed of present-day Florida, and all unexplored lands to the north and west, including Northern Mexico. The expedition, led by the newly-appointed adelantado (governor) of La Florida, Pánfilo de Narváez, left Cuba in February 1528 intending to go to Isla de las Palmas near present-day Tampico, Mexico, to establish two settlements. Storms and strong winds forced the fleet to the western coast of Florida. The Narváez expedition landed in present-day St. Petersburg, FL on the shores of Boca Ciega Bay. Narváez ordered that his ships and 100 men and 10 women sail north in search of a large harbor that his pilots assured them was nearby. He led 300 men, with 42 horses, north along the coast, intending to rejoin his ships at the large harbor. There is no large harbor north of Boca Ciega Bay and Narváez never saw his ships again. After marching 300 miles north, they build boats to sail westward along the Gulf Coast shoreline hoping to reach Pánuco and the Rio de las Palmas. A storm struck them when they were near Galveston Island, Texas. Approximately 80 men survived the storm, being washed ashore at Galveston Island. All but four died in captivity in the Galveston Island area during the ensuing six years. The four Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, Andrés Dorantes de Carranza, Alonso del Castillo Maldonado and Estevanico escaped in 1534 and traveled west into Texas and Northern Mexico. They were the first Europeans and the first African to enter the American west. Having walked nearly 2,000 miles since their initial landing in Florida, they reached an area near Sinaloa, Mexico where they encountered Spanish slavers, then travelled to Mexico City, 1,000 miles to the south. Little would be known about Estevanico were it not for the fact that Cabeza de Vaca published a book about their 8-year survival journey, the Relación in 1542 and again in 1555. It became the first book ever published describing the peoples, wildlife, flora and fauna of inland North America, and the first to describe the American bison. In the Relación, Cabeza de Vaca often referred to Estevanico as "the black" and described him as the one who went in advance of the other three survivors, as he was the most able to communicate with the native Indians that they encountered. In the last sentence of the Relación Cabeza de Vaca identifies "the black" who had been on the survival journey. In a translation done by Sterling Professor Rolena Adorn (Yale University )and researcher Charles Patrick Pautz, it is translated as, "The fourth is named Estevanico; he is an Arabic-speaking black man, a native of Azamor". Another translation, done by Professors Martin A Favata (University of Tampa) and José B. Fernández (University of Central Florida) translated the last sentence as "The fourth is named Estebanico, he is a black Arab and a native of Azamor" Three years after his 8 year survival journey from Florida to Mexico City, Estevanico was chosen by the Viceroy of New Spain (Mexico) in 1539 to serve as the main guide for a return expedition to the Southwest led by Fray Marcos de Niza seeking "the Seven Cities of Cibola". Marcos de Niza reported in his own Relacíon that Estevanico was killed in the Zuni city of Hawikuh in 1539. The fact that Estevanico was killed at that time is speculative, as the Indians who reported Estevanico's death to Friar Marcos de Niza did not see him killed but only assumed he had been killed. Estevanico was the first non-Native to visit Pueblo lands.

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