SOURCE: “Nuñez Cabeza De Vaca: Alvar,” in The Spanish Southwest, 1542-1794: An Annotated Bibliography, Part I, Arno Press, 1967, pp. 42-50.

In the following excerpt from a work originally published in 1937, Wagner cautions against looking at the Relación as an accurate historical document because it appears that many sections were added later by editors hoping to increase book sales and also because the explorer's apparent reticence in describing the land and resources was designed to prevent further exploration that would interfere with his own dreams of personal glory and fortune.

The first person to attack the general credibility of [Cabeza de Vaca] was Judge Bethel Coopwood in his interesting series of articles [“The Route of Cabeza de Vaca in Texas,” Texas Historical Quarterly III (October 1899, January 1900, April 1900), pp. 108-140, 177-208, 229-264; IV (July 1900), pp. 1-32]. In these he maintains that Cabeza de Vaca never got to Sonora...