I may not be important to some but in historical views, I am very noteworthy. I was a black slave like most of my people, born in 1500 in Morocco, North Africa at Azamor, I was brought up like my family was raised before me, as a Muslim and at only 13 years old I was captured by a group of Portuguese men and was sent to their land, they forced me to convert to Christianity... After living with these men for 7 years being forced to labor for them and get little in return, I was purchased by a man named Andres Dorantes de Carranza, a captain of the infantry in Spain and I became his personal slave... He was a much better owner and he would always tell me about what he was hearing about this "New World" and it interested both him and I. In April of 1527 his amigo Pamfilo de Narvaez was given orders by the emperor of Spain, Carlos V, to colonize this New World from the place they called Mexico up until another place they called Florida.
By June, 17, my master and I, along with 300 other men got ready to set out on a quest from Cadiz, Spain led by Pamfilo de Narvaez to the New World, we reached this new land in a few weeks and they called it Hipañola, we stayed there over a month and it felt like a dream being on another foregin land. We took the expedition to Santiago, Cuba and then to Trinidad and finally on April 12, 1528, we arrived in Florida (in what is now Tampa Bay) but all of the other men went off to explore on both land and sea and they claimed Florida as spanish territory. The rest of the expedition didn't go very well and from 80 men on land, we ended up as just three men (Alvar Nuñez Cabeza De Vaca, Andres Dorantes de Carranza, Alonzo del Castillo Maldonado) and I... By Februrary 1536 we arrived in New Spain at a little place they called Culiacan. I was given my freedom shortly after, it was the most joyous moment of my life because I was now looked at as a Conquistador instead of a slave. The expedition went on and we ended up in an Indian land known as Hawikuh but unfortunately I was killed, what I am happy about though is that I died a free man.
Sources: http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fes08
http://www.pbs.org/opb/conquistadors/namerica/adventure2/a10.htm
http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/estevanico.htm
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