In reality, there does not seem much reason to offer still another account of the North American wanderings of The Great Pedestrian, Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca, unless the narrator has something new to offer. In this connection Terrell asserts that “. . . there is something that historians generally seem to have overlooked in writing about him. It is the creed by which he lived.” It turns out that Cabeza de Vaca is the rare “good guy” among the Spanish conquistadores, the overwhelming majority of whom Terrell characterizes as unmitigated villains. La leyenda negra is uncritically revived in terms reminiscent of a sixteenth-century Dutch edition of Las Casas’ Brief Relation.
Although the text is loaded with statements which cry out for supporting evidence, it is completely undocumented. A selected bibliography contains some works whose value to the study are marginal at best and others whose perusal certainly should have given the writer pause concerning some of the statements he makes. The book’s possible attractiveness to readers at the junior high school level is destroyed by its bias and outright bad history. Even minor details of craftsmanship leave much to be desired. More often than not accents are missing, and spellings are erratic. Overall the book contains little to recommend it.
