Coastal Bend Chronicle: Cabeza de Vaca, Faith Healer to the Karankawa
Cabeza de Vaca became a reluctant faith healer to the Karankawa, but it saved his life and those of his three Spanish shipwreck companions. Cabeza de Vaca was one of 80 Spanish explorers who were shipwrecked on an island, usually taken to be Galveston, on November 6, 1528, where they were the first Europeans to encounter the Karankawa. The Karankawa on the island were very helpful in feeding (fish and roots) and caring for the destitute and marooned Spaniards, even when the Spaniards resorted to cannibalism.
However, the Spaniards died rapidly over that winter due to starvation and disease so that only 15 of the 80 were alive in February 1529. The Karankawa suffered also in the same period with about half of them dying from a stomach ailment. At this point, some of the Karankawa came to the Spaniards and asked them to act as healers. The Spaniards were very reluctant to do this, but finally relented when the Karankawa began to withhold their food. The healing process used by Cabeza de Vaca consisted of breathing or blowing on the sick and saying Christian prayers over them. It seemed to work.
De Vaca spent six years on the island and the nearby mainland, staying with one Spaniard who was afraid to venture across the water. Although a slave, de Vaca was allowed to travel as a trader for his coastal band. Finally, in September 1534, de Vaca and three other shipwreck survivors decided to escape from their Indian captors. They started from the Nueces River near Freer, intending to walk their way to Mexico without guides.
Soon they encountered five “paralyzed” Indians. De Vaca used the same method of praying over the sick and the next morning “they all woke up well and sound…” Now the fame of the Spaniards as healers began to spread ahead of them and many sick were brought to them. The Indians were very grateful for the cures and provided food, shelter, and guides. By June 1535, their travel was being impeded by their fame as healers as they were being surrounded by large crowds. De Vaca estimated the crowd at three to four thousand at a village near the Rio Grande River. Here de Vaca actually performed surgery when he removed an arrow point from an Indian’s shoulder and put in some rudimentary stitches. Up until then, the cures had relied on blowing and saying prayers.
Modern medical practice would ascribe all these “cures” to the placebo effect. The placebo effect is the patient’s perception that he/she has gotten well after the application of a medical or “other” procedure, even when the procedure should have had no effect. For example, giving a sugar pill, but calling it a medicine. Modern drug trials have to try to minimize the placebo effect by using double-blind testing. The placebo effect can be significant, affecting 30-40 percent of the results if not controlled.
The placebo effect has an evil twin, the nocebo effect. The nocebo effect is an undesirable outcome based on the patient’s negative expectations, for example, voodoo. Cabeza de Vaca’s experience also demonstrated the nocebo effect. De Vaca was having trouble getting the Indian guides to go beyond a certain point. The Spaniards became angry with them and that night many of the Indians became sick and eight of them died due to the expected wrath of the Spaniards. De Vaca was very surprised and regretful. However, the Spaniards continued on their 2500 mile trek and arrived in Mexico City in July 1536.
Herndon Williams is affiliated with the Bayside Historical Society and the Refugio
County Historical Commission. He can be reached at coastalbendchronicle@yahoo.com
