Memoirs of a Moor

In 1527, the conquistador Pánfilo de Narváez set sail from a Spanish port to assert the claims of the Spanish crown to the lands along the Gulf Coast of Mexico and to acquire wealth and fame similar to those won by Hernán Cortés; on board his ship were six hundred men and nearly a hundred horses. But from the moment of Narváez's expedition's landing in Florida, it has been plagued by misfortunes — navigational errors, diseases, hunger, and resistance from the indigenous tribes… Within a year, only four remained alive: the expedition's treasurer Cabeza de Vaca, the nobleman Alonso del Castillo, Andrés Dorantes, and his Moroccan slave Mustafa al-Zamori, or Estebanico, as the Spaniards called him. The four unfortunate conquerors are destined for a long journey across America that will transform proud conquistadors into humble servants, then into frightened fugitives and healer-preachers.

Fictional memoirs of a Moroccan slave, whose story did not enter the annals of history, revive the astonishing pages of the conquest of America.