The Shipwrecked Men

This is an excerpt from [b:The Journey of Alvar Nunez Cabeza De Vaca 19422725 The Journey of Alvar Nunez Cabeza De Vaca Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1386922442l/19422725.SX50.jpg 407450], here as a part of the Penguin Great Journeys series.This is the tale of a Spanish nautical expedition who became shipwrecked in 1527 in what is now Florida,and the survival of the author (and very few others) who made the overland journey to turn up in Mexico some ten years later.I guess from a starting point, I didn't really love this book. 1/. I didn't enjoy the writing style (it was published in 1905, so maybe my expectations are too high. The chapter titles are pompous and irritating. Examples “How the Manner of Reception changed”, “How we had Churches Built in that Land”, “How the Indians Separated Us”. Yeah I am not sure, I just find the one sentence summary annoying...2/. The supposed miracle cures carried out by God because these men prayed for the cure. For me this effects the credibility of the book. This doesn't just happen once, it happens literally tens of times, for tens of Indians... P78 “At the very moment he made the sign of the cross over them and commended them to God,the Indians said that all the pain was gone... As the news spread that same night there came many other sick people for him to cure... we thanked God for his mercy and kindness, which increased daily, and after they were all well they began to dance and celebrate...”, P114 “We prayed for God our Lord to assist us and the sick began to get well” So yeah, I am a dis-believing heathen, but I suggest bullshit.3/. The religious conversion of the ignorant natives does my head in (so, probably my problem I guess, not the authors)...4/. Repetition. So a ten year story, being stuck with Indians, there is not a lot going on. There is a hell of a lot of leaving one Indian group and walking to the next Indian group, being accepted or not, curing sick people, receiving gifts, discussing the other Indians who live nearby, and then heading off there.For me the more interesting part of the book is the arrogance and failure of the expedition, the lack of adequate planning and foresight, and the woeful decisions made after the ships are wrecked.