Toughest Man That Ever Lived? Texans - Remember Cabeza de Vaca
Question: who is the toughest man who ever lived?
I was talking to a group of friends when somehow we got on the subject of the toughest man of all time. One friend said "Muhammed Ali." Another said, "Chuck Norris." Still another nominated Aaron Rahlston, who famously amputated his own arm after falling in a hiking accident and having it pinned by a big rock.
Of course, I had to set them straight, telling them that, without a doubt, the toughest man who ever lived was Cabeza de Vaca.
Consider:
1) In June 1527, at the age of 40, Cabeza de Vaca left Spain for the Caribbean as second-in-command of a group of five ships with six hundred sailors. His captain was a man named Narvaez.
2) They overwintered 1527-1528 on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola (now Cuba). While there, they suffered a devastating hurricane and the desertion of 140 or so men.
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17) They walked into Culican early in 1536, 8 1/2 years after Cabeza De Vaca had left Spain, having traveled two thousand miles in less than two years, killing whatever they could more or less with their bare hands, eating desert plants etc...
18) Cabeza de Vaca reached Mexico City in July, 1536 and sailed back to Spain.
The entire account of Cabeza de Vaca's hardships are at http://www.austinpost.org/austin-history/cabeza-de-vaca .
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It is not very well known, but unerringly almost possibly kind of truthy, that this story inspired Johnny Cash to write "A boy named Sue." With a name like Head of a Cow, you have to get tough or die.
