University of Texas Austin - Cactus Yearbook (Austin, TX)

Page 8 text:

THE TEXAS SWORD, bringing to mind the heroes who have wielded it in Texas ' colorful history, is ever in the con- sciousness and tribute of true Texans. As expressed by I- Frank Dobie: . . . the point of Travis ' sword like the moving finger of Time still moves across the earthen floor of the Alamo . . . We are justly proud of our heroic swordsmen. But the Texas pen, reflecting the land as it was and is, from the mournful howl of the coyote to the contented chug of the oil well, deserves a full measure of tribute and recognition, for it has been wielded with the same spirit, individuality, vigor, and courage that has won immortality for our memorable sword. In this, the 1940 Cactus, we do honor to our illustrious Texas penmen, for the point of Texas ' pen like the moving finger of Time still moves across the colorful pages of our literature. .

Page 10 text:

N 1528 Cabeza de Vaca was shipwrecked on the Texas coast. For six years he and three companions existed in the re- gion, some of the time as slaves, again as medicine men, making excursions with In- dians to eat tunas, the apples of the prickly pear. They were the first Europeans to put foot on the soil of Texas. Wandering west in 1 536 they met fellow Spaniards near the Gulf of California. Almost immediately, it seems, Cabeza de Vaca wrote the Narrative of his adventures. It was published in Spain in 1842 but had been widely circulated before publication. Standard translations of it are by Buckingham Smith and Fanny Bandelier. Besides being the first book relative to Texas, it remains one of the human documents of the world. Cabeza de Vaca ' s oral accounts of the Seven Cities of the Cibola resulted in Coro- nado ' s expedition, 1540-1541, in search of the fabled gold. One of his men named Castan- eda wrote an extraordinary narrative de- scriptive of the Staked Plains, mirages, buffalo, etc., and of many adventures within what are now the confines of Texas. Cbro- nado ' s children still tell and believe in the golden dreams that impelled Coronado. Spanish military explorers and missionaries consistently kept diaries; government officials of Mexico followed with other reports. A mass of chronicles in the Spanish language covers the centuries from the time of Cabeza de Vaca to that of the Texas Revolution; most of them make weary reading except to spe- cialists.