About the book, from the publisher:
A gripping survival epic, Brutal Journey tells the story of an army of would-be conquerors, bound for glory, who landed in Florida in 1528. But only four of the four hundred would survive: eight years and some five thousand miles later, three Spaniards and a black Moroccan wandered out of the wilderness to the north of the Rio Grande and into Cortes’s gold-drenched Mexico. The survivors brought nothing back other than their story, but what a tale it was. They had become killers and cannibals, torturers and torture victims, slavers and enslaved. They became faith healers, arms dealers, canoe thieves, spider eaters. They became, in other words, whatever it took to stay alive.Among the praise for Brutal Journey:
"A fast-paced, moving story, one that is difficult to believe and impossible to forget."Paul Schneider is also the author of The Adirondacks: A History of America's First Wilderness and The Enduring Shore: A History of Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket.
--New York Times
"A riveting tale of courage, cruelty, and ultimately survival, Schneider does for Cabeza de Vaca and his comrades what the late Stephen Ambrose did (with ''Undaunted Courage") for Lewis and Clark."
--Boston Globe
"[R]iveting... incorporates historical and archaeological research without stalling the story's epic sweep."
--Entertainment Weekly
"[A] delicious mix of the horrifying and the cheering."
--Washington Post
Visit Schneider's website and read the Introduction and Chapter One from Brutal Journey.
The Page 99 Test: Brutal Journey.
--Marshal Zeringue
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