The Crew

There were many jobs to be had on the ship with Cabeza de vaca. They invloved labor and other handy jos. One of these jobs was to use the lead line. The lead line was used to determine the depth of the water that the ship was sailing into. The leadmen would drop the lead line into the water and then take it out after it reached the bottom. He would then say a number that would correspond with a marking on the lead line that would tell how deep the water was. These numbers were 2,3,5,7,10,15,20, and 25 fathoms(6 feet). Another job was to keep time. Most sailors could do this job because it was farely easy to understand. From sunrise to noon was about six hours, and another six hours from noon to sunset. Using this way of thinking they could approximate at about what time it was.
Another job was to use the "Dutchman's Log". This method was used to tell how fast the ship was going. All you would have to do was throw some object overboard(must be able to float) at the front of the ship and then time how long it takes to get to the back of the ship. This was not a very precise way of telling the speed but it was a rough estimate of how fast you wre moving.

New People, Cultures, and Plant Life Encountered

The main new people that the expedition of Cabeza de Vaca encountered were the natives that lived in the south at that time. As the expedition moved west they encountered even more diverse peoples and cultures. Not very much is know about the kinds of people that he encountered but what he did witness was them being treated horribly by the spaniards and some were made slaves of. Because of this hostility towards them, the natives were also very hostile towards the Spaniards.
There was lots of plant life in the parts of America that they explored. Their expeditions force them to go through very dense jungles which are flooded with wild life.

The Goals of the Voyage

There were many goals for the voyage made by Cabeza de Vaca. One goal was to convert many of the natives living in these parts of the wild to Christianity. Another major and rather obvious goal for the expeditionors was to conquer the specific part of Florida that the landed on. Another goal was for fame and fortune. they would have been the first Spaniards in this section of America so they would be able take the credit for discovering it and conquering it from the natives who enhabited it before.

It was also important to learn about the place in the "New World" that the Spanish were calling Florida. Not much was known about the New World and many explorers started on expeditions to do exactly what Cabeza de Vaca and his comrades wanted, which was to learn about what else was in this world.

The Risks of Nautical Exploration

There are many risks involved with nautical exploration. One of them is that you trying to get to uncharted islands which can be difficult in itself because theyre uncharted. You dont know what the conditions will be like there and how the weather will be. Another risk of nautical exploration is that the natives in the courties you are exploring could be aggressive and hostile to non-natives exploring their country. Another risk is the risk of disease. It is very likely that when a group of people arrive in a place where no one but natives has been before, disease will spread because there hasnt been any chance to become immune to these diseases. This is also just as true for the natives that live in uncharted places.

They are not immune to our diseases either and are therefore just as easily affected by them as the explorers. Also, upon arriving at what would eventually be called America, Cabeza de Vaca's ship encountered a hurricane which destroyed some of his boats.