61 pages • 2 hours read
Laila LalamiThe Moor's Account
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2014A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 7-9Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 7 Summary: “The Story of Apalache”
Dorantes is jealous when Narváez chooses Cabeza de Vaca to lead the mission to Apalache. When Dorantes wonders why he was not chosen, Castillo suggests it must be because Cabeza de Vaca agrees with Narváez about continuing the march inland.
When they reach Apalache, the city is quickly secured. After an extensive search, no gold is found at the settlement. The men realize that there may not be a city of gold. When Dorantes testily asks Narváez if he misunderstood the natives or if they lied to him, Cabeza de Vaca restores the peace.
In the middle of the night, some of the soldiers rape the native women. The violence triggers Mustafa’s memories of his friend Ramatullai being raped by their master Rodriguez.
When the natives appear to reclaim their women, a skirmish ensues. Mustafa kills a native man with his hatchet after being struck by his arrow. The Castilians take the native chief prisoner, but the natives continue to attack them. In the end, 12 explorers are killed.
Narváez calls a council to inform the men that the native chief has told him of a town near the ocean with plenty of food. Narváez plans to march to this city until the men can contact their ships. Castillo tells Narváez that he doesn’t think they should follow the natives’ advice on how to reach the coast. Cabeza de Vaca suggests that they return to Portillo and walk from there to the port. Dorantes insists they don’t have enough provisions and they should find a shorter way to the coast. In the end, Narváez considers his countrymen’s advice but follows his own plan.
Chapter 8 Summary: “The Story of Seville”
This chapter shares the story of how Mustafa was brought to Seville on a ship. In the Spanish city, he is baptized and renamed: “I had entered the church as the servant of God, Mustafa ibn Muhammad ibn Abdussalam al-Zamori; I left it as Esteban. Just Esteban–converted and orphaned in one gesture” (109).
Mustafa is sold to Rodriguez, a Castilian merchant. Rodriguez is an unpredictable master, sometimes “pleasant and undemanding one day, then exigent and cruel the next” (16). As Mustafa prays to Mecca, begging God to save him and help him return home, Rodriguez repeatedly kicks him with his boot. The beating leaves Mustafa with a scar on his neck that he carries with him for the rest of his life.
A year after his arrival in Seville, Rodriguez brings home another slave. Although she has been given the Spanish name Elena, Mustafa learns that she was originally named Ramatullai. Ramatullai is a kitchen slave whose husband was killed when he tried to fight a Portuguese soldier. Both of her daughters were sold, one to a hunchback. Recalling that one of Rodriguez’s customers is a hunchback, Mustafa promises to tell her if he sees him again.
Mustafa also realizes that he is fortunate that his family was not sold into slavery and, unlike Ramatullai, he doesn’t have to wonder where his loved ones are. For the first time since he became a slave, Mustafa no longer feels alone.
Chapter 9 Summary: “The Story of Aute”
The Apalaches follow the explorers as they march to Aute, ambushing them each time they cross a swamp. A soldier named Ruíz declares that he’s tired of living in fear and breaks away to search the wilderness for natives, openly disobeying Dorantes’s command to stay with the group. When Ruíz reappears, he’s lost an eye.
Several days later, Dorantes notices Mustafa writing a prayer on the ground with a stick. He’s surprised that Mustafa knows how to write and asks him where he learned and how he ended up in Seville. At first, Mustafa is reluctant, but Dorantes patiently listens and Mustafa finds pleasure in sharing his story.
When they reach Aute, they realize that the natives have burned their village to thwart them. Mustafa is impressed by this tactic and wonders if his people could have saved Azemmur by burning the town.
Narváez orders Dorantes, Castillo, and Cabeza de Vaca to go to the port and find the ships. Cabeza de Vaca, who always agrees with Narváez, feels confident that they will find the ships. Dorantes and Castillo, who had questioned Narváez’s choice to split the armada, are less sure. The men find no ships.
When they return to camp, they discover that 14 men died of fever while they were away. They share the bad news that they found only a shallow harbor and no ships. Narváez, who is sick, is disturbed that five horsemen tried to desert the mission and reports that the natives attacked while they were away. He decides that everyone must go to the bay. Cabeza de Vaca and Dorantes are finally united in agreement.
Mustafa considers escaping into the woods, but knowing his chances of survival are slim, he decides he must find another way. Narváez tries to rally the troops by reminding them of the challenges the conquistadors faced in Mexico and how their endurance was rewarded with great riches. He appeals to their greed, saying, “Remember that those who risk the most, but remain steadfast in the face of hardship, will gain the most in the end” (132).
The men disagree about the best way to find the ships. Mustafa suggests that they build rafts. After days of thinking over his options, Narváez agrees. Mustafa hopes the plan will be successful and he’ll be able to return to his family.
The men melt down their armor to create tools and build the rafts using all the materials they can find. Dorantes’s beloved horse is slaughtered for meat. Narváez chooses the best raft and strongest crew for himself. Mustafa is on the fifth raft with Dorantes and Castillo.
Chapters 7-9 Analysis
Half-naked in the wilderness and stricken by disease, the explorers realize that their dreams of riches may not come true. Their dire situation erases the distinction between rich and poor, master and slave. Mustafa observes, “Disease leveled all the differences between us and united us in a single abiding fear” (129). Mustafa notices that the men’s shared desire to survive the expedition brings them together, “now the differences between us were not so stark […] The prolonged strain of our ordeal had reduced our greed to the simplest one of all: survival” (136).
Mustafa comes to regret selling himself into slavery and realizes that his hope that Dorantes would become rich and set him free is unrealistic. Mustafa decides that he cannot wait for someone to set him free and that he must change his fate himself: “I had to stop playing a part in my own misery. I had to save my own life” (131). When Mustafa suggests that they build rafts, he’s seizing control of his own fate. This claiming of agency will become an increasingly important strategy for him, a means of Survival in the Face of Colonial Dehumanization. Because he is enslaved, those in power continually seek to deprive him of agency. The dire situation in which the crew finds itself, ironically, presents an opportunity for him.
Another theme repeated throughout this section is The Power of Names. In Chapter 8, Ramatullai shares part of her story with Mustafa, and they tell each other their true names. This sharing of names cements a bond between them. Mustafa has never forgotten his original name or the identity it signifies, but to have that identity seen and known by another person makes it more real.
In a similar moment of connection in Chapter 9, Dorantes asks Mustafa to tell him his story. The experience is revelatory for Mustafa:
Reader, the joy of a story is in its telling […] I could not resist the pleasure that such a tale would bring me […] Señor Dorantes listened to me with such curiosity and patience that I wondered if he would tell this chronicle to other people someday, to his wife, say, or to his children, so it might continue to be told, even after my death. Telling a story is like sowing a seed—you always hope to see it become a beautiful tree, with firm roots and branches that soar up in the sky. But it is a peculiar sowing, for you will never know whether your seed sprouts or dies (124).
In this moment, Mustafa is formulating his understanding of the value of storytelling. His story, told and heard in this way, is the antithesis of the clerk’s official record that stripped him of his name and his identity—evidence of The Tension Between Storytelling and Recordkeeping. Mustafa realizes that storytelling is a way for him to reclaim his own life. Mustafa compares his story to a seed—like a seed, its future is largely up to chance. Unlike an official record, whose authority is backed up by the force of the imperial state, the fate of Mustafa’s story is out of his control. Mustafa hopes that Dorantes will immortalize him by telling his story after his death.
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