The other class among the colonists of N_The Coronado Expedition, 1540-1542. Excerpted from the Fourteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1892-1893, Part 1.

quarter of the sixteenth century “floated like cork on the water” on

those who had established their homes in the New World.[51] The men

[p376] who made it possible to live in security on the farms and

ranches of the province had rendered many and indispensable services,

and there was much that they might still do to enlarge its boundaries

and make the security more certain. They were, nevertheless, a

serious hindrance to the prosperity of the settlements. For the

most part they were young men of all sorts and degrees. Among them

were many sons of Spanish noblemen, like Mendoza the viceroy, whose

brother had just succeeded his father as Marquis de Mondejar. Very

much of the extension of the Spanish world by discovery and conquest

was due to the sons of men of rank, who had, perhaps generally, begun

to sow their wild oats in Spain and were sent across the Atlantic

in order to keep them out of mischief at home, or to atone, it may

be, for mischief already done. In action, these young caballeros

were most efficient. By personal valor and ability, they held the

positions of leadership everywhere, among men who followed whom

and when they chose, and always chose the man who led them most

successfully. When inactive, these same cavaliers were a most trying

annoyance to any community in which they happened to be. Armed

with royal letters and comprehensive introductions, they had to

be entertained, at heavy charges. Masters of their own movements,

they came as they liked, and very often did not go away. Lovers

of excitement, they secured it regardless of other men’s wives or

property.

[Illustration: XLVI. Mercator’s Interior of New Spain, 1589]

There had been few attractions to draw these adventurers away from

Mexico, the metropolis of the mainland, for some time previous to

1539. Peru still offered excitement for those who had nothing to gain

or lose, but the purely personal struggle going on there between

Pizarro and Almagro could not arouse the energies of those who were

in search of glory as well as of employment. A considerable part

of the rabble which followed Nuño de Guzman during the conquest

of New Galicia went to Peru after their chief had been superseded

by the Licentiate de la Torre, so that one town is said to have

disappeared entirely from this cause; but among these there were few

men of good birth and spirit. Mendoza had been able, at first, to

accommodate and employ those who accompanied him from Spain, like

Vazquez Coronado, “being chiefly young gentlemen.” But every vessel

coming from home brought some companion or friend of those who were

already in New Spain, and after Cabeza de Vaca carried the reports

of his discoveries to the Spanish court, an increasing number came

each season to join the already burdensome body of useless members

of the viceregal household. The viceroy recognized the necessity

of relieving the community of this burden very soon after he had

established himself in Mexico, and he was continually on the watch

for some suitable means of freeing himself from these guests. By 1539

the problem of looking after these young gentlemen—whose number is

determined quite accurately by the two hundred and fifty or three

hundred “gentlemen on horseback” who left New Spain with Coronado in

the [p377] spring of 1540—had become a serious one to the viceroy.

The most desirable employment for all this idle energy would be, of

course, the exploration and conquest of new country, or the opening

of the border territory for permanent settlement. But no mere work

for work’s sake, no wild-goose chase, would do. These young gentlemen

had many friends near to Charles V, who would have resented any

abuse of privilege or of confidence. A suitable expedition could

be undertaken only at considerable expense, and unless the cost

could all be made good to the accountants in Spain, complaints were

sure to be preferred against even the best of viceroys. So Mendoza

entertained his guests as best he could, while they loafed about

his court or visited his stock farms, and he anxiously watched the

reports which came from the officials of the northwestern province of

New Galicia and from the priests who were wandering and working among

the outlying Indian tribes. When, late in the summer of 1539, Friar

Marcos returned from the north, bringing the assurance that Cibola

was a desirable field for conquest, the viceroy quickly improved the

opportunity for which he had been waiting. Within a month and a half

Mendoza had begun to organize the force which was to conquer this new

country.

Compostela, on the Pacific coast, was announced as the place at which

the force should assemble. The viceroy desired to have the army begin

its march so soon as the roads were passable in the spring, and he

wished also to relieve the Indians living in the districts between

Mexico and the coast from as much as possible of the annoyance and

loss which would be inevitable if the army started from Mexico and

marched through this territory in a body. How much this forethought

for the Indians was needed appears from Mendoza’s reply to the

accusations against him filed during the visita of 1547, which

showed that all his care had not saved the Indians of Michoacan from

needless injury at the hands of those who were on their way to join

the gathering at Compostela. Incidentally, this arrangement also gave

the capital city an earlier relief from its unwelcome guests.

Popular as was the expedition to the Seven Cities, there was a little

opposition to the undertaking. When it became evident that a large

force was about to leave the country, some of those who were to

remain behind complained that all New Spain was being depopulated,

and that no one would be left to defend the country in case of an

Indian uprising. When Mendoza reached Compostela, by the middle of

February, 1540, Coronado asked him to make an official investigation

of these complaints. The formal request is dated February 21, and on

the following day, Sunday, the viceroy held a grand review of the

whole array, with everyone ready equipped for the march. As the men

passed before the viceregal party the secretaries made an exact count

and description of the force, but this document is not now known. Its

loss is partly supplied by the sworn testimony of the officials who

were best acquainted with the inhabitants of all parts of New Spain,

[p378] recorded a few days after the departure of the expedition.

They declare that in the whole army there were only two or three men

who had ever been settled residents in the country; that these few

were men who had failed to make a living as settlers, and that, in

short, the whole force was a good riddance.[52]

The men who assembled at Compostela to start for the Seven Cities

numbered, Mendoza stated at the time of the visita in 1547, “about

two hundred and fifty Spaniards on horseback, . . . and about three

hundred Indians, a few more or less.” Mota Padilla, who must have

used documents of the very best authority, nearly all of which have

since disappeared, gives the number of the force as “two hundred and

sixty horsemen, . . seventy footmen, . . and more than a thousand

friendly Indians and Indian servants.” Herrera, who used official

documents, says that there were one hundred and fifty horsemen and

two hundred footmen. Mendoza’s statement of the number of Indians may

be explained, if we suppose him to have referred only to the friendly

Indians who went on the expedition as native allies. His statement is

made in the course of a defense of his administration, when he was

naturally desirous of giving as small a number as possible. Castañeda

says that there were three hundred horsemen, and this number occurs

in other early narratives.

Mendoza spared neither pains nor expense to insure the success of the

expedition. Arms, horses, and supplies were furnished in abundance;

money was advanced from the royal chest to any who had debts to pay

before they could depart, and provision was made for the support

of those who were about to be left behind by fathers, brothers, or

husbands. The equipment of the force was all that the viceroy could

desire. Arms and military supplies had been among the things greatly

needed in New Spain when Mendoza reported its condition in his first

letters to the home government. In 1537 he repeated his request

for these supplies with increased insistence. The subject is not

again mentioned in his letters, and we may fairly suppose that he

had received the weapons and munitions of war, fresh from the royal

arsenals of Spain, with which he equipped the expedition on whose

success he had staked so much. It was a splendid array as it passed

in review before Mendoza and the officials who helped and watched

him govern New Spain, on this Sunday in February, 1540. The young

cavaliers curbed the picked horses from the large stock farms of the

viceroy, each resplendent in long blankets flowing to the ground.

Each rider held his lance erect, while his sword and other weapons

hung in their proper places at his side. Some were arrayed in coats

of mail, polished to shine like that of their general, whose gilded

armor with its brilliant trappings was to bring him many hard blows

a few months later. Others wore iron helmets or vizored headpieces

of the tough bullhide for which the country [p379] has ever been

famous. The footmen carried crossbows and harquebuses, while some

of them were armed with sword and shield. Looking on at these white

men with their weapons of European warfare was the crowd of native

allies in their paint and holiday attire, armed with the club and the

bow of an Indian warrior. When all these started off next morning,

in duly ordered companies, with their banners flying, upward of a

thousand servants and followers, black men and red men, went with

them, leading the spare horses, driving the pack animals, bearing the

extra baggage of their masters, or herding the large droves of “big

and little cattle,” of oxen and cows, sheep, and, maybe, swine,[53]

which had been collected by the viceroy to assure fresh food for the

army on its march. There were more than a thousand horses in the

train of the force, besides the mules, loaded with camp supplies and

provisions, and carrying half a dozen pieces of light artillery—the

pedreros, or swivel guns of the period.

After the review, the army assembled before the viceroy, who

addressed to them an exhortation befitting the occasion. Each

man, whether captain or foot soldier, then swore obedience to his

commander and officers, and promised to prove himself a loyal and

faithful vassal to his Lord the King. During the preceding week the

viceroy had divided the force into companies, and now he assigned

to each its captain, as Castañeda relates, and announced the other

officers of the army.

Francisco Vazquez Coronado—de Coronado it is sometimes written—was

captain-general of the whole force. “Who he is, what he has already

done, and his personal qualities and abilities, which may be made

useful in the various affairs which arise in these parts of the

Indies, I have already written to Your Majesty,” writes Mendoza

to the Emperor, in the letter of December 10, 1537. This previous

letter is not known to exist, and there is very little to supply the

place of its description of the character and antecedents of Vazquez

Coronado. His home was in Salamanca,[54] and he came to America in

the retinue of Mendoza in 1535. His relations with his patron, the

viceroy, previous to the return of the expedition from Cibola, appear

always to have been most cordial and intimate. In 1537 Coronado

married Beatrice de Estrada, a cousin by blood, if gossip was true,

of the Emperor, Charles V. Her father, Alonso, had been royal

treasurer of New Spain. From his mother-in-law Coronado received as

a marriage gift a considerable estate, “the half of Tlapa,” which

was confirmed to him by a royal grant. Cortez complained that the

income from this estate was worth more than 3,000 ducados, and that

it had been unduly and inconsiderately alienated from the Crown.

Coronado obtained also the estate of one Juan de Búrgos, apparently

one of those who forfeited [p380] their land because they persisted

in the unmarried state. This arrangement likewise received the royal

approval.[55] When, however, “the new laws and ordinances for the

Indies” came out from Spain in 1544,[56] after Coronado’s return

from the northern expedition, one of the sections expressly ordered

an investigation into the extent and value of the estates held by

Francisco Vazquez de Coronado, since it had been reported to the King

that the number of Indians held to service on these estates was very

excessive. Mendoza had to answer the same charge at his visita in

1547.

Mendoza sent Coronado, in 1537, to the mines at Amatepeque, where the

negroes had revolted and “elected a king,” and where they threatened

to cause considerable trouble. The revolt was quelled, after some

fighting, with the help of the Indians of the district. A couple of

dozen of the rebels were hung and quartered at the mines or in the

City of Mexico.[57]

In the following August, Coronado was legally recognized as a citizen

of the City of Mexico, where he was one of three witnesses chosen

to testify to the formal recognition by Cortes of the royal order

which permitted De Soto to explore and conquer Florida.[58] A month

later, September 7, 1538, the representative of De Soto, Alvaro

de Sanjurjo, summoned Coronado himself to recognize and promise

obedience to the same royal order, “as governor, as the said Sanjurjo

declared him to be, of New Galicia.” Coronado readily promised his

loyal and respectful obedience to all of His Majesty’s commands,

but observed that this matter did not concern him at all, “since he

was not governor, nor did he know that His Majesty desired to have

him serve in such a position; and if His Majesty should desire his

services in that position, he would obey and submit to the royal

provision for him whenever he was called on, and would do what was

most serviceable to the royal interests.” He adds that he knows

nothing about the government of Ayllon or that of Narvaez, which were

mentioned in the license to De Soto. This part of his statement can

hardly have been strictly true. The answer was not satisfactory to

Sanjurjo, who replied that he had received information that Coronado

was to be appointed governor of New Galicia. The latter stated that

he had already given his answer, and thereupon Sanjurjo formally

protested that the blame for any expenditures, damages, or scandals

which might result from a failure to observe the royal order must be

laid at the door of the one to whom they rightfully belonged, and

that they would not result from any fault or omission on the part

of De Soto. Sanjurjo may have received some hint or suggestion of

the intention to appoint Coronado, but it is quite certain that no

definite steps had yet been taken to supplant the licentiate, De la

[p381] Torre, as governor of New Galicia. Coronado’s answer shows

plainly that he intentionally refused to commit himself when so many

things were uncertain, and when nothing was definitely known about

the country of which Cabeza de Vaca had heard. Mendoza may have

suggested his appointment at an earlier date, but the King apparently

waited until he learned of De la Torre’s untimely death before

approving the selection. The confirmation was signed April 18, 1539,

and at the same time Coronado was appointed to take the residencia of

his predecessor. The King agreed to allow the new governor a salary

of 1,000 ducats from the royal treasure chests and 1,500 more from

the province, with the proviso that the royal revenues were not to

be held responsible for this latter sum in case New Galicia proved

too poor to yield so large an amount. Coronado probably went at once

to his province when he received the notice of his nomination, for

he was in Guadalajara on November 19, 1538, where he approved the

selection of judges and magistrates for the ensuing year by the city

of Compostela, which had held its election before his arrival. At the

same time he appointed the judges for Guadalajara.

[Illustration: XLVII. Abr. Ortelius’ Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, 1570]

Coronado probably spent the winter of 1538–39 in New Galicia,

arranging the administration and other affairs of his government. He

entertained Friar Marcos, when the latter passed through his province

in the spring of 1539, and accompanied the friar as far as Culiacan,

the northernmost of the Spanish settlements. Here he provided the

friar with Indians, provisions, and other things necessary for the

journey to the Seven Cities. Later in the spring, the governor

returned to Guadalajara, and devoted considerable attention to the

improvement and extension of this city, so that it was able to claim

and obtain from the King a coat of arms and the title of “city”

during the following summer.[59] He was again here on January 9,

1540, when he promulgated the royal order, dated December 20, 1538,

which decreed that inasmuch as it was reported that the cities in the

Indies were not built with sufficient permanency, the houses being of

wood and thatched with straw, so that fires and conflagrations were

of frequent occurrence, therefore no settler should thereafter build

a house of any material except stone, brick, or unbaked brick, and

the houses should be built after the fashion of those in Spain, so

that they might be permanent, and an adornment to the cities. Between

these dates it is very likely that Coronado may have made some

attempt to explore the mountainous regions north of the province, as

Castañeda says, although his evidence is by no means conclusive.

About midsummer of 1539, Friar Marcos came back from Cibola.

Coronado met him as he passed through New Galicia, and together they

returned to Mexico to tell the viceroy what the friar had seen and

heard. Coronado remained at the capital during the autumn and early

[p382] winter, taking an active part in all the preparations for

the expedition which he was to command. After the final review in

Compostela, he was placed in command of the army, with the title of

captain-general.

THE DEPARTURE OF THE EXPEDITION

Monday, February 23, 1540, the army which was to conquer the Seven

Cities of Cibola started on its northward march from Compostela.[60]

For 80 leagues the march was along the “much-used roads” which

followed the coast up to Culiacan.[61]

Everyone was eager to reach the wonderful regions which were to be

their destination, but it was impossible to make rapid progress.

The cattle could not be hurried, while the baggage animals and the

carriers were so heavily laden with equipments and provisions that it

was necessary to allow them to take their own time. Several days were

lost at the Centizpac river, across which the cattle had to be [p383]

transported one at a time. At Chiametla there was another delay. Here

the army camped in the remains of a village which Nuño de Guzman had

established. The settlers had been driven away by a pestilence caught

from the Indians, and by the fierce onslaught of the natives who came

down upon them from the surrounding mountains. The food supply of

Coronado’s force was beginning to fail, and as the tribes hereabout

were still in rebellion, it became necessary to send a force into

the mountains to obtain provisions. The army master, Samaniego,

who had been warden of one of the royal fortresses,[62] commanded

the foraging party. The men found themselves buried in the thick

underbrush as soon as they passed beyond the limits of the clearing.

One of the soldiers inadvertently, but none the less in disregard of

strict orders, became separated from the main party, and the Indians,

who were nowhere to be seen, at once attacked him. In reply to his

cries, the watchful commander hastened to his assistance. The Indians

who had tried to seize him suddenly disappeared. When everything

seemed to be safe, Samaniego raised his visor, and as he did so an

arrow from among the bushes pierced his eye, passing through the

skull. The death of Samaniego was a severe loss to the expedition.

Brave and skillful, he was beloved by all who were with him or under

him. He was buried in the little chapel of the deserted village. The

army postponed its departure long enough to capture several natives

of the district, whose bodies were left hanging on the trees in order

to counteract the bad augury which followed from the loss of the

first life.[63]

A much more serious presage was the arrival at Chiametla, as the

army was preparing to leave, of Melchior Diaz and Juan de Saldivar,

or Zaldivar, returning from their attempt to verify the stories told

by Friar Marcos. Melchior Diaz went to New Galicia with Nuño de

Guzman, and when Cabeza de Vaca appeared in that province, in May

1536, Diaz was in command of the outpost of Culiacan. He was still at

Culiacan, in the autumn of 1539, when Mendoza directed him to take

a mounted force and go into the country toward the north “to see

if the account which Friar Marcos brought back agreed with what he

could observe.” He left Culiacan November 17, with fifteen horsemen,

and traveled as far north as the wilderness beyond which Cibola was

situated, following much the same route as the friar had taken, and

questioning the Indians with great care. Many of the statements made

by Friar Marcos were verified, and some new facts were obtained,

but nowhere could he find any foundation for the tales of a wealthy

and attractive country, except in the descriptions given by the

Indians. The cold weather had begun to trouble his men seriously

before he reached the limit of his explorations. He pushed on as far

as Chichilticalli, however, but here the snows and fierce winds from

across the [p384] wilderness forced him to turn back. At Chiametla

he encountered Coronado’s force. He joined the army, sending his

lieutenant, Saldivar, with three other horsemen, to carry his report

to the viceroy. This was delivered to Mendoza on March 20, and is

embodied in the letter to the King, dated April 17, 1540.

Coronado did not allow Diaz to announce the results of his

reconnoissance to the soldiers, but the rumor quickly spread that

the visions inspired by Friar Marcos had not been substantiated.

Fortunately, the friar was himself in the camp. Although he was

now the father provincial of the Franciscan order in New Spain, he

had determined to accompany the expedition, in order to carry the

gospel to the savages whose salvation had been made possible by his

heroic journey of the preceding spring. The mutterings of suspicion

and discontent among the men grew rapidly louder. Friar Marcos felt

obliged to exhort them in a special sermon to keep up a good courage,

and by his eloquence he succeeded in persuading them that all their

labors would soon be well repaid.

From Chiametla the army resumed its march, procuring provisions from

the Indians along the way. Mendoza stated, in 1547, that he took

every precaution to prevent any injury or injustice being done to the

Indians at the time of Coronado’s departure, and that he stationed

officials, especially appointed for this purpose, at convenient

points on the road to Culiacan, who were ordered to procure the

necessary provisions for the expedition. There are no means of

telling how well this plan was carried into execution.

A day or two before Easter, March 28, 1540, the army approached

Culiacan. The journey had occupied a little over a month, but when

Coronado, from his lodging in the Cibola village of Granada, three

months later, recalled the slow and tedious marches, the continual

waiting for the lazy cattle and the heavily loaded baggage trains,

and the repeated vexatious delays, we can hardly wonder that it

seemed to him to have been a period of fourscore days’ journey.

[Illustration: XLVIII. Dourado’s Terra Antipodv Regis Castele Inveta,

1580]

The town of San Miguel de Culiacan, in the spring of 1540, was one

of the most prosperous in New Spain. Nuño de Guzman had founded

the settlement some years before, and had placed Melchior Diaz in

charge of it. The appointment was a most admirable one. Diaz was

not of gentle birth, but he had established his right to a position

of considerable power and responsibility by virtue of much natural

ability. He was a hard worker and a skillful organizer and leader.

He inspired confidence in his companions and followers, and always

maintained the best of order and of diligence among those who were

under his charge. Rarely does one meet with a man whose record for

every position and every duty assigned to him shows such uniform and

thorough efficiency. The settlement increased rapidly in size and in

wealth, and when Coronado’s force encamped in the surrounding fields,

the citizens of the town insisted on entertaining in their own

homes all of the gentlemen who [p385] were with the expedition.

The granaries of the place were filled with the surplus from the

bountiful harvests of two preceding years, which sufficed to feed

the whole army for three or four weeks, besides providing supplies

sufficient for more than two months when the expedition resumed its

march. These comfortable quarters and the abundant entertainment

detained the general and his soldiers for some weeks.[64] This was

the outpost of Spanish civilization, and Coronado made sure that his

arrangements were as complete as possible, both for the army and for

the administration of New Galicia during his absence.

The soldiers, and especially the gentlemen among them, had started

from Compostela with an abundant supply of luxurious furnishings

and extra equipment. Many of them were receiving their first rough

lessons in the art of campaigning, and the experiences along the way

before reaching Culiacan had already changed many of their notions of

comfort and ease. When the preparations for leaving Culiacan began,

the citizens of the town received from their guests much of the

clothing and other surplus baggage, which was left behind in order

that the expedition might advance more rapidly, or that the animals

might be loaded with provisions. Aside from what was given to the

people of the place, much of the heavier camp equipage, with some of

the superfluous property of the soldiers, was put on board a ship,

the _San Gabriel_, which was waiting in the harbor of Culiacan. An

additional supply of corn and other provisions also was furnished for

the vessel by the generous citizens.

THE EXPEDITION BY SEA UNDER ALARCON

A sea expedition, to cooperate with the land force, was a part

of Mendoza’s original plan. After the viceroy left Coronado, and

probably while he was at Colima, on his way down the coast from

Compostela, he completed the arrangements by appointing Hernando

de Alarcon, his chamberlain according to Bernal Diaz, to command

a fleet of two vessels. Alarcon was instructed to sail northward,

following the coast as closely as possible. He was to keep near the

army, and communicate with it at every opportunity, transporting the

heavy baggage and holding himself ready at all times to render any

assistance which Coronado might desire. Alarcon sailed May 9, 1540,

probably from Acapulco.[65] [p386]

This port had been the seat of the shipbuilding operations of

Cortes on the Pacific coast, and it is very probable that Alarcon’s

two ships were the same as those which the marquis claimed to

have equipped for a projected expedition. Alarcon sailed north to

Santiago, where he was obliged to stop, in order to refit his vessels

and to replace some artillery and stores which had been thrown

overboard from his companion ship during a storm. Thence he sailed to

Aguaiauale, as Ramusio has it, the port of San Miguel de Culiacan.

The army had already departed, and so Alarcon, after replenishing

his store of provisions, added the _San Gabriel_ to his fleet and

continued his voyage. He followed the shore closely and explored many

harbors “which the ships of the marquis had failed to observe,” as he

notes, but he nowhere succeeded in obtaining any news of the army of

Coronado.

THE JOURNEY FROM CULIACAN TO CIBOLA

Melchior Diaz had met with so many difficulties in traveling through

the country which the army was about to enter, on its march toward

the Seven Cities, and the supply of food to be found there was

everywhere so small, that Coronado decided to divide his force for

this portion of the journey. He selected seventy-five or eighty

horsemen, including his personal friends, and twenty-five or thirty

foot soldiers. With these picked men, equipped for rapid marching,

he hastened forward, clearing the way for the main body of the army,

which was to follow more slowly, starting a fortnight after his own

departure. With the footmen in the advance party were the four friars

of the expedition, whose zealous eagerness to reach the unconverted

natives of the Seven Cities was so great that they were willing

to leave the main portion of the army without a spiritual guide.

Fortunately for these followers, a broken leg compelled one of the

brethren to remain behind. Coronado attempted to take some sheep with

him, but these soon proved to be so great a hindrance that they were

left at the river Yaquimi, in charge of four horsemen, who conducted

them at a more moderate pace.

Leaving Culiacan on April 22, Coronado followed the coast, “bearing

off to the left,” as Mota Padilla says, by an extremely rough way,

to the river Cinaloa. The configuration of the country made it

necessary to follow up the valley of this stream until he could find

a passage across the mountains to the course of the Yaquimi. He

traveled alongside this stream for some distance, and then crossed

to Sonora river.[66] [p387] The Sonora was followed nearly to its

source before a pass was discovered. On the northern side of the

mountains he found a stream—the Nexpa, he calls it—which may have

been either the Santa Cruz or the San Pedro of modern maps. The party

followed down this river valley until they reached the edge of the

wilderness, where, as Friar Marcos had described it to them, they

found Chichilticalli.[67]

Here the party camped for two days, which was as long as the general

dared to delay, in order to rest the horses, who had begun to give

out sometime before as a result of overloading, rough roads, and

poor feed. The stock of provisions brought from Culiacan was already

growing dangerously small, although the food supply had been eked

out by the large cones or nuts of the pines of this country, which

the soldiers found to be very good eating. The Indians who came to

see him, told Coronado that the sea was ten days distant, and he

expresses surprise, which Mr Bandolier has reëchoed, that Friar

Marcos could have gone within sight of the sea from this part of the

country.

Coronado entered the wilderness, the White Mountain Apache country

of Arizona, on Saint John’s eve, and in the quaint language of

Hakluyt’s translation of the general’s letter, “to refresh our

former trauailes, the first dayes we founde no grasse, but worser

way of mountaines and badde passages.”[68] Coronado, following

very nearly the line of the present road from Fort Apache to Gila

river, proceeded until he came within sight of the first of the

Seven Cities. The first few days of the march were very trying. The

discouragement of the men increased with the difficulties of the way.

The horses were tired, and the slow progress became slower, as horses

and Indian carriers fell down and died. The corn was almost gone, and

as a result of eating the fruits and herbs which they found along the

way, a Spaniard and some of the servants were poisoned so badly that

they died. The skull and horns of a great mountain goat, which were

lying on the ground, filled the Europeans with wonder, but this was

hardly a sign to inspire them with hopes of abundant food and gold.

There were 30 leagues of this travailing before the party reached the

borders of the inhabited country, where they found “fresh grass and

many nutte and mulberrie trees.”

The day following that on which they left the wilderness, the advance

guard was met, in a peaceable manner, by four Indians. The Spaniards

treated them most kindly, gave them beads and clothing, and “willed

[p388] them to return unto their city and bid them stay quiet in

their houses fearing nothing.” The general assured them that they

need have no anxiety, because the newcomers had been sent by His

Spanish Majesty, “to defend and ayde them.”

THE CAPTURE OF THE SEVEN CITIES

The provisions brought from Culiacan or collected along the way were

now exhausted, and as a sudden attack by the Indians, during the last

night before their arrival at the cities, had assured the Spaniards

of a hostile reception, it was necessary to proceed rapidly. The

inhabitants of the first city had assembled in a great crowd, at

some distance in front of the place, awaiting the approach of the

strangers. While the army advanced, Garcia Lopez de Cardenas, who

had been appointed to Samaniego’s position as field-master, and

Hernando Vermizzo, apparently one of the “good fellows” whose name

Castañeda forgot, rode forward and summoned the Indians to surrender,

in approved Castilian fashion, as His Majesty commanded always to

be done. The natives had drawn some lines on the ground, doubtless

similar to those which they still mark with sacred meal in their

ceremonial dramatizations, and across these they refused to let the

Spaniards pass, answering the summons with a shower of arrows. The

soldiers begged for the command to attack, but Coronado restrained

them as long as he could. When the influence of the friars was added

to the pleas of the men—perhaps without waiting for the command or

permission—the whole company uttered the Santiago, the sacred war

cry of Saint James, against the infidels, and rushed upon the crowd

of Indians, who turned and fled. Coronado quickly recalled his men

from the pursuit, and ordered them to prepare for an assault on the

city. The force was divided into attacking parties, which immediately

advanced against the walls from all sides. The crossbowmen and

harquebusiers, who were expected to drive the enemy back from the

tops of the walls, were unable to accomplish anything, on account

of their physical weakness and of accidents to their weapons. The

natives showered arrows against the advancing foes, and as the

Spaniards approached the walls, stones of all sizes were thrown

upon them with skillful aim and practiced strength. The general, in

his glittering armor, was the especial target of the defenders, and

twice he was knocked to the ground by heavy rocks. His good headpiece

and the devotion of his companions saved him from serious injury,

although his bruises confined him to the camp for several days. The

courage and military skill of the white men, weak and tired as they

were, proved too much for the Indians, who deserted their homes after

a fierce, but not protracted, resistance. Most of the Spaniards had

received many hard knocks, and Aganiez Suarez—possibly another of the

gentlemen forgotten by Castañeda—was severely wounded by arrows, as

were also three foot soldiers.

[Illustration: XLIX. Western Hemisphere of Mercator, 1587

After Nordenskiold]

The Indians had been driven from the main portion of the town, and

with this success the Spaniards were satisfied. Food—“that which

we [p389] needed a great deal more than gold or silver,” writes

one member of the victorious force—was found in the rooms already

secured. The Spaniards fortified themselves, stationed guards, and

rested. During the night, the Indians, who had retired to the wings

of the main building after the conflict, packed up what goods they

could, and left the Spaniards in undisputed possession of the whole

place.

The mystery of the Seven Cities was revealed at last. The Spanish

conquerors had reached their goal. July 7, 1540, white men for

the first time entered one of the communal villages of stone and

mud, inhabited by the Zuñi Indians of New Mexico.[69] Granada was

the name which the Spaniards gave to the first village—the Indian

Hawikuh—in honor of the viceroy to whose birthplace they say it bore

a fancied resemblance. Here they found, besides plenty of corn, beans

and fowls, better than those of New Spain, and salt, “the best and

whitest I have seen in all my life,” writes one of those who had

helped to win the town. But even the abundance of food could not

wholly satisfy the men whose toilsome march of more than four months

had been lightened by dreams of a golden haven. Friar Marcos was

there to see the realization of the visions which the zealous sermons

of his brethren and the prolific ardor of rumor and of common talk

had raised from his truthful report. One does not wonder that he

eagerly accepted the earliest opportunity of returning to New Spain,

to escape from the not merely muttered complaints and upbraidings, in

expressing which the general was chief.[70]

THE EXPLORATION OF THE COUNTRY

THE SPANIARDS AT ZUÑI

Some of the inhabitants of Hawikuh-Granada returned to the village,

bringing gifts, while Coronado was recovering from his wounds. The

general faithfully exhorted them to become Christians and to submit

themselves to the sovereign over-lordship of His Majesty the Spanish

[p390] King. The interview failed to reassure the natives, for they

packed all their provisions and property on the following day, and

with their wives and children abandoned the villages in the valley

and withdrew to their stronghold, the secure fastness on top of

Taaiyalone or Thunder mountain.

As soon as he was able, Coronado visited the other villages of

Cibola-Zuñi, observing the country carefully. He reassured the few

Indians whom he found still living in the valley, and after some

hesitation on their part succeeded in persuading the chiefs to come

down from the mesa and talk with him. He urged them to return to

their homes below, but without success. He was more fortunate in

obtaining information regarding the surrounding country, which was

of much use to him in directing further exploration. Then as now

the rule held good that the Indians are much more likely to tell

the truth when giving information about their neighbors than about

themselves.

THE DISCOVERY OF TUSAYAN AND THE GRAND CANYON

A group of seven villages, similar to those at Cibola, was reported

to be situated toward the west, “the chief of the towns whereof they

have knowledge.” Tucano was the name given to these, according to

Ramusio’s version of Coronado’s letter, and it is not difficult to

see in this name that of Tusayan, the Hopi or Moki settlements in

northeastern Arizona.

As soon as everything was quiet in the Cibola country, about the

middle of July, Don Pedro de Tovar was ordered to take a few horsemen

and his company of footmen and visit this district. Don Pedro spent

several days in the Tusayan villages, and after he had convinced

the people of his peaceable designs, questioned them regarding the

country farther west. Returning to the camp at Cibola within the

thirty days to which his commission was limited, Tovar reported that

the country contained nothing to attract the Spaniards. The houses,

however, were better than those at Cibola. But he had heard stories

of a mighty river and of giant peoples living toward the west, and so

Don Garcia Lopez de Cardenas was instructed to go and verify these

reports. Cardenas started, perhaps on August 25. He had authority for

eighty days, and within this term he succeeded in reaching the Grand

canyon of Colorado river, which baffled his most agile companions in

their efforts to descend to the water or to discover some means of

crossing to the opposite side. He returned with only the story of

this hopeless barrier to exploration westward.

THE RIO GRANDE AND THE GREAT PLAINS

The first expedition toward the east was sent out August 29 in

charge of Don Hernando de Alvarado. Passing the rock of Acuco or

Acoma—always a source of admiration—Alvarado reached the village and

river of Tiguex—the Rio Grande—on September 7. Some time was spent

in [p391] visiting the villages situated along the stream. The

headquarters of the party were at Tiguex, at or near the site of the

present town of Bernalillo, and here a list was drawn up and sent

to the general giving the names of eighty villages of which he had

learned from the natives of this place. At the same time Alvarado

reported that these villages were the best that had yet been found,

and advised that the winter quarters for the whole force should be

established in this district. He then proceeded to Cicuye or Pecos,

the most eastern of the walled villages, and from there crossed the

mountains to the buffalo plains. Finding a stream which flowed toward

the southeast—the Canadian river, perhaps—he followed its course

for a hundred leagues or more. Many of the “humpback oxen” were

seen, of which some of the men may have remembered Cabeza de Vaca’s

description.

On his return, Alvarado found the army-master, Garcia Lopez de

Cardenas, at Tiguex, arranging winter quarters sufficient to

accommodate the whole force in this region.[71] Coronado, who had

made a trip to examine the villages farther south, along the Rio

Grande, soon joined his lieutenants, leaving only a small force at

Cibola to maintain the post. The whole of the advance party was now

in Tiguex, and orders had been left at Cibola for the main body to

proceed to the eastern settlements so soon as they should arrive from

Culiacan and Corazones.

THE MARCH OF THE ARMY FROM CULIACAN TO TIGUEX

The main portion of the army remained at Culiacan, under the command

of Don Tristan de Arellano, when the general started for Cibola

with his small party of companions. The soldiers completed the work

of loading the _San Gabriel_ with their surplus equipment and with

provisions, and busied themselves about the town for a fortnight

after the departure of their general. Some time between the first and

middle of May, the army started to follow the route of the advance

party. The whole force marched on foot, carrying their lances and

other weapons, in order that the horses and other beasts, numbering

more than six hundred, might all be loaded with provisions. It had

taken Coronado and his party of horsemen, eager to push on toward

their destination, more than a month to make the journey to Corazones

or Hearts valley. We can only guess how much longer it took the

slowly marching army to cover this first half of the distance to

Cibola. The orders which the general had left with Arellano were that

he should [p392] take the army to this valley, where a good store

of provisions had been found by Melchior Diaz, and there wait for

further instructions. Coronado promised to send for his soldiers as

soon as he was sure that there was a country of the Seven Cities for

them to conquer and settle.

In the valley of Corazones, which had been given its name by Cabeza

de Vaca because the natives at this place offered him the hearts

of animals for food, Arellano kept the soldiers busy by building a

town on Suya river, naming it San Hieronimo de los Corazones—Saint

Jerome of the Hearts. A small force was sent down the river to the

seacoast, under the command of Don Rodrigo Maldonado, in the hope

of communicating with the ships of Alarcon. Maldonado found neither

signs nor news of the fleet, but he discovered a tribe of Indian

“giants,” one of whom accompanied the party back to the camp, where

the soldiers were filled with amazement at his size and strength.

Thus the time passed until early in September, when Melchior Diaz

and Juan Gallego brought the expected orders from the general.

Gallego, who carried the letter which Coronado had written from

Granada-Hawikuh on August 3, with the map and the exhibits of the

country which it mentions, continued on to Mexico. He was accompanied

by Friar Marcos. Diaz had been directed to stay in the new town of

San Hieronimo, to maintain this post and to open communication with

the seacoast. He selected seventy or eighty men—those least fitted

for the hardships and struggles of exploration and conquest—who

remained to settle the new town and to make an expedition toward the

coast. The remainder of the army prepared to rejoin their general at

Cibola, and by the middle of September the start was made.

After a long, rough march, in which little occurred to break the

daily monotony, the soldiers reached the pueblo settlements. The bad

weather had already begun, but the men were eager to continue their

journey in spite of the snow and the fierce, cold winds. After a

short rest, the force proceeded to Tiguex, where comfortable quarters

were awaiting them, and in these they quickly settled for the winter.

THE WINTER OF 1540–1541 ALONG THE RIO GRANDE

THE INDIAN REVOLT

The first winter spent by white men in the pueblos of New Mexico

was a severe one. Fortunately for the strangers, however, they were

comfortably domiciled in the best houses of the country, in which the

owners had left a plentiful supply of food, and this was supplemented

by the livestock brought from New Spain.

[Illustration: L. Northern Half of De Bry’s “America Sive Novus

Orbis,” 1596]

During the late autumn the Indians assumed a hostile attitude toward

their visitors, and were reduced to peaceful inactivity only after

a protracted struggle, which greatly aggravated the conquerors. The

Spanish story of this revolt is clear—that the Indians suddenly

surprised the Europeans by attacking the horses and mules of the

army, killing or driving off a number of them, after which the

natives [p393] collected their fighting force into two of the

strongest villages, from one of which they were able to defy the

soldiers until thirst compelled them to abandon the stronghold.

The defenders attempted to escape by stealth, but the sentries of

the besieging force discovered them and aroused the camp. Many of

the Indians were killed by the soldiers during the flight which

followed, while others perished in the icy waters of the Rio Grande.

During an attack on the second village, a few of the Spaniards who

had succeeded in making their way to the highest portion of the

buildings, escaped from their perilous position by inducing the

native warriors to surrender. The Indians received an ample promise

of protection and safety, but the captain of the attacking party was

not informed of this, and in obedience to the general’s orders that

no prisoners should be taken, he directed that the captives should

be burned as a warning to the neighboring tribes. This affair is

a terrible blot on the record of the expedition and of those who

composed it. In condemning it most severely, however, English readers

should remember that they are only repeating the condemnations which

were uttered by most of the men of rank who witnessed it, which

were repeated in New Spain and in old Spain, and which greeted the

commander when he led his expedition back to Mexico, to receive the

cold welcome of the viceroy.

The Spaniards have told us only one side of the story of what was

happening along the Rio Grande in the fall of 1540. The other side

will probably never be heard, for it disappeared with the traditions

of the Indian villagers. Without pretending to supply the loss, it

is at least possible to suggest that the preparations by which the

army-master procured the excellent accommodations for the force must

have appeared very differently to the people in whose homes Cardenas

housed the soldiers, and to those who passed the winter in these snug

quarters. Castañeda preserved one or two interesting details which

are as significant as is the striking fact that the peaceful natives

who entertained Alvarado most freely in September were the leaders of

the rebellion three months later.

As soon as Coronado’s men had completed the reduction of the

refractory natives, and the whole country had been overawed by the

terrible punishment, the general undertook to reestablish peaceful

relations and confident intercourse between his camp and the

surrounding villages. The Indians seem to have been ready to meet him

almost half-way, although it is hardly surprising to find traces of

an underlying suspicion, and a readiness for treacherous retaliation.

THE STORIES ABOUT QUIVIRA

While this reconciliation was being effected, Coronado heard from one

of the plains Indians,[72] held as a slave in the village of Cicuye

[p394] or Pecos, the stories about Quivira, which were to add so

much to the geographic extent of the expedition. When the Spaniards

were about to kill this Indian—“The Turk,” they called him[73]—he

told them that his masters, the people of Cicuye, had induced him

to lead the strangers away to the pathless plains, where water was

scarce and corn was unknown, to perish there, or, if ever they should

succeed in finding the way back to the village settlements, tired and

weak, to fall an easy prey to their enemies.

This plan was shrewdly conceived, and it very nearly succeeded.

There is little reason why we should doubt the truth of the

confession, made when the Indian could scarcely have hoped to save

his life, and it affords an easy explanation of the way in which

the exaggerated stories of Quivira originated and expanded. The

Turk may have accompanied Alvarado on the first visit to the great

plains, and he doubtless told the white men about his distant home

and the roving life on the prairies. It was later, when the Spaniards

began to question him about nations and rulers, gold and treasures,

that he received, perhaps from the Spaniards themselves, the hints

which led him to tell them what they were rejoiced to hear, and to

develop the fanciful pictures which appealed so forcibly to all

the desires of his hearers. The Turk, we can not doubt, told the

Spaniards many things which were not true. But in trying to trace

these early dealings of Europeans with the American aborigines, we

must never forget how much may be explained by the possibilities of

misinterpretation on the part of the white men, who so often heard

of what they wished to find, and who learned, very gradually and in

the end imperfectly, to understand only a few of the native languages

and dialects. And besides this, the record of their observations, on

which the students of today have to depend, was made in a language

which knew nothing of the things which it was trying to describe.

Much of what the Turk said was very likely true the first time he

said it, although the memories of home were heightened, no doubt, by

absence and distance. Moreover, Castañeda, who is the chief source

for the stories of gold and lordly kings which are said to have been

told by the Turk, in all probability did not know anything more than

the reports of what the Turk was telling to the superior officers,

which were passed about among the common foot soldiers.[74] The

present narrative has already shown the wonderful power of gossip,

and when it is gossip recorded twenty years afterward, we may

properly be cautious in believing it.

Coronado wrote to the King from Tiguex, on April 20, 1541, as he says

in his next letter, that of October 20. The April letter, written

just before the start for Quivira, must have contained a full and

official account of all that had been learned in regard to the

country toward [p395] the east, as well as more reliable details

than we now possess, of what had happened during the preceding fall

and winter. But this April letter, which was an acknowledgment and

answer to one from Charles V, dated in Madrid, June 11, 1540, has

not been found by modern students. When the reply was dispatched,

the messenger—probably Juan Gallego, who had perhaps brought the

Emperor’s letter from Mexico—was accompanied by Pedro de Tovar, who

was going back to Corazones valley for reinforcements. Many mishaps

had befallen the town of San Hieronimo during the year, and when

the messengers arrived there they found it half deserted. Leaving

Don Pedro here, Gallego hastened to Mexico, where he raised a small

body of recruits. He was leading these men, whose number had been

increased by some stragglers and deserters from the original force

whom he picked up at Culiacan, toward Cibola and Quivira, when he met

the expedition returning to New Spain. It was during this, probably

his fifth trip over the road from Mexico to our New Mexico, that he

performed the deeds of valor which Castañeda so enthusiastically

recounts at the very end of his book.

THE JOURNEY ACROSS THE BUFFALO PLAINS

April 23, 1541, Coronado left the Tiguex country and marched toward

the northeast, to the plains where lay the rich land of Quivira.

Every member of the army accompanied the general, for no one was

willing to be left behind when such glorious prospects of fame

and fortune lay before them. A few of the officers suggested the

wisdom of verifying these Indian tales in some measure before

setting the whole force in motion and abandoning their only sure

base of supplies. It seems as if there must have been other reasons

influencing Coronado beyond those revealed in Castañeda’s narrative;

but, if so, we do not know what they were. The fear lest he might

fail to accomplish any of the things which had been hoped for,

the absence of results on which to base a justification for all

the expense and labor, the thought of what would await him if he

should return empty handed, are perhaps enough to account for the

determination to risk everything and to allow no possible lack of

zeal or of strength to interfere with the realization of the hopes

inspired by the stories of Quivira.

Guided by the Turk, the army proceeded to Cicuye, and in nine days

more they reached the buffalo plains. Here began the long march

which was to be without any guiding landmarks. Just where, or how,

or how far the Spaniards went, I can not pretend to say. After a

month and more of marching—very likely just thirty-five days—their

patience became exhausted. A second native of the plains, who

accompanied the Spaniards from the pueblo country, had declared from

the first that the Turk was lying, but this had not made them trust

the latter any less. When, however, the Indians whom they found

living among the buffalo herds began to contradict the stories of

their guide, suspicion was aroused. The Turk, after much persuasive

cross-questioning, [p396] was at last induced to confess that he had

lied. Quivira, he still insisted, existed, though it was not as he

had described it. From the natives of the plains they learned that

there were no settlements toward the east, the direction in which

they had been traveling, but that toward the north, another good

month’s journey distant, there were permanent settlements. The corn

which the soldiers had brought from Tiguex was almost gone, while the

horses were tired and weak from the constant marching and buffalo

chasing, with only grass for food. It was clearly impossible for

the whole force to attempt this further journey, with the uncertain

prospect of finding native tribes like those they had already seen as

the only incentive. The general held a council of his officers and

friends, and decided to select 30 of the best equipped horsemen who

should go with him and attempt to verify the new information.

After Coronado had chosen his companions, the rest of the force was

sent back to Tiguex, as Castañeda relates. The Indians whom they met

on the plains furnished guides, who led the soldiers to the Pueblo

settlements by a more direct route than that which the Turk had

taken. But the marches were short and slow, so that it was the middle

of July before they were again encamped alongside the Rio Grande. So

far as is known, nothing of interest happened while they were waiting

there for the return of the general.

Coronado and his companion horsemen followed the compass needle

for forty-two days after leaving the main force, or, as he writes,

“after traveling across these deserts for seventy-seven days in all,”

they reached the country of Quivira. Here he found some people who

lived in permanent settlements and raised a little corn, but whose

sustenance came mainly from the buffalo herds, which they hunted

at regular seasons, instead of continuously as the plains Indians

encountered previously had done.[75]

[Illustration: LI. Wytfliet’s “Vtrivsqve Hemispherii Delineatio,”

1597]

Twenty-five days were spent among the villages at Quivira, so that

Jaramillo, one of the party, doubtless remembered correctly when he

said that they were there after the middle of August.[76] There was

[p397] nothing here except a piece of copper hanging from the

neck of a chief, and a piece of gold which one of the Spaniards was

suspected of having given to the natives, which gave any promise

of mineral wealth, and so Coronado determined to rejoin his main

force. Although they had found no treasures, the explorers were fully

aware of the agricultural advantages of this country, and of the

possibilities for profitable farming, if only some market for the

produce could be found.

Students of the Coronado expedition have very generally accepted

the location of Quivira proposed by General Simpson, who put the

northern point reached by Coronado somewhere in the eastern half of

the border country of Kansas and Nebraska. If we take into account

the expeditions which visited the outer limits of the Quivira

settlements, this is not inconsistent with Bandelier’s location of

the main seat of these Indians “in northeastern Kansas, beyond the

Arkansas river, and more than 100 miles northeast of Great Bend.”[77]

It is impossible to ignore the question of the route taken by

Coronado across the great plains, although the details chiefly

concern local historians. The Spanish travelers spent the summer

of 1541 on the prairies west of the Mississippi and south of the

Missouri. They left descriptions of these plains, and of the people

and animals inhabiting them, which are of as great interest and

value as any which have since been written. Fortunately it is not of

especial importance for us to know the exact section of the prairies

to which various parts of the descriptions refer.

From Cicuye, the Pecos pueblo, Coronado marched northeast until he

crossed Canadian river, probably a little to the east of the present

river and settlement of Mora.[78] This was about the 1st of May,

1541. From this point General Simpson, whose intimate knowledge

of the surface of the country thirty-five years ago makes his map

of the route across the plains most valuable, carried the line

of march nearly north, to a point halfway between Canadian and

Arkansas rivers. Then it turned east, or a trifle north of east,

until it reached one of the tributaries of the Arkansas, about 50

miles or so west of Wichita, Kansas. The army returned by a direct

route to Cicuye or Pecos river, striking that stream nearly east of

Bernalillo-Tiguex, while Coronado proceeded due north to Quivira on

the Kansas-Nebraska boundary.

Mr. Bandelier has traced a route for the march across the plains

which corresponds with the statements of the contemporary narratives

somewhat more closely than does that of General Simpson.[79] Crossing

[p398] Canadian river by a bridge, just south, of where Mora river

enters it, the Spaniards, according to Bandelier, marched toward

the northeast for ten days, until they met the first of the plains

Indians, the Querecho or Tonkawa. Thence they turned almost directly

toward the rising sun. Bandelier thinks that they very soon found

out that the guides had lost their reckoning, which presumably means

that it became evident that there was some difference of opinion

among the Indians. After marching eastward for thirty-five days or

so, the Spaniards halted on the banks of a stream which flowed in the

bottom of a broad and deep ravine. Here it was computed that they had

already traveled 250 leagues—650 miles—from Tiguex. They had crossed

no other large river since leaving the bridge over the Canadian, and

as the route had been south of east, as is distinctly stated by one

member of the force, they had probably reached the Canadian again.

There is a reference to crossing what may have been the North Fork

of the Canadian, in which case the army would now be on the north

bank of the main river, below the junction of the two forks, in the

eastern part of Indian Territory. Here they divided. The Teya guides

conducted the main force directly back to the Rio Grande settlements.

Coronado went due north, and a month later he reached a larger river.

He crossed to the north bank of this stream, and then followed its

course for several days, the direction being northeast. This river,

manifestly, must be the Arkansas, which makes a sharp turn toward

the northeast at the Great Bend, east of Fort Dodge, flowing in that

direction for 75 miles. Jaramillo states that they followed the

current of the river. As he approached the settled country, Coronado

turned toward the north and found Quivira, in northeastern Kansas,

not far south of the Nebraska boundary.[80]

The two texts of the Relacion del Suceso differ on a vital point;[81]

but in spite of this fact, I am inclined to accept the evidence of

this anonymous document as the most reliable testimony concerning

the direction of the army’s march. According to this, the Spaniards

traveled [p399] due east across the plains for 100 leagues—265

miles[82]—and then 50 leagues either south or southeast. The latter

is the reading I should prefer to adopt, because it accommodates

the other details somewhat better. This took them to the point of

separation, which can hardly have been south of Red river, and was

much more likely somewhere along the North Fork of the Canadian, not

far above its junction with the main stream. From this point the army

returned due west to Pecos river, while Coronado rode north “by the

needle.” From these premises, which are broad enough to be safe, I

should be inclined to doubt if Coronado went much beyond the south

branch of Kansas river, if he even reached that stream. Coronado

probably spent more days on his march than General Simpson allowed

for, but I do not think that he traveled nearly so far as General

Simpson supposed. Coronado also returned to Cicuye by a direct route,

which was about two-thirds as long as that of the outward march.

The distances given for various portions of the journey have a real

value, because each day’s march was paced off by a soldier detailed

for the purpose, who carefully recorded the distance covered.

THE WINTER OF 1541–1542

By October 20, 1541, Coronado was back in Tiguex, writing his

report to the King, in which he expressed his anxiety lest the

failure to discover anything of immediate material profit might

react unfavorably on his own prospects. Letters and dispatches from

Mexico and Spain were awaiting him at Tiguex. One of these informed

Don Garcia Lopez de Cardenas of the death of his brother, by which

he became heir to the family estates. Cardenas had broken his arm

on the plains, and this injury was still troubling him when he

received permission to return to New Spain. He was accompanied by

the messengers carrying letters to the viceroy and by ten or twelve

other invalids, “not one of whom could have done any fighting.”

The party had no trouble, however, until they reached Suya, in

Corazones valley, the settlement which had taken the place of San

Hieronimo. Pedro de Tovar had reduced the already feeble garrison at

the latter post by half, when he took away the reinforcements six

months before. The town had been much weakened by desertions, as

well as by the loss of its commander, the invaluable Melchior Diaz,

before this. The Indians quickly discerned the condition of the

town, and its defenders were unable to maintain friendly relations

with the surrounding tribes. When Cardenas reached the place, he

found everything burned to the ground, and the bodies of Spaniards,

Indians, and horses lying about. Indeed, he seems barely to have

saved the invalids accompanying him from being added to the number

of the massacred. The party succeeded in making its way to Cibola in

safety, and from there they returned to Tiguex, where they found the

general seriously ill. By this time the winter was [p400] fairly

begun, but the season, fortunately, was much less severe than the

preceding one.

Two parties formed in the Spanish camp at Tiguex during the winter of

1541–42. The men who had seen Quivira can hardly have brought back

from there much hope of finding gold or other treasure by further

explorations in that country. But there were many who had not been

there, who were unwilling to give up the ideas which had been formed

during the preceding months. When the general parted from his army

on the plains, he may have promised that he would return and lead

the whole force to this land, if only it should prove to be such as

their inclination pictured it. Many persisted in the belief that a

more thorough exploration would discover some of the things about

which they thought the Turk had told them. On the other hand, there

were many besides the leader who were tired of this life of hardship,

which had not even afforded the attractions of adventure and serious

conflict. Few of them, doubtless, had wives and estates waiting to

welcome them home, like their fortunate general, but most of the

gentlemen, surely, were looking forward to the time when they could

win wealth and glory, with which to return to old Spain, and add new

luster to their family name. Castañeda gives a soldier’s gossip of

the intriguing and persuading which resulted in the abandonment of

the Pueblo country, and Mota Padilla seems to support the main points

in his story.

THE FRIARS REMAIN IN THE COUNTRY

When it was determined that the army should return to Mexico, the

friars who had accompanied the expedition[83] resolved to remain in

the newly discovered regions and continue their labors among the

people there. Friar Juan de Padilla was the leader of the three

missionaries. Younger and more vigorous than his brethren, he had

from the first been the most active in constantly maintaining the

oversight and discipline of the church. He was with Tovar when the

Tusayan country on the west was discovered, and with Alvarado during

the first visit to the Rio Grande and the buffalo plains on the

east. When Coronado and his companion horsemen visited the plains

of Kansas, Friar Juan de Padilla went with him on foot. His brief

experience in the Quivira country led him to decide to go back to

that district, when Coronado was preparing to return to New Spain.

If the Indians who guided Coronado from Quivira to Cicuye remained

in the pueblo country during the winter, Padilla probably returned

with them to their homes. He was accompanied by Andres Docampo, a

Portuguese, mounted on a mare according to most accounts, besides

five Indians, negroes or half-bloods, two “donados” or lay brethren,

Indians engaged in the church service, who came from Michoacan and

were named Lucas and Sebastian, a mestizo or half-blood boy and two

other servants from Mexico. [p401]

[Illustration: LII. Wytfliet’s New Granada and California, 1597]

The friar was successful in his labors until he endeavored to enlarge

the sphere of his influence, when the jealousy, or possibly the

cupidity, of the Indians led them to kill him, rather than permit

the transference to some other tribe of the blessings which he had

brought to them.[84]

Friar Juan de la Cruz is not mentioned by Castañeda nor by Jaramillo,

but Mendieta and Mota Padilla are very clear in their accounts of

him. He was an older man than the others, and had been engaged in

missionary work among the natives of the Jalisco country before he

joined this expedition. Coronado left him at Tiguex, where he was

killed, according to Mota Padilla. The date, in the martyrologies,

is November 25, 1542. Many natives of the Mexican provinces stayed

in the Pueblo country when Coronado abandoned it. Some of these were

still at Cibola when Antonio de Espejo visited it in 1583, while

others doubtless made their way back to their old homes in New Spain,

and they may have brought the information about the death of Friar

Juan.

Friar Luis Descalona, or de Ubeda as Mota Padilla calls him, was

a lay brother, who selected Cicuye or Pecos as the seat of his

labors in New Mexico. Neither the Spanish chronicles nor the Indian

traditions which Mr Bandelier was able to obtain give any hint as to

his fate or the results of his devotion to the cause of Christianity.

THE RETURN TO NEW SPAIN

The army started on its return from Tiguex to Cibola and thence

to Culiacan and Mexico early in the spring of 1542. The march was

without interruption or diversion. As the soldiers reentered New

Galicia and found themselves once more among settlements of their

own race, beyond the reach of hostile natives, the ranks dwindled

rapidly. The men stopped to rest and to recruit their strength at

every opportunity, and it was only with the greatest difficulty that

Coronado was able to keep together the semblance of a force with

which to make his entry into the City of Mexico. Here he presented

his personal report to the viceroy. He had little to tell which could

interest the disappointed Mendoza, who had drawn so heavily on the

royal treasure box two years before to furnish those who formed the

expedition with everything that they might need. Besides the loss in

his personal estate, there was this use of the royal funds which had

to be accounted for to the [p402] officials in Spain. It is the best

proof of the strength of Mendoza’s able and economical administration

that no opposition ever succeeded in influencing the home government

against him, and that the failure of this expedition, with the

attendant circumstances, furnished the most serious charge which

those who had displayed hostility toward him were able to produce.

When Coronado reached the City of Mexico, “very sad and very weary,

completely worn out and shamefaced,” Suarez de Peralta was a boy on

the streets. We catch a glimpse of him in the front rows of a crowd

watching an execution, this same winter of 1542–43, and we may be

sure that he saw all that was going on, and that he picked up and

treasured the gossip of the city. His recollections give a vivid

picture of the return of the expedition, when Coronado “came to kiss

the hand of the viceroy and did not receive so good a reception as he

would have liked, for he found him very sad.” For many days after the

general reached the city the men who had followed him came straggling

in, all of them worn out with their toils, clothed in the skins of

animals, and showing the marks of their misfortunes and sufferings.

“The country had been very joyous when the news of the discovery of

the Seven Cities spread abroad, and this was now supplanted by the

greatest sadness on the part of all, for many had lost their friends

and their fortunes, since those who remained behind had entered into

partnerships with those who went, mortgaging their estates and their

property in order to procure a share in what was to be gained, and

drawing up papers so that those who were to be present should have

power to take possession of mines and enter claims in the name of

those who were left behind, in accordance with the custom and the

ordinances which the viceroy had made for New Spain. Many sent their

slaves also, since there were many of these in the country at this

time. Thus the loss and the grief were general, but the viceroy felt

it most of all, for two reasons: Because this was the outcome of

something about which he had felt so sure, which he thought would

make him more powerful than the greatest lord in Spain, and because

his estates were ruined, for he had labored hard and spent much

in sending off the army. Finally, as things go, he succeeded in

forgetting about it, and devoted himself to the government of his

province, and in this he became the best of governors, being trusted

by the King and loved by all his subjects.”

THE END OF CORONADO

We do not know what became of Vazquez Coronado. The failure of the

expedition was not his fault, and there is nothing to show that he

ever sought the position which Mendoza intrusted to him. Neither is

there any evidence that Mendoza treated him with any less marks of

friendship after his return than before. The welcome home was not

cordial, but there are no reports of upbraiding, nor any accusations

of negligence or remissness. Coronado soon gave up his position

as [p403] governor of New Galicia, but we need not suppose that

he was compelled to resign. There was every reason why he should

have desired to escape from a position which demanded much skill

and unceasing active administration, but which carried with it no

hope of reward or of honor. It is pleasant to believe that Coronado

withdrew to his estates and lived happily ever after with his wife

and children, spending his leisure in supervising the operations on

his farm and ranch, and leading the uneventful life of a country

gentleman. The only break in the monotony of which we happen to

know—and this is the only part of this belief for which there is

the slightest evidence that it is correct—came when he was accused,

in 1544 and again in 1547, of holding more Indians to labor on his

estates than were allowed by the royal regulations. We do not even

know the outcome of this accusation. Vazquez Coronado sinks into

oblivion after he made his report to the viceroy in the autumn of

1542.

SOME RESULTS OF THE EXPEDITION—1540–1547

THE DISCOVERY OF COLORADO RIVER

THE VOYAGE OF ALARCON

Coronado found no gold in the land of the Seven Cities or in Quivira,

but his search added very much to the geographical knowledge of

the Spaniards.[85] In addition to the exploration of the Pueblo

country of New Mexico and Arizona, and of the great plains as far

north as Kansas or Nebraska, the most important subsidiary result

of the expedition of 1540–1542 was the discovery of Colorado river.

Hernando de Alarcon, who sailed from Acapulco May 9, 1540, continued

his voyage northward along the coast, after stopping at the port of

Culiacan to add the _San Gabriel_ to his fleet, until he reached

the shoals and sand-bars at the head of the Gulf of California. The

fleet which Cortes [p404] had sent out under the command of Ulloa

the previous summer, turned back from these shoals, and Alarcon’s

sailors begged him not to venture among them. But the question of a

passage by water through to the South, or Pacific, sea, which would

make an island of the California peninsula, was still debated, and

Alarcon refused to return until he had definitely determined the

possibility of finding such a passage. His pilots ran the ships

aground, but after a careful examination of the channel, the fleet

was floated across the bar in safety, with the aid of the rising

tide. Alarcon found that he was at the mouth of a large river, with

so swift and strong a current that it was impossible for the large

vessels to make any headway against it. He determined to explore

the river, and, taking twenty men in two boats, started upstream on

Thursday, August 26, 1540, when white men for the first time floated

on the waters of the Colorado. Indians appeared on the river banks

during the following day. The silence with which the strangers

answered the threatening shouts of the natives, and the presence

of the Indian interpreters in the boats, soon overcame the hostile

attitude of the savages. The European trifles which had been brought

for gifts and for trading completed the work of establishing friendly

relations, and the Indians soon became so well disposed that they

entirely relieved the Spaniards of the labor of dragging the boats

up the stream. A crowd of Indians seized the ropes by which the

boats were hauled against the current, and from this time on some of

them were always ready to render this service to their visitors. In

this fashion the Spaniards continued northward, receiving abundant

supplies of corn from the natives, whose habits and customs they

had many excellent opportunities for observing. Alarcon instructed

these people dutifully in the worship of the cross, and continually

questioned them about the places whose names Friar Marcos had heard.

He met with no success until he had traveled a considerable distance

up the river, when for the first time he found a man with whom his

interpreter was able to converse.

This man said that he had visited Cibola, which was a month’s journey

distant. There was a good trail by which one might easily reach

that country in forty days. The man said he had gone there merely

to see the place, since it was quite a curiosity, with its houses

three and four stories high, filled with people. Around the houses

there was a wall half as high again as a man, having windows on each

side. The inhabitants used the usual Indian weapons—bows and arrows,

clubs, maces, and shields. They wore mantles and ox hides, which

were painted. They had a single ruler, who wore a long shirt with

a girdle, and various mantles over this. The women wore long white

cloaks which completely covered them. There were always many Indians

waiting about the door of their ruler, ready in case he should wish

for anything. They also wore many blue stones which they dug out of a

rock—the turquoises of the other narratives. They had but one wife,

and when they died all their effects were buried with them. When

[p405] their rulers ate, many men waited about the tables. They

ate with napkins, and had baths—a natural inference from any attempt

to describe the stuffy underground rooms, the estufas or kivas of the

Pueblos.

[Illustration: LIII. Wytfliet’s Kingdoms of Quivira, Anian and Tolm,

1597]

Alarcon continued to question the Indian, and learned that the lord

of Cibola had a dog like one which accompanied the Spaniards, and

that when dinner was served, the lord of Cibola had four plates

like those used by the Spaniards, except that they were green. He

obtained these at the same time that he got the dog, with some other

things, from a black man who wore a beard, whom the people of Cibola

killed. A few days later, Alarcon obtained more details concerning

the death of the negro “who wore certain things on his legs and arms

which rattled.” When asked about gold and silver, the Indians said

that they had some metal of the same color as the bells which the

Spaniards showed them. This was not made nor found in their country,

but came “from a certain mountain where an old woman dwelt.” The

old woman was called Guatuzaca. One of Alarcon’s informants told

him about people who lived farther away than Cibola, in houses made

of painted mantles or skins during the summer, and who passed the

winter in houses made of wood two or three stories high. The Indian

was asked about the leather shields, and in reply described a very

great beast like an ox, but more than a hand longer, with broad feet,

legs as big as a man’s thigh, a head 7 hands long, and the forehead

3 spans across. The eyes of the beast were larger than one’s fist,

and the horns as long as a man’s leg, “out of which grew sharp points

an handful long, and the forefeet and hindfeet about seven handfuls

big.” The tail was large and bushy. To show how tall the animal

was, the Indian stretched his arms above his head. In a note to his

translation of this description, Hakluyt suggests, “This might be the

crooke backed oxe of Quivira.” Although the height and the horns are

clearly those of a buck deer, the rest of the description is a very

good account of the bison.

The man who told him all this was called ashore, and Alarcon noticed

an excited discussion going on among the Indians, which ended in

the return of his informant with the news that other white men like

himself were at Cibola. Alarcon pretended to wonder at this, and

was told that two men had just come from that country, where they

had seen white men having “things which shot fire, and swords.”

These latest reports seemed to make the Indians doubt Alarcon’s

honesty, and especially his statements that he was a child of

the Sun. He succeeded in quieting their suspicions, and learned

more about Cibola, with which these people appeared to have quite

frequent intercourse. He was told that the strangers at Cibola called

themselves Christians, and that they brought with them many oxen

like those at Cibola “and other little blacke beastes with wooll and

hornes.” Some of them also had animals upon which they rode, which

ran very swiftly. Two of the party that had recently returned from

Cibola, had fallen in with two of the [p406] Christians. The white

men asked them where they lived and whether they possessed any fields

sown with corn, and gave each of them little caps for themselves and

for their companions. Alarcon did his best to induce some of his men

to go to Cibola with a message to Coronado, but all refused except

one negro slave, who did not at all want to go. The plan had to be

given up, and the party returned to the ships. It had taken fifteen

days and a half to ascend the river, but they descended with the

swift current in two and a half. The men who had remained in the

ships were asked to undertake the mission of opening communication

with Coronado, but proved as unwilling as the others.

Much against the will of his subordinates, Alarcon determined to make

a second trip up the river, hoping to obtain further information

which might enable him to fulfill the purposes of his voyage. He took

“three boats filled with wares of exchange, with corne and other

seedes, hennes and cockes of Castille.” Starting September 14, he

found the Indians as friendly as before, and ascended the river, as

he judged, about 85 leagues, which may have taken him to the point

where the canyons begin. A cross was erected to inform Coronado,

in case an expedition from Cibola should reach this part of the

river,[86] that he had tried to fulfill his duty, but nothing more

was accomplished.[87]

While Alarcon was exploring the river, one of the ships was careened

and repaired, and everything made ready for the return voyage.

A chapel was built on the shore in honor of Nuestra Señora de

Buenaguia, and the river was named the Buenaguia, out of regard for

the viceroy, who carried this as his device.

The voyage back to Colima in New Spain was uneventful.

THE JOURNEY OF MELCHIOR DIAZ

In September, 1540, seventy or eighty of the weakest and least

reliable men in Coronado’s army remained at the town of San

Hieronimo, in the valley of Corazones or Hearts. Melchior Diaz

was placed in command of the settlement, with orders to maintain

this post and protect the road between Cibola and New Spain, and

also to attempt to find some means of communicating with the fleet

under Alarcon. After he had established everything in the town as

satisfactorily as possible, Diaz selected twenty-five of these men

to accompany him on an exploring expedition to the seacoast. He

started before the end of September, going into the rough country

west of Corazones valley, and finding only a few naked, weak-spirited

Indians, who had come, as he understood, from the land on the farther

side of the water, i. e., Lower [p407] California. He hurried

across this region and descended the mountains on the west, where

he encountered the Indian giants, some of whom the army had already

seen. Turning toward the north, or northwest, he proceeded to the

seacoast, and spent several days among Indians who fed him with the

corn which they raised and with fish. He traveled slowly up the coast

until he reached the mouth of a river which was large enough for

vessels to enter. The country was cold, and the Spaniards observed

that when the natives hereabouts wished to keep warm, they took a

burning stick and held it to their abdomens and shoulders. This

curious habit led the Spaniards to name the river Firebrand—Rio del

Tizon. Near the mouth of the river was a tree on which was written,

“A letter is at the foot of this.” Diaz dug down and found a jar

wrapped so carefully that it was not even moist. The inclosed papers

stated that “Francisco de Alarcon reached this place in the year ’40

with three ships, having been sent in search of Francisco Vazquez

Coronado by the viceroy, D. Antonio de Mendoza; and after crossing

the bar at the mouth of the river and waiting many days without

obtaining any news, he was obliged to depart, because the ships were

being eaten by worms,” the terrible _Teredo navalis_.[88]

Diaz determined to cross the river, hoping that the country

might become more attractive. The passage was accomplished, with

considerable danger, by means of certain large wicker baskets, which

the natives coated with a sort of bitumen, so that the water could

not leak through. Five or six Indians caught hold of each of these

and swam across, guiding it and transporting the Spaniards with

their baggage, and being supported in turn by the raft. Diaz marched

inland for four days, but not finding any people in the country,

which became steadily more barren, he decided to return to Corazones

valley. The party made its way back to the country of the giants

without accident, and then one night while Diaz was watching the

camp, a small dog began to bark and chase the flock of sheep which

the men had taken with them for food. Unable to call the dog off,

Diaz started after him on horseback and threw his lance while on the

gallop. The weapon stuck up in the ground, and before Diaz could stop

or turn his horse, which was running loose, the socket pierced his

groin. The soldiers could do little to relieve his sufferings, and he

died before they reached the settlement, where they arrived January

18, 1541. A few months later, Alcaraz, who had been placed in charge

of the town when Diaz went away, abandoned Corazones valley for a

more attractive situation on Suya river, some distance nearer Cibola.

The post was maintained here [p408] until late in the summer,

when it became so much weakened by dissensions and desertions that

the Indians had little difficulty in destroying it. The defenders,

with the exception of a few who were able to make their way back to

Culiacan, were massacred.

THE INDIAN UPRISING IN NEW SPAIN, 1540–1542

Of the arguments advanced by those who wished to hinder the

expedition which Mendoza sent off under Coronado, none was urged more

persistently than the claim that this undertaking would require all

the men available for the protection of New Spain. It was suggested

by all the parties to the litigation in Spain, was repeated by Cortes

again and again, reappeared more than once during the visita of

1547, and was the cause of the depositions taken at Compostela on

February 26, 1540. These last show the real state of affairs. The men

who were withdrawn constituted a great resource in case of danger,

but they were worse than useless to the community when things were

peaceful. The Indians of New Spain had been quiet since the death of

De la Torre, a few years before, but signs of danger, an increasing

restlessness, unwilling obedience to the masters and encomenderos,

and frequent gatherings, had been noticed by many besides Cortes.

There were reasons enough to justify an Indian outbreak, some of

them abuses which dated from the time of Nuño de Guzman, but there

is every reason to suppose that the withdrawal of Coronado’s force,

following the irritation which was inevitably caused by the necessity

of collecting a large food supply and many servants, probably brought

matters to a crisis. Oñate, to whom the administration of New Galicia

had again been intrusted during the absence of his superior, began to

prepare for the trouble which he foresaw almost as soon as Coronado

was gone from the province. In April he learned that two tribes had

rebelled and murdered one of their encomenderos. A force was sent to

put down the revolt. The rebels requested a conference, and then,

early next morning, surprised the camp, which was wholly unprepared

for defense. Ten Spaniards, including the unwary commander, and

nearly two hundred native allies were killed. Thus began the last

and the fiercest struggle of the Indians of New Spain against their

European conquerors—the Mixton war.

[Illustration: LIV. Matthias Quadus’ Fasciculus Geographicus, 1608

After Nordenskiold]

Oñate prepared to march against the victorious rebels, as soon as

the news of the disaster reached him, but when this was followed by

additional information from the agents among the Indians, showing

how widespread were the alliances of those who had begun the revolt,

and that the Indians throughout the province of New Galicia were

already in arms, he retired to Guadalajara. The defenses of this

town were strengthened as much as possible, and messengers were

dispatched to Mexico for reenforcements. The viceroy sent some

soldiers and supplies, but this force was not sufficient to prevent

the Indians—who were animated by their recent successes, by their

numbers, by the knowledge of the weak points as well as of the

strong ones in their oppressors, and [p409] who were guided by

able leaders possessing all the prestige of religious authority—from

attacking the frontier settlements and forcing the Spaniards to

congregate in the larger towns.

There was much fighting during the early summer of 1540, in which

the settlers barely held their own. In August, the adelantado Pedro

de Alvarado sailed into the harbor of La Natividad. As the news of

his arrival spread, requests were sent to him from many directions,

asking for help against the natives. One of the most urgent came

from those who were defending the town of Purificacion, and Alvarado

was about to start to their assistance, when a message from Mendoza

changed his plans. The two men arranged for a personal interview

at Tiripitio in Michoacan, where the estate of a relative afforded

Alvarado a quasi neutral territory. After some difficulties had

been overcome, the terms of an alliance were signed by both parties

November 29, 1540. Each was to receive a small share in whatever

had already been accomplished by the other, thus providing for any

discoveries which might have rewarded Coronado’s search before this

date. In the future, all conquests and gains were to be divided

equally. It was agreed that the expenses of equipping the fleet and

the army should offset each other, and that all future expenses

should be shared alike. Each partner was allowed to spend a thousand

castellanos de minas yearly, and all expenditure in excess of this

sum required the consent of the other party. All accounts were to be

balanced yearly, and any surplus due from one to the other was to be

paid at once, under penalty of a fine, which was assured by the fact

that half of it was to go into the royal treasury.

Mendoza secured a half interest in the fleet of between nine and

twelve vessels, which were then in the ports of Acapulco and of

Santiago de Colima. Cortes accused the viceroy of driving a very

sharp bargain in this item, declaring that Alvarado was forced to

accept it because Mendoza made it the condition on which he would

allow the ships to obtain provisions.[89] Mendoza, as matters turned

out, certainly had the best of the bargain, although in the end it

amounted to nothing. Whether this would have been true if Alvarado

had lived to prosecute his schemes is another possibility. Alvarado

took his chances on the results of Coronado’s conquests, and it is

very likely that, by the end of November, the discouraging news

contained in Coronado’s letter of August 3 was not generally known,

if it had even reached the viceroy.

The contract signed, Alvarado and Mendoza went to Mexico, where

they passed the winter in perfecting arrangements for carrying out

their plans. The cold weather moderated the fury of the Indian

war somewhat, without lessening the danger or the troubles of the

settlers in New Galicia, all of whom were now shut up in the few

large towns. Alvarado returned to the Pacific coast in the spring

of 1541, and as soon as [p410] Oñate learned of this, he sent an

urgent request for help, telling of the serious straits in which he

had been placed. The security of the province was essential to the

successful prosecution of the plans of the new alliance. Alvarado

immediately sent reinforcements to the different garrisons, and

at the head of his main force hastened to Guadalajara, where he

arrived June 12, 1541. Oñate had received reports from the native

allies and the Spanish outposts, who were best acquainted with the

situation and plans of the hostile Indians, which led him to urge

Alvarado to delay the attack until he could be certain of success.

An additional force had been promised from Mexico, but Alvarado

felt that the glory and the booty would both be greater if secured

unaided. Scorning the advice of those who had been beaten by savages,

he hastened to chastise the rebels. The campaign was a short one. On

June 24 Alvarado reached the fortified height of Nochistlan, where he

encountered such a deluge of men and of missiles that he was not able

to maintain his ground, nor even to prevent the precipitate retreat

of his soldiers. It was a terrible disaster, but one which reflected

no discredit on Alvarado after the fighting began. The flight of the

Spaniards continued after the Indians had grown tired of the chase.

It was then that the adelantado tried to overtake his secretary,

who had been one of those most eager to get away from the enemy.

Alvarado was afoot, having dismounted in order to handle his men and

control the retreat more easily, but he had almost caught up with his

secretary, when the latter spurred his jaded horse up a rocky hill.

The animal tried to respond, fell, and rolled backward down the hill,

crushing the adelantado under him. Alvarado survived long enough to

be carried to Guadalajara and to make his will, dying on the 4th of

July.

This disaster did not fully convince the viceroy of the seriousness

of the situation. Fifty men had already started from Mexico,

arriving in Guadalajara in July, where they increased the garrison

to eighty-five. Nothing more was done by Mendoza after he heard

of the death of Alvarado. The Indians, emboldened by the complete

failure of their enemies, renewed their efforts to drive the white

men out of the land. They attacked Guadalajara on September 28, and

easily destroyed all except the chief buildings in the center of

the city, in which the garrison had fortified themselves as soon as

they learned that an attack was about to be made. A fierce assault

against these defenses was repulsed only after a hard struggle. The

miraculous appearance of Saint Iago on his white steed and leading

his army of allies, who blinded the idolatrous heathen, alone

prevented the destruction of his faithful believers, according to

the record of one contemporary chronicler. At last Mendoza realized

that the situation was critical. A force of 450 Spaniards was raised,

in addition to an auxiliary body of between 10,000 and 50,000 Aztec

warriors. The native chieftains were rendered loyal by ample promises

of wealth and honors, and the warriors were granted, for the first

time, permission to use horses and Spanish [p411] weapons. With the

help of these Indians, Mendoza eventually succeeded in destroying or

reducing the revolted tribes. The campaign was a series of fiercely

contested struggles, which culminated at the Mixton peñol, a strongly

fortified height where the most bitter enemies of the Spanish

conquerors had their headquarters. This place was surrendered during

the Christmas holidays, and when Coronado returned in the autumn of

1542, the whole of New Spain was once more quiet.

FURTHER ATTEMPTS AT DISCOVERY

THE VOYAGE OF CABRILLO

Mendoza took possession of the vessels belonging to Alvarado after

the death of the latter. In accordance with the plans which the two

partners had agreed on, apparently, the viceroy commissioned Juan

Rodriguez Cabrillo to take command of two ships in the port of La

Natividad and make an exploration of the coast on the western side of

the peninsula of Lower California. Cabrillo started June 27, 1542,

and sailed north, touching the land frequently. Much bad weather

interfered with his plans, but he kept on till the end of December,

when he landed on one of the San Lucas islands. Here Cabrillo died,

January 3, 1543, leaving his chief pilot, Bartolome Ferrel or

Ferrelo, “a native of the Levant,” in command. Ferrel left the island

of San Miguel, which he named Isla de Juan Rodriguez, on January 29,

to continue the voyage. In a little more than a month the fleet had

reached the southern part of Oregon or thereabouts, allowing for an

error of a degree and a half in the observations, which said that

they were 44° north. A severe storm forced the ships to turn back

from this point.

The report of the expedition is little more than an outline of

distances sailed and places named, although there are occasional

statements which give us valuable information regarding the coast

Indians.[90] Among the most interesting of these notes are those

showing that the news of the expeditions to Colorado river, and

perhaps of the occupancy of the Pueblo country by white men, had

reached the Pacific coast. About September 1, 1542, a party from

the fleet went ashore near the southern boundary of California.

Five Indians met the Spanish sailors at a spring, where they were

filling the water casks. “They appeared like intelligent Indians,”

and went on board the ships without hesitation. “They took note

of the Spaniards and counted them, and made signs that they had

seen other men like these, who had beards and who brought dogs and

cross-bows and swords . . . and showed by their signs that the other

Spaniards were five days’ journey distant. . . . The captain gave

them a letter, which he told them to carry to the Spaniards who they

said were in the interior.” September 28, at San [p412] Pedro bay,

Ferrel again found Indians who told him by signs that “they had

passed people like the Spaniards in the interior.” Two days later,

on Saturday morning, “three large Indians came to the ship, who told

by signs that men like us were traveling in the interior, wearing

beards, and armed and clothed like the people on the ships, and

carrying cross-bows and swords. They made gestures with the right arm

as if they were throwing lances, and went running in a posture as

if riding on horseback. They showed that many of the native Indians

had been killed, and that this was the reason they were afraid.” A

week later, October 7, the ships anchored off the islands of Santa

Cruz and Anacapa. The Indians of the islands and also of the mainland

opposite, near Santa Barbara or the Santa Clara valley, gave the

Spaniards additional descriptions of men like themselves in the

interior.

The rest of the year 1542 was spent in this locality, off the coast

of southern California, and then the voyage northward was resumed.

Many points on the land were touched, although San Francisco bay

quite escaped observation. Just before a severe storm, in which one

of the vessels was lost, forcing him to turn back, Ferrel observed

floating drift and recognized that it meant the neighborhood of a

large river, but he was driven out to sea before reaching the mouth

of the Columbia. The return voyage was uneventful, and the surviving

vessel reached the harbor of Natividad in safety by April 14, 1543.

VILLALOBOS SAILS ACROSS THE PACIFIC

Cortes and Alvarado had both conceived plans more than once to equip

a great expedition in New Spain and cross the South sea to the isles

of the Western ocean. After the death of Alvarado, Mendoza adopted

this scheme, and commissioned Ruy Lopez de Villalobos to take command

of some of the ships of Alvarado and sail westward. He started on

All Saints day, the 1st of November, 1542, with 370 Spanish soldiers

and sailors aboard his fleet. January 22, 1547, Friar Jeronimo de

Santisteban wrote to Mendoza “from Cochin in the Indies of the King

of Portugal.” He stated that 117 of the men were still with the

fleet, and that these intended to keep together and make their way as

best they could home to Spain. Thirty members of the expedition had

remained at Maluco, and twelve had been captured by the natives of

various islands at which the party had landed. The rest, including

Ruy Lopez, had succumbed to hunger and thirst, interminable labors

and suffering, and unrelieved discouragement—the record of the

previous months. This letter of Friar Jeronimo is the only published

account of the fate of this expedition.

The brief and gloomy record of the voyage of Villalobos is a fit

ending for this story of the Coronado expedition to Cibola and

Quivira, of how it came about, of what it accomplished, and of what

resulted from it. Nothing is the epitome of the whole story. The

lessons which it teaches are always warnings, but if one will read

history rightly, every warning will be found to be an inspiration.

[p413]

THE NARRATIVE OF CASTAÑEDA

BIBLIOGRAPHIC NOTE

A perusal of the narratives of the expeditions of Coronado and of

Friar Marcos of Nice, which were translated by Henri Ternaux-Compans

for the ninth volume of his Collection de Voyages, convinced me

that the style and the language of these narratives were much

more characteristic of the French translator than of the Spanish

conquistadores. A comparison of Ternaux’s translations with some

of the Spanish texts which he had rendered into French, which were

available in the printed collections of Spanish documents in the

Harvard University library, showed me that Ternaux had not only

rendered the language of the original accounts with great freedom,

but that in several cases he had entirely failed to understand what

the original writer endeavored to relate. On consulting Justin

Winsor’s Narrative and Critical History of America, in the second

edition, I found that the Spanish manuscript of the Castañeda

narrative, from which most of our knowledge of Coronado’s expedition

is derived, was in the Lenox Library in New York City. The trustees

of this library readily granted my request, made through Dr Winsor,

for permission to copy the manuscript. The Lenox manuscript is not

the original one written by Castañeda, but a copy made toward the end

of the sixteenth century. It contains a number of apparent mistakes,

and the meaning of many passages is obscure, probably due to the

fact that the Spanish copyist knew nothing about the North American

Indians and their mode of living. These places I have pointed

out in the notes to my translation of the narrative, and I have

called attention also to the important errors and misconceptions in

Ternaux’s version. Diligent inquiry among the custodians of the large

Spanish libraries at Simancas, Madrid, and at Seville where the Lenox

manuscript was copied in 1596, has failed to bring me any information

in regard to the original manuscript. The Lenox copy is the one used

by Ternaux.

The Spanish text of the Relación Postrera de Sívola is printed now

for the first time, through the kindness of the late Señor Joaquin

García Icazbalceta, who copied it for me from a collection of papers

in his possession, which formerly belonged to the Father Motolinia,

the author of a very valuable description of the Indians of New

Spain. In the preface to this work, dated 1541, Motolinia says that

he was in communication with the brethren who had gone with Coronado.

The Relación Postrera appears to be a copy made from a letter written

to some of the Franciscans in New Spain by one of the friars who

accompanied Coronado. [p414]

In the bibliography are the references to the exact location of the

Spanish texts from which I have translated the other narratives. I am

not aware that any of these have been translated entire, although Mr

Bandelier has quoted from them extensively in his Documentary History

of Zuñi.

There is one other account of the Coronado expedition which might

have been included in the present volume. Mota Padilla wrote his

Historia de la Nueva Galicia two centuries after the return of

Coronado, but he had access to large stores of contemporary documents

concerning the early history of New Spain, most of which have

since been destroyed. Among these documents were those belonging

to Don Pedro de Tovar, one of the captains in Coronado’s army.

Mota Padilla’s account of this expedition is nearly if not quite

as valuable as that of Castañeda, and supplements the latter in

very many details. The length of the narrative and the limitations

inevitable to any work of this nature forced me to abandon the idea

of translating it for the present memoir. Much of the text of Mota

Padilla will be found, however, in the notes to the translation of

Castañeda, while the second half of the historical introduction is

based primarily on Mota Padilla’s narrative, and a large portion of

it is little more than a free rendering of this admirable work.

THE SPANISH TEXT[91]

Relacion de la Jornada de Cibola conpuesta por Pedro de Castañeda

de Naçera. Donde se trata de todos aquellos poblados y ritos, y

costumbres, la qual fue el Año de 1540.

Historia del Conde Fernando Gonzales impressa.

PROEMIO.

Cosa por sierto me parece muy magnifico señor liçeta y que es

exerçiçio de hombres uirtuosos el desear saber y querer adquirir

para su memoria la noticia berdadera de las cosas acasos aconteçidos

en partes remotas de que se tiene poca noticia lo qual yo no culpo

algunas personas especulatiuas que por uentura con buen çelo por

muchas ueces me an sido inportunos no poco rogadome les dixese y

aclarase algunas dudas que tenian de cosas particulares [~q] al

bulgo auian oydo en cosas y casos acontecidos en la jornada de

cibola o tierra nueba que el buen uisorey que dios aya en su gloria

don Antonio de Mendoca ordeno y hiço haçer donde embio por general

capitan a francisco uasques de coronado y a la berdad ellos tienen

raçon de querer saber la uerdad porque como el bulgo muy muchas ueces

y cosas que an oydo y por uentura a quien de ellas no tubo noticia

ansi las hacen mayores o menores que ellas son y las que son algo

las hacen nada y las no tales las hacen tā admirables que pareçen

cosas no creederas podría tan bien [p415] causarlo que como aquello

tierra no permanecio no ubo quien quisiese gastar tienpo en escrebir

sus particularidades porque se perdiese la noticia de aquello que no

fue dios seruido que gosasen el sabe por que en berdad quien quisiera

exercitarse en escrebir asi las cosas acaeçidas en la jornada como

las cosas se bieron en aquellas tierras los ritos y tratos delos

naturales tubiera harta materia por donde pareçiera su juiçio y creo

que no le faltara de quedar relaçion que tratar de berdad fuera tam

admirable que pareciera increyble.

y tambien creo que algunas nobelas que se quentan el aber como a

ueinte años y mas que aquella jornada se hiço lo causa digo esto

porque algunas la haçen tierra inabitable otros confinante a la

florida otros a la india mayor que no parece pequeño desbario pueden

tomar alguna ocaçion y causa sobre que poner su fundamento tambien

ay quien da noticia de algunos animales bien remotos que otros con

aber se hallado en aquella jornada lo niegan y afirman no aber tal

ni aberlos bisto otros uariã en el rumbo de las prouincias y aun en

los tractos y trajes atribuyendo lo que es de los unos a los otros

todo lo qual a sido gran parte muy magnifico señor a me mober aunque

tarde a querer dar una brebe noticia general para todos los que se

arrean de esta uirtud especulatiua y por ahorrar el tiempo que con

inportunidades soy a quexado donde se hallaran cosas por sierto

harto graues de crer todas o las mas bistas por mis ojos y otras

por notiçia berdadera inquiridas de los propios naturales creyendo

que teniendo entendido como lo tengo que esta mi pequeña obra seria

en si ninguna o sin autoridad sino fuese faboreçida y anparada de

tal persona que su autoridad quitase el atrebimiento a los que sin

acatamiento dar libertad a sus murmuradores lenguas y conoçiendo yo

en quanta obligacion siempre e sido y soy a v[~r]a md humilmente

suplico de baxo de su anparo como de berdadero seruidor y criado

sea recebida esta pequeña obra la qual ba en tres partes repartida

para que mejor se de a entender la primera sera dar noticia del

descubrimiento y el armada o campo que hiço con toda la jornada con

los capitanes que alla fueron la segunda los pueblos y prouinçias que

se hallaron y en que rumbos y que ritos y costumbres los animales

fructas y yerbas y en que partes de la tierra. la terçera la buelta

que el campo hiço y las ocaciones que ubo para se despoblar aun

que no licitas por ser el mejor paraje que ay para se descubrir

el meollo de la tierra que ay en estas partes de poniente como se

uera y despues aca se tiene entendido y en lo ultimo se tratara de

algunas cosas admirables que se bieron y por donde con mas facilidad

se podra tornar a descubrir lo que no bimos que suelo mejor y que no

poco haria al caso para por tierra entrar en la tierra de que yba

en demanda el marques del ualle don fer^{do} cortes de baxo de la

estrella del poniente que no pocas armadas le costo de mar plega a

n[~r]o señor me de tal graçia que con mi rudo entendimiento y poca

abilidad pueda tratando berdad agradar con esta me pequeña obra

al sabio y prudente lector siendo por v[~r]a md aceptada pues mi

intincion no es ganar gracias de buen componedor ni retorico salbo

querer dar berdadera [p416] noticia y hacer a v[~r]a md este pequeño

seruicio el qual reciba como de berdadero seruidor y soldado que se

hallo presente y aunque no por estilo pulido escrebo lo que paso lo

que a oydo palpo y bido y tratrato.

siempre beo y es ansi que por la mayor parte quando tenemos entre

las manos alguna cosa preciosa y la tratamos sin inpedimento no

la tenemos ni la preçiamos en quanto uale si entendemos la falta

que nos haria si la perdiesemos y por tanto de continuo la bamos

teniendo en menos pero despues que la abemos perdido y carecemos del

benefficio de ella abemos gran dolor en el coraçon y siempre andamos

ymaginatibos buscando modos y maneras como la tornemos a cobrar y

asi me pareçe acaeçio a todos aquellos o a los mas que fueron a la

jornada quel ano de n[~r]o saluador jesu christo de mill y quinientos

y quarenta hico francisco uasques coronado en demanda de las siete

ciudades que puesto que no hallaron aquellas riqueças de que les

auian dado notiçia hallaron aparejo para las buscar y principio de

buena tierra que poblar para de alli pasar adelante y como despues

aca por la tierra que conquistaron y despoblaron el tiempo les a dado

a entender el rumbo y aparejo donde estaban y el principio de buena

tierra que tienan entre manos lloran sus coracones por aber perdido

tal oportunidad de tiempo y como sea sierto que ben mas lo honbres

quando se suben a la talanquera que quando andan en el coso agora que

estan fuera cognoçen y entienden los rumbos y el aparejo donde se

hallauan y ya que ben que no lo pueden goçar ni cobrar y el tiempo

perdido deleytanse en contar lo que bieron y aun lo que entienden

que perdieron especial aquellos que se hallan pobres oy tanto como

quando alla fueron y no an dexado de trabajar y gastado el tienpo sin

probecho digo esto porque tengo entendido algunos de los que de alla

binieron holgarian oy como fuese para pasar adelante boluer a cobrar

lo perdido y otros holgarian oy y saber la causa porque se descubrio

y pues yo me ofrecido a contarlo tomarlo e del principio que pasa asi.

PRIMERA PARTE.[92]

_Capitulo primero donde se trata como se supo la primera poblacion

de las siete çiudades y como Nuño de guzman hiço armada para

descubrirlla._

en el año y quinientos y treinta siendo presidente de la nueba españa

Nuño de guzman ubo en su poder un indio natural del ualle o ualles

de oxitipar a quien los españoles nombran tejo este indio dixo que

el era hijo de un mercader y su padre era muerto pero que siendo el

chiquito su padre entraua la tierra adentro a mercadear con plumas

ricas de aues para plumages y que en retorno traya un mucha cantidad

de oro y plata que en aquella tierra lo ay mucho y que el fue con el

una o dos ueçes y que bido muy grandes pueblos tanto que los quiso

comparar con mexico y su comarca y que auia uisto siete pueblos muy

grandes donde auia calles de plateria y que para ir a ellos tardauan

desde su tierra quarenta dias y todo despoblado y que la tierra por

do yban no [p417] tenia yerba sino muy chiquita de un xeme y que

el rumbo que lleuaban era al largo de la tierra entre las dos mares

siguiendo la lauia del norte debaxo de esta notiçia Nuño de guzman

junto casi quatrosientos hombres españoles y ueinte mill amigos de

la nueua españa y como se hallo a el presente en mexico atrabesando

la tarasca que es tierra de mechuacan para hallandose el aparejo

quel indio deçia boluer atrabesando la tierra hacia la mar del norte

y darian en la tierra que yban a buscar a la qual ya nombrauan las

siete ciudades pues conforme a los quarenta dias quel texo decia

hallaria que abiendo andado doçientas leguas podrian bien atrabesar

la tierra quitado a parte algunas fortunas que pasaron en esta

jornada desque fueron llegados en la prouincia de culiacan que fue

lo ultimo de su gouernaçion que es agora el nueuo reyno de galiçia

quisieron atrabesar la tierra y ubo muy gran dificultad porque la

cordillera de la sierra que cae sobre aquella mar estan agra que por

mucho que trabajo fue inposible hallar camino en aquella parte y a

esta causa se detubo todo su campo en aquella tierra de culiacan

hasta tanto que como yban con el hombres poderosos que tenian

repartimientos en tierra de mexico mudaron las boluntades y de cada

dia se querian boluer fuera de esto Nuño de guzman tubo nueua como

auia benido de españa el marques del ualle don fernando cortes con el

nueuo titulo y grandes fabores y prouinçiones y como nuño de guzman

en el tiempo que fue presidente le ubiese sido emulo muy grande y

hecho muchos daños en sus haciendas y en las de sus amigos temiose

que don fer^{do} cortes se quisiese pagar en otras semejantes obras

o peores y determino de poblar aquella uilla de culiacan y dar la

buelta con la demas gente sin que ubiese mas efecto su jornada y de

buelta poblo a xalisco que es la çiudad de conpostela y atonala que

llaman guadalaxara y esto es agora el nuebo reyno de galicia la guia

que lleuaban que se decia texo murio en estos comedios y ansi se

quedo el nombre de estas siete ciudades y la demanda de ellas hasta

oy dia que no sean descubierto.

_Capitulo segundo como bino a ser gouernador françisco uasques

coronado y la segunda relaçion que dio cabeça de uaca._

pasados que fueron ocho años que esta jornada se auia hecho por Nuño

de guzman abiendo sido preso por un juez de residençia que uino de

españa para el efecto con prouiçiones bastantes llamado el lic^{do}

diego de la torre que despues muriendo este juez que ya tenia en

si la gouernaçion de aquella tierra el buen don Antonio de mendoça

uisorey de la nueua españa puso por gouernador de aquela gouernaçion

a francisco uasques de coronado un cauallero de Salamanca que a

la sacon era casado en la çiudad de mexico cõ una señora hija de

Alonso de estrada thesorero y gouernador que auia sido de mexico uno

por quien el bulgo dice ser hijo del rey catholico don fernando y

muchos lo afirman por osa sierta digo que a la sacon que francisco

uasques fue probeydo por gouernador andaba por uisitador general de

la nueua españa por donde [p418] tubo amistad y conuersaçiones de

muchas personas nobles que despues le siguieron en la jornada que

hiço aconteçio a la saçon que llegaron a mexico tres españoles y

un negro que auian por nombre cabeça de uaca y dorantes y castillo

maldonado los quales se auian perdido en la armada que metio pamfilo

de narbaes en la florida y estos salieron por la uia de culiacan

abiendo atrabesado la tierra de mar a mar como lo beran los que lo

quisieren saber por un tratado que el mismo cabeça de uaca hiço

dirigido a el principe don phelipe que agora es rey de españa y

señor n[~r]o y estos dieron notiçia a el buen don Antonio de mendoça

en como por las tierras que atrabesaron tomaron lengua y notiçia

grande de unos poderosos pueblos de altos de quatro y çinco doblados

y otras cosas bien diferentes de lo que pareçio por berdad esto

comunico el buen uisorey con el nuebo gouernador que fue causa que

se apresurase dexando la bisita que tenia entre manos y se partiese

para su gouernaçion lleuando consigo el negro que auia bendido con

los tres frayles de la orden do san fran^{co} el uno auia por nombre

fray marcos de niça theologo y saserdote y el otro fray daniel lego

y otro fray Antonio de santa maria y como llego a la prouincia de

culiacan luego despidio a los frayles ya nonbrados y a el negro que

auia por nombre esteuan para que fuesen en demanda de aquella tierra

porque el fray marcos de niça se prefirio de llegar a berla por que

este frayle se auia hallado en el peru a el tienpo que don pedro de

albarado passo por tierra ydos los dichos frayles y el negro esteuan

pareçe que el negro no yba a fabor de los frayles porque lleuaba las

mugeres que le daban y adquiria turquesas y haçia balumen de todo y

aun los indios de aquellos poblados por do yban entendiasen mejor con

el negro como ya otra uez lo auian uisto que fue causa que lo ubieron

hechar delante que fuese descubriendo y pacificando para que quando

ellos llegasen no tubiesen mas que entender de en tomar la relacion

de lo que buscauan.

_Capitulo terçero como mataron los de cibola a el negro esteuan y

fray marcos bolbio huyendo._

apartado que se ubo el esteuan de los dichos frayles presumio ganar

en todo reputacion y honra y que se le atribuyese la osadia y

atrebimiento de auer el solo descubierto[93] aquellos poblados de

altos tan nombrados por aquella tierra y lleuando consigo de aquellas

gentes que le seguian procuro de atrabesar los despoblados que ay

entre cibola y lo poblado que auia andado y auiase les adelantado

tanto a los frayles que quando ellos llegaron a chichieticale ques

principio del despoblado ya el estaua a cibola que son ochenta

leguas de despoblado que ay desde culiacan a el principio del

despoblado docientas y ueinte leguas y en el despoblado ochenta que

son trecientas diez mas o menos digo ansi que llegado que fue el

negro esteuan a cibola llego cargado de grande numero de turquesas

que le auian dado y algunas mugeres hermosas que le auian dado y

lleuauan los indios que le acompañauan y le seguian [p419] de todo

lo poblado que auia pasado los quales en yr debajo de su amparo

creyan poder atrabesar toda la tierra sin riesgo ninguno pero como

aquellas gentes de aquella tierra fuesen de mas raçon que no los que

seguian a el esteuan aposentaronlo en una sierta hermita que tenian

fuera del pueblo y los mas uiejos y los que gouernauan oyeron sus

raçones y procuraron saber la causa de su benida en aquella tierra

y bien informados por espaçio de tres dias entraron en su consulta

y por la notiçia quel negro les dio como atras uenian dos hombres

blancos embiados por un gran señor que eran entendidos en las cosas

del cielo y que aquellos los uenian a industriar en las cosas diuinas

consideraron que debia ser espia o guia de algunas naçiones que los

querian yr a conquistar porque les pareçio desbario decir que la

tierra de donde uenia era la gente blanca siendo el negro y enbiado

por ellos y fueron a el y como despues de otras raçones le pidiese

turquesas y mugeres parecioles cosa dura y determiaronse a le matar

y ansi lo hicieron sin que matasen a nadie de los que con el yban y

tomaron algunos muchachos y a los de mas que serian obra de sesenta

personas dexaron bolber libres a sus tierras pues como estos que

boluian ya huyendo atemorisados llegasen a se topar y ber con los

frayles en el despoblado sesenta leguas de çibola y les diesen la

triste nueba pusieron los en tanto temor que aun no se fiando de

esta gente con aber ydo en compañia del negro abrieron las petacas

que lleuaban y les repartieron quanto trayan que no les quedo salbo

los hornamentos de deçir misa y de alli dieron la buelta sin ber la

tierra mas de lo que los indios les deçian antes caminaban dobladas

jornadas haldas en sinta.

_Capitulo quarto como el buen don Antonio de mendoça hiço jornada

para el descubrimiento de Cibola._

despues que francisco uasques coronado ubo embiado a fray marcos de

niça y su conpaña en la demanda ya dicha quedando el en culiacan

entendio en negocios que conbenian a su gouernaciō tubo sierta

relaçion de una prouinçia que corria en la trabesia de la tierra de

culiacan a el norte que se decia topira y luego salio para la ir a

descubrir con algunos conquistadores y gente de amigos y su yda hiço

poco efecto por que auian de atrabesar las cordilleras y fue les

muy dificultoso y la notiçia no la hallaron tal ni muestra de buena

tierra y ansi dio la buelta y llegado que fue hallo a los frayles

que auian acabado de llegar y fueron tantas las grandeças que les

dixeron de lo que el esteuan el negro auia descubierto y lo que ellos

oyeron a los indios y otras noticias de la mar del sur y de ylas que

oyeron deçir y de otras riquesas quel gouernador sin mas se detener

se partio luego para la ciudad de mexico lleuando a el fray marcos

consigo para dar notiçia de ello a el bisorey en grandesiendo las

cosas con no las querer comunicar con nadie, sino de baxo de puridad

y grande secreto a personas particula res y llegados a mexico y

bisto con don Antonio de mendoça luego se començo a publicar como ya

se abian descubierto las siete çiudades [p420] que Nuño de guzman

buscaba y haçer armada y portar gente para las yr a conquistar

el buen birrey tubo tal orden con los frayles de la orden de san

françisco que hicieron a fray marcos prouincial que fue causa que

andubiesen los pulpitos de aquella orden llenos de tantas marabillas

y tan grãdes que en pocos dias se juntaron mas de tresientos hombres

españoles y obra de ochocientos indios naturales de la nue (ua)

españa y entre los españoles honbres de gran calidad tantos y tales

que dudo en indias aber se juntado tan noble gente y tanta en tam

pequeño numero como fueron treçientos hombres y de todos ellos

capitan general francisco uasques coronado gouernador de la nueba

galiçia por aber sido el autor de todo hico todo esto el buen uirey

don Antonio porque a la saçon era fran^{co} uasques la persona mas

allegada a el por pribança porque tenia entendido era hombre sagaz

abil y de buen consejo allende de ser cauallero como lo era tenido

tubiera mas atençion y respecto a el estado en que lo ponia y cargo

que llebaua que no a la renta que dexaba en la nueba españa o a lo

menos a la honra que ganaba y auia de ganar lleuando tales caualleros

de baxo de su bando pero no le salio ansi como a delante se bera

en el fin de este tratado ni el supo conserbar aquel estado ni la

gouernacion que tenia.

_Capitulo quinto que trata quienes fueron por capitanes a cibola._

The Coronado Expedition, 1540-1542. Excerpted from the Fourteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1892-1893, Part 1. · 第 23 / 30 章

The other class among the colonists of New Spain in the second