Who was Coronado?
Francisco Vázquez de Coronado (ca. 1510 – September 22, 1554) was a Spanish conquistador, who, between 1540 and 1542, visited New Mexico and other parts of what is now the southwestern United States. He was born in Salamanca, Spain.
Coronado was governor of Nueva Galicia (New Galicia, a province of New Spain comprising the contemporary Mexican states of Jalisco, Sinaloa and Nayarit). In 1539, he dispatched Friar Marcos de Niza and a survivor of the Narváez expedition, named Estevanico, on an expedition north from Compostela, toward New Mexico. When Marcos de Niza returned, he told about a city of vast wealth, a golden city called Cíbola, and that Estevanico had been killed by the Zuni citizens of Cíbola. Though he did not claim to have entered the city of Cíbola, he reported that the city stood on a high hill, that it was made of gold, and that he could see the Pacific Ocean off to the west.
Based on this report, Coronado assembled an expedition with two components. One component, carrying the bulk of the expedition's supplies, traveled by sea. The other component traveled by land, along the trail Friar Marcos de Niza had used. Coronado and Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza invested large sums of their own money in the venture. Mendoza, Coronado's friend and fellow investor, appointed him as the commander of the expedition with the mission to find the seven golden cities and take their gold.
Coronado set out in early 1540 at the head of a large expedition composed of 335 Spaniards, 1300 natives, four Franciscan monks (the most notable of whom were Juan de Padilla and the newly appointed provincial superior of the Franciscan order in the New World, Marcos de Niza), and several slaves, both natives and Africans.
He followed the Sonoran coast northward, keeping the Sea of Cortez to his left. At the northernmost Spanish settlement, San Miguel de Culiacán, he rested his expedition before they began trekking the inland trail. Scouts were sent ahead to find out if the land along the route would be able to support a large body of soldiers and animals. Returning scouts reported was that it could not, so Coronado elected to divide his expedition into small groups and time their departures so that grazing lands and water holes along the trail could recover. At intervals along the trail, Coronado established camps and garrisoned soldiers to keep the supply route open. Once the scouting and planning was done, Coronado led the first group of soldiers up the trail. They were horsemen and foot soldiers who were able to travel quickly, while the main bulk of the expedition would set out, at intervals, later.
After leaving the last Spanish settlement, they traveled northward through Sonora and crossed the Gila River, Mogollón Rim, and the Little Colorado River. Then, they followed the Zuni River drainage into Cíbola, in the western part of present-day New Mexico. There he met a crushing disappointment. Cíbola was nothing like the great golden city that Marcos had described. Instead, it was just a complex of simple pueblos constructed by the Zuni Indians. The soldiers considered killing Marcos for his mendacious imagination, but Coronado intervened and sent him back to Mexico in disgrace.
Coronado traversed Arizona's Mogollón Rim and from the head waters of the Little Colorado he continued on until he came to the Zuni River. He followed the Zuni until he found the region inhabited by the Zunis. The members of the expedition were almost starving and demanded entrance into the village of Hawikuh. The natives refused, and denied the expedition entrance to the village or trade. Coronado and his frustrated soldiers entered Hawikuh by force of arms and took the food they needed. Thereafter, the remaining local villages did not contest Coronado's demands when the Spanish requested intelligence and resources. This constitutes the extent of what can be called the "Conquest of Cíbola." During the battle at Hawikuh, Coronado was injured and he had to stay with the Zuni while healing. From the knowledge gathered during this time he sent out several more scouting expeditions.
The first scouting expedition was led by Pedro de Tovar. This expedition headed to the Hopi villages, with the expectation that this region may contain the wealthy Cíbola. Upon arrival, the Spanish were denied entrance to the first village they came across, and once again resorted to using force to enter. Afterwards the remaining villages did not dare fight the Spanish. Materially, the Hopi region was just as poor as the Zuni, but the Spanish did find out that a large river (the Colorado) lay to the west.
The scouting party returned to Zuni territory and reported their findings. Coronado sent another scouting expedition led by Garcia Lopez de Cárdenas to find the Colorado River. This expedition returned to Hopi territory to acquire scouts and supplies that could be used to find this river. Members of this expedition reached the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River, and became the first Europeans to see the magnificent canyon.
After trying and failing to climb down into the Grand Canyon to reach the river below, the expedition reported that they would not be able to use the Colorado to link up with their ships. After this, the main body of the expedition began its journey to the next populated center of pueblos, which were located along the Rio Grande River in New Mexico.
Melchior Díaz was the local commander of a camp along the main supply route. When Coronado was not able to establish contact with the ships from his camp in the Zuni region, Díaz was sent to establish contact with Hernando de Alarcón. Alarcón's fleet was hauling supplies for Coronado. Díaz set out from the valley of Corazones in Sonora and traveled overland in a north/northwesterly direction until he arrived at the junction of the Colorado river and Gila river. There the local natives told him that Alarcón's sailors had buried supplies and left a note in a bottle. The supplies were retrieved and the note stated that Alarcón's men had rowed up the river as far as they could, searching in vain for the Coronado expedition. They had given up and decided to return to their departure point because worms were eating holes in their ships. Díaz died on the trip back to Zuni territory.
Hernando de Alvarado was sent to the east, and found several villages around the Rio Grande. Coronado set up his winter quarters in one of them, Tiguex, which is across the river from present-day Bernalillo near Albuquerque, New Mexico. During the winter of 1540-41, his army found themselves in conflicts with the Rio Grande natives, conflicts which led to the brutal Tiguex War. This war resulted in the destruction of the Tiguex pueblos and the death of hundreds of Indians.
A Native American, whom Coronado called the Turk, had told him about Quivira, a rich country in the northwest. Deciding to look for Quivira, he took the Turk as his guide and traversed the Llano Estacado and what is now the Texas Panhandle. However, Coronado suspected the Turk was lying about the route and executed him. Other guides led him further north to Quivira, and he reached a village near present-day Lindsborg, Kansas. But his disappointment was repeated: the Quivira people (later known as Wichita) were not rich at all. The village consisted mostly of thatched huts, and not even small amounts of gold could be found. Coronado returned to Tiguex, where his main force had remained behind. Here he spent another winter. Near present day Dodge City, Kansas, Coronado held the first Christian mass in the interior of North America. The site of this mass is presently marked by a large concrete cross called Coronado's Cross to commemorate the event, which took place on June 29, 1541.
In 1542 Coronado was ordered back to central Mexico so that his troops could help put down the The Mixtón Rebellion. He left with two of the Franciscan missionaries who insisted that they stay. Coronado returned to Mexico by the same route he had come. When he arrived in Mexico, the Mixtón Rebellion was already over. Only 100 of his men made it back. The expedition was a complete failure,and though he remained governor of Galicia until 1544,the expedition bankrupted him. In 1544, Coronado retired to Mexico City, where he died on September 22,1554.
Text Source
Coronado Photo Source
No comments:
Post a Comment