Everything about Francisco Vasquez De Coronado totally explained
Francisco Vázquez de Coronado (c.
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.
Mounting the expedition
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 didn't 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 under the leadership of Hernando de Alarcon. 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.
"In the autumn of 1539," Viceroy Mendoza orders Melchor Diaz, the commander of San Miguel de
Culiacán, to investigate Friar de Niza's findings and on November 17,1539 Diaz departs on the trail to Cibola, with fifteen horsemen. At the ruins of Chichilticalli he turns around because of "snows and fierce winds from across the wilderness". Diaz encounters Coronado before he's departed San Miguel de Culiacán, and reports that initial investigations into Friar de Niza's report disprove the existence of bountiful land second hand anecdotal accounts of the existence of Cibola are facts are verifiable, yet the existence of wealthy cities are not supported, and Coronado tells him not to let this news reach the ears of the men in his expedition and Diaz's report is delivered to Viceroy Mendoza on March 20, 1540.
Coronado set out from Compostela in February 23, 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 Sinaloan coast northward, keeping the
Sea of Cortez to his left until he reaced the northernmost Spanish settlement, San Miguel de Culiacán, about March 28, 1540, whereupon he rested his expedition before they began trekking the inland trail on April 22, 1540. Aside from Diaz's mission to verify Fray de Niza's report he also took notice of the forage and food situation along the trail, and he reported that the land along the route wouldn't be able to support a large concentrated body of soldiers and animals. Coronado decides 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, for example in September, 1540 Melchior Diaz along with "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 Corzones or Hearts. 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 Culiacan on April 22, Coronado followed the coast, "bearing off to the left," as Mota Padilla says, by an extremely rough way, to the 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, then crossed to Sonora river. 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 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. Chichilticalli is in southern Arizona in the Sulfur Springs Valley within the bend of the Dos Cabeza and
Chiricahua Mountains which fits the chronicle of Laus Deo description which reports that "at Chichilticalli the country changes its character again and the spiky vegetation ceases. The reason is that the gulf reaches as far up as this place, and the mountain chain changes its direction at the same time that the coast does. Here they'd to cross and pass the mountains in order to get into the level country". Though not address they'd to have crossed the
Gila River, then the
Mogollón Rim which generally runs in an east west direction as opposed to the general north-south orientation of the western mountains of Mexico and the United States, and finally the
Little Colorado River. Then, they followed the
Zuni River drainage into the Cíbola region, 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.
Conquest of Cíbola
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 didn't 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'd 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 didn't 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 the
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 wouldn't 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.
Exploration of the Colorado River
Three leaders affiliated with the Coronado Expedition were able to reach the Colorado River. The first was
Hernando de Alarcón,then
Melchior Díaz and lastly Don Garcia Lopez de Cardenas. Alarcón's fleet was tasked to carry supplies and to establish contact with the main body of Coronado's expedition, but was unable to do so because of the extreme distance to Cibola. He traveled up the Colorado river until the river entered the lower half of the Grand Canyon. In this exploration he hauled some supplies for Coronado, but eventually he buried them with a note in a bottle. Melchior Díaz was sent down from Cibola by Coronado take charge of the camp of Corazones and to establish contact with the fleet. Soon after arriving at the camp he 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, probably the CocoMaricopa (see Seymour 2007b), 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 named the river the "firebrand" river because the natives used fire brands to keep their body warm in the winter. Díaz died on the trip back to the camp in the valley of the Corazones. Don Garcia Lopez de Cardenas saw the Colorado River from the rim of the South Rim of the Grand Canyon while looking for a route that would connect them with Alarcón's fleet.
The Tiguex War
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.
The search for Quivira
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 currently 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'd 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.
Legacy
There is a large hill just northwest of Lindsborg, Kansas that's called
Coronado Heights. The former owner of the land built a small castle at the lofty summit to commemorate Coronado's 1541 visit to the area. The castle and the area around it's now a public camping and recreation area. The soft sandstone rocks at the peak of the hill are covered in the names of past visitors to the area.
In 1952, the United States established
Coronado National Memorial near
Sierra Vista, Arizona to commemorate his expedition.
Popular culture (namely
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade) references a
Cross of Coronado. According to the film, this gold cross, discovered in a Utah cave system, was given to Coronado by
Hernán Cortés in 1520. It is unclear if any such item ever existed. In addition to this, when Indy captures the cross from robbers aboard a ship off the coast of Portugal, the name of the ship can be seen as 'Coronado'.
In 1992, underground found footage filmmaker Craig Baldwin made the film "O No Coronado!" detailing the expedition of Coronado through the use of recycled images from Westerns, Conquest films and The Lone Ranger television series.
There is also a mall in
Albuquerque, New Mexico, that bears his name: Coronado Mall.
In the Western
video game Gun, Coronado's fabled golden cross is a central part of the plot. The game's
villain, Thomas Magruder, stops at nothing to retrieve the cross he believes leads to Quivira. In addition, Coronado's "second search" for Quivira in 1542 is shown in a graphic prologue at the beginning of the game; however, Coronado and his associates are slaughtered by the Wichita tribe. In the cutscene showing this, Coronado was portrayed as a priest, but in reality he was a soldier.
A South-Western themed Disney resort hotel is named the Coronado Springs.
A high school in
Lubbock, Texas bears his name: Coronado High School. High schools in
Scottsdale, Arizona and Colorado Springs, Colorado also share the same name.
A K-8 school in
Gilbert, Arizona bears his name as well: Coronado Elementary School.
The
Coronado National Forest is located in southeastern
Arizona, named in honor of the explorer.
At
Palo Duro Canyon, Texas, (southeast of present day Amarillo, Texas) on May 23, 1541, his group celebrated the first
Thanksgiving in
North America, after finding food supplies.
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