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Coronado' s Disappointment

Mexico after Cortez

(1536 AD) 464 years ago

In 1528 a party of tree hundred Spaniards fought their way through the jungles and everglades of Florida. Skirmishes with natives depleted their numbers by the day. Just eighty men remained when they finally reached the west coast.  The survivors made crude barges and set sail into the Gulf of Mexico in order to escape the ordeal they had just endured.  Washing up on the northeast coast of Mexico they were taken captive by a tribe of natives. 

Six years later there were only four left, Alvar Cabeza de Vaca, the family name means "head of a cow", and three others.  On a dark night, they escaped into the wilderness of what is now west Texas and New Mexico. With him was Dorantes, Estevan, a Moroccan Moor and Alonso Castillo.

One dark night they escaped and fled inland.  After wandering in the wilderness they were adopted by another Indian tribe who took them to be shamen. Having arrived from the east, they were called "The Children of the Sun" and their modern medical knowledge only served to enhance their reputations as healers. 

Estevan became fluent in several Indian dialects, dressing as a native, carrying a medicine rattle, a feathered, beaded gourd as symbols of his magical status but it was Dorantes who was presented with the gift of the bell which was to lead to so much trouble and Coronado's disappointment.   

The natives said they were from a large City in the mountains north of the desert. Believing the bell had been made by the natives who gave it to them, they surmised that the natives to the north were metal workers and thus rich in treasure.  The bell had actually been traded north from central Mexico, then found its way back south, by trade, into the hands of Dorantes.

Two years later, the wanderers were found by Spanish slave raiders.

Meanwhile, after destroying Mexico City and loosing vast amounts of gold and treasure, Cortes, the conqueoror of Mexico, was replaced by Mendoza as Viceroy.  

In 1537 Mendoza tried to convince Dorantes to go back north and find the famed treasure of the people of the bell, but he declined and returned to Spain.

Having arrested the slave raiding governor, Guzman, Medonza appointed Coronado to be the new governor of the province in northern Mexico around Culiacán in 1538. 

De Niza, a Franciscan priest accompanied Pizarro during his conquest of Peru in 1531 but was appalled by the atrocities committed during the expedition. In protest he came north to Mexico City in 1536.  

De Niza left Mexico City with Coronado in the fall of 1538, with secret orders from Mendoza to explore the northern coast and seek the supposed northern empire.  

He left Culiacan on March 7, 1539 with a second priest named Honorato and Estevan, the Moor who has spent so many years in the wilderness. They were joined by an impressive parade of natives who considered De Niza a great emancipator thinking he had freed them from the terrible Spanish slave raider, Guzman.  With great excitement, they set out for the treasure city.  

A week later, Honorato, however, fell ill and was left behind.  It was left to De Niza and Estevan to journey into the vast Sonoran desert alone.

De Niza sent Estevan ahead to reconnoiter the route ahead with strict orders not to do anything or enter any cities he might find until De Niza had caught up with him.  Meanwhile De Niza sent a party of natives west to explore the coast in hopes they could determine whether it turned east or west. Many believed Mexico was an island and there was a northern route back to the Atlantic.

Estevan sent word from about three days ahead, that he had been told of a wonderful city, Cibola,  roughly another 30 days' journey north on a well defined trail. He sent word back to De Niza, but Estevan was not inclined to wait for him.

De Niza hurried to catch up all along the way hearing glowing reports of this place they called Cibola "the greatest thing in the world". In the central Sonoran villages where De Niza traveled, the natives had only small brush huts and possibly some one-floor, one-room structures of adobe-like material. Apparently Cibola had permanent, multi-story buildings with turquoise jewels embedded in the doorways.

De Niza proceeded north through well-watered river valleys with villages and irrigated fields dotted along each stream. He tried to catch up to Estevan, but the Moor always remained several days ahead.

Nearly two weeks after heading north, De Niza heard from messengers that the party he sent to follow the coastline had determined that it turned abruptly to the west after running many miles north. As a change in the direction of the coast was a matter of importance he had to give up his pursuit of Estevan and go and have a look for himself.

Although he attempted to determine the truth of whether or not the coastline turned west or not, he could not, so he returned to the Cibola trail, in pursuit of Estevan.  He found that Estevan had accumulated a large band of admirers and ventured into the mountainous country north of the desert.  De Niza had no choice but to follow.

The trail was clear and campsites well established.  He grew excited.  This was familiar to him.  It was very like the trade routes of Peru and he anticipated finding the treasure cities of the north very soon.  Daily Estevan was sending back wooden crosses to reassure De Niza of the progress he was making. The crosses grew larger and larger each day. Then De Niza had word that Estevan had arrived at Hawikuh, a Zuni pueblo. De Niza, not trusting Estevan to follow orders picked up the pace of his journey.

Then early one morning a few bloodied refugees blocked the trail.   They told De Niza how Estevan had ignored orders not to approach or enter any city. But Estevan, imbued with the arrogance that his dark-skin and two Castillian greyhounds provided him approached anyway.  He did not receive they same enthusiastic reception that he had elsewhere.  His medicine gourd was trimmed with owl feathers, a bird that symbolized death to the Zuni. Estevan was taken to a house outside the village while the elders debated his fate. The next morning, Zuni warriors attacked.  He held out almost through the night, but by morning Estevan and many of the natives in his entourage were overcome and slaughtered.

Terrified by the news of the Zuni hostility, the natives with De Niza almost turned on him, thinking that the Zunis would hold them accountable for bringing the Spaniards north.  

De Niza gave the natives what trade goods he had left and convinced them that it did not matter to him if they killed because he was a Christian and would go to heaven. But his murders would suffer for it, because more Christians would come and kill all of them. 

De Niza could not go back without being sure Estevan was really dead.  There had been promises made and oaths taken.  

At last, two of the chiefs, seeing him determined, agreed to go on.

He continued north until he came to a plain a the bottom of a round hill. There, laid out before him was Cibola.  The houses were unlike any he had seen to date, but had nothing of the grandeur of the Inca cities he had seen in Peru.  But it was bigger than Mexico City.  He was tempted to go on to the city.  He wanted to recover Estevan or his body but was afraid.  He rationalised to himself that if he died, he would not be able to make a report on this country.

The chiefs told him that this was just one of the least of the seven cities, and that, Totonteac, the still more distant kingdom, was even richer, with so many houses and people that they could not be counted.

He named the place the new kingdom of Saint Francis and made a large of stones topped with a cross and claimed the seven cities in the name of Spain before fleeing frightened and hungry.

De Niza turned up in Mexico City many months later.   He found that Honorato, who had fallen sick barely a week into the expedition had arrived in the city before him with tales of the treasure city of Cibola and enthusiasm for an expedition north to find it could not be quelled.

In 1540 Coronado marched north from Compostela, Mexico, with a huge army. The army contained around 350 Spaniards, some on horseback and more on foot, and around 900 Indian allies gathered from central Mexico.  They took with them herds of livestock, especially horses. Only a few women were included, among them a few of the wives of Spanish soldiers. 

De Niza was there to show him the way. 

The army marched from Compostela to the last frontier outpost, the town of Culiacán, on the coast. Not far into their journey, they encountered Melchior Diaz, who had already been dispatched north to verify what De Niza had reported but winter snows stopped him before he got all the way through the mountains. He could not tell Coronado whether or not there was gold and treasure in Cibola only that the natives in the area confirmed there was a rich city, somewhere to the north.

Coronado has had enough of rumour and with 80 horsemen, 30 footsoldiers, and some native allies, he forged ahead to find out what was really in Cibola. De Niza begged Coronado to take him along.  He was determined to find out whether or not he had left Estevan behind alive, or dead.

They left the main army and the livestock to come north at their own speed. De Niza led Coronado into terra incognito along the route he pioneered the year before.

He led them across a pass and then into the mountainous pobladoor a depopulated wilderness that separated Cibola from the south. 

It was early July when they reached a small town called Hawikuh (HA-wee-koo) not far from Cibola.  The Zunis were not happy to see Coronado and his men and a short fight ensued.  Coronado's men were armed mainly with crossbows and the pushed the Zunis out of Hawikuh without too much trouble.  But  there was no gold or jewels.  They blamed De Niza for lying to them. 

Having outmarched their supplies they waited for the rest of the army to catch up to them.  It took a few weeks, but they finally did.

While they were waiting, Coronado sent out small parties and scouts who discovered some Hopi Pueblos and the Grand Canyon, but no gold.  He also sent Diaz to find the promised naval support on the Sea of Cortes to the West. Diaz marched across fearsome deserts to the Colorado River and found a message left by the naval commander. He had sailed as far as he could up Colorado River, but failed to find the land army and had departed.  He left behind no fresh supplies.

Diaz was gored in the groin by his own lance, which he had thrown at a dog chasing his sheep. His men attempted to carry him back on a litter, but he died on the way.

Facing starvation and mutiny, Coronado decided that he had to devote his whole attention to the treasure of the Seven Cities. He set out north again.  It was hard going.  They had to make news road or repair the one that was there. De Niza had said that the road would be good and the terrain flat or only slightly hilly.  But the hills turned out to be mountains and could not be crossed without danger.  Many animals were lost because of the roughness of the country.

They reached the Valley of Corazones in May where they found people and cultivated land. 

The women wore dresses of deerskin. They painted their chins and eyes and were frequently seen out in the open drunk on a homebrew wine and engaged in sexual congress.

The chiefs of the villages stood upon mounds built for the purpose and directed their people on what to do and when.  Dotted about the villages were little shrines, bristling with many arrows sticking into them, like a porcupine. They were a sign of war and hostility.

The mainstay of their diet were melons so large that a person could carry only one at a time which were cut into slices and dried in the sun. They tasted of figs and kept for a very long time.

Coronado felt downhearted. He had yet to encounter anyone who had actually seen Cibola except the Indians who had been with Estevan, and they had been caught in many lies.  They traded for some corn but not enough for all of them.  These were hungry times.

Coronado's advance guard saw their first Indians from the country of Cíbola at a river eight leagues [about 20-24 miles] out from Cíbola. There were two of them, and they ran away to report us.

Finally coming within a few miles of Cíbola without any further problems from the Indians an advance party of scouts spotted some Indians on a hilltop. The Spaniards made signs of peace and offered presents to trade.  Some of the natives came down and took the trade goods.  Using sign language and translators from their own party, they were given a cross and asked to go to their town and tell their people that Coronado was coming peacefully and wanted to be friends. 

The soldiers camped for the night. A few men went ahead to guard the way to Cibola. There was little trust.

In the dead of night the natives attacked. The horses ran off and the men were left on foot. Only two of the scouts remained mounted, but it was enough to save their comrades.  The natives were afraid of the huge animals and the powerful crossbows wielded by the Spaniards.

The next morning Coronado turned up with the rest of the men. He was furious and ordered a full military assault on Cibola.  When they arrived, the total population was arranged outside the city in opposition.  Upon seeing the determined natives and knowing his own men were weak and hungry to the point of starvation, pulled up.

The soldiers, even the ranking officers cursed Friar De Niza and his lies. Cibola was only a little, crowded village, of about 200 families. The ramshackle houses were only about three and four stories high.  The disappointment was palpable.

There was smoke from many fires rising up around the town behind the array of warriors.  Some were blowing horns. 

With typically Spanish sense of occasion, Coronada sent a representative, two friars and a notary ahead to read the warriors the Requerimiento prescribed by the King of Spain. It told the natives, in Spanish, that they would not be harmed, but defended in the name of God.

In the neighbourhood of three hundred natives, mostly armed with bows, arrows, and shields approached Coronados men.  They completely disregarded the Spaniards overtures of peace and started shooting arrows and tearing one of the friar's robes, but none were harmed.

But Coronado could not risk a full engagement.  He took a few mounted men and some trade articles, and ordering the army to follow at a distance. They natives continued to shoot their arrows at the mounted Spaniards.  But Coronado held his nerve and kept advancing.

The natives emboldened by Coronados passive response ran up to the horse and fired arrows into the from only an arms length away.  The arrows were crude and had little effect.  When one arrow pierced one of the friars and drew blood, Coronado's patience evaporated.  Coronado asked for the friar's approval to order the attack.  It was given.  The impatient Spaniards loosed their leathal crossbows at the natives who fled back to the city and fortified themselves.

Coronado tried again to come to some kind of peaceful resolution to the confrontation, but a party of scouts sent forward to parlay was fired upon.  It was De Niza who finally lost his patience and persuaded Coronado to commit his army to a full on attack.

He would not take the horses into the narrow streets but ordered well armoured foot soldiers to take the town.

The natives had secured themselves within the houses and on the roofs.  The few musketeers and crossbowmen began the attack to drive the enemy from the roofs but the crossbowmen broke all their strings and the musketeers had arrived so weak that they could scarcely stand on their feet. Coronado waded in, standing out from the rest by his gilded arms and armor, and a plume on his headpiece.  The natives aimed at him, and they knocked him to the ground twice by stones thrown from the flat roofs, stunning him in spite of his headpiece.  They hit him many times with stones on his head, shoulders, and legs, and he received two small facial wounds plus an arrow wound in the right foot.  Don Garcia Lopez dragged Coronada unconscious from the danger then the Santiago battle charge was given and the town overcome.  There were no Spanish casualties and even their wounds were minor.

There were no cruelties in the aftermath of the battle. All of the people were well treated, especially the women and children.

Over the next few days, the chieftain of nearby pueblos came with peace offerings of deer and cattle skins, yucca fiber blankets, and some turquoises, and a few bows and arrows, but the Zunis dispersed from Cibola and left the town to the Spaniards. 

The soldiers were disgusted with Cíbola and threatened De Niza with all manner of retribution for his lying and deceit. Coronado on the other hand was interested in what exactly it was that he had come to conqueor. 

He heard about and visited, Totonteac, a large group of Hopi villages, with which Zuni traded. He also ranged far enough to find the Rio Grande pueblos which had vigorous trade with plains Indians. There he found the buffalo robes and skins that De Niza had seen traded all the way into Sonora. 

Recovered from his wounds, eight or ten days later, he went to a town where an old man, claimed to be a chief.  He wore a blanket like a mantle of many pieces. He said it was foretold among them more than fifty years before that people like Spaniards would come, and from the south, and that the whole country would be conquered.

The old man agreed to introduce Coronado to the rest of the chiefs, to arrange the terms of the conquest. They brought some small ragged blankets and turquoises. Coronado wanted them to come down from their hilltop strongholds and return to their houses with their wives and children, and become Christians, and recognize the King. But they would have none of it.

The Indians worshiped the water that made the corn grow and sustains their life, and the only other reason they have for it is that their ancestors did so. The women wore coils on their heads to carry jars of water. With one of these coils, a woman could carry a jar of water on her head up a ladder without touching the jar with her hands.  

When they prayed, it was always toward the sun. They would raise their hands and rub their faces and bodies. They decorated sources of water with feathers of various colored birds. They also sprinkled ground cornmeal and other yellow powders around them.  When they saw the Spaniards respect for the cross, they made the same sort of offerings.

Coronado asked them to paint all the animals of their country on a buffalo hide. Although they were poor painters, they made two for him, one with animals and the other with the birds and fishes. 

Some brought their children to the priests may instruct them but not many. 

Coronado sent the two painted cloths and a buffalo skin, some turquoises, two earrings of the same, fifteen Indian combs, some plates decorated with turquoise, two baskets, and some coils back to Mexico City.

With these paltry offerings, he sent a dejected letter saying there was little chance of finding gold or silver.  He had seen one or two small items, but the natives would not trade him for it and would not tell him where it came from.  

The longer Coronado stayed around Cibola, the more dejected he became.  He wanted someone to take the blame for his disappointment.  Cíbola was not an Aztec-like city of gold, it was little more than a tawdry group of mud huts. He blamed De Niza.

In September, Coronado moved his army east to the pueblos on the Rio Grande River.  He had been on this expedition less than a year and he was already exhausted and disillusioned. Wintering in the pueblos, he heard stories of an another city, Quivira, to the northeast, but had little optimism that there was any wealth to be found there.  But neither did he have much choice.  He was broke and disgraced.  He could not return to Mexico City with nothing.  It was not a place to have nothing. 

When spring came he marched the entire army east.  Then Coronado and thirty horsemen rode north to find Quivira.  They found nothing but endless grasslands and hostile natives. By December they were back where they started and the hopeless Coronado fell from his horse and hurt himself.  It was the last straw.

He ordered a return of the army to Mexico in 1542 then resigned his governorship and retired. No Spaniard of any account returned north for another fifty years.

Though threatened with death many times and very much out of favour with Coronado and his followers, De Niza, also made his way back to Mexico City.  He never again ventured into the wilderness.

 

 

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