Francisco Vásquez de Coronado

Francisco Vázquez de Coronado y Luján (1510 – 22 September 1554) was a Spanish conquistador, who visited New Mexico and other parts of what are now the southwestern United States between 1540 and 1542. Coronado had hoped to conquer the mythical Seven Cities of Gold. His name is often Anglicized as Vasquez de Coronado. Sometimes the name even appears in a Spanish-English hybridization of Vásquez de Coronado, as in the title for this article.

Early life
Coronado was born into a noble family in Salamanca, Spain, in 1510 as the second son of Juan Vásquez de Coronado y Sosa de Ulloa and Isabel de Luján. Juan Vásquez held various positions in the administration of the recently captured Emirate of Granada under Iñigo López de Mendoza, its first Spanish governor.

Americas
Francisco Vásquez de Coronado went to New Spain (present-day Mexico) in 1535 at about age 25, in the entourage of its first Viceroy, Antonio de Mendoza, the son of his father's patron who had died. In the New Spain, he married Beatriz de Estrada, called "the Saint" (la Santa), sister of Leonor de Estrada, ancestor of the de Alvarado family and daughter of Treasurer and Governor Alonso de Estrada y Hidalgo, Lord of Picón, and wife Marina Flores Gutiérrez de la Caballería, from a converso Jewish family. Coronado inherited a large portion of a Mexican estate from Beatriz and had eight children by her.

Mounting the expedition
Coronado was the Governor of the Kingdom of Nueva Galicia (New Galicia, a province of New Spain located northwest of Mexico and comprising the contemporary Mexican states of Jalisco, Sinaloa and Nayarit). In 1539, he dispatched Friar Marcos de Niza and Estevanico, more properly known as Estevan, the diminutive form being a Spanish nickname. Estevan was a survivor of the Narváez expedition, on an expedition north from Compostela, in the present state of Nayarit, toward New Mexico. When Marcos de Niza returned, he told about a city of vast wealth, a golden city called Cíbola, and that Estevan had been killed by the Zuni citizens of Cíbola. Though he did not claim to have entered the city of Cíbola, he claimed that the city stood on a high hill, that it appeared wealthy and as large as Mexico City.

Coronado assembled an expedition with two components. One component carried the bulk of the expedition's supplies, and traveled via the Guadalupe River 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. This is the reason he pawned his wife's estates and was lent 70,000 more pesos.

In the autumn of 1539, Viceroy Mendoza ordered Melchor Diaz, the commander of San Miguel de Culiacán, to investigate Friar de Niza's findings, and on November 17, 1539, Diaz departed on the trail to Cíbola, with fifteen horsemen. At the ruins of Chichilticalli, he turned around because of "snows and fierce winds from across the wilderness". Diaz encountered Coronado before he had departed San Miguel de Culiacán, and reported that initial investigations into Friar de Niza's report disproved the existence of a bountiful land. Diaz' report was delivered to Viceroy Mendoza on March 20, 1540.

Coronado set out from Compostela on February 23, 1540, at the head of a large expedition composed of about 400 European men-at-arms (mostly Spaniards), 1,300 to 2,000 Mexican Indian allies, 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. There also were many other family members and servants.

He followed the Sinaloan coast northward, keeping the Sea of Cortez to his left until he reached 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 Friar 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 would not be able to support a large concentrated body of soldiers and animals. Coronado decided 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 Corazones, 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 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 Sinaloa. 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 southern side of the mountains he found a stream he called the Nexpa, 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. This 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 mountain chain changes its direction at the same time that the coast does. Here they had to cross and pass the mountains in order to get into the level country." 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 were upset with Marcos for his mendacious imagination, so Coronado sent him back to the New Spain in disgrace.

The accompanying map has become outdated since it was created. On-the-ground research by Nugent Brasher beginning in 2005 strongly indicates that Coronado traveled north between Chichiticalli and Zuni primarily on the New Mexico side of the state line, not the Arizona side as has been thought since the 1940s. Also, most scholars believe Quivira was near the great bend of the Arkansas river, about 60 miles southwest of the location on the Kansas River depicted on the map.

Conquest of Cíbola
Coronado traveled north on one side or the other of today's Arizona-New Mexico state line, and from the headwaters 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, which the Zuni spell as Hawikku. The natives refused, denying the expedition entrance to the village. Coronado and his expeditionaries attacked the Zunis. The ensuing skirmish constituted the extent of what can be called the Spanish "Conquest of Cíbola." During the battle, Coronado was injured. During the weeks the expedition stayed at Zuni, he sent out several scouting expeditions.

The first scouting expedition was led by Pedro de Tovar. This expedition headed northwest to the Hopi villages, which they recorded as Tusayan. Upon arrival, the Spanish were denied entrance to the village they came across, and once again resorted to using force to enter. Materially, the Hopi region was just as poor as the Zuni in the precious metals Coronado sought, but the Spanish did learn that a large river (the Colorado) lay in the west.

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. Members of this expedition reached the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River, becoming 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 River to link up with Alarcon's supply ships. After this, the main body of the expedition began its journey to the next populated center of pueblos, along the Rio Grande 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 to 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 (Tison) River" because the natives used firebrands 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 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 had one commandeered for his winter quarters, Coofor, 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 Native Americans.

The Search for Quivira
From an Indian the Spanish called "the Turk," Coronado heard of a wealthy civilization called Quivira far to the east. In spring 1541 he led his army and priests and Indian allies onto the Great Plains to search for Quivira. The Turk was probably either a Wichita or a Pawnee and his intention seems to have been to lead Coronado astray and hope that he got lost in the wilderness.



With the Turk guiding him, Coronado and his army crossed the flat and featureless steppe called the Llano Estacado in the Texas Panhandle, passing through the present-day communities of Hereford and Canadian. The Spanish were awed by the Llano. "The country they [the buffalo] traveled over was so smooth that if one looked at them the sky could be seen between their legs." Men and horses became lost in the featureless plain and Coronado felt like he had been swallowed up by the sea.

On the Llano, Coronado encountered vast herds of bison—the American buffalo. “I found such a quantity of cows...that it is impossible to number them, for while I was journeying through these plains...there was not a day that I lost sight of them.”

The Querechos and the Teyas
Coronado found a settlement of Indians he called Querechos. The Querechos were not awed or impressed by the Spanish, their weapons, and their "big dogs" (horses). "They did nothing unusual when they saw our army, except to come out of their tents to look at us, after which they came to talk to the advance guard, and asked who we were." As Coronado described them, the Querechos were nomads, following the buffalo herds on the plains. The Querechos were numerous. Chroniclers mentioned one settlement of two hundred tipis—which implies a population of more than one thousand people living together for at least part of the year. Authorities agree that the Querechos (Becquerel's) were Apache Indians.

Coronado left the Querechos behind and continued southeast in the direction in which the Turk told him that Quivira was located. He and his army descended off the tabletop of the Llano Estacado into the caprock canyon country. He soon met with another group of Indians, the Teyas, enemies of the Querechos.

The Teyas, like the Querechos, were numerous and buffalo hunters, although they had additional resources. The canyons they inhabited had trees and flowing streams and they grew or foraged for beans, but apparently not corn because one of the Coronado chroniclers would probably have mentioned it if the Teyas had grown corn. The Spanish, however, did note the presence of mulberries, roses, grapes, walnuts, and plums.

An intriguing event was Coronado's meeting among the Teyas an old blind bearded man who said that he had met many years before "four others like us." He was probably talking about Cabeza de Vaca, who with three shipmates made his way across southern Texas a decade before Coronado.

Scholars differ in their opinions as to which historical Indian group were the Teyas. A plurality believe they were Caddoan speakers and related to the Wichita. The place where Coronado found the Teyas has also been debated. The mystery may have been cleared up—to the satisfaction of some—by the discovery of a likely Coronado campsite. While Coronado was in the canyon country, his army suffered one of the violent climatic events so common on the plains. ”A tempest came up one afternoon with a very high wind and hail...The hail broke many tents and tattered many helmets, and wounded many of the horses, and broke all the crockery of the army, and the gourds which was no small loss."

In 1993, Jimmy Owens found crossbow points in Blanco Canyon in Crosby County, Texas, near the town of Floydada in Floyd County. Archaeologists subsequently searched the site and found pottery sherds, more than forty crossbow points, and dozens of horseshoe nails of Spanish manufacture, plus a Mexican-style stone blade. This find strengthens the evidence that Coronado found the Teyas in Blanco Canyon.

Quivira
The Teyas told Coronado that he was going the wrong direction. Quivira lay to the north. By this time, Coronado seems to have lost his confidence that fortune awaited him. He sent most of his expedition back to New Mexico and continued with only forty Spanish soldiers and priests and an unknown number of Indian soldiers, servants, and guides. Coronado, thus, dedicated himself to a reconnaissance rather than a mission of conquest.

After more than thirty days journey, Coronado found a river larger than any he had seen before. This was the Arkansas, probably a few miles east of present day Dodge City, Kansas. The Spaniards and their Indian allies followed the Arkansas northeast for three days and found Quivirans hunting buffalo. The Indians greeted the Spanish with wonderment and fear, but calmed down when one of Coronado's guides addressed them in their own language.

Coronado reached Quivira itself after a few more days of traveling. He found Quivira "well settled....along good river bottoms, although without much water, and good streams which flow into another." Coronado believed that there were 25 settlements in Quivira. The Quivirans were simple people. Both men and women were nearly naked. Coronado was impressed with the size of the Quivirans and all the other Indians he met. They were "large people of very good build." Coronado spent twenty-five days among the Quivirans trying to learn of richer kingdoms just over the horizon. He found nothing but straw-thatched villages of up to two hundred houses and fields containing corn, beans, and squash. A copper pendant was the only evidence of wealth he discovered. The Quivirans were almost certainly the ancestors of the Wichita people.

Coronado was escorted to the further edge of Quivira, called Tabas, where the neighboring land of Harahey began. He summoned the "Lord of Harahey" who, with two hundred followers, came to meet with the Spanish. He was disappointed. The Harahey Indians were "all naked -- with bows, and some sort of things on their heads, and their privy parts slightly covered." They were not the wealthy people Coronado sought. Disappointed, he returned to New Mexico. Before leaving Quivira, Coronado ordered the Turk garroted.

Where were Quivira, Tabas, and Harahey?
Archaeological evidence strongly suggests that Quivira was in central Kansas with the western-most village near the small town of Lyons on Cow Creek, extending twenty miles east to the Little Arkansas River, and north another twenty miles to the town of Lindsborg on a tributary of the Smoky Hill River. Tabas was likely on the Smoky Hill River. Archaeologists have found numerous 16th century sites in these areas that probably include some of the settlements visited by Coronado.

At Harahey "was a river, with more water and more inhabitants than the other." This sounds as if Coronado may have reached the Smoky Hill River near Salina or Abilene. It is a larger river than either Cow Creek or the Little Arkansas and is located at roughly the 25 league distance from Lyons that Coronado said he traveled in Quivira. The people of Harahey seem Caddoan, because "it was the same sort of a place, with settlements like these, and of about the same size" as Quivira. They were probably the ancestors of the Pawnee.

End of the expedition
Coronado returned to New Mexico from Quivira and was badly injured in a fall from his horse "after the winter was over," according to the chronicler Castañeda—probably in March 1542. During a long convalescence, he and his expeditionaries decided to return to the New Spain. Coronado and his expedition departed New Mexico in early April 1542, leaving behind two friars. His expedition had been a failure. Although he remained governor of Nueva Galicia until 1544, the expedition forced him into bankruptcy and resulted in charges of war crimes being brought against him and his field master. Coronado remained in Mexico City, where he died of an infectious disease on July 21, 1554.

Coronado undoubtedly caused a large loss of life among the Pueblos both from the battles he fought with them and from the demands for food and clothing that he levied on their fragile economies. However, 39 years later when the Spanish again visited the Southwestern United States, they found little evidence that Coronado had any lasting cultural influences on the Indians. See: The Chamuscado and Rodriguez Expedition and Antonio de Espejo.

Legacy

 * Also see Coronado (disambiguation)

In 1952, the United States established Coronado National Memorial near Sierra Vista, Arizona to commemorate his expedition.

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 1521. It is unclear if any such item ever existed. In addition, when Indy captures the cross from robbers aboard a ship off the coast of Portugal, the ship can be seen to be named the "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 small "island" (it is actually a peninsula) near San Diego named Coronado. Most visitors cross the Coronado Bridge to get there.

The song Coronado And The Turk from the singer-songwriter Steve Tilston's 1992 album Of Moor And Mesa is based on the story of Coronado's expedition.

There is a large hill just northwest of Lindsborg, Kansas that is called Coronado Heights. The former owner of the land built a small castle atop the hill to commemorate Coronado's 1541 visit to the area. The castle and the area around it is 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.

Coronado High Schools in Lubbock, Texas, El Paso, Texas, and in Scottsdale, Arizona, were named for the Spanish conquistador Francisco Vasquez de Coronado. Bernalillo, New Mexico, calls itself the "City of Coronado" because he stayed there for two winters. A don is a name for a Spanish nobleman. Thus, the Coronado Don became the school mascot in Scottsdale.

Coronado Road in Phoenix, Arizona, was named after Coronado.