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THE SANTA FEAN MAGAZINE, October 7992Volume 2O, No. 9THE SANTA FEAN I{ACAZINE, October 1992' 20The Convergence ofCultures Begins

Franclsco V6equez de Coronado ae deplcted by Gerald Cassldy ln amUral at the Federal BUlldin ln Santa Fe. phoro*ourrcrrirur.lmof Ncrrlcd.co, N.t, No. 20206

Story, Charles Bennett

A burst of expansionism followed the initivoyage of Crist6bal Col6n (Christopher Columbusa latt-er-day Latinization he himself never heard)the New World in 1492. The following year, Colestablished Spain's first colony in the New Worldthe Island of Hispaniola (today Haiti and thDominican Republic). By 1515 Cuba had been coquered, and the cities of Santia$o and Habaestablished. Both places would serve as basesfurther exploration. ln 1519 Herniin Cort6s sweinto Mexico, unveilin$ in the Aztec Empire a nsource of wealth for his country, his followers ahimself, in the gold and silver that the Aztecs haccumulated over the centuries. A decade laFrancisco Pizarro be[an his even more lucraticonquest of the Incas in Peru.Vague information from various sourcincluding Alvar Nuflez Cabeza de Vaca, survivor oshipwrecked expedition to establish a colonyMexico's northeast coast in 1527, indicated thlarge and wealthy lndian cities, with big houssurrounded by maize fields, existed in a land farthe north. After Cort6s'and Pizarro's conquesthe Aztecs and the Incas, and the wealth they loofrom these civilizations, was it not logical that silar riches existed in the area to the far north ofcentral valley of Mexico?Accordingly, a modest-sized reconnoiteriexpedition was organized in Mexico to penetratearea of the far north. The governor of the Proviof Nueva Galicia, Francisco Viisquez de Coronasent this expedition off in 1539. Leading the exdition was a Franciscan friar, Marcos de Niza. Texpedition's scouts were guided by Est6ban, a Moish slave who, with Cabeza de Vaca, had also svived the earlier colonizing expedition, traversmuch of the Southwest in order to get back to Mico. Thus, the Marcos de Niza expedition travenorth in search of the fabled wealth thought tothere. Estdban, impatient with the slow progresthe expedition, apparently was given permissiongo on ahead with a small party. In a short tEst6ban was far ahead of the main body of the edition, which by this time was traveling no

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THE SANTA FEAN MACMTNS, October 1992,2

Some of the Indians were forced to leave their villages;demands were made on others throughout the co"urseof the winter to provide the spaniards with food andblankets. As a result there were many conflicts.across what is today Arizona. When the main groupwas told they were but three days from the ,,SevenCities of Cibola" (presumed to be Zuii Indian vil-lages in present western New Mexico), the stupefu-ing news of Est6ban's death was received. EvidentlyEstdban had made himself an unwelcome guest inone of the Zufri villages. Cautiously, the rest of theexpedition moved forward, but many of its mem-bers deserted in the face of Est6ban's death and inconcern for their own welfare. Friar Marcos wouldlater claim that he and his remainingl followers hadgotten close enough to the Seven Cities of Cibola toglimpse a city that rose from the heights andappeared larger than the City ofMexico.Back in Mexico, the friar's reports were allthat the Viceroy, the.King of Spain's official andrankingl representative in Mexico, needed to hear.Plans were immediately made for a full-scale expe-dition to proceed to the Seven Cities of Cibola todiscover the fabulous riches certain to be there.The expedition would be commanded by Gov-ernor Viisquez (Francisco Viisquez de Coronado isoften referred to as "Coronado," yet his family namewas "Viisquez"). Viisquez, from here on referred toas usual as "Coronado," was a nobleman and a goodfriend of the Viceroy. Both men invested sizablefortunes in the undertaking. They hoped to findrich cities as Cortds had in Mexico and Pizarro hadin Peru. The expedition of more than 300Spaniards and about 800 Mexican Indians tooksome 1500 animals with them including 550 hors-es. Twenty-three of the horses were Coronado's.When the Spaniards finally reached the mostsouthwestern ofthe Zufri villages, thought to be thevillage of Hiiwikuh, in July 1540, they followed theprescribed ritual of announcing that they were tak-ing possession for the King of Spain of that part ofthe world, in the name of the Pope, as God's repre-sentative on earth. It was also stated that all whorecognized the KinS's authority, and wouldembrace Christianity, would be treated as friends.The Zufri inhabitants of H;iwikuh were unim-pressed, giving their response to the ceremony inthe form of a shower of arrows and stones. Fore-most in the minds of the Spaniards was that

Estdban had been killed in one of the Zufri villages,probably Hiiwikuh. Desperately needing food, theSpaniards attacked Hiiwikuh. In the fight thatensued, Coronado, clad in one of the three suits ofarmor that he had brought along on the expedition,was knocked senseless by a huge stone. Neverthe-Iess, the Zufris surrendered after a short skirmish,and the Spaniards occupied the village, quicklydevouring much of the foodstores and many of theturkeys that the Zunis kept penned for feathers.The conquistadors were disappointed that nowealth in European terms existed in the Zufri vil-lages. Undaunted, the cheerful conclusion wasquickly reached that the golden treasure surelyexisted in another place in the greater area. Mean-while, Friar Marcos, who had accompanied theexpedition, decided at that juncture to return toMexico City, when the rest of the expedition real-ized that he had greatly exaggerated his reports ofthe Seven Cities of Cfbola, and obviously had notseen any of them firsthand.Coronado sent Pedro de Tovar, accompaniedby Zufii guides, to explore the Hopi villages to thewest. There they heard of a great western river.Coronado ordered a follow-up expedition, and Gar-cia L6pez de Cdrdenas and his men became the firstEuropeans to see the Grand Canyon of the ColoradoRiver. While Coronado was in Zuni, a group fromPecos Pueblo, led by a man called "Bigotes"("Whiskers," because of the unusual fact that hepossessed facial hair unlike other male AmericanIndians at this time) came to greet him. The groupbrought an invitation to visit their village, showingthe Spaniards an image of a bison painted on ahide. Coronado subsequently sent Hernando deAlvarado and twenty men to Pecos Pueblo.Traveling east, Alvarado made contact withthe Acomas and the people of Tiguex province onthe Rio Grande in the present-day Bernalillo area.This small group of Spaniards went on to pecosPueblo, where they were escorted into the village byflute players and given presents of woven cloth andturquoise. At Pecos the Spaniards met a nativewhom they called "El Turco" ("The Turk"),"because he looked like one," and were told that

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large settlements and riches lay in a land to the east.The entire expedition wintered in the Tiguex village com-plex on the Rio Grande during 1540-41. Some of the Indians

were forced to leave their villages; demands were made on oth-ers throughout the course of the winter to provide theSpaniards with food and blankets. As a result of these and oth-er pressures there were many conflicts. One thing that keptthe Spaniards enthusiastic was the stories that the Turk told ofthe riches of the land of Quivira. Bigotes cautioned theSpaniards atainst believing the tales, and was promptly putinto chains. Coronado led a glroup of his men out onto theplains in search of the riches of Quivira as soon as the weatherbroke.By midsummer, 1541, the Spaniards had reached theplace which the Turk had said was Quivira, thought today to besomewhere in the vicinity of Lyons, Kansas. There were noriches, except for a copper plate that a local chief wore aroundhis neck. The Turk confessed that he had lied to the Spaniardsat the instigation of the Pecos Ieaders. He had led Coronadoand his men out onto the plains to "lose them, so that the hors-es would die when their provisions gave out, and they would beso weak, if they ever returned to Pecos, that they could bekilled without any trouble." The Spaniards responded to theTurk's confession by garroting him, and after a short timereturned to their camp on the Rio Grande near present-dayBernalillo. While Coronado had been on the plains, the sol-diers who remained behind in the Tiguex villages had exploredthe native villages along the Rio Grande to the north.After the winter of t54l-1542, many of the members ofthe expedition wanted to return to New Spain. Coronado suf-fered a serious riding accident while horse racing, and he soondecided that it was time to return to Mexico City. Two of thefriars who had accompanied the expedition remained behind, tobeglin conversion of the Pueblo Indians to Christianity. Bothfriars were soon dead. Back in Mexico, both Viisquez de Coron-ado and Carcia L6pez de Ciirdenas were tried on charges ofmistreatment of the Indians. Coronado was exonerated, butCiirdenas was fined and sentenced to one year of frontier (dan-gerous) service to the crown.Though no extensive mineral wealth had been discoveredin New Mexico, there were many villages of sedentary Indians.Thus, there were souls to convert to Christianitv. and labor tobe exploited. However, it was not until almost two generationsafter the Vilsquez de Coronado expedition that Spaniards aSainofficially traveled north into New Mexico.The Vi{squez de Coronado expedition was significant forseveral reasons: it prepared the way for eventual European set-tlement by documentingl the country through which it trav_eled; it contributed geographical knowledge of North Americawhich led to a determination of the width of the North Anreri_

can continent (information from the Viisquez de Coronadoexpedition, with that of two other Spanish explorations at thesame time, enabled Spanish officials to estimate the width ofthe continent from sea-to-sea); it contributed new informationon American Indian cultures; and it described flora and fauna.B.ut perhaps most importantty, the Coronado expedition wassignificant in the initiation of the cultural convergenceb,etween European and Indian cultures in the Southwest andthe plains. 1