George P. Hammond

Booklet issued by the U.S. Coronado Exposition Commission describes the 1540 Expedition led by the thirty year old Francisco Vasquez de Coronado (1510-1554). A splendid force of some 1100 fighting men, three women, their menials and herders and Indian allies set out from Compostela in New Galicia, a frontier province on Mexico's west coast. It was one of the largest enterprises ever attempted by the Spaniards in the New World.

One hundred years before the English founded their first American colony on Virginia's muddy James river, with Spain in undisputed possession of the New World, four survivors of an ill-starred expedition into Texas entered Mexico City. Led by Cabeza de Vaca, who had become famous among the Indians as a medicine man, the survivors told of a land to the north abounding in gold and silver.

In 1542, the broken army of about 100 cavaliers returned to Mexico quite empty-handed. The adventure lasted two years and traversed 4000 miles of the American southwest. They entered dry and sterile country and ran out of provisions. Starving, they came upon the villages of the Pueblo, Hopi and Zuni, among others. In a repeated pattern, the Spaniards ended up killing the inhabitants for their food.

In the residencia, the legal investigation into his official management of office held in 1544, Coronado was fined 700 pesos, largely for nonpayment of creditors, but was otherwise exonerated. He recovered from injuries sustained in falling from his horse, but died in Mexico City a few years later of an infection. Survived by his wife, of a converso family whose wealth he had pawned, and beautiful daughters.

Coronado found no visible treasures, and the dream of Seven Golden Cities in the north was shattered. But of course, people continued to dream. The report concludes with Pedro de Castaneda's observation:

"I have always noticed, and it is a fact, that often when we have something valuable in our possession and handle it freely, we do not esteem or appreciate it in all its worth, as we would if we could realize how much we would miss it if we were to lose it. Thus we gradually belittle its value, but once we have lost it and we miss its benefits we feel it in our hearts and are forever moody thinking of ways to retrieve it. This, it seems to me, happened to all or most of those who went on that expedition...in search of the Seven Cities of Cibola.… (mehr)