Spanish Forces Conquer Hawikuh
Coronado's Hungry Soldiers Find Food, Not Riches

By Miguel Encinias
For the Journal
Francisco Vásquez de Coronado and his advance force of soldiers -- the main party was waiting along the Sonora River in Mexico -- had reached Hawikuh, the first of the fabled seven cities of Cibola reported by Fray Marcos de Niza, and found a mud village, not a golden city whose walls were studded with turqoise and gemstones.
Worse, after his scouts, led by Garcia Lopez de Cardenas, were cordially greeted by a small group of Hawikuhs sent out to meet them, they were ambushed at night and sent running back to Coronado.
As Coronado and his full advance force approached Hawikuh, near Zuni Pueblo, the natives again attacked. Finally, the general gave the signal to charge by shouting "Santiago" (Spain's patron saint, St. James). By now the Spaniards were famished, having been without a full meal for days.
Some of the Hawikuhs were killed in the initial attack, but most fled back into the village.
Hawikuh was fortified in that it was built of adobe and stone into a single large structure which tapered gradually to six stories with a terrace at each level. A protective wall surrounded the village. Several hundred native warriors from area pueblos had gathered in the village to repel an expected attack.
Coronado first tried to convince the defenders to submit peacefully. Then, after deploying his cavalry around Hawikuh to prevent escape, he dismounted and joined the infantry which he led in climbing over the surrounding wall.
Coronado's shining armor became a target for the defenders, and he was soon felled by stones and an arrow in his foot and had to be carried out to a tent away from the action. When he came to an hour later, he received the news that Hawikuh had been captured.
After the natives' surrender to Cardenas, the Spanish soldiers were not interested in celebrating their victory as much as getting something to eat.
One of them was reported as later saying, "There we found something we prized more than silver or gold: maize and beans, turkeys larger than those in New Spain, and salt better and whiter than I had seen in my whole life."
After a few days of rest and recuperation, Coronado invited the chiefs from all the nearby villages to a conference where he told them that no one would be harmed and that homes would be respected.
The Cibolans, as the Spanish called them, agreed to become Christians -- possibly more out of fear than piety.
In his report to Viceroy Mendoza, Coronado wrote about Cibola that although the houses were very well constructed, they were not decorated with turquoise.
"The seven cities (there were really only six) are seven little villages," he reported.
He also said that Fray Marcos had lied about everything he had said about them.
The next few months were spent getting to know the region better.
Pedro de Tovar was sent to Hopi land where the residents resisted briefly, but soon sought peace.
Cardenas was then sent to find the great river to the west. He followed Tovar's route to the Hopi villages then went on for 20 days to a most amazing discovery: the Grand Canyon.
Three of his men descended bravely into the canyon, but only about a third of the way because of the steepness of the canyon walls.
Having trouble finding water, other than that lyiny at the bottom of a gorge, they went on for a way, but soon turned back. In all that travel, the group encountered not a single native after leaving the land of the Hopis.
After Cardenas returned from the west, Coronado knew that neither the Cities of Cibola nor anything they had seen so far would produce any material wealth. He reported this to the viceroy, and started making plans to explore eastward. Before he set out, he sent Juan Gallego to New Spain to deliver the report, and Melchior Diaz to tell Tristan de Arellano to come forward with the main body. Arellano left only eight soldiers to establish a settlement on the Sonora River near Corazones.
Fray Marcos de Niza had been traveling with Arellano's group but, he was sent back to Mexico by Coronado because the friar was in danger due to the ill will among the soldiers provoked by his exaggerations.
At Cibola, the Spaniards had heard of Acus (Acoma), but not much more until a delegation of natives arrived from Cicuye (Pecos) led by a man the Spanish called Cacique (chief) and another they called Bigotes (moustache).
This delegation spoke of a land along a big river and beyond that abounded in cattle and other good things. Coronado sent Hernando Alvarado to investigate.
Leaving from Hawikuh on Aug. 19, 1540, he soon reached Acoma, which impressed him as "one of the strongest (fortified cities) ever seen" and by its abundance of food supply. He did not tarry there, but continued on to a cluster of villages called Tiguez along the river.
There he came across a people "more dedicated to agriculture than to war." They made camp south of a pueblo they called Alameda and sent word of their arrival to the pueblos.
Soon chiefs from 12 pueblos came to greet him. Alvarado and his small troop made a tour of the pueblos then continued as far north as a pueblo which sounded to them like Taos. Then the group headed back south and east to Cicuye (Pecos) and on to buffalo country.
At Cicuye, the party had met an Indian from the plains to the northeast whom the Spaniards gave the nickname of El Turco (the Turk). He and a younger man from the plains accompanied the Spaniards as guides along the Pecos and Canadian rivers.
It was during this trek that El Turco first mentioned a place named Quivira, which he described as being abundant in everything including gold and silver.
In fact, El Turco told his now very interested Spanish listeners, Bigotes and Cacique had taken a gold bracelet from him.
Alvarado believed El Turco and hurried back to Cicuye to confront the two.
Though Bigotes and Cacique had been very helpful to the Spaniards since their arrival Hawikuh, they now suffered much grief after denying knowledge of such a bracelet. And no such bracelet was ever found.
Still, they were put in chains and taken back to Tiguex, where Coronado had decided to spend the winter with his entire army.
Coronado's army took possession of a pueblo near present-day Bernalillo, which they called Alcanfor, which means "camphor." To the Spaniards, that's what the Indian word for the village sounded like.
By this time, Arellano had arrived at Hawikuh where he and the remainder of the army rested for a period before joining Coronado at Tiguex.
But Coronado was more interested in the story being told by El Turko about his homeland, which seemed to get better with each telling.
Historians believe El Turko's descriptions reflected what he had overheard from Coronado's soldiers and other Indians about Tenochtitlan, the great city of the Aztecs which Hernan Cortes had conquered.
But his story of the golden bracelet only stirred untold trouble for Cacique and Bigotes who even had dogs set upon them to get them to disclose the whereabouts of the jewelry.
This treatment of Cacique and Bigotes and accusations of molestation of native women by soldiers soured relations between Spaniard and Puebloan.
Moreover, the demanding guests were overstaying their welcome by their continuing dependence for provisions and clothing.
Rebellion finally erupted when some natives from nearby Arenal Pueblo killed one of Coronado's Indians and drove off a herd of horses.
The general once more sent Cardenas into the fray, but he was unable to subdue the rebels who withdrew into their homes. Finally on orders from Coronado, Cardenas set smudge fires to drive the occupants out. The only survivors were the few natives who had remained in hiding and slipped out that night.
NEXT: On to Quivira

Miguel Encinias is an Albuquerque historian. His novel, "Two Lives for Oñate," has just been published by the University of New Mexico.