Coronado Is Broken in Spirit and Health

The Journal is publishing a biweekly series of history articles to commemorate the settlement of New Mexico by Juan de Oñate in 1598. This one covers Coronado's last days in New Mexico in 1542.

By Miguel Encinias
For the Journal
In 1541 Francisco Vásquez de Coronado and a small unit of soldiers had made it all the way north and east to the Arkansas River in Kansas near the Nebraska and Missouri borders while searching for the fabled land of riches called Quivira.
Coronado had been searching for the seven cities of Cíbola, which were rumored to hold wealth equal to that of the Aztecs. What his group found instead were New Mexico's mud villages, which the Spanish named pueblos.
But a Great Plains Indian the Spanish called El Turco gave them new hope when he told them that it was Quivira, a kingdom in the east, that held the riches.
After marching more than 1,000 miles and with winter approaching, Coronado realized he had been played for a fool and headed back to New Mexico, where the main body of his expedition waited.
Once again the Spaniards decided to spend the winter in Alcanfor, near present-day Bernalillo.
And once again the group was on the brink of starvation. This time they could not hope for help from the conquered Tiguex people, whose pueblos had been destroyed and fields laid to waste during their unsuccessful revolution earlier in the year.
So the explorers waited with an uncomfortable idleness that caused morale to sink to a new low.
To make matters worse, Coronado, seeking some recreation, engaged in a horse race with Rodrigo Maldonado, a friend and one of his most effective officers. Coronado was ahead in the race when his saddle girth broke. He fell into Maldonado's path and was hit in the head by a hoof.
He came close to death and recovered only after a long convalescence. But he would never be the same man. His state of mind and health and the news of the annihilation of the small colony he had left in Sonora, Mexico, broke his spirit.
Most of his soldiers also felt downhearted and wanted to go home, but some of the officers wanted to stay and wait for reinforcements to go back to Quivira.
The date for departure home was set for April 1542. When April rolled around, not all the Spaniards left, however.
Some of the friars decided to stay and mine for their kind of wealth -- souls.
They were Fray Juan de Padilla, and the religious brothers Fray Luis de Escalona and Fray Juan de la Cruz.
Others who remained were two friar's assistants named Lucas and Sebastian, two black servants named Cristobal and Sebastian and a Portuguese soldier, Andres do Campo.
Fray Escalona remained at Cicuye (Pecos) with Cristobal. Before the army left, he was seen traveling west accompanied by people from that pueblo, but nothing more is known.
Fray de la Cruz also remained in pueblo country, but nothing was ever heard about his fate.
Fray Padilla, the only full-fledged priest, went to Quivira with Lucas, Sebastian, do Campo and one or both slaves.
Arriving at Quivira, they stopped at a village three days travel from Tabas, the northernmost village visited by Coronado, the went eastward toward Kansas.
On that trail they encountered a group of unfriendly Indians.
Sensing danger, Padilla urged do Campo and the others to flee while he dropped to his knees to pray.
The priest was killed immediately, and do Campo was captured. Lucas and Sebastian escaped.
About 10 months later, do Campo escaped with two dogs. It took him about four years of travel among Indians to make it to Panuco, a Spanish port near modern Tampico, and on to Mexico City.
Lucas and Sebastian also made it back and soon returned to their monastery in western New Spain.
In April of 1542 Coronado's caravan left Tiguex for Hawikuh. The group stopped there only briefly and continued heading south toward home.
At Chichilticale the train met up with Juan Gallego, who was heading north with supplies, which meant the group finally had an abundance of supplies for the remainder of the trip.
But Coronado ordered the army to continue south. At this time he was too ill to ride a horse, and for a good portion of the trip was carried in a cowhide litter hung between two mules.
The return was not without problems.
Natives at San Geronimo attacked the expedition with poisoned arrows, killing several horses and wounding some soldiers.
But all was not bad.
The Indians from Corazones, who had befriended Cabeza de Vaca years before and gave him thousands of deer hearts, came long miles to greet their returning friends.
The weary army finally arrived at Culiacan, where it was disbanded. On June 24, 1542, Coronado started for his capital, Compostela. After a brief rest there, he proceded to Mexico City to report to Viceroy Mendoza.
NEXT: Coronado's fate.

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