Coronado, Aide Tried for Crimes

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 wraps up Coronado's expedition of 1540 to 1542.

By Miguel Encinias
For the Journal
Francisco Vásquez de Coronado returned to Compostela, New Spain, in the summer of 1542 after spending more than a year exploring a large area of what would become the United States of America.
After resting briefly he headed on to Mexico City to report on his trip to his friend Viceroy Mendoza.
But, as was reported in the first installment about Coronado on Jan. 4, the army he led personally was the main but not the only component of the incursion into the Tierra Nueva.
Coronado had sent Hernando de Alarcón sailing north from Acapulco in the Sea of Cortez (Gulf of California) with two ships on May 9, 1540. The objective was to make a rendezvous with Coronado in a northern water route they had expected to find.
On Aug. 26, 1540, the tiny fleet, now three ships, reached the mouth of a river Alarcon characterized as containing "so furious a current that we could scarcely sail against it."
Determined to explore upriver, and with the tall Yuma Indians watching from the shore, he launched two sloops towed with ropes by men on the shore to augment the rowers and sails.
Upstream, the Spaniards met an Indian who told them he had been to Cibola. This Indian even made an allusion to Esteban, the black companion of Cabeza de Baca.
A bit farther on, the captain decided to return to the ships to get reinforcements and provisions for a trek overland to Cibola.
He met the ships on Sept. 12 and departed again two days later, going as far as the modern city of Yuma at the confluence of the Colorado and Gila rivers.
At this point he turned back toward the ships, probably feeling he did not have the resources to cross the endless desert to the east.
After reaching the ships, this portion of the expedition returned home.
By the fall of 1542 Coronado finished reporting on his northern explorations and returned from the capital at Mexico City to Nueva Galicia, where he was governor. Then, as often happened after expedition, complaints against leaders of Coronado's group started to surface.
These complaints were taken more seriously than earlier times because of the budding Laws of the Indies, which were created to protect the native inhabitants and resulted partially from the exaggerated charges made by Fray Bartolome de Las Casas elsewhere in the New World.
Special prosecutors did not originate in the United States. Emperor Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire, who was also known as Charles I of Spain, appointed one to look into charges being made against Coronado and others.
His name was Lorenzo Tejada.
The charges included maltreatment of the natives, graft and private morals. An interesting note is that among the 28 witnesses interrogated by Tejada, only one was illiterate.
Partly because of his illness, Coronado's self-defense was very weak, and he was found guilty of 13 out of 25 charges.
But the leader was among friends in New Spain, including the viceroy. His sentence consisted of a paltry fine of 650 pesos and the loss of his encomienda, which he recovered on appeal.
Coronado got off easy compared to the unfortunate García López de Cardenas, Coronado's right-hand man, who was tried in Spain.
Cardenas throughout the expedition bore the brunt of the disgreeable assignments given by Coronado.
On the way to Cibola, he was repeatedly sent ahead to verify routes and several times was ordered to make the first attack, such as at Hawikuh, near Zuni. Later he had the bloody task of subduing the pueblos of Arenal and Moho, near Albuquerque.
Cardenas had returned to Spain when his older brother died and he inherited the family fortune. Frustrated by Coronado's light punishment, Tejada the prosecutor sent all the documents concerning Coronado's trial to Spain to be used in Cardenas' prosecution.
Cardenas' trial lasted seven years, during which time he was either in prison or under house arrest. He was accused of almost everything that happened at Tiguex and even of killing El Turco and Sopete.
But Cardenas was not even with the group at Quivira, when El Turco was killed for misleading
Coronado.
And Sopete, another Indian scout, was not killed at all.
Cardenas was finally found guilty, and sentenced to 33 months of military service in Oran, not one of the better assignments. He was also fined 80 gold ducats, a far greater amount than Coronado.
Cardenas developed poor health in Oran, and his service was changed to Navarra and later to a place near Malaga.
Cardenas, it seems, was made an example for future explorers. The Laws of the Indies were acquiring teeth.
NEXT: An expedition for souls.

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