Encouraged by a reported sighting of one of the Seven Cities of Cibola (see entry for 1539), Antonio de Mendoza, the viceroy of New Mexico, sends an expedition of 300 Spanish soldiers and one thousand Indians lead by Francisco Vasquez de Coronado north in search of riches. On July 7 Coronado arrives in the Zuni pueblo of Hawikuh near what is now Albuquerque, New Mexico. The army has to battle the Zuni to gain entrance. Inside, they are disappointed when they cannot find any great stores of gold.
Coronado’s troops remain among the Zuni for four months. They enrage the Indians by their brutality and constant demands for food and supplies. Still intent on finding wealth, Coronado, who has invested most of his own money in the expedition, sends a small party under Garcia Lopez de Cardenas to the lands of the Hopi. The Hopi tell them of a great river to the west; during an expedition to find it, the men become the first whites to see the Grand Canyon. Another exploratory party travels through the Rio Grande Valley. Its members are impressed by the enormous herds of buffalo they see on the Great Plains.
Coronado decides to lead the entire expedition into the Plains when a Zuni assures them that there the Spaniards will find the gold they are looking for. During the trek, Coronado’s men make contact with many Indian groups, who are repelled by the Spaniards’ violence but intrigued by the horses, cattle, and other European livestock they have brought with them. The Spanish travel as far east as present-day Wichita, Kansas, before turning back empty-handed. In 1542, Coronado arrives in Mexico, where the expedition is considered such a disaster that no Spanish parties will be sent into the American West for the next 40 years.
The Choctaw nearly destroy the de Soto expedition.
While traveling through the lands of the Choctaw, Spanish soldiers led by Hernando de Soto (see entry for 1539) threaten tribal leader Tuskaloosa and demand that he give over several tribe members for the Spaniards to use as slaves. Tuskaloosa agrees and tells the invaders to meet him at the village of Moma Bina near what is now Mobile, Alabama, to collect the captives. When de Soto and his men arrive, they are met by a huge army of Choctaw warriors. The Spaniards manage to escape only by setting fire to the village and, in the process, many of their own possessions. Many Spaniards are killed, and more, including de Soto, are wounded by the Choctaw’s arrows. (See also entry for MAY 21, 1542.)
World History
