Part 1

Handbook 144

De Soto, Coronado, Cabrillo Explorers of the _Northern Mystery_

By David Lavender Produced by the Division of Publications National Park Service

U.S. Department of the Interior Washington, D.C.

_About this book_

American history begins not with the English at Jamestown or the Pilgrims at Plymouth but with Spanish exploration of the border country from Florida to California in the 16th century. This handbook describes the expeditions of three intrepid explorers—De Soto, Coronado, and Cabrillo—their adventures, their encounters with native inhabitants, and the consequences, good and ill, of their journeys. This little-known story is related by David Lavender, author of many books on the American West. His work gives perspective to the several national parks that commemorate the first Spanish explorations.

National Park Handbooks, compact introductions to the natural and historical places administered by the National Park Service, are designed to promote public understanding and enjoyment of the parks. These handbooks are intended to be informative reading and useful guides. More than 100 titles are in print. They are sold at parks and by mail from the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402.

_Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data_ Lavender, David Sievert, 1910- De Soto, Coronado, Cabrillo: explorers of the northern mystery/by David Lavender. p. cm.—(Handbook; 144) 1. United States—Discovery and exploration—Spanish. 2. Soto, Hernando, de, ca. 1500-1542. 3. Coronado, Francisco Vásques de, 1510-1554. 4. Cabrillo, Juan Rodrígues, d. 1543. 5. Explorers—United States—History—16th century. I. Title. II. Series: Handbook (United States. National Park Service. Division of Publications); 144 E123.L24 1992 973.1—dc20 91-47633 CIP 1992

Prologue 5 The Spanish Entradas 10 _David Lavender_ The Ways of the Conquerors 13 The Wanderers 21 Journey into Darkness 37 Where the Fables Ended 55 The Seafarers 85 Epilogue 97 A Guide to Sites 98 De Soto National Memorial 102 Coronado National Memorial 104 Pecos National Historical Park 106 Cabrillo National Monument 108

Prologue

A magic date: 1492. The year began with Christopher Columbus watching the Moors surrender the city of Granada, their last stronghold in Spain, to the joint monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella. He reminded them of the triumph in a summation he wrote later of what he too had accomplished that year. “I saw the banners of your Highnesses raised on the towers of the Alhambra in the city of Granada, and I saw the Moorish king go out of the gate of the city and kiss the hands of your Highnesses and of my lord the Prince.” Shortly after the victory, he added, “your Highnesses ... determined to send me, Christopher Columbus to the countries of India, so that I might see what they were like, the lands and the people, and might seek out and know the nature of everything that is there....”

This remarkable coincidence—the expulsion of the Moors from Spain and Columbus’s almost simultaneous discovery of the “Indies”—resulted in a burst of explosive expansionism. The following year, 1493, Columbus established Spain’s first colony in the New World on the island of Hispaniola, occupied now by Haiti and the Dominican Republic. By 1515 Cuba had been conquered and its cities of Santiago and Havana established as bases for further exploration. In 1519 Hernán Cortés swept out of Cuba into Mexico and found a new source of wealth for his country, his followers, and himself by looting the Aztec empire of stores of gold and silver the Indians had been accumulating for centuries. A decade later Francisco Pizarro began his dogged and even more lucrative conquest of the Incas of Peru.

Meanwhile, what of the Northern Mystery, as historian Herbert E. Bolton aptly named the unknown lands above Mexico? Was it not logical that similar treasures awaited discovery there? And so the fever for adventure and riches drew three more distance-defying explorers—Hernando de Soto, Francisco Vásquez de Coronado, and Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo—into three different parts of what is now the United States. Each reached as far as he did because inside him burned the awesome, often contradictory, but always steel-bright fires of medieval Spain.

Our tangible connection to this age of pathfinding and discovery is a scattering of historic places stretching from Florida to California. They are evidence of Spanish life and color in the old borderlands. This book draws into a whole the stories of several such places. Here are the beginnings of Spanish North America.

Routes of the Explorers

The first Spanish expeditions into the northern borderlands of New Spain sampled the continent’s wondrous diversity. De Soto made his great march across a luxuriant country so stunning and productive that the expedition’s journals are full of admiring description. He encountered complex native societies, which were often organized into powerful chiefdoms—generous in peace but formidable in war. Centuries of settlement has greatly altered this landscape. Not so Coronado’s country. A traveler to the Southwest can still see places evocative of the first Spanish encounters with Indians of the pueblos and Plains. A sailor retracing Cabrillo’s route up the California coast runs past mountains that, in the words of the chronicler, “seem to reach the heavens ... [and are] covered with snow”—mountains he called the Sierra Nevada. They are today’s Santa Lucia range. Cabrillo’s voyage is now best followed in the imagination.

Timeline

1440-60 The Portuguese explore coast of Africa 1492 Moors defeated in Spain; Columbus lands in New World 1497 Vasco da Gama sails to India by way of Africa 1513 Ponce de León claims Florida for Spain 1519-21 Magellan’s fleet sails around the world 1521 Cortés conquers the Aztecs 1528 Narváez attempts a colony in Florida 1529-36 The wanderings of Cabeza de Vaca 1532 Pizarro overthrows the Incas of Peru 1539-43 De Soto expedition 1540-42 Coronado expedition 1542-43 Cabrillo’s voyage 1562 French Huguenots settle in Florida 1565 Menendez establishes St. Augustine 1584 Ralegh plants colony on North Carolina coast 1598 Oñate expedition into Southwest 1607 English settle at Jamestown 1620 Pilgrims settle at Plymouth

First Expeditions North

De Soto Coronado Cabrillo

1539 Lands in Florida in late May; marches through upper Florida; major battle at Napituca; guerilla war with Apalachees; winter camp at Anhaica (Tallahassee) 1540 Following Indian Departs from Accompanies an trails, expedition Compostela with an exploring expedition swings in a wide arc army of 300 cavalry up the northwest coast through Georgia, South and infantry, several as _almirante_ (second Carolina, North hundred Indian allies, in command). Carolina, and Alabama, friars, and a long Expedition abandoned encountering major pack train. Alarcón after its leader is chiefdoms. Bloody sails up the Gulf of killed fighting battle at Mabila California with three Indians. (central Alabama) in vessels. Expedition October penetrates American Southwest, reaches Háwikuh in July; engages the Zuñi in battle; Coronado wounded. Tovar explores Hopi villages in Arizona. Alarcón reaches mouth of Colorado River. Cárdenas sights the Grand Canyon. Alvarado marches to Acoma, Pecos, and beyond. 1541 Winters among Journeys to Quivira Gathers a new ancestral Chickasaw (Kansas). Winters at exploring fleet for Indians of Mississippi Tiguex; puts down an Mendoza. and suffers attack by Indian revolt. them; crosses Mississippi in May; travels in great loop through Arkansas; discovers buffalo hunters and a people who live in scattered houses and not in villages; endures severe winter at Autiamque 1542 Reaches the rich The army departs for Dispatched by Mendoza chiefdom of Anilco; at home in April, arrives to continue nearby Guachoya, De in Mexico City in exploration of the Soto sends out scout mid-summer. Coronado northwest. parties who find reports to Viceroy _June:_ Sails from nothing but Antonio de Mendoza on Navidad, near Colima, wilderness; De Soto expedition, resumes Mexico. dies, is succeeded by his governorship of _September 28:_ Sights Moscoso. After Nueva Galicia. Months “a sheltered port and fruitless wandering in later Coronado is a very good one.” This east Texas, Moscoso tried for is San Diego Bay, retraces route to mismanagement of which he names San Anilco expedition but Miguel. acquitted. _October:_ Sails through the Channel Islands, suffers fall and injury. _November:_ Reaches the northernmost point of the voyage, perhaps Point Reyes, California, but turns back. 1543 Winter camp at Aminoya _January 3:_ Dies on on Mississippi; San Miguel Island survivors—half the (Channel Islands). original number—build _February:_ The fleet boats to float sails north again, downriver; in perhaps as far as September, they reach Oregon before turning Pánuco River, in Mexico back. _April:_ Fleet arrives back at Navidad, nine months after embarking.

The Spanish _Entradas_

The Ways of the Conquerors

An estimated 3,000 battles wracked the Iberian Peninsula between AD 711, when Moors from Africa invaded what became Spain, and 1492, when they were finally expelled. Nor were battles against the Moors the only ones. The Christian leaders of the peninsula’s several principalities fought each other and their recalcitrant nobles in a constant quest for power, until finally Ferdinand and Isabella welded together, by marriage, all the units except Portugal.

Centralization of power in the hands of national governments was one of the characteristics that marked the slow emergence in Europe of what history calls the modern world. The reasons are manifold. A central government supported by a rising middle class of merchants and bankers was able to create big armies of professional soldiers and equip them with newly introduced gunpowder, a capability quite beyond the reach of the old feudal nobles. Concurrently, the new governments consolidated economic power, partly through nationwide taxation. New industries were encouraged. Feelings of nationalism swelled; people took pride in considering themselves Spaniards rather than just Castillians.

International trade assumed new importance, especially trade with the Orient, whose extraordinary wealth had been revealed by the adventures of the Venetian family of Polo as recounted by Marco, the youngest of the group. Land caravans to the fabled East were difficult, however, and limited by interruptions and tributes imposed by Moslem middlemen. So why not travel to the Orient by water, either by circling the southern tip of Africa or sailing due west across the Atlantic?

The most logical place in Europe for starting the endeavor was the Iberian Peninsula, which dipped down toward Africa and all but closed off the western end of the Mediterranean Sea. The exploration of Africa was launched during the middle of the 15th century by Prince Henry the Navigator of tiny Portugal. His success and that of the Portuguese rulers who followed him was so astounding that Ferdinand and Isabella at last agreed to support Columbus in a competitive transatlantic attempt. The point is vital. Spain’s feudal nobles probably could not have financed the expedition; the central government of newly unified Spain did.

Columbus took the risk because he believed, as had the ancient Greeks, that the circumference of the world was much smaller than it actually was. He also believed, as had Marco Polo, that Asia extended farther east than it does. When he found land at approximately the longitude that he expected to, he assumed joyfully that he was close to Cathay (China) and the islands of India. From that misapprehension comes, of course, the name West Indies for the islands of the Caribbean and Indians for their inhabitants, a term that quickly spread throughout the hemisphere.

The islands and the eastern coasts of Central America and the northwestern part of South America that he and Amerigo Vespucci (hence the name America) skirted on separate expeditions during the following decade were disappointing—no teeming cities crowned with exotic architecture, no kings and queens dressed in flowing silk and laden with precious gems, no warehouses bulging with expensive spices. To a less energetic nation than Spain, the failure of expectations might have ended further activity. But emerging Spain saw opportunities in the wilderness. Some gold could be taken from the placer mines on the island of Hispaniola. Plantations worked by enslaved Indians could be developed on Cuba and Puerto Rico. Those Indians—all Indians—had a greater attraction than just as laborers, however. Alone of all European nations, Spain was committed to incorporating the native Americans into the empire as loyal, taxpaying subjects. Priests accompanied exploring expeditions. After the _entradas_ were completed, missionaries settled among the tribes and began the civilizing process, as civilization was defined by the conquerors.

The Spaniards saw themselves as particularly fitted for carrying out this God-given program. Eight centuries of war against the Moors had brought a strong sense of unity to the peninsula’s extraordinary mix of bloodlines—descendants of ancient Greeks, Romans, Carthegenians, and Celts as well as indigenous Iberians. Contests with Muslims and attacks on Jews through the Inquisition (Jews were also expelled from Spain in 1492) had spread a crusading religious fervor throughout the nation. Many a Spaniard felt in his bones what was in fact the truth: Spain was poised in the 16th century for a great leap forward that would, for a time, make her the dominant power in Europe. Supreme confidence generated in many Spaniards a pride that unfriendly nations such as England regarded as arrogance.

One side effect of all this was the creation of a large class of professional soldiers who scorned all other callings. Success in battle brought them a living of sorts; victors, for example, could force Muslims to work patches of ground for them. A man could become an _hidalgo_, entitled to use the word _Don_ in front of his name and pass it on, generation after generation, to his sons. The first-born of these families picked up the nation’s plums. They were appointed to prestigious places in the army, the church, or the royal bureaucracy. For the rest there was little but their swords and a readiness for adventure.

The New World opened new opportunities for these younger sons and their followers. They could join small private armies that went, with the monarch’s permission, into the Americas to spread the gospel among the “heathens” while simultaneously looting the defeated Indians’ storehouses of treasure and taking their lands. Prime examples of this grasping for treasure are furnished by some of the _conquistadores_ who hailed from the harsh, barren lands of the Extremadura region of Castile—names that still ring triumphantly throughout most of the New World: Hernán Cortés, Vasco Nuñez de Balboa, the brothers Pizarro, and Hernando de Soto.

The crown gave little except permission and titles—_adelantado_ (“he who leads the way”) and governor—to men such as these. But if the risks were great, so too at times were the rewards. As already indicated, there might be riches to divide after the king had taken his 20 percent share. There were plantations to be founded and tended by Indians who gave their labor, however willingly, in exchange for being taught the ways of Christians. The size of each man’s share in these gains depended partly on his initial investment in the expedition. Money wasn’t all. The contribution could be—and this was a crucial point—energy, ability, intense patriotism, religious zeal, and often ruthlessness.

Each man took with him to the New World what he had. Apparently there were few full suits of armor, though Francisco Vásquez de Coronado did possess one that was handsomely gilded to look like the gold he was searching for.

Partial suits—coats of mail made of small, interlinked rings of metal or cuirasses of plate armor that protected the wearer’s front and sides—were more numerous. Most cuirasses were made with a ridge running down the front and curved in such a way that a lance point striking the metal would, it was hoped, glance off without penetrating. It was hoped, too, that arrows would be similarly deflected. The chronicles tell, however, of Indian bows driving arrows entirely through plate armor and of cane arrows splintering on striking chain mail. The needle-sharp pieces then passed through the metal rings, inflicting puncture wounds that festered. Jackets made of quilted padding or even of tough bullhide were probably as effective against arrows as metal.

Footmen, who constituted the greater part of every New World expedition, carried pikes or halberds, crossbows or arquebuses, and sometimes maces or battle axes. A crossbow, whose string was pulled tight by a crank, propelled iron darts with great force and accuracy from grooves in the weapon’s stock. An arquebus was a primitive musket about 3 feet in length but lacked accuracy at distances greater than 75 yards or so. Indians, it turned out, could shoot several arrows in the time the handler of a crossbow or arquebus could fire once.

Cavalrymen, the elite of the force, were armed with lances, swords for slashing, and daggers. Long lances were generally couched against the rider’s body, as in tournaments or charges against similarly equipped European adversaries. A lance driven through an Indian’s body, however, would sometimes hang up and pull the rider from his saddle. Accordingly, shorter weapons held in an upraised hand were preferred in the New World. They could be hurled or held and directed at the enemy’s face—an enemy on foot, for the native Americans did not yet have horses.

The _conquistadores_ were as superb horsemen as the world has seen. Their animals were loved and pampered. During the early years in the Americas they were relatively rare and expensive (few survived the tempestuous sea journey from Europe to become breeding stock), and just the sight of them terrified Indians. The fearful impact of a cavalry charge, lances flying or thrusting, swords slashing, and wardogs sometimes racing beside the horses, goes far to explain how small groups of Spaniards were able to triumph over great numerical odds. Pedro de Casteñada, one of the historians of the Coronado expedition, put it thus: “after God, we owed the victory to the horses.”