Great Cruelties Have Been Reported: The 1544 Investigation of the Coronado Expedition

CHAPTER 7 JUAN DE CONTRERAS, THE FlFTH DE OFICIO WlTNESS

Chapter 7 Juan de Contreras, the Fifth de Oficio Witness The Head Groom "uan de Contreras received a license to go to Nueva España in 1538 from his home in Lepe near Huelva in Andalucía, Spain.1 By September 1539 he was a member of Viceroy Mendozas personal guard, in which he rved until leaving with the expedition to Tierra Nueva.2 During the expedition he was "always personally with Francisco Vázquez, because he was his head groom. He alwaysate and lived in his house and slept at the entrance to his tent." He took with him a respectable number of three horses.3 Upon returning to México City, he worked as an interpreter for the audiencia, a position he continued to occupy as late as 1582.4 As might be expected because of his very cióse association with both the captain general and the viceroy, the only suggestions of wrongdoing he made during his testimony before Tejada inJune 1544 did not touch either of those individuáis. He even gave a completely sanitized account of the capture of Cíbola, from which all reference to fighting was expunged, an account at variance with every other known account of those events. He did, however, suggest that some culpability for mistreatment of native peoples rested with Juan de Villegas, García López de Cárdenas, andTristán deArellano. Despite that, I io8 Chapter7 the pervading tenor of his statements was that Vázquez de Coronado and his captains always behaved properly toward the natives of Tierra Nueva, even though he said that the captain general had ordered and was present at the unleashing of dogs against Bigotes and the cacique. Ñor, according to Contreras , did Vázquez de Coronado punish Juan de Villegas for the rape he committed, although he was aware of it. Although Contreras spoke asthough anyviolence committed by the captain generáis order wasjustified, he provided some of the most graphic eyewitness testimony of that violence, which may have eventually led to the fiscals lodging of charges of cruelty against Vázquez de Coronado. He told, for instance, of the hands, noses, and tongues of Indians being cut off at San Gerónimo; of dogs being set on messengers from Cicuique and on three prisoners at Pueblo del Cerco; of Bigotes and the cacique being tortured three times; and of 13Tiguex pueblos burned, aswell as 15Tiguex prisoners. That testimony certainly must have added to the weight of evidence against López de Cárdenas who claimed that Contreras, Juan Troyano, and Melchior Pérez were among his principal enemies, for which reason their testimony concerning his actions during the expedition should be disregarded.5 Juan de Contreras 109 A TRANSLATION OF THE TESTIMONY Fifth de Oficio Witness (Juan de Contreras)6 [27r cont'd] Juan de Contreras, an interpreter for the Royal Audiencia and avecino of the city of México, accepted as awitness for this investigation, having given his oath in the form required by law, by God, Santa María, and a sign of the cross, promised to tell the truth. He was asked the following questions. {1} He was asked whether he knows Francisco Vázquez de Coronado, don García López de Cárdenas, don Diego de Guevara, donTristán de Arellano , Diego López (a councilman of Sevilla), don Rodrigo Maldonado, Hernando de Alvarado, Barrionuevo, Zaldívar, [27v] don Pedro deTovar, and the other captains who went to reconnoiter and subjugate the tierra nueva of Cíbola, Tiguex, Cicuique, and Quivira and the other neighboring provinces. He answered that he knows all of those mentioned in the question, by appearance, voice, behavior, and conversation that he has had with them for about the last five years. He was present during the subjugation and reconnaissance of allthose provinces from the beginning until they returned to this city. He was always personally with Francisco Vázquez, because he was his head groom. He always ate and lived in his house and slept at the entrance to his tent. [2] [The witness] was asked whether the people of the valleys of Corazones , Señora, and Uraba and the other towns and provinces that there are between Culiacán and Cíbola carne out to Francisco Vázquez in peace, without offering any resistance, [28r] and rendered obedience to his majesty. Did they provide the necessary food they...