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

CHAPTER 8 RODRIGO XIMÓN, THE SIXTH DE OFICIO WITNESS

Chapter 8 Rodrigo Ximón, the Sixth de Oficio Witness \Veteran of the Conquest of Nueva Galicia nother native of the Spanish province of Huelva, Rodrigo Ximón was from Moguer and, with his father, was part of a forcé sent to Nueva España to aid Cortés. Later, in 1527, Alonso de Estrada, then governor,granted the towns of Cuatitanapa andTenango in encomienda to Ximón as recompense for services in Nueva España. He went on the conquest of Nueva Galicia with Ñuño de Guzmán in 1530, where he stayed more than ten years and received encomiendas. In 1534 his encomiendas in Nueva España were taken away and given to others. He never recovered them, although he brought suit in hopes of doing so.The fiscal in that case, as in the pesquisa of 1544, was Cristóbal de Benavente.1 Ximón was in his early to middle 30s when he left México City for Tierra Nueva. By 1544 he was a vecino of México City and was said to have no encomiendas.2 He had diedby!562.3 When Ximón testified during the pesquisa conducted byTejada on June 6, he volunteered much additional information beyond simply answering the questions, as though he knew already what issues he was expected to address. This is the case with a number of witness, suggesting that they had detailed A Rodrigo Ximón 127 knowledge of precisely what the inquiry was about before they appeared as witnesses. The overall sense of his testimony, like that of so many others, is that the Spaniards werejustified in what they did and that Vázquez de Coronado was always very solicitous of the welfare of the Indians. Still, he had litde or no reluctance about telling of violence against the Indians ordered by the captain general, apparently becausehe was certain those actions were both reasonable and legal.Thus, he openly recounted the torture of Bigotes and the cacique, the burning of 20 to 30 Indian prisoners at Pueblo del Arenal, and the killing of most of another 80 to 100 at Pueblo del Cerco. n8 ChapterS A TRANSLATION OF THE TESTIMONY Sixth de Oficio Witness (Rodrigo Ximón)* [36r cont'd] Rodrigo Ximón, a citizen of the city of México, presentad and accepted as a witness for this investigation, having given his oath in legal form and havingpromised to tell the truth,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, don Tristán de Arellano , [36v] don Rodrigo Maldonado, the councilman of Sevilla Diego López, don Pedro de Tovar, Hernando de Alvarado, Juan de Zaldívar, Barrionuevo, and the other captains who went to reconnoiter and subjugate the tierra nueva of Cíbola, Tiguex, Cicuique, Brava, 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 more than the last five years. He was present during the subjugation and reconnaissance of all those provinces from the beginning until they returned to this city of México. [2] The witness was asked whether the people of the valley of Corazones (the one they cali Señora), [37r] Uraba, and the other towns and provinces that there are between Culiacán and Cíbola carne out in peace, when [the Spaniards] passed through there, and rendered obedience to His Majesty. Did they provide food from what they had to the Spaniards, and did theywelcome them into their houses and towns, without taking up arms or offering any resistance? He answered that it is truc that the people of allthose towns carne out in peace. They made [the Spaniards] very welcome and gave the foodstuffs that they had. And they rendered obedience to His Majesty and to the general in his royal ñame. The witness did not see that any of them took up arms or offered resistance. [3] [Ximón] was asked whether, when [the Spaniards] had arrived at Rodrigo Ximón 129 Cíbola, [the people] of that province oífered peace or whether they ofFered resistance and went to war with the general and the army that went with him. Did [the Spaniards] summon them [37v] to come...