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171 introduction f ray marcos de niza’s trip to tierra nueva reinforced earlier general expectations of wealthy peoples living to the north of nueva españa and seemed to confirm the grapevine intelligence brought by cabeza de vaca and his companions. As a result, in the fall of 1539, recruitment of an expedition bound for cíbola was a simple matter. As pedro de castañeda de nájera later remembered it, “in a few days more than three hundred spaniards were assembled and about eight hundred indians native to nueva españa.” 1 But the imminent departure from the ciudad de méxico of such a large group raised fears and rekindled jealousies. even nearly 20 years after the conquest of tenochtitlan, central mexico remained a land occupied and held largely by force. resentments and animosities directed against the recent old world usurpers ran deep and often flared into violence. Hostility was even more open and frequent in the recently subjugated provincia of nueva Galicia. 2 thus, the king, in approving the expedition, specifically admonished the viceroy “not to cause any deficiency in security or population of that nueva españa.” 3 And it was only to be expected that when the coronado expedition was mounted, some residents of the viceroyalty, including Hernán cortés, argued that “if don Antonio [de mendoza] pursues this exploration, he will not be able to do so without leaving nueva españa unprotected and at great risk and danger. . . . And as a result [of the expedition], there would be the same problem in nueva Galicia.” 4 such misgivings were not idle imaginings. As cortés was later only too ready to point out, “in confirmation of this, since i arrived in these kingdoms [spain], letters have come from nueva españa in which is written news concerning these people sent by the viceroy [which] tells and affirms that those he sent first, which were twelve horsemen, are dead. further, some native towns in nueva Galicia in which francisco vázquez has been have risen in arms.” 5 one of the implications of cortés’s complaint is that not only was nueva españa rendered vulnerable by the expedition ’s departure, but the expedition’s passage through native communities as it headed north actually provoked indian attacks. indeed, it hardly seems coincidental that the greatest threat to spanish sovereignty to that point, the mixtón war in nueva Galicia, broke out within months of the coronado expedition’s departure. there were, certainly, powerfulpeople in the new world who claimed a direct causal link between passage of the expedition and outbreak of the mixtón war. 6 Visitador general francisco tello de sandoval, for instance, lodged numerous charges against the viceroy, including one that “the native indians of Jalisco had risen up and rebelled against His majesty’s service and had killed spaniards, ecclesiastics , and lay brothers [events of the mixtón war] because of the abuse they had suffered from the people [the viceroy] Document 14 Hearing on Depopulation Charges, February 26, 1540 AGi, patronato, 21, n.2, r.3 172 DocuMent 14 had sent in armed forces and for reconnaissance, especially those sent to the tierra nueva of cíbola.” 7 in this matter mendoza strenuously denied any negligence or malfeasance on his behalf, citing in his defense the testimony of 33 witnesses, including vázquez de coronado. 8 the captain general himself also took great pains to show that the expedition he led had not inflicted harm on native people north of compostela. During the 1544 investigation of the expedition’s treatment of indians, vázquez de coronado and his attorney pointedly asked witnesses whether “the natives of all the lands and provinces through which the army passed, both men and women, were treated very benevolently” and whether “from the city of compostela the aforesaid francisco vázquez de coronado issued and ordered proclaimed ordinances very beneficial to the natives.” As would be expected, the de parte witnesses of whom the questions were asked uniformly answered in the affirmative. 9 nor did such charges arise only after the expedition was under way. rather, they were current and common during recruitment of the force. to parry those allegations, the captain general requested that, during the formal muster of the expedition, its participants be examined to demonstrate that the company was not made up of vecinos of the ciudad de méxico or nueva Galicia, who would have pledged to reside...

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