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326 introduction t he winter of 1541–42 was especially hard on the coronado expedition. food and clothing were scarce; people and animals were sick and dying. 1 Among the ill that february of 1542 at the pueblo called coafor (or coofor, as it was also spelled) was a man named Juan Jiménez, who was suffering from an unidentified malady. Jiménez, a native of Guadalcanal in the modern spanish comunidad of Andalucía, had mustered into the expedition two years earlier as a horseman not yet assigned to a company. 2 During the night watch of february 16–17 a crisis occurred, and Jiménez sensed that he would not recover. in fear that he would not survive the night, he sent for the sentinels making their rounds and asked them to witness the naming of albaceas (executors) of his last will and testament. saying that he was in no condition to dictate a will, Jiménez asked that his long-time friends Antón negrín and Jorge Báez prepare one on his behalf, in accordance with what he had told them on many occasions. they were to do as they knew he would wish for the unburdening of his soul and the disposal of his 200 pesos’ worth of worldly goods. if he lived through the night, he would make a proper statement to that effect before Hernando Bermejo, the secretary of the expedition, come daylight. But before morning, Jiménez died. within a matter of days, on february 25, negrín and Báez appeared before the maestre de campo and the secretary to present a report of what had occurred at coafor on the night of Jiménez’s death, together with the four witnesses to their appointment as executors: Alonso Álvarez, Gerónimo ramos, Antonio Álvarez, and Antón pérez Buscavida. Don tristán de Luna y Arellano examined the witnesses, who certified that Jiménez had indeed designated negrín and Báez to handle his affairs, in preference to all others. A little over a month after Jiménez’s death, with authorization from the maestre de campo, negrín and Báez made an inventory of their deceased friend’s stock and the goods in his room at coafor. three days later, on march 18, 1542, all of Jiménez’s goods except horseshoeing tools, a hat, a hide, a packsaddle, spurs, a machete, and a lance point were sold at public auction. A black pregonero (crier) named pedro was the auctioneer for this sale in coafor. if the auction (almoneda ) proceeded like others of the time, pedro either stationed himself in a public place at coafor or circulated through the pueblo, calling out the items for sale and keeping track of the bids offered by expedition members. 3 the goods that sold were purchased by five men, with the promise to pay within six months, indicating an understandable scarcity of cash money at this point late in the course of the expedition. After his return to nueva españa, Antón negrín, the only surviving executor, 4 dutifully prepared and executed a will for Juan Jiménez, arranging for payment of his debts and collection of his loans, giving bequests to the hospital and several cofradías, or religious confraternities, in the Document 27 Disposal of the Juan Jiménez Estate, 1542 (Copy, 1550) AGi, contratación, 5575, n.24 Disposal of the Juan Jiménez Estate, 1542 327 ciudad de méxico and puebla de los Ángeles, and paying for masses to be said for his dead friend’s soul and those of his parents. the record of these events was eventually copied into a later document and preserved in the Archivo General de indias in sevilla as AGi, contratación, 5575, n.24, “Bienes de difuntos, Juan Jiménez, tenancingo, november 19, 1550.” the document is a 1550 copy of an accounting made in 1545 at the direction of the visitador francisco tello de sandoval, one of a series conducted in the process of investigating the discharge of duties by officials in overseeing the dispersal of estates, only a small part of his three-year visita of the royal officials of nueva españa. it was into that 1545 accounting that copies of documents from 1541 and 1542 were incorporated. the 1550 copy was made in accordance with a royal cédula, for what purpose is not said. 5 the copy is published here...

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