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

CHAPTER 12 MELCHIOR PÉREZ, THE TENTH DE OFICIO WITNESS

Chapter 12 Melchior Pérez, the Tenth de Oficio Witness Son of the Previous Governor aving regained sufficient health to travel, licenciado Tejada made the overland journey to Guadalajara in Governor Francisco .Vázquez de Coronados province of Nueva Galicia. There, on August 12,1544, he called asthe íirst witness in the continuation of his investigation of the expeditiorís treatment of Indians Melchior Pérez, son of Vázquez de Coronado s predecessor in the governorship, Diego Pérez de la Torre.1 Pérez de la Torre, after having served less than two years as governor, had died before Vázquez de Coronado arrived to replace him and conduct his residencia late in 1538. The new governor and juez de residencia initially announced that he would conduct the administrative review as ordered, thus putting the goods of Pérez de la Torre s heirs at jeopardy. He subsequently decided, however, to bring no charges, a turn of events for which Melchior Pérez must have been grateful.2 The younger Pérez had come to Nueva España in 1529 at about age 15 from his home town ofTorremejía near Mérida in Spain.3 He married at least twice, first to an Indian woman, with whom he had three daughters, and then in the early 1550s to Juana de Cáceres, daughter of a first conqueror of Nueva H Mekhior Pérez 207 España who had arrived with Panfilo de Narváez.4 His Household included not only his wife and children, but also at least three brothers and two sisters.5 One of his daughters, Catalina Mejía, during the 1540s became the wife of fellow expedition member and fellow witness in the 1544 investigation Pedro de Ledesma.6 Pérez and Ledesma are mentioned together in numerous documents of the period. Both of them, for example, testified on behalf ofJuan de Zaldívar in 1566. Ledesma may even have lived in Pérezs household. At least, he also changed city of residence at the same time Pérez did.7 Pérez was encomendero of Cuyupuztlán, west of Guadalajara, from the 1530s until he gave the encomienda as dowry to his daughter Catalina in her marriage to Ledesma.8 Said to be a vecino of the city of Guadalajara in 1544 and still in 1551, Pérez shifted his place of citizenship several times in later years.9 In 1552, he said he was a vecino of Compostela.10 In 1563, however, he was a vecino of México City.11 And just three years later he was a vecino of Colima.12 With his íuture son-in-law, Pérez went to Tierra Nueva in the company of CaptainJuan de Zaldívar, also awitness in the 1544 investigation.13 During the expedition he served as alguacil mayor or chief constable and aposentador or billeting officer for the whole forcé. He claimed to have spent more than 3,000 pesosbecause of the expedition, and he took athousand hogs and sheep along, whether as a speculative investment for anticipated sale to other expedition members or as part of the fmancing of the expedition that would earn him a share of the proceeds is not known. Certainly though, he was one of the most well-to-do members of the expedition, a fact further underscored by the seven or eight horses and two ladino Blacks he also took with him. Years later he stated that on his return from Tierra Nueva he was in debt for more than 500 pesos.14 When questioned byTejada in August 1544, Pérez was another witness who oífered long, detailed Information beyond what he was asked, as though he knew what he wasgoing to be asked about. He suggested that Vázquez de Coronado was kept in the dark about the rape and robberies at Indian towns. He was the first witness to be grilled about López de Cárdenas and his possible culpability in the matter of brutality committed against Indians. It is as 208 Chapter 12 though the main target of the investigation had by now shifted decisively to the maestre de campo. Later, becauseof such testimony asthat given by Pérez in 1544, López de Cárdenas claimed that Pérez, Juan de Contreras, and Juan Troyano were among his principal enemies.15 Like many of the other witnesses in...