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

CHAPTER 20 DIEGO LÓPEZ, THE SECOND DEPARTE WITNESS

Chapter 20 Diego López, the Second de Parte Witness A Councilman of Sevilla andVeteran of the Conquest of Nueva Galicia fter Lorenzo Álvarez testifica, an interval of more than two months elapsed before Francisco Pilo presented his final three witnesses: Diego López, Luis de Figueredo, and Pedro de Tovar, all of whom gave answers in response to the interrogatorio on March 12,1545. Diego López, always referred to by his tide as one of the 24 regidores or city councilmen of Sevilla in Spain,1 mustered into the expedition to Tierra Nueva as a captain of horsemen. As was befitting his high status and relative wealth, he took seven horses with him.2 If his statement before Gómez de la Peña was correct, he was about 25 years oíd when the expedition began. This would also mean that he was only in his mid teens when, as a participant in Ñuño Beltrán de Guzmárís entrada into Nueva Galicia, he became one of the original settlers of Guadalajara in 1531.3 He was, thus, one of the members of the expedition to Tierra Nueva with longest service in the Indies. That veteran status may have recommended his election to the post of maestre de campo of the expedition when, in early summer 1541, García López de Cárdenas was disabled by a broken arm. In Quivira later that summer the capA 390 Chapter 20 tain general assigned Diego López to investígate the reportedly traitorous acts of El Turco and to execute him. He had earlier been sent by Vázquez de Coronado to read the requerimiento at Pueblo del Arenal. In 1539, a royal cédula directed Viceroy Mendoza to provide López with a corregimiento. Following the expedition, he took up residence in the province of Culiacán, where he became a vecino or citizen. In the late 1540s he was encomendero of the pueblo de Guachimeto and half of two others.4 In the course of his residence in the New World, López returned to Spain at least twice. After the last sojourn in Spain he returned to Nueva España in 1555 with his wife doña Beatriz Grijalvo and a son.5 Twelve years later, López having evidendy died, 19 pueblos in the province of Culiacán once held by him in encomienda, were now held by his son Gonzalo.6 In his testimony in 1545 concerning treatment of Indians by the expedition to Tierra Nueva, López, like most other witnesses, both de oficio and de parte,judged the Spaniards' actions there to havebeen completelyjustified. In his view, all hostility had been provoked by the natives, and any punishment inflicted on them was deserved because they had killed many members of the expedition. He admitted that he himself, while acting as maestre de campo, had ordered the killing of El Turco, of which he gave a very brief account, attempting to justiíy his action. López insisted that no Indian servants had been taken by members of the expedition, a claim contradicted by several other witnesses who referred to the captain generals order that all such individuáis had to be left inTierra Nueva when the expedition returned to the south. The councilman of Sevilla revealed in his testimony that the fighting at Pueblo del Arenal had been savage, "without mercy." On the whole, López was righteously indignant and denied that abuse of any sort had been perpetrated against the indigenous peoples encountered by the expedition. Diego López 391 A TRANSLATION OF THE TESTIMONY Secondde Parte Witness (Diego López)1 [19r cont'd] Diego López (councilman of Sevilla), a resident at the mines [of Nuestra Señora de los Remedios] and awitness presented on behalf of the aforesaid Francisco Vázquez, having sworn in legal form and being questioned in accordance with the substance of the interrogatory, testified and declared himself as follows. {1} To the first question he answered that he has known the Francisco Vázquez mentioned in the question for seven years. {personal matters} He was questioned on personal matters in accordance with the law and replied [by saying] that he is about thirty years oíd and is not a relative of the aforesaid Francisco Vázquez. None of the other questions on personal matters required by law applies...