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

CHAPTER 21 LUIS DE FlGUEREDO, THE THlRD DE PARTE WlTNESS

Chapter 21 Luis de Figueredo, the Third de Parte Witness Sent to Sonora I ntil the record of de parte testimony in Culiacán was located appended to AGÍ, Patronato 216, R. 2, in the Archivo General de Indias in Sevilla late in 1997 by Shirley Cushing Flint, not even the existence of an expedition member by the ñame of Luis de Figueredo was known. His ñame did not appear on the muster roll.1 Ñor is such a person mentioned in any of the other known documents associated with the Coronado expedition. Diligent search in the collections of the AGÍ has so far revealed no information about Figueredo beyond the tiny bit he provided in his 1545 testimony before Gómez de la Peña. At about 33 years of age in 1540, he was considerably older than the typical member of the expedition to Tierra Nueva. His settlement in the province of Culiacán following the expedition , combined with his age, suggest that he was a resident of Nueva Galicia prior to 1540. Although he was not a captain or other oíficer, he was aperson of some confidence, having been sent with dispatches to Sonora during the winter of 1540-1541. This assignment also argües for his being an experienced frontiersman. u Luis de Figueredo 407 Because of his absence in Sonora, he did not witness many of the crucial events asked about in the interrogatorio. Thus, his replies were very sketchy, and he frequently answered simply that he did not know. Figueredo was the least informative of all the witnesses in the case, either de oficio or de parte. He insisted that he saw no cruelty committed against native peoples during the course of the expedition, a position clearly at odds with those of most other witnesses. 408 Chapter 21 A TRANSLATION OF THE TESTIMONY Thirdde Parte Witness (Luis de Figueredof [25v cont'd] The aforementioned Luis de Figueredo, a vecino of the villa of San Miguel and a witness presented on behalf of [26r] Francisco Vázquez, having sworn in the form required by law and being asked the questions of the aforesaid interrogatory, stated and declared the following. {1}To the first question he replied that he knows the Francisco Vázquez de Coronado referred to by sight, speech, behavior, and conversation he has had with him for about six years. {personal matters} Asked the questions concerning personal matters specified by law,he said that he is about thirty-eight years oíd and is not a relative of Francisco Vázquez. None of the other questions concerning personal matters applies to him. {2} To the second question the witness answered that he knows what is referred to in it. Asked how he knows, he said that it is because he went on the expedition with Francisco Vázquez and witnessed the public announcement referred to in the question. And, further, he saw that it was adhered to, as related in the question. {3}To the third question he responded [by saying] that he had heard it said that fray Marcos had discovered the land of Cíbola. He knows that in that land there are seven pueblos, as stated in the question. [26v] {4}To the fourth question [Figueredo] replied that what he knows about it is that he saw that when the aforesaid Francisco Vázquez was traveling along the route to Tierra Nueva, he ordered that nothing belonging to the natives [of the lands] through which [the expedition] passed was [even] to be approached without their consent and nothing was to be taken from them without paying for it. This is what he knows concerning the question. {5}To the fifth question [the witness] answered that he says what he has Luis de Figueredo 409 said [in response] to the previous questions. The rest of what is referred to in the question he does not remember, except that he saw [the directives] adhered to exactly as stated in the question. {6} To the sixth question he stated that he says what he has said [in response] to the previous questions. Further, he was present during the war waged against the natives of Cíbola and saw that it was exactly as the question states. However, he was not present during the war in Tiguex. Nevertheless , he heard it said that way. This is what he knows concerning the...