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

CHAPTER 24 A FINAL AND DEFINITIVE DECISION

Chapter 24 A Finaland Definitive Decisión The Captain General Exonerated * ithout explaining their action in detail, on February 19,1546, Viceroy Mendoza and the four oidores of the audienciaissued their judgment in the caseof mistreatment ofIndians inTierra Nueva, at least as far as Francisco Vázquez de Coronado was concerned. In one short paragraph they announced that the fiscal had not substantiated his complaint,while the accusedhad disproved responsibility for all offenses with which he was charged. And they enjoined the fiscal from pursuing the case farther. Fiscal Benavente did not appeal the audiencias decisión, an acknowledgement that the case for his original accusation had not been strong. Besides, Francisco Tello de Sandovals visita of all of the royal officials of Nueva España, including the fiscal, was now in íull swing. Benaventes decisi ón not to appeal the exoneration of Vázquez de Coronado bespeaks a closing of ranks among the royal oíficials to present a united front in order to thwart the fiíll-scale assault that Teüo de Sandovals visita was seen to be. Breaking rankswith the viceroy and oidores over the decisión in the Vázquez w 458 Chapter 24 de Coronado case would have been Ul-advised, and the benefits of allowing the decisión to go uncontested had positive results for Benavente himself. As a result of his decisión not to mount an appeal, for example, Vázquez de Coronado was a friendly and supportive witness during thefiscals own visita, which began that year and extended into 1547.1 With no appeal lodged, Vázquez de Coronado was free to forestall possible future pursuit of the case by requesting that a statement of final judgment be issued in the kings ñame. In due course, on December 20,1547, the sought-after final judgment was forthcoming. It recapitulated the course of the legal proceedings in the case, summarized the fiscal s accusations and Vázquez de Coronados defenses, included a copy of the audiencias decisión, painted a picture of the former captain general in the most glowing terms, and concluded by mandating that the audiencias decisión henceforth be íully and stricdy adhered to in all courts of law. Not only did the statement pronounce Vázquez de Coronado not culpable on the issue of mistreatment of indigenous people ofTierra Nueva,but evenjudged him worthy of reward for his performanceas captain general of the expedition. The statement of final judgment was brought forward in 1553 in Vázquez de Coronados successful effort to regain his status as encomendero of the towns Aguacadán and Xala west of Guadalajara and the estancias of Mezquitlán to the north, and Guaxacatlán, Tepuzuacán, Amaxaque, Amatlán, and a second Mezquitlán to the west. And it served in 1605 as part of the proof of the worthiness of Francisco Pacheco de Córdova y Bocanegra, one of the grandsons of Francisco Vázquez de Coronado.2 When, in 1617, Pacheco de Córdova y Bocanegra was made marqués de Villamayor de las Inviernas it was partly in belated reward for his grandfather s service commended so highly in the final judgment of 1547. A Final andDefinitive Decisión 459 FIGURE 15. Facsímile of Final page, AGÍ,Justicia, 267, N.3, íbl. 125v 460 Chapter24 A TRANSLATION OF THE DECISIONS Decisión of the Audiencia in the Case3 [125r cont'd] I was ordered to give a copy of the accusation to Francisco Vázquez, to which he responded with a number of justifications. On this account, he asked to be set free. The parties were received and a time limit was agreed upon. Within that time [the parties each] submitted affidavits. When the case was definitively closed, the lord licenciado Tejada sent the proceedings to the royal audiencia. When the lords president and judges of the audiencia had reviewed it, they announced and rendered a final decisión in the case, the sum and substance of which is as foliows. In the criminal proceedings involving Cristóbal de Benavente (His Majesty s fiscal of the royal audiencia), as one party, and Francisco Vázquez de Coronado (formerly His Majesty s governor of the province of Nueva Galicia and formerly named and designated as captain general of the province of Cíbola and the newly discovered land) and his attorney on his behalf, as the other...