How long was francisco coronado voyage

The survivors lived among the natives of the region for four years, and Cabeza de Vaca carved out roles as a trader and a healer in the community. In he and the other three surviving members of his original party set out for Mexico, where they hoped to connect with other representatives of the Spanish empire.

They traveled through Texas, and possibly what are now New Mexico and Arizona, before arriving in northern Mexico in , where they met up with fellow Spaniards, who were in the region to capture enslaved people. Cabeza de Vaca deplored the Spanish explorers' treatment of Indians, and when he returned home in he advocated for changes in Spain's policy.

After a brief term as governor of a province in Mexico, he became a judge in Seville, Spain, a position he occupied for the remainder of his life. Although publicly scorned and discredited, he again resumed his position of governor of Nueva Galicia.

He and his captains were subsequently called in to account for their actions during the quest, including the maltreatment of indigenous peoples. Ten years after his return, at the age of 42, he died in relative obscurity. He could not know, however, that the expedition he had led would set the stage for the saga of the American and Mexican West. Native American religions would shift, sometimes forcibly, to incorporate the teachings of the Franciscan and Jesuit priests who would follow the expedition.

Furthermore, he and his expeditionaries brought back knowledge of the land and people of the north and opened a way for later Spanish explorers and missionaries to colonize the Southwest, bringing about a clash and fusion of cultures that resounds today. Many of them brought their wives and children. They came equipped with heavy cotton "armor" and with bows and arrows as well as clubs and lances.

Coronado led his entire expedition from Compostela to Culiacan, arriving March 28, the day before Easter. With more than 1, people and several thousand animals, the column had crawled over the trail, covering the mile first leg in 36 days, an average of just over eight miles per day. The general had ordered the ponderous main body of the expedition to wait for two weeks then follow him as far as Corazones, where it was to await further instructions.

In correspondence dispatched to Mendoza, Coronado said, " I and the gentlemen of my company, who were horsemen, carried on our backs and on our horses a little food, in such wise that after leaving this place none of us carried any necessary effects weighing more than a pound The hard trail, said Coronado, "troubled the soldiers not a little, considering that everything which [Friar Marcos] had said was found to be quite the reverse The lambs and wethers lost their hoofs By the time Coronado and his party reached Corazones on May 26, , "Ten or twelve horses had died of overwork This "was not a slight loss for the rest of the expedition.

Coronado spent several days at Corazones, fretting now about Hernando Alarcon and the resupply ships in the Gulf of California.

Indians from the coast reported that they had recently seen the passage of a vessel not far off shore. He then resumed his march. Coronado and his party arrived at Chichilticalli, roughly miles from Corazones, sometime in May.

We all became very distrustful [of Friar Marcos] He set out on the mile-long final leg of the trail to Cibola, beginning the ascent of the Mogollon Rim, to the Colorado Plateau.

The horses were so tired that they were not equal to it, so in this last desert we lost more horses than before The people of the whole district had collected here These folks waited for the army Coronado saw that a fight could not be avoided. He said, "I charged them. Some Indians were killed Coronado attacked the village, "As that was where the food was I ordered the musketeers and crossbowmen to begin the attack and drive back the enemy from the defenses, so that they could not do us any injury.

I assaulted the wall on one side, where I was told that there was a scaling ladder and that there was also a gate. But the crossbowmen broke all the strings of their crossbows and the musketeers could do nothing, because they had arrived so weak and feeble that they could scarcely stand on their feet. Coronado, wearing his gilded armor and crested helmet for the battle, swiftly learned that he had unintentionally made himself the principal target for Zuni weapons.

The Spaniards, driven by hunger, continued to press the attack, and " The battle done and bellies filled, Coronado and his fellow conquistadors confronted the reality of their quest for treasure in that mid-summer of He said, in a dispatch to Mendoza,. I can assure you than in reality [Friar Marcos] has not told the truth in a single thing that he said, but everything is the reverse of what he said, except the name of the city and the large stone houses He implored them to embrace Christianity.

He advised them to recognize Spanish sovereignty. He questioned them about the surrounding region, other communities and potential treasure. After a brief skirmish, the villagers petitioned for peace, "saying that they had come to give in the submission of the whole province Tovar returned to Cibola to report to Coronado. Twenty days later, Cardenas reached the "banks of the river," said Castaneda.

They said that they had been down about a third of the way and that the river seemed very large from the place which they reached, and that from what they saw they thought the Indians had given the width correctly.

Those who stayed above had estimated that some huge rocks on the sides of the cliffs seemed to be about as tall as a man, but those who went down swore that when they reached these rocks they were bigger than the great tower of Seville. In the same party, he sent couriers with orders to proceed on to Mexico City and report to Mendoza.