CORONADO

Fresh from a Spain that had finally succeeded in expelling the non-Catholic moors who had earlier invaded the country, Columbus and his peers could justify subjugating the Indians on the grounds that they were not Christian. The Vatican had no problem with the idea of lording it over peoples who rejected Christianity. And Columbus and other conquistadors seeking wealth found coercible Indian labor a most welcome discovery.

But Las Casas and other reformers argued the Indians had not had a chance to reject Christianity because they had never heard of it, and therefore should be informed about it first, so they could decide. The Requerimento was the Royals’ answer: they required a statement be read to any group of Indians the Spanish encountered and thus be enabled to acquiesce or decline before anything else happened.

The Spanish adventurers found this first Royal attempt to rein them in no more than a necessary impediment to getting on with the business of conquest. Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo was the first to read aloud this theological proclamation which, if not heeded by its native audience, justified war and enslavement. On June 14, 1514, he recited the Requerimento before a deserted village in what is now Columbia/Panama, presenting the military guard accompanying him an occasion to guffaw.

Las Casas’ revelations of such conquistador excesses in Mexico and Peru led to the royals’ resolve to put people in charge who embraced the spirit as well as the letter of their dictates. Their goal was to make Spanish subjects of the American Indians.

Mendoza was the kind of man King Ferdinand sought. Mendoza’s instructions to Coronado were in earnest.

Appointment of Coronado as Commander of the Expedition to Cibola, January 6, 1540” (trans. the eds.), in George P. Hammond and Agapito Rey, eds., Narratives of the Coronado Expedition (Albuquerque, Un. of New Mexico Press, 1940), pp. 84 - 85:

"... that you will take special care in the protection and defense of the said lands and their natives...

"... that you may hear and shall hear all the civil and criminal litigation which may arise and come up among the said Spaniards, and among the natives of the lands you travel through or stay in, and between the said Spaniards and them.

"As to the treatment of the native Indians of the lands you may travel through or stay in, and what you are to do and per­form there, we order you to observe and comply to the letter with what is prescribed in the instructions we have ordered issued and which are given to persons who go to discover and pacify new lands, as you are doing. These instructions you are carrying with you, signed by our said viceroy and the above stated secretary. You are not to exceed or go beyond their tenor and contents, under the penalties prescribed in the said instructions.

...you are going, by our command and in our service, to the discovery and pacification of the said new land and to bring its natives to the knowledge of our holy Catholic faith and to bring the land under our royal crown....

Mendoza instructed Alarcon regarding a second voyage (which, as it happens, never transpired, Coronado having returned first).

Instructions to Alarcon, 1541” (trans. the eds.), in George P. Hammond and Agapito Rey, eds., Narratives of the Coronado Expedition (Albuquerque, Un. of New Mexico Press, 1940), pp. 121-122:

"The Indians that you are taking with you are to be treated well in order that when they reach their countries they may induce the others to be friendly to you.

"You must take particular care that there is no blasphemy of the name of our Lord, His blessed Mother, or the saints; on the contrary, they must be revered. You and your men shall regu­larly practice the Christian faith and live like Catholics in order that you may not set a bad example to the natives of the land where you may be, but that they may be attracted to friendship and association with you through your virtues and good deeds.

"You should see to it that the chiefs of Quicama and Coama are not annoyed or injured in the least, for they welcomed you so graciously before.

"Try to be more discreet in your dealings and conversation with the Indians, for it seems that it is necessary to be more circumspect with them than you were the last time.

"You must watch very carefully that your people do not do any harm or violence to the Indians, that they do not take anything from them against their will, nor enter their houses without your permission.

"Further, you shall … through kindness try to learn what there may be in that land You are to avoid waging war against the Indians unless you should be forced to it.

Further, should you establish a settlement anywhere it must not be among the Indians, but away from them. You shall command that no Spaniard or other person accompanying you enter the Indian towns or houses except by your express com­mand. Whenever you issue a permit to any one to go there for some necessary thing, it must be a person you know that you can trust not to do something improper. Be sure you observe this command, for it is more important than you can imagine.

Mendoza’s instructions to Coronado and Alarcon had teeth, to a degree, though the degree apparently was a function of the expedition’s success or failure. In brief, Coronado and others on the expedition were tried on their return to New Spain. Among the charges Coronado faced were:

"Charges against Coronado” (trans. the eds.), in George P. Hammond and Agapito Rey, eds., Narratives of the Coronado Expedition (Albuquerque, Un. of New Mexico Press, 1940), pp. 394-395:

Further: Having established a Spanish town [named San Gerónimo] in the valley of Corazones, [Coronado] should have placed some able and reliable person in charge of it to administer justice and pacify the said prov­ince. [The man he chose was an officer, but this Melchior Díor died on the expedition to the Gulf of California, leaving a non-officer in charge of the town.] Because [Coronado] was remiss in not choos­ing a competent person to govern the town and its people and because of the evil deeds and ill treatment shown to the natives by the person or persons he left there, the natives of the province rebelled and killed many Spaniards, and the town was abandoned, and the neighboring people revolted.

Although Coronado’s expedition did commit atrocities against the natives, he was ultimately acquitted by the court of New Spain.

AURA

Of course he was never tried by the Indians.

CORONADO

Okay ! Okay !

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