WHOLE VOL. THE WEST INDIES VAZQUEZ DE ESPINOSA 193 



de Coronado, by dint of his persistence and courage, but at the cost 

 of many hardships for himself and his men, for the Indians had 

 learned by experience and were shrewd. 



544. At the same time he subdued the provinces and valleys of 

 the Corazones, where he established the town of San Jeronimo de 

 Los Corazones ; and he called the valley by his own name, and to 

 this day it bears the name of Coronado. He placed priests among 

 them, to catechize them and teach them our Holy Faith. He had 

 great battles with the Indians, and in one they killed his Militia 

 Captain Lope de Samaniego ; he won many others ; and when His 

 Majesty had been fully informed of his great services, although the 

 Marques del Valle had already been named Governor of the newly 

 discovered territories of Cibola, His Majesty gave Coronado the 

 preference, appointing him Governor and Captain General of them 

 all, with great honors, conferred in a royal warrant and letter of 

 January 6, 1 540, which he sent to the Viceroy of Mexico, Don 

 Antonio de Mendoza, for him to give to Coronado and to commission 

 him for these explorations and campaigns. 



545. He set out with a brilliant army ; what he spent on prepara- 

 tions for the campaign, his many soldiers and the nobility whom he 

 took with him, amounted to over 100,000 ducats. He underwent 

 very great hardships in subduing the numerous provinces spreading 

 over an extent of the more than 400 leagues intervening between 

 Guadiana and New Mexico ; he went through many trials with his 

 army, both in the wars he waged with the ferocious savages, who 

 killed his Militia Captain and some of his soldiers, and in the loss 

 of many of his men from the hard going ; he himself was badly hurt 

 by a stone in a cruel battle he had with the tribesmen of the Province 

 of Tigues. He was the first to discover New Mexico, and the King- 

 doms of Mataca and Tontitlaca, with all their provinces, in which 

 he had serious clashes with the savages ; and when he had pacified 

 them, he ordered many crosses erected as a sign of His Majesty's 

 sovereignty and he had many of the Indians catechized and baptized ; 

 thus they were converted and came to the knowledge of our Holy 

 Faith. 



546. He explored the Provinces of Quivira in the District of New 

 Mexico ; it is level country, chilly, and with few trees, with quantities 

 of woolly, humpbacked cattle with two short horns twisted backward; 

 they move over the prairies grazing in herds, and are the sole suste- 

 nance of the savages. They are very ugly and wild ; the wool on 

 their chest in front is long and curly ; they make excellent rugs from 

 their hides, which are used in those regions and in many parts of 



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