378 THE CORONADO EXPEDITION, 1540-1542 [eth.ann.H 



recorded a few days after the departure of the expedition. They declare 

 that in the whole army there were only two or three men who had ever 

 been settled residents in the country; that these few were men who had 

 failed to make a living as settlers, and that, in short, the whole force 

 was a good riddance. 1 



The men who assembled at Compostela to start for the Seven Cities 

 numbered, Mendoza stated at the time of the visita in 1547, "about 

 two hundred and fifty Spaniards on horseback, . . . and' about 

 three hundred Indians, a few more or less." Mota Padilla, who 

 must have used documents of the very best authority, nearly all of 

 which have since disappeared, gives the number of the force as "two 

 hundred and sixty horsemen, . . seventy footmen, . . and more 

 than a thousand friendly Indians and Indian servants." Herrera, who 

 used official documents, says that there were one hundred and fifty 

 horsemen and two hundred footmen. Mendoza's statement of the num- 

 ber of Indians may be explained, if we suppose him to have referred 

 only to the friendly Indians who went on the expedition as native 

 allies. His statement is made in the course of a defense of his adminis- 

 tration, when he was naturally desirous of giving as small a number 

 as possible. Castafieda says that there were three hundred horsemen, 

 and this number occurs in other early narratives. 



Mendoza spared neither pains nor expense to insure the success of the 

 expedition. Anns, horses, and supplies were furnished in abundance; 

 money was advanced from the royal chest to any who had debts to pay 

 before they could depart, and provision was made for the support of 

 those who were about to be left behind by fathers, brothers, or hus-, 

 bands. The equipment of the force was all that the viceroy could 

 desire. Arms and military supplies had been among the things greatly 

 needed in New Spain when Mendoza reported its condition in his first 

 letters to the home government. In 1537 he repeated his request for 

 these supplies with increased insistence. The subject is not again men- 

 tioned in his letters, and we may fairly suppose that he had received the 

 weapons and munitions of war, fresh from the royal arsenals of Spain, 

 with which he equipped the expedition on whose success he had staked 

 so much. It was a splendid array as it passed in review before Mendoza 

 and the officials who helped and watched him govern New Spain, on this 

 Sunday in February, 1540. The young cavaliers curbed the picked 

 horses from the large stock farms of the viceroy, each resplendent in 

 long blankets flowing to the ground. Each rider held his lance erect, 

 while his sword and other weapons hung in their proper places at his 

 side. Some were arrayed in coats of mail, polished to shine like that of 

 their general, whose gilded armor with its brilliant trappings was to 

 bring him many hard blows a few mouths later. Others wore iron hel- 

 mets or vizored headpieces of the tough bullhide for which the country 



1 The Testinionio contains so much that is of interest to the historical student that I have trans- 

 lated it in full herein. 



