wisBHip] ANTECEDENTS OF CORONADO 379 



has ever been famous. The footmen carried crossbows and harquebuses, 

 while some of them were armed with sword and shield. Looking on at 

 these white men with their weapons of European warfare was the crowd 

 of native allies in their paint and holiday attire, armed with the club and 

 the bow of an Indian warrior. When all these started off next morning, 

 in duly ordered companies, with their banners flying, upward of a thou- 

 sand servants and followers, black men and red men, went with them, 

 leading the spare horses, driving the pack animals, bearing the extra 

 baggage of their masters, or herding the large droves of "big and little 

 cattle," of oxen and cows, sheep, and, maybe, swine," which had been 

 collected by the viceroy to assure fresh food for the army on its march. 

 There were more than a thousand horses in the train of the force, 

 besides the mules, loaded with camp supplies and provisions, and car- 

 rying half a dozen pieces of light artillery — the pedreros, or swivel 

 guns of the period. 



After the review, the army assembled before the viceroy, who 

 addressed to them an exhortation befitting the occasion. Each man, 

 whether captain or foot soldier, then swore obedience to his commander 

 and officers, and promised to prove himself a loyal and faithful vassal 

 to his Lord the Kiug. During the preceding week the viceroy had 

 divided the force into companies, and now he assigned to each its cap- 

 tain, as Castaneda relates, and announced the other officers of the army. 



Francisco Vazquez Coronado — de Coronado it is sometimes written — 

 was captain-general of the whole force. "Who he is, what he has 

 already done, and his personal qualities and abilities, which may be 

 made useful in the various affairs which arise in these parts of the 

 Indies, I have already written to Your Majesty," writes Mendoza to 

 the Emperor, in the letter of December 10, 1537. This previous letter 

 is not known to exist, and there is very little to supply the place of 

 its description of the character and antecedents of Vazquez Coronado. 

 His home was in Salamanca, 2 and he came to America in the retinue 

 of Mendoza in 1535. His relations with his patron, the viceroy, previ- 

 ous to the return of the expedition from Cibola, appear always to have 

 been most cordial and intimate. In 1537 Coronado married Beatrice 

 de Estrada, a cousin by blood,. if gossip was true, of the Emperor, 

 Charles V. Her father, Alouso, had been royal treasurer of New Spain. 

 From his mother-in-law Coronado received as a marriage gift a consid- 

 erable estate, "the half of Tlapa," which was confirmed to him by a 

 royal grant. Cortez complained that the income from this estate was 

 worth more than 3,000 ducados, and that it had been unduly and incon- 

 siderately alienated from the Crown. Coronado obtained also the 

 estate of one Juan de Burgos, apparently one of those who forfeited 



'Hen-era. Historia Genera], dec. VI, 111), lx, cap. xi, vol. in, p. 204 (ed. 1T.W), mentions pigs among 

 the l'ood supply of the army. For the above description, which is not so fanciful as it sounds, see 

 notes from ilota l'adilla. etc, accompanying the translation of Castaiieda. 



3 Castaiieda's statement is supported by Herrera, Historia General, dec. VI, lib. v, cap. ix, vol. iii, 

 p. 121 (ed. 1730), and by Tello, in Icazbalceta's Mexico, vol. li, p. 370. 



