Page:Don Coronado through Kansas.djvu/70

EXPEDITION ALL, KEAUY. 59 Galacia, this was a province to the north of Jew Spain. His headquarters being at Compostella, which w^as located about 400 miles northwest of the city of Mexico, so it became necessary for our two young men to travel this 400 miles before they could join the expedition. This they did. The location of ComposteUa should be understood, so you may have the proper conception of the dis- tance marched by our Commander, Coronado. That city does not appear on the map of Mexico now, but if you wiU find San Bias on the Pacific Coast in about 21 1-2 north latitude, then you will be about forty miles north of where our expedition started from. Arriving at the capital of New Galacia, Alonso at once sought an interview with Governor Coronado and presented his credentials for the purpose of procuring a place in the expedition; and owing to the governor being a native of Salamanca and having seen Alonso frequently at his father's home, the commander naturally took kindly to his young fellow townsman and assented to his accompanjdng the army of conquest and discovery, appointing him a lieutenant. All was bustle and excitement for the pre- parations were about completed, and, mind you, it was no smaU affair. Here is what a participant in the expedition wrote at the tiflie. "It was a. splendid array as it passed in review before Mendoza and Goronadp on this Sunday in Pbbruary, 1^40. The young cavaliers curbed the picked horses from the large stock farms of the Viceroy, each resplendant in long blankets fiowing