winter, taking an active part in all the preparations for the expedition which he was to command. After the final review in Compostela, he was placed in command of the army, with the title of captain-general.
THE DEPARTURE OF THE EXPEDITION
Monday, February 23, 1540, the army which was to conquer the Seven Cities of Cibola started on its northward march from Compostela.[1] For 80 leagues the march was along the "much-used roads" which followed the coast up to Culiacan.[2]
Everyone was eager to reach the wonderful regions which were to be their destination, but it was impossible to make rapid progress. The cattle could not be hurried, while the baggage animals and the carriers were so heavily laden with equipments and provisions that it was necessary to allow them to take their own time. Several days were lost at the Centizpac river, across which the cattle had to be trans-
- ↑ Before the end of the month Mendoza wrote a letter to the King, in which he gave a detailed account of the preparations he had made to insure the success of the expedition, and of the departure of the army. This letter is not known to exist.
- ↑ This march from Compostela to Culiacan, according to the letter which Coronado wrote from Granada-Zuñi on August 3, occupied eighty days. The same letter gives April 22 as the date when Coronado left Culiacan, after stopping for several days in that town, and this date is corroborated by another account, the Traslado de las Nuevas. April 22 is only sixty days after February 23, the date of the departure, which is fixed almost beyond question by the legal formalities of the Testimonio of February 21-26. We have only Ramusio's Italian text of Coronado's August 3 letter, so that it is easy to suspect that a slip on the part of the translator causes the trouble. Cut to complicate matters, eighty days previous to April 22 is about the 1st of February. Mota Padilla, who used material of great value in his Historia de la Nueva Galicia, says that the army marched from Compostela "el 1° de Febrero del año de 1540." Castañeda does not give much help, merely stating that the whole force was assembled at Compostela by "el dia de carnes tollendas," the carnival preceding Shrove tide, which in 1540 fell on February 10, Faster being March 28. Mendoza, who had spent the New Year's season at Pasquaro, the seat of the bishopric of Michoacan, did not hasten his journey across the country, and we know only that the whole force had assembled before he arrived at Compostela. At least a fortnight would have been necessary for completing the organization of the force, and for collecting and arranging all the supplies.
Another combination of dates makes it hard to decide how rapidly the army marched. Mendoza was at Compostela February 26. He presumably started on his return to Mexico very soon after that date. He went down the coast to Colima, where he was detained by an attack of fever for some days. Thence he proceeded to Jacona, where he wrote a letter to the King, April 17, 1540. March 20 Mendoza received the report of Melchior Diaz, who had spent the preceding winter in the country through which Friar Marcos had traveled, trying to verify the friar's report. Diaz, and Saldivar his lieutenant, on their return from the north, met the army at Chiametla as it was about to resume its march, after a few days' delay. Diaz stopped at Chiametla, while Saldivar carried the report to the viceroy, and he must have traveled very rapidly to deliver bis packets on March 20, when Mendoza had left Colima, although he probably had. not arrived at Jacona.
Everything points to the very slow progress of the force, hampered by the long baggage and provision trains. Castaneda says that they reached Culiacan just before Easter, March 28. less than thirty-five days after February 23. Here Coronado stopped for a fortnight's entertainment and rest, according to Castañeda, who was present. Mota Padilla Says that the army stayed here a month, and this agrees with Castañeda's statement that the main body started a fortnight later than their general. The attempt to arrange an itinerary of the expedition is perplexing, and has not been made easier by modern students. Professor Haynes, in his Early Explorations of New Mexico (Winsor's Narrative and Critical History, vol. ii, p. 481), following Bandelier's statement on page 26 of his Documentary History of Zuñi, says that the start from Compostela was made "in the last days of February, 1540." Mr Bandolier, however, who has given much more time to the study of everything connected with this expedition than has been possible for any other investigator, in his latest work—The Gilded Man, p. 164—adopts the date which is given by Mota Padilla. The best and the safest way out of this tangle in chronology is gained by accepting the three specific dates, February 23—or possibly 24—Easter, and April 22, disregarding every statement about the number of days interesting.
