Francisco Vázquez de Coronado
Spanish conquistador who sought the Seven Cities of Gold.
Francisco Vázquez de Coronado (1510 – 22 September 1554) was a Spanish conquistador and explorer. Between 1540 and 1542, he led a major expedition from modern-day Mexico into what is now the southwestern United States, reaching as far as present-day Kansas. His goal was to find the Cities of Cíbola, often called the mythical Seven Cities of Gold. The expedition resulted in the first European sightings of the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River.
Born in 1510 in Salamanca, Spain, Coronado was the second son of Juan Vázquez de Coronado and Isabel de Luján, a noble family. His father served in the administration of the recently conquered Emirate of Granada under its first Christian governor. At about age 25, Coronado traveled to New Spain (modern-day Mexico) in 1535 as part of the retinue of the first Viceroy, Antonio de Mendoza, who was both a personal friend and the son of his father’s patron. In New Spain, he married twelve-year-old Beatriz de Estrada, known as “the Saint.” She was the sister of Leonor de Estrada and the daughter of Treasurer and Governor Alonso de Estrada, whose wife came from a converso Jewish family. Through Beatriz, Coronado inherited a large encomendero estate, and they had eight children.
Coronado served as Governor of the Kingdom of Nueva Galicia, a province northwest of Mexico City covering modern Jalisco, Sinaloa, and Nayarit. In 1539, he sent Friar Marcos de Niza and Estevanico, a survivor of the Narváez expedition, north from Compostela toward present-day New Mexico. De Niza returned claiming he had seen a wealthy golden city called Cíbola on a high hill, as large as Mexico City, though he had not entered it. The Zuni residents were believed to have killed Estevanico.
Coronado assembled a two-part expedition. One part, carrying most supplies, traveled by sea via the Guadalupe River and Gulf of California under Hernando de Alarcón. The other part went overland, following the trail de Niza and Estevanico had taken. Coronado and Viceroy Mendoza invested heavily from their own funds, with Coronado pawning his wife’s estates and borrowing 70,000 pesos. In autumn 1539, Mendoza ordered Melchior Díaz, commander at San Miguel de Culiacán, to investigate de Niza’s claims. Díaz set out with fifteen horsemen on November 17, 1539, but turned back at the ruins of Chichilticalli due to snow and fierce winds.
Quick Facts
- Order
- Governor of New Galicia
- Monarch
- Charles I
- Birth Date
- 1510
- Birth Place
- Salamanca, Crown of Castile
- Death Date
- 1554-09-22
- Death Place
- Mexico City, Viceroyalty of New Spain
- Service Years
- 1535–1554
- Battles
- Spanish conquest of Mexico / Exploration of North America
Facts from the source article.
Lore & Background
Francisco Vázquez de Coronado was born into a noble family in Salamanca, Spain, in 1510 as the second son of Juan Vázquez de Coronado and Isabel de Luján. He went to New Spain (present-day Mexico) in 1535 at about age 25 in the entourage of its first Viceroy, Antonio de Mendoza. In New Spain, he married twelve-year-old Beatriz de Estrada, inherited a large portion of a Mexican encomendero estate through her, and had eight children.
As Governor of the Kingdom of Nueva Galicia, Vázquez de Coronado dispatched Friar Marcos de Niza and Estevanico on an expedition north in 1539. De Niza returned claiming a golden city called Cíbola. Vázquez de Coronado assembled a large expedition, investing his own money and pawning his wife's estates. He set out from Compostela on February 23, 1540, with about 400 European men-at-arms, 1,300 to 2,000 Mexican Indian allies, four Franciscan friars, and several slaves.
Upon reaching Cíbola, Vázquez de Coronado found only a village of nondescript pueblos constructed by the Zuni, not a golden city. He attacked the Zuni and was injured in the skirmish. He sent Friar Marcos de Niza back to New Spain in disgrace. During his expedition, he also sent scouting parties, including one that reached the Hopi communities.
Reader's Guide
Francisco Vázquez de Coronado's expedition was a landmark in European exploration of North America, producing the first European sightings of the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River. Though he failed to find the mythical Seven Cities of Gold, his journey through what is now the southwestern United States and into Kansas expanded Spanish geographic knowledge of the continent. The expedition involved complex logistics, including dividing forces to manage supplies and establishing garrisons along the route. Modern research has revised some historical assumptions about his exact path, with evidence suggesting he traveled primarily on the future New Mexico side of the state line rather than the Arizona side, and that Quivira was located near the Arkansas River rather than the Kansas River. His legacy is that of a determined but ultimately disappointed explorer whose reports of the region's realities tempered Spanish expectations of vast wealth in the north.
Did You Know?
- He married twelve-year-old Beatriz de Estrada and had eight children with her.
- He pawned his wife's estates and was lent 70,000 pesos to fund the expedition.
- After finding Cíbola was only a Zuni village, he sent Friar Marcos de Niza back to New Spain in disgrace.
More in Explorers Of The Americas And Pacific 1-24
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