Coronado and La G,·an Qui·vira, 1537-1544
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Compostela to Cibola and thence to Quivira, nor to give an account of the various explorations undertaken by his men from Cibola as a base, nor the allied expedition of Alarcon along the coast. The remainder of the chapter will be confined to a study of that portion of the expedition which deals with its march through Texas. An effort will be made to show that Quivira more likely was in Texas than in Kansas, that in his march in quest of this mythical kingdom which was to prove as great a disappointment to Coronado as golden Appalachen proved to Narvaez, he traveled mostly over the great plains of Texas, and lastly that Juan de Padilla, if martyred at Quivira or in its neighborhood, really shed his blood for the redemption of the native tribes of Texas. Returning, therefore, to the expedition, we find that Coronado and his enthusiastic followers gayly left Compostela on February 26, 1540, and five weeks later, on March 28, arrived in Culiacan considerably worn, having left a goodly part of their baggage on the road. For almost a month the expedition enjoyed a much needed rest in the hospitable outpost of Culiacan. On April 22, Coronado, accompanied by seventy- five horsemen, and a few footmen and all the friars, resolutely set out in quest of Cibola. The ma in body was to follow him as soon as possible. On the third day out, Fray Antonio de Victoria suffered a broken leg as the result of a fall, and it became necessary to send him back to the main army at Culiacan. Pressing forward as fast as possible, Coronado with his small party passed through Petatlan, Sinaloa, Los Cedros, and Yaquemi, and arrived in the valley of Corazones. From here he set out on May 26 and hurried on to Chichilticalli, thence through Sonora, and on to the wilderness of Arizona where he crossed many streams before he finally arrived at Cibola on July 7. To this point he had followed the route traveled by Fray Marcos and had experienced no hostile oppo- sition to his advance. The only hardships encountered had been those naturally attendant upon the character of the country traversed. 34 Ar,·ival in Cibola. After a relatively short but sharp engagement with the natives of the pueblo, in which Coronado was wounded and almost killed by a large rock that hit him on the head, the Spanish entered the first of the seven cities, Hawiku. which the commander
kThe summary of the march to Cibola is based mainly on Winship, Coro11ndo Expedition, 382-388.
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