First Expeditions

It hadn´t past half a century from Colon´s arrival to America when the great civilizations of Central Mexico had already fallen under the control of Spanish weapons.

By the 1530´s, ten years after Cortes conquered Tenochtitlan, the Spanish presence had already been firmly established in today´s Sinaloa. That same decade, Sonora was visited for the first time by Europeans.

Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca, Alonso del Castillo, Andres Dorantes, and a slave named Esteban (called Estebanico), after surviving the failed expedition of Panfilo de Narvaez to Florida in 1528, in a trip that took then 8 years, traveled by foot through Northern New Spain, entered today´s State of Sonora, following the Sonora River, until they reached Sinaloa, where the Northernmost Spanish settlements were established. They would later describe the odissey they had to endure to return home. (We can see a map of the expeditions, and by clicking on it, have a larger sized image)

After hearing this, Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza organized then a small expedition, headed by Fray Marcos de Niza, who had Estebanico as their guide, to explore those unknown lands. From a place named Vacapa (we don´t know where it was located), the friar sent Estebanico to explore ahead. A little later, Estebanico sent a message to the friar, after hearing news from which he deducted that the fabulous Seven Cities of Cibola and Quivira were located nearby (We know they were in reality of European origin, and therefore nonexistant).

However, Estebanico didn´t wait for the Friar, but continued his trip, and dressed in brilliant colors and feathers entered Hawikuh, in today´s New Mexico, where he was killed by the Indians. When the Friar knew of this, he decided to continue his exploratory trip and, as he would inform later, he saw from the distance a larger city than Tenochtitlan.

When Viceroy Mendoza heard this, he organized a great military expedition to take possession of those regions. He put Francisco Vazquez de Coronado to command it, and Fray Marcos de Niza as it´s guide. On April 22, 1540, Coronado left Culiacan heading a small group of expeditionaries, while the bulk of the group would follow later under Tristan de Arellano´s direction. At the same time, another expedition, commanded by Hernando de Alarcon, would supply the expeditionaries by sea.

Alarcon arrived in his ship on August 26 to the mouth of the Colorado River, where the strong current forced him to disembark and continue upriver in two boats with 20 men. Then reached the Gila river confluence, without finding any trace of the land expedition. He decided then to return, arriving at Colima at the beginning of November with the proof that California was not an island, but a peninsula.

However, this knowledge would be later forgotten. Otherwise, Kino would not have to try again so many times to prove the peninsularity of California.

The main group of the expeditionaries, under Arellano, camped in the Valley of Sonora River, in a town that Cabeza de Vaca had mentioned as where he was given hearts of deer to feed. This place was named by the expeditionaries as San Geronimo de Corazones.

The last days of September, Melchor Diaz was sent with 25 men to try to meet Alarcon, and after traveling through the Sonora Desert, he arrived at the Colorado River. There, the Indians told him that Alarcon had been downriver a few weeks before, and Diaz found a note from Alarcon, where he wrote that after waiting for many days without any news, he had been forced to return, as the ships had started to rot. Disappointed, Diaz started his return to Corazones, although he died on his way back due to an accident.

Meanwhile, Coronado continued his exploratory trip toward New Mexico and further North, although he never found the great cities nor riches that he expected.

The disappointment that this failed expedition brought with it , together with the discovery of the mines of Zacatecas in 1542, would discourage further investement in these type of expeditions.

In the future, a different type of Spanish penetration to the unknown would be implemented: To use the missionaries instead of the soldiers, the cross instead of the sword, the spiritual and not the war conquest, as it has been correctly named, although it was also the economic conquest of the Indian.