EVENTS OF 1538-1539
Torre, as governor of New Galicia. Coronado's answer shows plainly that he intentionally refused to commit himself when so many things were uncertain, and when nothing was definitely known about the country of which Gabeza de Vaca had heard. Mendoza may have suggested his appointment at an earlier date, but the King apparently waited until he learned of De la Torre's untimely death before approving the selection. The confirmation was signed April 18, 1530, and at the same time Coronado was appointed to take the residencia of his predecessor. The King agreed to allow the new governor a salary of 1,000 ducats from the royal treasure chests and 1,500 more from the province, with the proviso that the royal revenues were not to be held responsible for this latter sum in case New Galicia proved too poor to yield so large an amount. Coronado probably went at once to his province when he received the notice of his nomination, for he was in Guadalajara on November 19, 1538, where he approved the selection of judges and magistrates for the ensuing year by the city of Compostela, which had held its election before his arrival. At the same time he appointed the judges for Guadalajara.
Coronado probably spent the winter of 1538-39 in New Galicia, arranging the administration and other affairs of his government. He entertained Friar Marcos, when the latter passed through his province in the spring of 1539, and accompanied the friar as far as Culiacan, the northernmost of the Spanish settlements. Here he provided the friar with Indians, provisions, and other things necessary for the journey to the Seven Cities. Later in the spring, the governor returned to Guadalajara, and devoted considerable attention to the improvement and extension of this city, so that it was able to claim and obtain from the King a coat of arms and the title of "city" during the following summer.[1] He was again here on January 9, 1540, when he promulgated the royal order, dated December 20, 1538, which decreed that inasmuch as it was reported that the cities in the Indies were not built with sufficient permanency, the houses being of wood and thatched with straw, so that fires and conflagrations were of frequent occurrence, therefore no settler should thereafter build a house of any material except stone, brick, or unbaked brick, and the houses should be built after the fashion of those in Spain, so that they might be permanent, and an adornment to the cities. Between these dates it is very likely that Coronado may have made some attempt to explore the mountainous regions north of the province, as Castañeda says, although his evidence is by no means conclusive.
About midsummer of 1539, Friar Marcos came back from Cibola. Coronado met him as he passed through New Galicia, and together they returned to Mexico to tell the viceroy what the friar had seen and heard. Coronado remained at the capital during the autumn and early
- ↑ The grant, dated at Madrid, November 8, 1539, is given in Tello's Fragmento (Icazbalceta's Doc. Hist. Mexico, vol. ii, p. 371).
