After The Departure Of The Marquis, The Viceroy And Court Of Audience Sent
A Military Force From Xalisco By Land To The North West, Under The Command
Of Francisco Vasquez Coronado, Who Married The Beautiful And Virtuous
Daughter Of The Treasurer Estrada.
Coronado left his government of Xalisco,
under the charge of an officer named Onate, and marched into the country
named _Celibola_[11] or the Seven Cities; whence he sent a Franciscan
friar, named Marcos de Nica, to Mexico, to give the viceroy an account of
the country.
He described it as consisting of fine plains, with great
herds of cattle quite different from those of Europe; having populous
towns, in which the houses were of two stories with stairs. He also
represented that it lay on the coast of the south sea, by means of which
necessaries and reinforcements could be easily sent to the Spanish force.
Accordingly, three ships were sent for that purpose, under the command of
Hernando de Alarco, an officer belonging to the household of the viceroy.
In the year 1537, Don Pedro de Alvarado fitted out a great armament of
thirteen vessels from the port of _Acaxatla_[12] on the south sea, in
consequence of a license from his majesty, in which he had a grant of
certain rents and advantages in such countries as he might discover; that
is to say, in China and the Moluccas or Spice Islands. As the port where
this armament was fitted out was above 200 leagues from Vera Cruz, whence
all the iron and most other articles had to be carried by land, its cost
might easily have fitted out eighty such vessels from Old Spain.
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