The Coronado Expedition, 1540-1542.: Excerpted from the Fourteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1892-1893, Part 1.Winship, George Parker
History
The Coronado Expedition, 1540-1542.: Excerpted from the Fourteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1892-1893, Part 1.
Winship, George Parker
Coronado, Francisco Vásquez de, 1510-1554; Southwest, New -- Description and travel
Seeing this, Friar Juan de Padilla, a regular brother of the lesser
order,[280] and another, Friar Luis, a lay brother, told the general
that they wanted to remain in that country—Friar Juan de Padilla in
Quivira, because his teachings seemed to promise fruit there, and
Friar Luis at Cicuye. On this account, as it was Lent at the time,
the father made this the subject of his sermon to the companies one
Sunday, establishing his proposition on the authority of the Holy
Scriptures. He declared his zeal for the conversion of these peoples
and his desire to draw them to the faith, and stated that he had
received permission to do it, although this was not necessary. The
general sent a company to escort them as far as Cicuye, where Friar
Luis stopped, while Friar Juan went on back to Quivira with the
guides who had conducted the general, taking with him the Portuguese,
as we related, and the half-blood, and the Indians from New Spain.
He was martyred a short time after he arrived there, as we related
in the second part, chapter 8. Thus we may be sure that he died a
martyr, because his zeal was holy and earnest.
[Illustration: LXII. Zuñis in Typical Modern Costume]
Friar Luis remained at Cicuye. Nothing more has been heard about him
since, but before the army left Tiguex some men who went to take
[p535] him a number of sheep that were left for him to keep,
met him as he was on his way to visit some other villages, which
were 15 or 20 leagues from Cicuye, accompanied by some followers.
He felt very hopeful that he was liked at the village and that his
teaching would bear fruit, although he complained that the old men
were falling away from him. I, for my part, believe that they finally
killed him. He was a man of good and holy life, and may Our Lord
protect him and grant that he may convert many of those peoples, and
end his days in guiding them in the faith. We do not need to believe
otherwise, for the people in those parts are pious and not at all
cruel. They are friends, or rather, enemies of cruelty, and they
remained faithful and loyal friends.[281] [p536]
After the friars had gone, the general, fearing that they might be
injured if people were carried away from that country to New Spain,
ordered the soldiers to let any of the natives who were held as
servants go free to their villages whenever they might wish. In my
opinion, though I am not sure, it would have been better if they had
been kept and taught among Christians.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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