Page:The gilded man (El Dorado) and other pictures of the Spanish occupancy of America.djvu/178

164 agreed to another condition: to the preparation of an expedition by sea from Natividad, in the present state of Guadalajara, to explore the coast toward the north and the interior of the Gulf of California, but principally to keep along the coast in touch with Coronado's land expedition. A comrade of Coronado's, Pedro Casteneda, writes of the object of this cruise: "When the soldiers had all left Mexico, the viceroy ordered Don Pedro de Alarcon to sail with two ships from Natividad to the coast of the Southern Sea and proceed to Jalisco, in order to take on board the things which the soldiers could not carry. He was then to sail along the coast, following the march of the army, for it was believed, according to the reports, that it would not be far away, and could easily keep in communication with the ships by means of the rivers. But matters turned out differently, as we shall see further along, and the effects were lost, at least [Casteneda grimly adds] to those to whom they belonged." The cost of the fitting out of these two expeditions amounted, according to Herrera, to 60,000 ducats, a sum at that time equivalent to more than a quarter of a million dollars of our currency. Coronado was therefore deeply in debt, when he, on February 1, 1540, left Compostella, whither the viceroy had accompanied him, to march with his land "army" toward the north. The force consisted, according to Casteneda, of 300 Spaniards and 800 Indians. Mota-Padilla says definitely that Coronado