1540 - Tam Blake was the first
Scot in the New World, of whom we have written records. He was also the
first Brit. In a statement made to the Spanish Viceroy in 1550, he declared
himself a citizen of the Kingdom of Scotland and the son of William Blake and
Agnes Mowat, and explained that he had arrived in Mexico in 1534-35 after having
taken part in the conquest of New Granada in 1532 with Alonso de Heradia,
brother of the conquistador, Pedro de Heradia. He joined Coronado's expedition
from Mexico into the areas now known as Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico, in
search of the Lost Cities of Gold. Tam Blake married Francisca Rivera, a
widow of one of the first settlers in New Spain.
Captain Francisco Vazquez de
Coronado learned of the tales of the Spanish explorer Cabeza de
Vaca about the Seven Cities of Cíbola, believed to be fabulously rich Native
American settlements that were to be found northeast of Mexico. Coronado was
chosen to head an overland expedition to explore and conquer the region for
Spain.
With about 300 Spanish soldiers
and many Native Americans under his command, on February 23, 1540, Coronado left
Compostela (now in Nayarit State) and followed the western slope of the Sierra
Madre Occidental northward to the present border of the state of Arizona. He
then headed northeastward to Cíbola, which he found to be only pueblos of the
Zuñi people, containing no wealth. From Cíbola, Coronado dispatched a small
party westward under Garcia López de Cárdenas. It
was the first band of Europeans to see the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River. The
entire party wintered near what is now Santa Fe, New Mexico. In
the spring of 1541 the expedition traveled eastward, crossing the upper Rio
Grande and the Great Plains of what is now northern Texas, where they saw the
American bison, or buffalo, and described it for the first time. Turning
northward, Coronado crossed the Canadian and Arkansas rivers, seeking a
supposedly wealthy kingdom called Quivira, which was actually only a village of
the Wichita people in what is now Kansas. The disappointed expedition returned to New Spain in
1542 and was coolly received by the authorities. In 1544 Coronado was relieved
as governor, and thereafter he lived quietly in Mexico City, where he died on
September 22, 1554.
These men served with the Captain
Francisco Vazquez de Coronado. The expedition set out for New Mexico and Arizona
but made it as far North as Kansas from 1540 to 1542. The men listed below along
with about 800 Indians made the exploration.
|
BLAQUE, Tomas |
From:
Escocia (Scotland). Married Francisca de Rivera. |
Source: Guillermo Garmendia Leal