Franciso Vasques de Coronado was the Governor of Spain's North Mexican province of New Galicia. In 1540, aged 30 he took 230 mounted troops, 62 foot soldiers and a company of priests north towards the Rio Grande in search of the fabled 'Seven lost cities of Cibola'. (In 1539 the Franciscan Fray Marcos de Niza had returned from what is now Arizona, claiming to have seen the smallest and poorest of the seven cities, with 'house doors studded with jewels, the streets lined with silversmiths'. This was in fact the Zuni pueblo of Hawikuh.)
Coronado and his men were furious to discover that the Franciscan's opulent city of gold was in fact a muddy stone and adobe desert pueblo. Nevertheless attacking in the name of St. James (the patron saint of Spain) he found a plentiful supply of corn and beans with which to feed his troops.
Moving on towards the Rio Grande, he over-wintered at the Tiwa pueblo of Alcanfor, after evicting the Indians and turning their homes over to his men. He also commandeered food and clothing from the other 12 Tiwa pueblos in the region. Forcing the Indian's to 'take the cloaks off their backs' and give them to his troops.
When they complained about their treatment he replied by imposing even further demands on them. Finally following the rape of an Indian woman they revolted against the Spaniard's in what was to become know as the Tiguex war.
Coronado spent the next three months waging a bloody war against the pueblo's in the name of St. James, killing their defenders and burning captured Indians at the stake. In the plaza of the pueblo where the woman had been raped 200 of its inhabitants were burnt to show what would happen to those who defied Spain. While over 200 Tiwa's died in the 50-day siege of the pueblo of Mono, the survivors being distributed among his men as slaves.
After another year of fruitless searches for the wealth Fray Marcos and others had spoken off, he over-wintered once more at the now deserted Tiwa pueblos. Finally returning to Mexico empty handed with the added humiliation of being carried on a litter drawn by two mules (after being injured in a fall from his horse).
Thankfully for the Indian's this was the end of the Coronado expedition...