Antonio de Carvajal: Conquistador, Procurador and Regidor of México (Part 1 of 4)

Thanks to Damien Aragon’s research on the lineage of Francisco Valdés Altamirano, we know he was the descendant of several conquistadors who were with Fernando Cortés during the Spanish conquest of Tenochtitlan (Mexico City). One of these was my 14x-great-grandfather, Antonio de Carvajal, a native of Zamora in Castilla-León who arrived in Hispaniola in July 1509 at the age of sixteen. After participating in the early conquests of the Indies, he rose to become a prominent political figure and critic of Cortés, holding a number of positions in Mexico City government including alcalde (mayor), procurador (attorney, legal representative), regidor perpetuo (permanent city council member), and alférez real.

While conducting research on his life and lineage, I was astonished to find a considerable amount of primary source material that appears not yet to have made it into his online biographies or well-known secondary sources about the conquistadors. This blog series attempts to piece together what we can say about his life based on original manuscripts, drawing significantly upon those found in the Portal de Archivos Españoles (PARES) and transcriptions of primary documents.

Like many conquistadors, years after the conquest, Carvajal petitioned the Spanish Crown for royal compensation or rewards (mercedes) based on his lifetime of service. But his petition did not claim that he was a nobleman (hijo d’algo) and it appears he came from a rather modest background. The only primary source I have found that names his parents is a manuscript on the conquistadors from circa 1545, transcribed by Francisco A. Icaza, which says that he was the son of Pedro González de Carvajal and Isabel Delgadillo.

By his own account (and that of other witnesses), Carvajal first arrived in the Indies as an aide to Admiral Don Diego Colón, son of the famous explorer Cristóbal Colón (Christopher Columbus), who had been named as Governor of the Indies. He accompanied Don Diego to the previously conquered island of Puerto Rico to suppress a rebellion of the natives and resided there for some time before participating in the conquest of Cuba in 1511 under Diego Velázquez de Cuellar. He remained in Cuba until it was fully under Spanish control before returning to Santo Domingo.

In early 1521, when Fernando Cortés’ army and native allies had laid siege to Tenochtitlan and were preparing to make their final assault on the city, four ships under the command of Julián de Alderete arrived from Hispaniola with reinforcements of between 150 and 400 men—including Carvajal and his nephew of the same name, Antonio de Carvajal Turrencanos. Two of the ships were under the command of the famous conquistador and explorer Rodrigo de Bastidas, captained by Gerónimo Ruiz de la Mota, another former aide to Diego Colón and Carvajal’s friend. Ruiz de la Mota testified in 1561 that he and Carvajal had arrived in New Spain on the same ship. Another witness during the same inquiry confirmed that Carvajal and his nephew had arrived in Mexico on the ship under Rodrigo de Bastidas’ command.

Part of Cortés’ strategy for attacking Tenochtitlan involved the construction of thirteen brigantines, as the city was built on lake Tezcuco with a network of canals and causeways. He designated three hundred men to man the vessels and thirteen captains, one of whom was the elder Carvajal. The brigantines were so central to Cortés’ plan that he held a formal ceremony to mark the launching of the ships onto the lake, described in dramatic detail by William Prescott (p. 389):

“On the 28th of April, the troops were drawn up under arms, and the whole population of Tezcuco assembled to witness the ceremony. Mass was performed, and every man in the army, together with the general, confessed and received the sacrament. Prayers were offered up by Father Olmedo, and a benediction invoked on the little navy, the first worthy of the name ever launched on American waters. The signal was given by the firing of a cannon, when the vessels, dropping down the canal one after another, reached the lake in good order; and as they emerged on its ample bosom, with music sounding, and the royal ensign of Castile proudly floating from their masts, a shout of admiration arose from the countless multitudes of spectators, which mingled with the roar of artillery and musketry from the vessels and the shore!”

Carvajal and his nephew fought throughout the several weeks it took to conquer the city, with the artillery from the brigantines supporting the ground invasion along the causeways and maintaining the blockade of the city. One of the brigantine captains finally managed to capture the Aztec emperor Cuauhtémoc, marking the fall of the city. During the battle, the elder Carvajal was severely wounded “to the point of death” and his nephew was killed during the capture of the Temple of Tlatelolco. Carvajal recovered from his injuries in the pueblo of Coyoacán (then an independent town, today one of Mexico City’s neighborhoods) and was later elected infantry captain.

With the capital under control, Cortés and his forces continued to conquer and explore neighboring regions. In 1522, Cortés sent Carvajal as visiting judge (juez visitador) to many different provinces located between Mexico City and the Huasteca. One of the primary purposes of the visit was to gather information about their resources in preparation for the distribution of encomiendas to the conquistadors (towns assigned to pay them tribute). Gerónimo Ruiz de la Mota testified in 1561 that the provinces Carvajal visited included Otumba, Tulancingo, Pahuatlán, Tututepec, Guachinango, Acaxochitlán, y Papaloticpaque (today Pápalo in Oaxaca). During his travels, Carvajal also sought to dissuade the natives from practicing idolatry and human sacrifice through admonishment and “good treatment,” reportedly destroying many native idols. We have no detailed account of what occurred during these visits but can only imagine the kinds of abuses indigenous peoples endured.

Google Map tracing Antonio de Carvajal’s route from Mexico City toward the Huasteca, 1522

The towns of Otumba, Tulancingo, Pahuatlán and Acaxochitlán are shown.

Then in December 1522, Carvajal was part of the sizable army of Spaniards and native allies that Cortés led into the Huasteca, where Cortés founded a town named Santiesteban del Puerto near the mouth of the Río Pánuco. Cortés had been alerted to the fact that the king had granted Francisco de Garay, the Governor of Jamaica, a patent to establish a colony there and sought to block his claim by establishing his own settlement.

Carvajal recounted that when Cortés learned that Garay had arrived at Pánuco in July 1523, he dispatched a large force of soldiers to intercept him with the intention of expelling or arresting him. One of Cortés’ allies advised him not to take Carvajal and Ruiz de la Mota with him to confront Garay, as all three had been aides of Admiral Diego de Colón and therefore their loyalty to Cortés was suspect. Ruiz de la Mota went anyway, to counter the allegation that he and Carvajal might conspire with Garay against Cortés. Fortunately for Cortés, a new order arrived from Spain forbidding Garay from interfering in his rival’s government. Garay acquiesced to the order, relinquished his command and traveled to Mexico City as Cortés’ guest.

Sometime after this incident, Carvajal accompanied reinforcements to aid conquistador Pedro de Alvarado in quashing a rebellion of the natives of Tututepeque (Tututepec) in Oaxaca. Carvajal bitterly noted that this campaign cost him the life of a very expensive horse, a curious detail that, in the context of the conquest, showed a stark insensitivity to the plight of the indigenous peoples.

Although we do not know the precise date of when Carvajal received an encomienda, we know that Cortés began assigning encomiendas soon after being named Governor and Captain General of New Spain in October of 1522 and that before the end of 1524 he had finished allocating encomiendas for most of central Mexico. We also know that Carvajal was one of the first conquistadors to receive an encomienda, a fitting reward for his role as captain of one of the brigantines during the siege of Tenochtitlan. Therefore, it was likely around 1523 that Carvajal was awarded the encomienda of Zacatlán (about 90 miles northeast of Mexico City).

That same year, Cortés once again named Carvajal as juez visitador, this time for the province of Michoacán, charging him with collecting information for the allocation of encomiendas. A year later, Carvajal returned with a detailed account and descriptions of the region and its peoples, including Uruapan, Huaniqueo, Comanja, Turicato and Erongaricuaro. Of his written reports, only the first two survived, the first of which was published in J. Benedict Warren’s The Conquest of Michoacan: The Spanish Domination of the Tarascan Kingdom in Western Mexico, 1521-1530. For another account of Carvajal’s journey and references to the fragments of the other reports (in Spanish), see Claudia Espejel Carbajal, “Distribución de la población en el centro de Michoacán a la llegada de los españoles. Análisis de la visita de Antonio de Carvajal (1523-1524).”

Map tracing Antonio de Carvajal’s route during his visit to Michoacán (1523-1524). The arrows trace the approximate itinerary of his visit and dates are shown where he stopped at each location.

Source: Armando Anaya Hernández and Claudia Espejel Carbajal, “League by League. An analysis of Antonio de Carvajal’s visit to Michoacan (1523-1524), from a Geographic Information Systems Perspective,” Americae, Varia, 3, 2018.

Continued in Part 2. Subscribe to the blog to receive email updates.

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Sources:

Francisco A. de Icaza, Diccionario Autobiográfico de Conquistadores y Pobladores de Nueva España (Madrid: Imprenta de “El Adelantado de Segovia,” 1923).

William H. Prescott, The History of the Conquest of Mexico (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1843).

Baltazar Dorantes de Carranza, Sumaria Relación de las Cosas de la Nueva España (Mexico: Imprenta del Museo Nacional, 1902).

Bernard Grunberg, “The Origins of the Conquistadors of Mexico City,” Hispanic American Historical Review, 74:2, 1994.

Donald E. Chipman, Moctezuma’s Children: Aztec Royalty Under Spanish Rule, 1520-1700. (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2005).

Ignacio López Rayón, “Sumario de la residencia tomada a Don Fernando Cortés,” Archivo Mexicano, Documento para la historia de México (México: Tipografía de Vicente García Torres, 1852).

Carlos S. Paredes Martínez et. al. Michoacán en el Siglo XVI (Morelia: Fímax Publicistas, 1984).

J. Benedict Warren, The Conquest of Michoacan: The Spanish Domination of the Tarascan Kingdom in Western Mexico, 1521-1530 (Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1984).

Claudia Espejel Carbajal, “Distribución de la población en el centro de Michoacán a la llegada de los españoles. Análisis de la visita de Antonio de Carvajal (1523-1524)” in Eduardo Williams and Phil C. Weigand, Patrones de asentimiento y actividades de subsistencia en el occidente de México (Zamora, Michoacán: El Colegio de Michoacán. 2011).

Manuscripts from the Portal de los Archivos Españoles

https://pares.cultura.gob.es/inicio.html

                 Archivo General de Indias

                 Méritos y servicios: Antonio de Carvajal, Juan de Cervantes

                 Patronato, 62, R.1

https://pares.mcu.es/ParesBusquedas20/catalogo/description/122760?nm

Real provisión a la Audiencia de México: Antonio de Carvajal

Mexico, 1088, L. 3, F. 207v

https://pares.mcu.es/ParesBusquedas20/catalogo/description/12796725?nm