Background
Hernando de Alarcon was born about 1500 in Trujillo, Extremadura, Spain.
Hernando de Alarcon was born about 1500 in Trujillo, Extremadura, Spain.
Alarcon is first definitely heard of in 1540 in connection with the celebrated expedition of Coronado sent out by Antonio de Mendoza, Viceroy of New Spain, in search of the Seven Cities of Cibola. By order of the Viceroy, Coronado pursued an overland course northward along the west border of Mexico. To support him two vessels under Alarcon were sent up the Mexican coast from San Blas (Santiago). At a port called Aguaiavale (Altata west of Culiacan), Alarcon was joined by a third ship with provisions. Entering the Gulf of California, he made his way, at times laboriously amid flats and shoals, until the gulf narrowed to a breadth of five or six miles. Ahead, the Colorado (Río del Tizón or Fire Brand River) entered the gulf through broad, low, mud bottoms.
On August 26, the expedition, coming to "the very bottome of the Bay, " encountered the tidal wave or "bore" which rushes up and down the Colorado River with a thunderous noise. In order to make better progress, Alarcon now left his ships and proceeded up the river with twenty men in two boats. On the banks of the river he met some Cocopa Indians. From the Indians he heard reports of Cibola, which, he was told, lay at a distance of thirty days' journey. A little later he heard that there had arrived at Cibola men like himself, armed with "things which did shoote fire" and with swords, who called themselves Christians. These were the advance forces of Coronado.
Alarcon sought to persuade his soldiers to carry to Coronado the news of his own proximity, but none of them would consent to go except a black slave, who, however, was not sent. Later still Alarcon heard from the Indians further accounts of Coronado. Fearing now for his own safety, Alarcon set forth down the Colorado (which he names the Buena Guia or Good Guide) to his ships. The ascent of the river had taken over two weeks, but the journey back was accomplished in two days and a half. Determined, if possible, to join Coronado, he started up the river again on September 14. He advanced farther than before, to a point not far below the beginning of the Grand Canyon. Here he erected a cross, and at its foot secreted letters which were subsequently found by Coronado's lieutenant, Melchior Diaz. Having rejoined his ships, Alarcon made frequent landings in a vain attempt to find Coronado. On reaching Colima, he delivered a report of his expedition and sailed away that night. The following year the Viceroy directed him to renew the attempt to communicate with Coronado, but the expedition never sailed.
Alarcon is best known for leading the expedition to the peninsula of Baja California. A substantial achievement of the expedition was a map of the Gulf of California by the pilot Don Domingo del Castillo. By this map (1541) the gulf was fully demonstrated to be a gulf and not a passage, so California was not an island as it was suspected of being.
No record of Alarcon's family can be found. Presumably, he never married.
