Luis de Moscoso Alvarado

Luis de Moscoso Alvarado (Badajoz (Spain), 1505 - Peru, 1551) was a Spanish explorer and conquistador.

Biography

Expeditions with Pedro de Alvarado

Luis de Moscoso Alvarado was born in Badajoz, Spain in 1505. He was son of Alonso Hernández Diosdado Mosquera de Moscoso and Isabel de Alvarado and the nephew of the also Spanish conqueror Pedro de Alvarado, who had excelled in the conquests of Mexico and Central America. He had also two brothers: Juan de Alvarado and Cristóbal de Mosquera.^[1][2] In the Americas, he accompanied to his uncle Pedro de Alvarado, that participated in the conquest of present Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador.^[1] In 1530 he was sent by his uncle to find a colony in present eastern El Salvador. On May 8, 1530 he founded the town of San Miguel de la Frontera, in modern San Miguel Department (El Salvador).^[3]

In 1534, he traveled to Peru with his uncle Pedro de Alvarado, where they embarked on an expedition that took them through what is now Ecuador. Subsequently send by his uncle, he continued with the current exploration of Ecuador, where he discovered several tribes in the Manabí Province.^[1][4]

Expeditions with Hernando de Soto

Returning to Peru ^[1] and, along with his brothers, ^[5] he teamed up with Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto, but the discord between Diego de Almagro and Francisco Pizarro had him and Hernando de Soto returned to Spain in 1536. In Spain, they lost their wealth acquired in the Americas^[1][2] which made them return to this continent with the prospect of recovering its richness.^[5] They left the Spanish port of Sanlucar de Barrameda ^[2][5] and traveled along with all the army of Hernando de Soto to Florida on April 7, 1538 ^[1] through Cuba. He commanded one of the nine ships of Soto. In Florida they explored the Mississippi River north and, in the inland march, he held the position of maestro de campo (field commander) until the disaster among the Chickasaws of northern Mississippi in March 1541. This affair, in which much of the horse herd and twelve Spanish lives were lost, was blamed largely on his negligence.^[2][5]Hernando de Soto died on May 21, 1542, in the current Arkansas leaving Moscoso to succeed him as commander of the army.^[1][2] As such, Moscoso acceded readily to the desires of his men to withdraw.^[1]

Own expeditions

Luis de Moscoso Alvarado with the army marched west possibly reaching northwest Louisiana and then march to the west, coming to Texas.^[1] They crossed in their path some indigenous areas, but because they did not have interpreters to communicate with these people and they had bad forecasting they had in the country, they had to go back again to the Mississippi River ^[1][2] and there to build seven bergantines, or pinnaces, with which to seek a water route to Mexico. On July 2, 1543, 322 survivors of some 600 soldiers and servants who had landed in Florida four years previously boarded the boats and began the descent of the Mississippi.^[2][5] He sailed with his army to the Pánuco River. They had followed the coasts of Louisiana and Texas and probably entered Matagorda Bay and Aransas or Corpus Christi Bay.^[1][2] From this river traveled to Mexico City, where he wrote two brief letters to the king of Spain,^[5] but they shed little light on the expedition.^[1] In Mexico he entered the service of the viceroy of New Spain, Antonio de Mendoza, and accompanied him to Peru in 1550. Luis Moscoso died there in 1551.^[2][5]

Personal life

Moscoso Alvarado married in Mexico City with his cousin Leonor de Alvarado, the daughter of Pedro de Alvarado, after of send the letters to King of Spain.^[1][2]

Legacy

Mosca Pass, in the Alamosa County´s Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, is named for Luis de Moscoso de Alvarado.^[6]

References