Salamanca

[laughs]

And the AmaWaterways rep was sailing with us on that particular cruise, and we were sitting with Jen Lee, the godmother of this ship, and she was just getting ready to do her christening cruise, which was April of last year, and our rep said, "Whatever you do, do not skip Salamanca." So for over a year, that particular excursion was top of mind.

Yeah, so Salamanca is just across the Spanish border, so you do visit not just Portugal, but also Spain.

España.

And it's nicknamed La Dorada for its golden sandstone buildings.

...

this was totally worth it.

The tour in Salamanca was in the morning, so our bus was leaving around 4:30 to return to the ship.

had come from Spain with his new title and with great favors and estates and as Nuno de Guzman had been a great rival of his at the time he was president and had done much damage to his property and to that of his friends he feared that Don Fernando Cortes would want to pay him back in the same way or worse so he decided to establish the town of Culiacan there and to go back with the other men without doing anything more after his return from this expedition he founded Jalisco where the city of Compostela is situated and Tonalá which is called Guadalajara and now this is the new kingdom of Galicia the guide they had who was called Tejo died about this time and thus the name of these seven cities and the search for them remains until now since they have not been discovered chapter two of how Francisco Vasquez Coronado came to be governor and the second account which Cabeza de Vaca gave eight years after Nuno de Guzman made this expedition he was put in prison by a juez de residencia note a judge named the Licenci Diego de la Torre who came from Spain with sufficient powers to do this.

After the death of the judge, who had also managed the government of that country himself, the good Don Antonio de Mendoza, Viceroy of New Spain, appointed as governor of that province Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, a gentleman from Salamanca, who had married a lady in the city of Mexico, the daughter of Alonso de Estrada, the treasurer and at one time governor of Mexico, and the son, most people said, of his Catholic Majesty Don Ferdinand, and many stated it as certain.

As I was saying, at the time Francisco Vasquez was appointed governor, he was traveling through New Spain as an official inspector, and in this way he gained the friendship of many worthy men who afterward went on his expedition with him.

It happened that just at this time three Spaniards, named Cabeza de Vaca, Dorantes, and Castillo Maldonado, and a negro who had been lost on the expedition which Pánfilo de Narváez led into Florida, reached Mexico.

They did not dare to tell him until he had recovered, and when he finally got up and learned of it, it affected him so much that he had to go back to bed again.

He may have done this in order to bring about what he afterward accomplished, as was believed later.

It was while he was in this condition that he recollected what a scientific friend of his in Salamanca had told him, that he would become a powerful lord in distant lands, and that he would have a fall from which he would never be able to recover.

This expectation of death made him desire to return and die where he had a wife and children.

He may have done this in order to bring about what he afterward accomplished, as was believed later.

It was while he was in this condition that he recollected what a scientific friend of his in Salamanca had told him, that he would become a powerful lord in distant lands, and that he would have a fall from which he would never be able to recover.

This expectation of death made him desire to return and die where he had a wife and children.

As the physician and surgeon who was doctoring him, and also acted as a talebearer, suppressed the murmurings that were going about among the soldiers, he treated secretly and underhandedly with several gentlemen who agreed with him.

Hernan Perez de Bocanegra, a citizen of Mexico, stated that he had been present on the preceding Sunday at the review of the force which the Viceroy was sending for the pacification of the country recently discovered by the Father Provincial, Fray Marcos de Nisa, and that he had taken note of the force as the men passed before him.

And at his request, he had also been allowed to see the list of the names of those who were enrolled in the army.

And he declared that in all the said force, he did not recognize any other citizens of Mexico who were going except Domingo Martin, a married man whom he had sometimes seen living in Mexico and provided him with messengers, and one Alonso Sanchez, who was going with his wife and a son, and who was formerly a shoemaker, and a young man, son of the bachiller Alonso Perez, who had come only a few days before from Salamanca, and who had been sent to the war by his father on account of his restlessness.

And two or three other workmen or tradespeople whom he had seen at work in Mexico, although he did not know whether they were citizens there.

The British army then invaded Spain on the side of the kingdom of Leon.

The forts of Salamanca fell before them in June, and in July the battle of Salamanca crushed the French force in that quarter, and opened the road to Madrid to the British, who driving thence the intrusive king acquired the control of all central Spain.

But at length in October, the castle of Burgos defied their utmost efforts unaided by a siege train.

The French hosts from north, south, and east, abandoning rich provinces and strong fortresses they had held for years, gathered around them in overwhelming numbers.