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Melchor Díaz (1505 – January 1541) was a Spanish conquistador who was Governor of Culiacan. He is best known for leading a 25-man auxiliary party during the 1540 Coronado expedition. In December 1540 Díaz crossed the Colorado River which he named the Rio de Tizon (River of Embers), making him the first European in the modern state of California to set foot and explore west of the Colorado River, reaching mudpots near Cerro Prieto, and in the Imperial Valley.
During his Colorado River exploration Díaz was intending to find a route to the Southern Sea however low supplies combined with a freak accident on Díaz forced the party back to Corazon Valley in Sonora, New Spain.
Díaz was part of the Spanish explorers and conquistadors who began the first phase of the Spanish colonization of California.
Personal life
Díaz was described by historical writer George Parker Winship as "a hard worker and skillful organizer and leader", who "inspired confidence in his companions and followers, and always maintained the best of order and of diligence among those who were under his charge".
1539 expedition
He was placed in charge of the town of San Miguel de Culiacán by Nuño de Guzmán. When in 1539, Fray Marcos de Niza returned from Pimería Alta reporting he had seen the fabled cities of Cibola, Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza sent Díaz as the leader of a small expedition preliminarily to determine if reports by Fray Marcos were true. The information he gained was to benefit Coronado's planned and much larger expedition. He departed on November 17, 1539.
Coronado 1540 expedition
When Díaz failed to return at the expected time, Coronado embarked without him in February 1540. Díaz and Coronado met en route, and Díaz joined Coronado's group. Coronado then sent him on his second expedition to locate and investigate some villages reported in the area. He found the villages and reported they did not live up to the grand descriptions that had been given. Díaz was then sent ahead by Coronado to secure feed for the expedition's livestock.
In July 1540, Díaz was sent to take the now-mistrusted and hated Fray Marcos back to Mexico and (say some reports) to take over leadership of the outpost at San Geronimo (or Hieronimo) in the valley of Corazones, now Ures, Sonora, and from there to attempt contact with the fleet of Hernando de Alarcón, which was to be the maritime arm of Coronado's expedition. In September 1540, he began his third expedition, traveling overland to the head of the Gulf of California. Near the confluence of what is now the Colorado and Gila Rivers he learned from the natives that Alarcon had departed, but had left a cache of supplies and correspondence, which he located. The message basically stated that Díaz crossed the Colorado River, becoming the first European to do so, and named it Rio del Tizon ("River of Embers" or "Firebrand River"