Sandoval was the youngest of the lieutenants of Cortés. They arrived together in New Spain in 1519. After the subjugation of Moctezuma, Cortés placed him in command at Villa Rica de Vera Cruz as alguacil mayor. He seized the messengers of Pánfilo de Narváez, who demanded the surrender of the town, and sent them as prisoners to Cortés. In the ensuing battle, it was Sandoval who captured Narváez. He led the vanguard in the Spanish retreat on the Noche Triste in 1520, and fought in the Battle of Otumba He conducted operations against the Aztecs from a post called La VillaSegura de la Frontera, near Tepeaca. Afterwards, Gonzalo led attacks against the towns of Cacatami and Xalacingo. He stayed there until the brigantines were built for the attack by water on the capital, when he went to Tlaxcala to direct their transportation overland. During the Siege of Tenochtitlan, he led attacks on the Mexican garrisons in Chalco and Tlamanalco, and escorted the timber needed for the sloops, to Texcoco. Gonzalo also led three battles around Huaxtepec in March 1521. In April, he guarded the launches in Texcoco, as Cortes advanced to Chimaluacan, where he gathered twenty thousand native allies before marching as far as Atzcapotzalco and then returning to Gonzalo in Texcoco. Gonzalo commanded one of four forces under Cortes. Sandoval was wounded twice during one of the battles on the causeways. Sandoval was sent by Cortes to counter a threat by Cuauhtémoc's allies in the Spanish rear, returning with two captured Matlazingo chieftains as prisoner.
Siege of Tenochtitlan
Along the way he was ordered to conquer a town the Spanish had named poblado morisco in Calpulalpa or Sultepec. The population fled at the approach of the Spanish. Sandoval found some horse hides hung in a temple. In another temple he found the inscription: "Here was imprisoned the hapless Juan Yuste, with many others I brought in my company." Yuste was one of the soldiers who had arrived with Narváez. Sandoval destroyed the town, and then returned to his task of transporting the vessels for the attack on Tenochtitlan. In the siege he occupied the eastern approach. His company, and Cortes', was eventually able to join Pedro de Alvarado's company in the Tlatelolco marketplace. One of the men under his command, García Holguín, in command of one of the brigantines in the assault on Tenochtitlan, captured the Tlatoani Cuauhtémoc. Holguín and Sandoval took him to Cortés.
In December 1521, Sandoval met Cristóbal de Tapia, who had been sent by the Crown to relieve Cortes, and in a council of officers obtained a delay. He became the godfather of one of the nobles of Tlaxcala, Citlalpopocatzin, who took the baptismal name of Bartolomé. Later he was sent to the region of Coatzacoalcos, where he pacified Huatusco, Tuxtepec and Oaxaca. He also founded the town of Medellín in Tatatetelco, near Huatusco and south of present-day Veracruz; completed the pacification of Coatzacoalcos; founded the port of Espíritu Santo along the Coatzacoalcos River; took the best village for his own; and consolidated the subjugation of Centla, Chinantla and Tabasco. In Pánuco, he repressed an indigenous insurrection.
After Juan Rodríguez de Villafuerte was defeated by the Indigenous in the Valley of Tecomán in 1522, Cortés sent Gonzalo de Sandoval there with instructions to conquer the territory and found a town. In the indigenous town of Caxitlán, near the coast, Sandoval founded the city of Colima in its first location on July 25, 1523. He also established its city government, the third oldest in New Spain. Later, in 1527, Francisco Cortés de San Buenaventura moved the city to its present location and gave it the name of San Sebastián de Colima.
He was with Cortés in Honduras in 1524, where he was made alguacil and granted some encomiendas, such as Xacona. On his return from this expedition, he was made justicia mayor of New Spain. He replaced Marcos de Aguilar in the governing council of the colony on March 2, 1527 and served in the government until August 22, 1527.
Return to Spain
In the fall of 1527, he traveled with Cortés to Spain, arriving at the port of Palos in December after a voyage of only 41 days. Sandoval had already fallen serious ill on the journey and died shortly after his arrival. He was buried in the monastery La Rábida.
Evaluation
In the Huasteca, Sandoval burned 400 nobles and 60 chiefs alive, selling a further 20,000 people into slavery in the Antilles. Bernal Díaz del Castillo, his friend and battle companion, wrote that he was a good judge and administrator, besides being a good soldier. Díaz del Castillo also said this about him:
He was not highly educated, but a simple man; neither was he covetous for gold, but only for fame and to be a good, strong captain. In the wars of New Spain he always took account of the soldiers... and befriended them and helped them. He was not a man who wore rich clothes, but very plain ones.
