Nuño de Guzmán denominates the central part of Sinaloa as the province of Culiacán delimiting it all the way from the Mocorito River, with the Elota River to the North, bordering with the province of Chametla which reached up to Las Cañas River. Nuño de Guzmán installed a military government in the two provinces, and via a chief mayor, subjected to the government of the New Galicia, whose seat in the beginning was the Village of Compostela, Nayarit and later Guadalajara, Jalisco.
From the Village of San Miguel, the expansion of the Spaniards started out towards the Mexican northwest, but as a consequence of the uprisings of the natives, the south region was left deserted in 1536. The authorities of Culiacán seeing themselves prevented from preserving that territory, requested the Captain Francisco de Ibarra in 1565, to recover the province of Chametla; Ibarra, who arriving through the mountain range of Topia had founded the Village of San Juan de Carapoa on the boundaries of the Fuerte River, conquers that region and founds the Village of San Sebastián, now Concordia, awarding the province, with its original limits, to the government of the New Vizcaya, segregating it from the New Galicia, and installing new authorities.
The limits of the province of Culiacán, which to the north covered the present municipalities of Angostura, Salvador Alvarado, Mocorito and Badiraguato, to the south Elota and Cosalá and Navolato to the coast, remained without alteration from the 16th Century and well into the 17th Century. In 1786, the system of commissariats is introduced in the New Spain, in this form, Sonora and Sinaloa, which since 1732 had formed a sole government, come to form the Commissariat of Arizpe, this type of government eliminates the main mayor´s offices and denominates the Antique Provinces as sectioned.
The Sinaloense territory, whose limits reached the Mayo River to the north, and Las Cañas River to the south, was divided into three sections, respecting the limits of the provinces and subdiving into subdelegations of Alamos, El Fuerte and Sinaloa; on the south, the section of San José de Copala, formed by the Real del Rosario, Maloya and Copala; and the section of Culiacán, with subdelegations on the seat of the section of Culiacàn with subdelegations on the seat of the section and in Cosalá.
The towns of Badiraguato, Capirato, Comanito, Navito, Alayà, Quilá, Aguaruto, Culiacancito, Bachimeto, Otameto, San Pedro, Imala, Navolato, Tepuche, Bachigualato, Los Reales de Minas de El Cajón, San Javier, Alisos and Palos Blancos remained under the jurisdiction of the subdelegation of Culiacán, Real de Minas de Nuestra Señora and the towns of Conitaca, Santiago de Abuya, La Vinapa, Tacuichamona and Tabalá under the jurisdiction of the subdelegation of Cosalá. The seat of the subdelegation was installed in the town of Cosalá, and in the Village of Culiacán, the seat of the section and the subdelegation of its name.
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