It was in November 1582, before anything was known in Mexico of Espejo’s proposed expedition from Nueva Vizcaya, that Viceroy Coruña reported to the king the result of his investigation respecting the entrada and probable fate of Rodriguez and his companion friars. In this report he enclosed for the royal guidance a communication from Don Rodrigo del Río de Losa, lieutenant captain-general of Nueva Galicia who had been consulted as a man “de mucha experiencia en entradas,” having served with Arellano in Florida and with Ibarra in Nueva Vizcaya. Don Rodrigo wrote on the supposition that the people of New Mexico were now hostile, and urged that a sufficient force should be sent to punish the murderers of the friars, and to inspire such respect for Spanish arms as would prevent future outrages and revolts The number of soldiers should not be less than 300 with seven mules and horses for each man. For after the recent murders had been avenged, and the country reduced to a state of peace, a few settlers being left, it should be the main object of the expedition to continue its march across the buffalo plains to Quivira and beyond, even to the shores of the north or south sea, or to the “strait which is near China, in latitude 57'”, the occupation of which by the French or English might thus be prevented. With this view, material for building two small ships should be carried, for the crossing of rivers or straits, or perhaps the sending back of news respecting any great discovery. Details of the necessary outfit are suggested; friars must of course be sent with the explorers; and it would be well to encourage the officers and men by release from taxation, offers of titles, and liberal encomiendas of New Mexican Indians. The result was a royal order of March 1583, in which the viceroy was instructed to make a contract with some suitable person to undertake the expedition in accordance with the laws and regulations, without cost to the royal treasury; but the contract must be submitted to the consejo for approval before anything was actually done.

Then came Beltran and Espejo, bringing reports calculated to increase the growing interest in New Mexico and the regions beyond. The people were not hostile, but well-disposed to welcome Spanish visitors; the country in its climate and products presented many attractions for settlers from the south; though the natives made no use of the precious metals, ores rich in silver had been found at several points, and the development of profitable mines might with confidence be hoped for. The spiritual prospects were even more brilliant than the mineral, for 250,000 natives of superior intelligence were awaiting conversion; and especially, to say nothing of the long-coveted wealth of Quivira in the north-east easily accessible from New Mexico as a base, a great lake and broad river, with populous towns and plenty of gold, afforded a new incentive to exploring effort in the north-west. And moreover, it would seem to have been about this time that fears of foreign encroachment in these regions were renewed by the statement of Padre Diego Marquez, who had fallen into the hands of ‘gente luterana’, and had been closely questioned at the English court respecting his knowledge of the north. This he made known to the authorities in Mexico, who felt that something must be done to prevent this fair land from falling into the hands of impious Lutherans.

The first to take advantage of the king’s order was Cristóbal Martin, a vecino of Mexico, who in October 1583, probably with knowledge of Padre Beltran’s return, applied to the audiencia for a contract to undertake the conquest and settlement of New Mexico in accordance with the late cédula and earlier ordinances. He was willing to fit out an expedition of 200 or 300 men, and to spend $50,000 in the enterprise. He desired a missionary force of six Franciscans, besides two secular clergymen; and asked to be supplied with certain arms and ammunition; but otherwise the entrada was to be at his own cost. There was, however, nothing small about Don Cristóbal’s demands. Though full of faith and loyalty, he could not afford to save souls and win for his king new provinces at his own cost for nothing. He must have the position of captain-general and governor of the new reino for himself and family during three lives; the right to distribute as encomiendas to his men all the natives of the conquered towns and provinces for ten lives; the authority to appoint and remove all officials, and to grant lands; a reduction of the king’s fifth to one twentieth of the product of mines for 100 years; the privileges of hijosdalgo for the conquistadores and their descendants; exemption from taxation on all products for 100 years; free use of the salinas for the three lives; the chief judicial authority as governor; the right to discover and settle for 1,000 leagues beyond the first New Mexican towns, to occupy ports on either ocean, and to trade with two ships from one of these ports without paying duties; the right to call on the viceroy for additional men and supplies by paying the costs; the right to found a mayorazgo, or entail, for his heirs, with sufficient revenue to perpetuate the family name and glory; and many other things which need not be catalogued here. These conquerors of the sixteenth century took great risks, regulating their demands accordingly; and as the burden was to fall on the Indians mainly, the king was often most liberal in his concessions. From October to December, Martin several times renewed his petition, and it would appear that his contract was finally approved by the Mexican authorities and sent to the consejo de Indias for confirmation.

Espejo himself was next in the field as an aspirant for New Mexican glory, plausibly claiming that his recent service, experience, and success clearly pointed to him as above all others entitled to preference. But Don Antonio proposed no contract with the Mexican authorities. From motives of pride or policy he chose to apply directly to the king; indeed, he urged most earnestly that the viceroy should have nothing to do with the enterprise. This, in the empresario’s opinion, was absolutely essential to prevent ruinous wrangles and delays, wars and outrages on the natives, or dissensions and desertions among officers and men; and to insure the safe, speedy, and economical transformation of New Mexico into a flourishing community of tribute-paying subjects of Spain. In his original report of October 1583, summing up what he had accomplished, Espejo expressed his desire to spend his life and fortune in the king’s service, at the same time announcing that he had brought from the north a native of Mohoce, and another of the Tanos, who might be trained for useful service as interpreters. In a letter to the archbishop he also made known his intention to apply for a royal commission to conquer and settle the country he had visited, and to explore the regions beyond, even to the ocean coasts on either side. Accordingly in April 1584, he authorized his son-in-law, Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza, about to start for Spain, with Bonilla and Barbadillo already at Madrid, to represent him at court, and obtain in his name the “conquista y pacificación y gobernación” of the provinces of New Mexico, or Nueva Andalucía, “which provinces I have discovered and taken possession of in the name of his Majesty”. At the same time were forwarded a copy of his Relacion, and his formal petition, including a plan of his proposed operations. The expedition was to consist of 400 men, for the most part recruited in Spain, 100 of them with wives and children, to be organized in four companies. The men were to be well supplied with all they could need, either as soldiers or settlers; and besides the cavalry horses required, large droves of mares, cattle, and sheep were to be provided. Spiritual interests of the new reino would be intrusted to twenty-four Franciscans. The entry would be made in two divisions, one going by the Río del Norte, and the other, with the live-stock and wagons, by the Río de Vacas. The garrison and families would at first be stationed in the vicinity of Acoma. In dealing with the natives, a conciliatory policy of justice and peace was to be strictly followed. In carrying out the scheme, Espejo was ready to expend over 100,000 ducats, besides the 10,000 he had already spent; he had twenty associates of considerable wealth; and he would give bonds in the sum of $200,000. The reward claimed for his devotion to the royal interests—“much less than what your Majesty promises in the ordenanzas”, yet. doubtless including the capitanía general and governorship, with privileges, titles, land-grants, encomiendas, and other emoluments for himself and associates—was to be made known in a supplementary memorial, which, as far as I know, is not extant. There are some indications that Don Antonio went in person to Spain to urge his claims.

It does not clearly appear that anything was known in Mexico of Espejo’s proposed conquest; but it is probable that respecting this project or that of Martin, some additional investigation was ordered, and Francisco Diaz de Vargas—alguacil mayor and regidor of Puebla—called upon for his views. At any rate, Don Francisco found occasion about this time to address the king on this subject. He began by presenting a brief résumé of northern exploration from the time of Cortés down to the date of writing; and from that résumé he concluded that where so many able explorers had failed to find anything worth retaining, the presumption was, that the country was poor and undesirable. Doubtless the New Mexicans were a superior people; yet notwithstanding their agriculture, cotton, buffalo-skins, and many-storied stone and adobe dwellings, they were a distant, isolated community, surrounded for hundreds of leagues by wild and warlike tribes, and their country therefore offered at present but slight inducements for Spanish settlers. As the latest reports, however, were more favorable than earlier ones, as there was a prospect of rich mines, and since it was desirable to learn what foundation there might be for the reports of wealth beyond New Mexico, and especially what connection the great lake and river might have with the strait of Anian, it seemed advisable to send out an expedition—not of colonization and conquest, but simply of exploration. For this purpose a force of 50 or 60 men would suffice to verify the recent reports, push investigation 200 leagues farther north, and report results. These were sensible views, and Diaz de Vargas had the courage of his convictions; for in his patriotic zeal, mindful, not only of his own past services in high positions, but of those of his father, who was one of the old conquistadores, he even offered—and here we have at last the true inwardness of the document—to command the exploring party in person! And later, should the preliminary survey prove satisfactory, Don Francisco, accepting the titles and emoluments in such cases provided, would himself take charge of the great work of conquering and colonizing New Mexico.

Thus we have three empresarios in the field; and it is not unlikely that there were others. But respecting the fate of the different projects, or rather the circumstances that prevented their acceptance and execution, we know absolutely nothing; or at least I have found no document relating to either of the propositions after they were sent to the king and council. Perhaps the empresarios’ demands were deemed excessive, or they could give no satisfactory assurances of their ability to comply with the conditions of the contracts, or were not willing to accept the conditions, or perhaps died; at any rate, nothing more is heard of Martin, or Espejo, or Diaz de Vargas; and for five years nothing is heard of New Mexico.

At the beginning of 1589 Juan Bautista de Lomas y Colmenares, resident at the Nieves mines, and reputed to be the richest man in Nueva Galicia, presented to Viceroy Villamanrique a memorial of 37 articles, in which he proposed to undertake the conquest of New Mexico. He was much more exacting in his conditions than even Martin had been demanding, besides all that the latter had claimed and much more that cannot be specified in the space at my command, the office of captain-general and governor, with almost unlimited authority for six lives, at a salary of 8,000 ducats; jurisdiction over all territory beyond the Río Conchos, with the exclusion of all other conquerors from the territory beyond what he might choose to conquer; the title of count or marquis for himself and descendants, with 40,000 vassals; the privilege of granting three pueblos as an entailed encomienda, and another for the descendants of conquistadores not otherwise provided for; and the right to fortify ports and build ships on either ocean. His sons were associated with him in the enterprise, and Don Juan Bautista evidently had no intention of sacrificing the family prestige and wealth. He claimed to have rendered most important services at his own expense on the northern frontier.

Lomas’ contract was approved by the viceroy on the 11th of March, 1589; but the latter, though it appears that by a cédula of 1586 he had full powers to authorize entradas, deemed it best to consult the king in so important a matter; and at court the project received no attention whatever, or at least it drew out from the king no order or response. In 1592, Velasco, having succeeded Villamanrique as viceroy, Lomas attempted to revive the matter, but could obtain nothing more than a certified copy of the preceding documents. For it seems that Velasco favored another claimant, and made a new contract with Francisco de Urdiñola. Before the latter could begin operations, however, he was arrested by order of the audiencia of Guadalajara on a charge of poisoning his wife—a charge which Villagrá in a burst of poetic indignation declares to have been founded only on envidia venenosa; and during subsequent legal complications New Mexican affairs were naturally neglected. Once more in 1595 Don Juan Bautista made an effort to obtain from the king an order to Viceroy Monterey to renew his contract with such modifications as might be deemed desirable; but nothing more is heard of his project or its author.

While the several empresarios named were vainly striving to obtain from the king legal authority to win fame and wealth in the north, another determined to take a short cut to glory by undertaking an entrada without the royal license. This was Gaspar Castaño de Sosa, who had been alcalde mayor at San Luis Potosí in 1575, and in 1590 was acting as lieutenant-governor of Nuevo León. He claimed some kind of authority for his expedition; but it is evident from subsequent events that his acts were regarded as irregular and illegal. I suspect that he may have been duly authorized to explore and colonize the Nuevo León region, and that he was led by Espejo’s reports to transfer, without special license from king or viceroy, his efforts to a more promising field. The name of Cristóbal Martin among his associates is also suggestive. Respecting the preliminaries of the expedition, little or nothing is known; but the original diary has fortunately been preserved.

The start was on the 27th of July, 1590, from the villa de Almaden, wherever that may have been—probably somewhere in Nuevo León—and the force was over 170 persons including women and children. A wagon train was laden with supplies deemed needful for a new settlement. In two days the company reached the Río de Nadadores, remaining ten days; and, mentioning also the Sabinas and several streams not found on any modern map, they arrived on the 9th of September at the Río Bravo, where they spent the rest of the month, awaiting the return of messengers who had been sent to Mexico, and making some explorations for a later advance. It was decided to go forward by way of the Río Salado, a stream whose existence seems to have been known, though just how it was known or what was the origin of the name does not appear.

Here on the Río Bravo their troubles began. After receiving conflicting reports from several exploring parties they started on the 1st of October for the Río Salado. To find a way for the wagons over a rough country and across intermediate streams—the principal one being called the Río de Lajas—to the river which was the object of their search, and to get out of the mountains into the plains, consumed most of the month; and only at the end of October did they start up the valley of the Salado to their land of promise. I make no attempt to trace their wanderings of this month in Coahuila and Texas, or even to determine where they crossed the Bravo, or Río Grande; but content myself with the conclusion that the Salado was without doubt Espejo’s Cow River, or the Pecos.

Slowly the caravan crept up the valley and over the broad Texan plains, at first on the eastern bank of the river, but later crossing and recrossing it often, with no incident calling for mention, meeting a few roaming Indians, and passing no settlements. The 1st of December an unfordable branch stream forced them to cross to the eastern bank of the main river. On the 7th was noticed the first grove of cottonwoods. On the 23d a small advance party returned to meet the main body with exciting news. They had entered a pueblo farther up the river, eastward, where they had been kindly received, and had spent the night there; but the next morning while engaged in peaceful efforts—if we take their word for it—to collect a supply of maize, they were suddenly attacked and driven away, losing a part of their arms and luggage, and having three of their number wounded.

Leaving the women and children with the wagons properly guarded at a place called Urraca, Castaño set out on the 27th with the larger part of his force, and on the last day of the month and year arrived at the pueblo, which was situated about half a league from the river, being a large town with buildings of four and five stories—evidently identical with Pecos. The inhabitants were on the roofs in hostile attitude, armed with stones and bows and slings. After a great part of the day had been spent in vain attempts to conciliate them, an attack was made late in the afternoon, and the town was taken after a fight which seems to have been attended with no very serious casualties on either side. Great care was taken to prevent outrages, and to gain the people’s confidence; but though they submitted, it was impossible to overcome their suspicion and timidity. During the second night they all left the pueblo and fled. The Spaniards remained five or six days, admiring the many-storied houses, the five plazas, the sixteen estufas, the immense stores of maize, amounting to 30,000 fanegas, the garments of the men and women, the beautiful pottery, and many other curious things.

Having sent back much needed supplies of food to the camp at Urraca, the teniente de gobernador started on the 6th of January, 1591, in quest of new discoveries. Two days over a mountainous snow-covered country and across a frozen stream brought him to the second pueblo, a small one whose inhabitants were well disposed, and readily submitted to the appointment of governor, alcaldes, and other officials, thus rendering allegiance to the Spanish crown. Four other pueblos, all of the same type, differing only in size, and apparently not far apart or far from the second, were now visited successively, submitting without resistance or serious objection to the required formalities. In each a cross was set up with all possible ceremony and solemnity. The seventh pueblo was a large one in another valley two leagues distant, with adobe houses of two and three stories, and in the plaza a large structure half underground which seemed to serve as a kind of temple. The eighth and ninth pueblos were a day’s march up a large river northward; but the tenth, a very large one with buildings from seven to nine stories high, situated five leagues beyond the last, where the inhabitants wore chalchihuites for ornaments, though seen was not entered, because the people were not altogether friendly, and on account of the cold, and lack of forage for the horses, the necessary time for conciliation could not now be spared. Returning through the snow to the southern towns, Castaño next received the submission of pueblos eleven and twelve across the river westward, a league apart, and then of number thirteen after recrossing to the eastern bank. The next move was over a snowy route to another valley in two days; and here were found, all in sight of each, four towns of the Quereses, the only aboriginal name applied in this narrative, apparently identical with Coronado’s Quirix, Espejo’s Quires, and the later well-known Queres about the junction of the Galisteo and Río Grande. The eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth pueblos, about a league apart, the first and perhaps the others being also of the Queres nation, graciously submitting to the strangers’ god and king, were named respectively San Marcos, San Lucas, and San Cristóbal.

On the 24th of January, after a heavy fall of snow, the little army started eastward from San Cristóbal with native guides to bring up the rest of the colony, and the wagon-train from Urraca. Passing through pine forests and melting snow to get water for men and horses, they crossed the Rio Salado, or Pecos, on the 26th, and next day reached the camp at Urraca, most opportunely, for the store of food was well-nigh exhausted. Four days later the whole company started on the return; but progress being slow, on account of excessive cold and occasional accidents to the wagons, it was not till February 8th that they left the Pecos, reaching San Cristóbal on the 15th, and San Marcos on the 18th. This town for a time was made a centre of operations. A few days after the return a new pueblo, the twenty-first, two leagues away, was visited and peaceably reduced to Spanish allegiance. In the first days of March Castaño with a small party made a trip apparently to pueblo number one, or Pecos, but possibly to number ten, finding the people recovered from their fears, and ready for the formalities of submission. Next he went by way of a place and stream named Iñigo to the twenty-second pueblo, named Santo Domingo, on a ‘río caudaloso’ called also Río Grande, to which point the main camp was soon transferred.

In these days was brought to light a plot of certain men to desert their leader, perhaps even to kill him, and to quit the country. Their cause of complaint, if we may credit the perhaps not impartial chronicler, was the kindness shown the natives by the teniente de gobernador, and the consequent lack of opportunities for plunder. All implicated, however, were pardoned by the kind-hearted Castaño at the intercession of all the camp; and the only punishment inflicted was on Alonso Jaimez whose commission to go to Zacatecas for reinforcements was revoked. Permission was even given to such as might desire it to abandon the enterprise and go home, but none took advantage of the offer. This was about the 11th of March; and in his search for mines Castaño found in the mountains two pueblos, twenty-three and twenty-four, which had been abandoned recently because of Indian wars. No more dates are given; but the final tour of exploration was to the province where the padres were said to have been killed years before. This is the only allusion in the diary to any knowledge on Castaño’s part that New Mexico had ever been visited before. In this province there were fourteen pueblos in sight on the river bank, nine of which—numbers twenty-five to thirty-three—were visited. Most of them were temporarily deserted by the inhabitants, in the fear that the invaders came to avenge the death of the friars; but the rest submitted without resistance. We must suppose that in this last expedition Don Gaspar went from Santo Domingo down the Río Grande to the province of the Tiguas.

On his return from this tour, with a few men Castaño met Indians who reported the arrival of a new party of Spaniards. A little later he met some of his own men, who said that Captain Juan Morlete had arrived from the south with 50 men. Hoping to learn that reenforcements had been sent to him, though the names were not familiar, the teniente de gobernador hastened to the camp, only to learn that Morlete had come with orders from the king and viceroy for his arrest. He quietly submitted, and here the diary ends abruptly, after Don Gaspar had been put in shackles. Apparently the whole company returned south with their unfortunate chief. Lomas in 1592 tells us that Morlete was accompanied by Padre Juan Gomez, and arrested Castaño “for having entered the said country without license from Vuestra Señoría.” Oñate in 1598 found traces of the wagons, showing the return route to have been down the Río Grande. Salmerón says of this expedition “and those of Captain Nemorcete and of Humaña I do not write, because they all saw the same things, and one telling suffices”—an unfortunate resolution of the venerable Franciscan, since he probably had at his command information that would have thrown desirable light on all these entradas. Father Niel adds nothing to the statement of his predecessor except in correcting Nemorcete’s name to Morlete; and the poet Villagrá supplies no details.

Of the expedition attributed by Salmerón and other writers to Humaña, as it was an illegal one—contrabando, as the Spaniards put it—no diary could have been expected to be written, even had the unfortunate adventurers lived to return and report their discoveries. Francisco Leiva Bonilla, a Portuguese, was the veritable chief, and Juan de Humaña one of his companions. The party was sent out on a raid against rebellious Indians by the governor of Nueva Vizcaya at a date not exactly known, but apparently in 1594-6. Captain Bonilla, moved by the current reports of north-eastern wealth, determined to extend his operations to New Mexico and Quivira. The governor sent Pedro de Cazorla to overtake the party and forbid such an expedition, declaring Bonilla a traitor if he disobeyed; but all in vain, though six of the party refused to follow the leader, and returned. The adventurers’ progress to and through New Mexico has no record. They are next heard from far out on the buffalo plains in search of Quivira. Here in a quarrel Humaña killed his chief and assumed command. A little later, when the party had passed through an immense settlement and reached a broad river which was to be crossed on balsas, three Mexican Indians deserted, one of whom, José, survived to tell the tale to Oñate in 1598. Once more we hear of the gold-seekers. Farther toward Quivira, or Tindan, or perhaps returning gold-laden from those fabulous lands, they encamp on the plain at the place since called Matanza. The Indians set fire to the grass, and rush, thousands strong, upon the Spaniards just before dawn. Only Alonso Sanchez and a mulatto girl escape the massacre. Sanchez became a great chief among the natives, and from him comes the story, just how is not very clear, since there is no definite record that he was ever seen later by any white man. When we take into consideration their sources, it is not surprising that the records of Humaña’s achievements are not very complete.