The history of this province, from the fall of Acoma in 1599 to the great revolt of 1680, can never be made complete, for lack of data. The home archives were destroyed in the revolt, and we must depend on such fragments as found their way out into the world before that outbreak. I can do no more than simply bring together in this chapter more of these fragments than have ever been presented before. There were several writers of the period—notably Salmerón, Benavides, and Posadas—who might have left a satisfactory record, at least in the aggregate; but unfortunately the past and future had more charms for them than the present, and New Mexico less than the half-mythic regions beyond.

On the 2d of March, 1599, the governor wrote to the viceroy an outline record of what he had accomplished, painting in bright colors the land he had conquered, and sending samples of its products. The western region since known as Arizona was most highly praised by him in respect of fertility and mineral promise; but perhaps the idea of South Sea glories in that direction was prominent in his mind. What he wanted was an increase of force with which to win for Spain the rich realms that must lie just beyond; and the couleur de rose of his epistle, so far as New Mexico was concerned, was intended for effect on the viceroy and king, since ultimate success began to seem dependent on an increase of resources. Captains Villagrá, Farfán, and Piñero were sent to Mexico to carry this letter and make personal explanations; while at the same time, with an escort under Alférez Casas, padres Martínez, Salazar, and Vergara went south to obtain a reenforcement of friars. Both missions were moderately successful. Salazar died on the journey, Martinez was retained in Mexico, but Padre Juan de Escalona as comisario was sent to the north with Vergara and six or eight friars not named. Casas also returned with the 71 men who, as will be remembered, had been provided for to complete Oñate’s force of 200 in 1598. The viceroy wrote to the king, who by a cédula of May 31, 1600, ordered him to render all possible support and encouragement to the New Mexican enterprise. It is possible that some addi­tional reenforcement was sent in consequence of this order, but there is no positive evidence to that effect.

After the lesson taught at Acoma, the natives were not likely to attempt further resistance; and Oñate in his capital at San Juan was left in undisputed possession of New Mexico. The colonists were well content with the country as a home, and the friars as a field of missionary labor. Don Juan was also satisfied in a sense with his achievement; that is, as a basis for other and greater ones. True, the pueblo province was but a small affair in the conquistador’s eyes; it did not once occur to him that it was in itself his final possession, the goal of all his efforts, the best the north had to offer; but it would serve as a convenient base of supplies for further conquests, and its possession would give weight to his demands for aid from the king. At present his force of little more than 100 men was insufficient for the realization of his schemes; and for some two years he contented him­self with preparations, with the search for mines, and with minor explorations of regions near at hand, respecting which no record remains. The reenforcement of soldiers and friars may be supposed to have arrived early in 1600, but possibly later.

Trouble was soon developed between the two opposing elements in the Spanish camp. The colonists favored the most conciliatory measures toward the natives, and the encouragement of agriculture and stock-raising with a view to permanent residence; they were in favor of letting well enough alone. Oñate on the other hand, with such of the soldiers as had not brought their families, thought mainly of holding the natives in subjection, of reducing new pueblos, of collecting the largest possible amount of food and clothing, and of preparing for new entradas. The friars regarded the conversion of gentiles as the great object of the occupation, and were disposed to think the military element desirable or useful only as a protection to the missions. Of course the governor had his way, and how bitter became the quarrel will presently appear. It was unfortunate for the country, especially as no golden empire was ever found in the north—at least not by Spanish conquerors.

In June 1601, the general was ready for active operations. Accompanied by padres Velasco and Vergara, and guided by the Mexican survivor of Humaña’s band, he left San Juan with 80 men and marched north-eastward over the plains. The route in general terms, no details being known, was similar to that of Coronado in 1541, for 200 leagues in a winding course to an estimated latitude of 39° or 40°. Probably the northern trend is greatly exaggerated. The Span­iards had a battle with the Escanjaques, and killed a thousand of them on the Matanza plain, scene of Humaña’s defeat. The battle was caused by Padre Velasco’s efforts to prevent the Escanjaques from destroying the property of the Quiviras who had fled from their towns at the approach of the Spaniards and their allies. Large villages were seen, and advance parties claimed to have found utensils of gold, which was said to be plentiful in the country of the Aijados not far away; and a native captive sent south is said to have caused a sensation in Mexico and Spain by his skill in detecting the presence of gold. It is not quite clear that Quivira was actually visited, but ambassadors from that people—also called Tindanes—were met, who wished to join the Spaniards in a raid on the gold country. Oñate, however, deemed it unwise to go on with so small a force, or perhaps was forced to turn back by the clamors of his men. He returned to San Joan probably in October.

Back at the pueblos Oñate found New Mexico almost deserted. Colonists and friars with few exceptions had gone south to Santa Bárbara, on the plea of absolute destitution, leaving them only a choice between death and desertion. Padre Escalona, who remained with Alférez Casas to await the governor’s return, explained the situation in a letter to the comisario general, dated October 1st, and carried south by the fugitives. In this letter he stated that Oñate and his captains had sacked the towns, taking the whole reserve store of six years’ crops saved by the natives, as was their custom for a possible year of famine. He had not allowed any community planting for the support of the garrison; the season had been one of drought; and the Indians were forced to live on wild seeds. Fortunately, several settlers had planted and irrigated corn-fields on their own account, thus saving the colony from starvation. Therefore they decided to retire to Nueva Vizcaya, report to the viceroy, and await orders whether to settle in the south or return with a new outfit to New Mexico. The friars went with them at their earnest request and the order of the padre comisario, who deemed it his own duty to remain at the risk of his life, but who begged for a speedy decision. There were said to be good spots for settlement in Nueva Vizcaya, he wrote, out it seemed a pity to abandon New Mexico after such efforts, expense, and something of success.

Don Juan, returning from an unsuccessful tour, with much discontent in his own ranks, was naturally furious on learning the state of affairs at San Juan. Finding men to testify against their absent comrades, he at once began legal proceedings against the so-called traitors, condemned some of them to death, prepared reports to the viceroy and king to offset those of the friars, who now and later reiterated their charges, and sent Vicente de Zaldívar to carry his reports to Mexico and Spain, to arrest and send back the recalcitrant colonists, and to urge the importance of completing the conquest. A little later Padre Escalona wrote to his provincial that he and Padre Velasco, Oñate’s cousin, were resolved to quit the country; that they were of no use as missionaries, serving merely as chaplains to the raiders; that the governor’s charges were false; and that no real progress could be hoped for until the king should take the government from Oñate’s hands.

Zaldívar seems to have forced the colonists to return, acting with great cruelty, if the friars may be credited. Early in 1602 he appeared before the audiencia in Mexico to urge the importance of continuing the conquest from New Mexico as a base. The expediente of papers presented by him related wholly to past achievements, and has been one of our main authorities for the two preceding chapters. The quarrel with friars and settlers did not figure at all in these proceedings; and the documents bearing on that matter are not extant. The fiscal in May threw cold water on the scheme by an opinion that the encouragement to spend money was much less, now that the country’s poverty was known, than formerly when New Mexico was reputed rich.

From Mexico Zaldívar went to Spain to lay the matter before the king. The viceroy also wrote the king a long letter, giving an outline of Oñate’s enterprise from the beginning. Respecting the merits of the recent controversy, he and the audiencia had not been able to decide from the various memorials of in­terested and prejudiced parties on both sides, all of which documents had been forwarded to Spain; but it is clear that he was not friendly to Oñate. He strongly urged that his amendments to the original contract should be enforced, and that Don Juan’s extravagant demands, especially that of independence from the audiencia, should not be granted. While the new province had been overpraised, yet it had many attractions in the way of climate, soil, products, and docile inhabitants; and it should not be abandoned. The number of settlers should be increased to at least 100, to live in one or two small villas so as to protect the padres and not annoy the Indians. The natives might be ‘encommended’ as tribute-payers among the settlers by the governor and comisario acting together. This report includes a somewhat extended, and in comparison with other documents of the time sensible, view of the Northern Mystery; and the writer, after exploding many of the absurd theories of northern wonders, and showing that there was small hope of finding great and wealthy kingdoms for conquests, admits that further exploration toward Anian and Labrador is desirable, and thinks that if the king is willing to pay the cost it might be well to furnish a force of 100 men and six officers for a year and a half. Oñate might properly be put in command and required to help support the men; but he would have no claim whatever to authority over the regions discovered. The animus of this report is evident, though the wisdom of many of the views expressed cannot be questioned.

Such records as are extant fail to show exactly the results of Zaldívar’s efforts in his uncle’s behalf. Calle tells us that Oñate was made adelantado by cédula of February 7, 1602, the title being extended to his son. We have also a cédula of July 8th, confirming the hidalguía, or nobility, originally conferred on conquistadores to Oñate’s associates, and overruling some of the modifications introduced by Monterey. Salmerón states that the king authorized the raising of 1,000 men if Zaldívar could raise half of them for the northern conquest, but on Zaldívar’s failure nothing was accomplished. The truth would seem to be, though the evidence is meagre, that while Oñate was confirmed in his office and prerogatives so far as New Mexico was concerned, receiving some aid from the king, with reenforcements of colonists and missionaries, he had not the means himself, nor could he induce the government to furnish men and supplies for northern conquests on a scale commensurate with his ambitious views. Zaldívar returned from Spain in or before 1604, and perhaps to New Mexico.

Though he had failed in his north-eastern expedition, there remained the Mar del Sur, which Oñate was determined to reach; and as soon as he had recovered from the troubles just recorded, having most of his original 200 men reunited at San Juan, with possibly a small reinforcement brought by Zaldívar, the governor started on October 7, 1604, for the west with thirty men, accompanied by padres Francisco Escobar and San Buenaventura, the former the new comisario. Visiting the Zuñi province “more thickly settled by hares and rabbits than by Indians”, where the chief town of the six is now called Cíbola, or in the native tongue Havico, or Ha Huico, the explorers went on to the five Moqui towns with their 450 houses and people clad in cotton. Ten leagues to the westward they crossed a river flowing from the south-east to the north-west, named Río Colorado from the color of its water, and said to flow into the sea of California after a turn to the west, and a course of 200 leagues through a country of pines. This was the stream still known as the Colorado Chiquito, and it is not unlikely that this was the origin of the name Colorado applied later to the main river. The place of crossing was named San José, and farther west, or south-west, they crossed two other rivers flowing south and south-east, and named San Antonio and Sacramento—really branches of the Río Verde in the region north of Prescott, near where Espejo had been twenty-three years before. It was a fertile, attractive country, whose people wore little crosses hanging from the hair on the forehead, and were therefore called Cruzados.

The Cruzados said the sea was 20 days or 100 leagues distant, and was reached by going in two days to a small river flowing into a larger one, which itself flowed into the sea. And indeed, fifteen leagues brought them to the small stream, named San Andrés, where the tierra caliente began to produce the pitahaya; and twenty-four leagues down its course the general came to the large stream, and named it Río Grande de Buena Esperanza; that is, he followed the Santa María, or Bill Williams fork, down to its junction with the Colorado. The explorers seem to have had no idea that there was any connection between this great river of Good Hope and the one they had named Río Colorado; but they knew it was the one long ago named Río del Tizón farther down; indeed, one of the men had been with Vizcaino in the gulf, and said this was the stream for which his commander had searched.

For some distance above and below the junction lived the Amacava nation, or Mojaves. Captain Marquez went up the river a short distance; then the whole party followed its banks southward, the natives being friendly, and interviews respecting the Northern Mystery taking the place of adventures. Below the Amacavas were the Bahacechas, and next the Ozaras, a somewhat ruder people living on a large river flowing from the south-east, and named the Río del Nombre de Jesús. This was the Gila, and the valley was said to be occupied by the same nation in twenty towns. Below the junction for twenty leagues to the sea the country was thickly inhabited by tribes similar in manners and language to the Bahacechas. First were the Halchedumas in eight towns or rancherías; then nine settlements of the Coahuanas, five of the Tlaglli, or Haglli, six of the Tlalliguamayas, and nine of the Cocapas at the head of tide-water, five leagues from the river’s mouth. The population on the eastern bank alone was not less than 20,000.

Oñate reached tide-water on January 23, 1605, and on the 25th, with the friars and nine men, went down to the mouth. Here he found a fine harbor, formed by an island in the centre, in which he thought 1,000 ships might ride at anchor. That the sea extended indefinitely north-westward behind a range of hills, the Spaniards believed on the authority of the Indians; and this belief had much to do later with the opinion that California was an island. The port was formally christened, from the day, Puerto de la Conversion de San Pablo. The rest of the company came down to see the port, and then the explorers began their return march by the same route to New Mexico. There were ten different languages spoken on the way, and Padre Escobar on the return could speak them all (!), thus gathering new items of fable respecting western and northern wonders. They had to eat their horses, but arrived safe and sound at San Gabriel on the 25th of April. This important exploration of Arizona has been entirely unknown to modern writers. There seems to have been a preceding expedition in 1604, directed to the north, with padres Velasco and Salmeron as chaplains. The expedition accredited by Peñalosa to Zaldívar in 1618—with forty-seven soldiers and Padre Lázaro Jimenez, who went fifteen leagues from Moq to the Río de Buena Esperanza, but were driven back by tales of giants—is merely, as I suppose, a confused reference to that of Onate just described.

Nothing is definitely known of Oñate’s acts in New Mexico after his return from the west in 1605; nor have I seen any record of his later career, except that a new expedition out into the eastern plains is rather doubtfully attributed to him in 1611. He may indeed have been still in the country at that date and later, engaged as captain of explorers in a vain search for northern wealth; but there is evidence that he ceased to rule as governor in 1608, and was perhaps succeeded by Don Pedro de Peralta. About the same time, when 8,000 natives had been converted, Padre Alonso Peinado came to succeed Escobar as comisario, accompanied by eight or nine friars, being in turn succeeded by Padre Esteban Perea in 1614. The names of Governor Peralta’s successors for a dozen years or more are not known, and the history of the whole period is well-nigh a blank.

Yet within this period, or rather between 1605 and 1616, was founded the villa of Santa Fé, or San Francisco de la Santa Fé. The modern claim that this is the oldest town in the United States rests entirely on its imaginary annals as an Indian pueblo before the Spanish conquest. There are but slight indications, if any, that Santa Fé was built on the site of a pueblo; and its identification with Cicuye, Tiguex, or any other particular or prominent pueblo, has no foundation what­ever. We have seen that San Juan was Oñate’s capital from 1598, and that preparations were made for building a city of San Francisco in that vicinity. Naturally, in the troubles that ensued, little if any progress was made; and after the controversies were past—not during Onate’s rule, I think—it was deemed best to build the new villa on another site. I have been able to find no record of the date; but the first definite mention is in 1617, on January 3d of which year the cabildo of Santa Fé petitioned the king to aid the “nueva población.”

In 1617, as appears from the document just cited, though the friars had built eleven churches, converted 14,000 natives, and prepared as many more for conversion, there were only forty-eight soldiers and settlers in the province. Among the inscriptions copied by Simpson from El Moro is one to the effect that the governor passed that way on July 29, 1620, returning from a successful tour of pacification to Zuñi. In 1620, or possibly a little earlier, controversies arose between the political and ecclesiastical authorities, the custodio assuming the right to issue excommunication against the governor, the latter claiming authority to appoint petty Indian officials at the missions, and both being charged with oppressive exactions of labor and tribute from the natives. This matter was referred to the audiencia, and drew out reprimand and warning against both parties.

It was about this time that Padre Gerónimo de Zárate Salmerón entered this missionary field, where for eight years he “sacrificed himself to the Lord among the pagans”, toiling chiefly among the Jemes, of whom he baptized 6,566, and in whose language he wrote a doctrina. He also served at Cia and Sandía among the Queres, and once pacified Acoma after a revolt. Above all things he was eager to convert new tribes; and it was with a view to overcome obstacles in this direction that in 1626 he came to Mexico with his Relaciones. In this most valuable work, elsewhere fully noticed, he unfortunately for our present purpose dealt chiefly with the past and future, saying little of events in his own time, partly perhaps because there was not much to say. The padre was delighted with the country, its climate, people, and products, agricultural and mineral; but disgusted with the apathy of the Spaniards “content if they have a good crop of tobacco to smoke, caring for no more riches, apparently under a vow of poverty, which is saying much for men who in their thirst for gold would enter hell itself to get it.”

In 1621 the missions, with over 16,000 converts, were formed into a ‘custodia de la conversion de San Pablo’. Padre Alonso Benavides came as the first custodio, and brought with him twenty-seven friars. Yet in 1626, when according to Salmerón and Benavides over 34,000 Indians had been baptized and forty-three churches built—so effectually had the soil been fructified by the early martyrs’ blood—only sixteen friars and three laymen were left in the field, the cause of the decrease not being explained. The lack of workmen and the promise of the field having been reported by the custodio to the comisario general, the king in 1627 ordered thirty new friars and a number of laymen to be sent immediately, and all needed aid to be rendered in future. This reinforcement came from the provincia del Santo Evangelio in Mexico in 1628-9.

In these years we have the names of two governors, Felipe Zotylo at some time during Benavides’ term as custodio, that is, 1621-9, and Manuel de Silva in 1629. In 1630 the Franciscan comisario general represented to the king the necessity of erecting a bishopric in New Mexico, where 500,000 gentiles had been converted and 86,000 baptized, where over 100 friars were at work in 150 pueblos, where there were no clergymen and none authorized to administer this right of confirmation. A bishop would save much expense, and would easily be supported by tithes, especially as rich mines had been found and the population was rapidly increasing. The viceroy was ordered to investigate and report on the desirability of this change; but long delays ensued and nothing was accomplished.

Padre Benavides went in person to Spain, and his report to the king, dated Madrid, 1630, although meagre and superficial in comparison with what it might have been, is the most important authority extant on these times. It shows that there were about 50 friars, serving over 60,000 christianized natives in over 90 pueblos, grouped in 25 missions, or conventos, as they were called, each pueblo having its own church. The Indians as a rule were easily controlled, and paid tribute in corn and cotton to support the garrison of 250 Spaniards at Santa Fé, where a church had recently been completed. The outlying gentile tribes—all known as Apaches and classified as Apaches de Xila, Apaches de Navajo, and Apaches Vaqueros—had as yet caused no serious troubles; in fact, in the Xila province and among the Navajos peace had been made; and in the former, where Benavides had been, a missionary was now working with much success. The author recounts the miraculous conversion of the Jumanas, living 112 leagues east of Santa Fé, through the supernatural visits of Sister Luisa de la Ascension, an old nun of Carrion, Spain, who had the power of becoming young and beautiful, and of transporting herself in a state of trance to any part of the world where were souls to be saved. The padre has something to say of Quivira and the Aijaos east of the Jumanas; and concludes with a brief account of Coronado’s expedition and the countries by him discovered, without suspicion that those countries were identical with his own custodia of New Mexico. The work is mainly descriptive, and has some special value as giving more definitely than any other authority the territorial locations of the pueblo groups in the 17th century, and thus throwing light on earlier explorations. It is to be regretted that the writer did not, as he might easily have done, give more fully the pueblo names and locations, and thus clear up a subject which it is to be feared must always remain in confusion and obscurity.

A half-century’s history from 1630 is made up of a probably incomplete list of governors, a few references to explorations on the eastern or Texan frontier, a few uncertain records of troubles with the Indians, and an occasional item of mission progress or politico-ecclesiastical controversy. While making considerable additions in every phase of the subject to the results of previous investigations, I can present nothing like a continuous and complete narrative; and I do not propose to waste space by a pretence of so doing.

Fernando de Argüello is named as governor in 1640. Luis de Rosas next held the office, being murdered in 1641 or 1642, and succeeded by Valdés, and he by Alonzo Pacheco de Heredia. Argüello is named again in 1645. Luis de Guzman held the office before 1650, and Hernando de Ugarte y la Concha in 1650. Juan de Samaniego was the newly appointed ruler in 1653. In 1656 Enrique de Avila y Pacheco had succeeded to the place. Bernardo Lopez de Mendizábal is named as having become involved in troubles with the inquisition, and surrendered his office in 1660 or the next year; while the more or less famous Don Diego de Peñalosa Briceño ruled in 1661-4. Next came Fernando de Villanueva, Juan de Medrano, and Juan de Miranda, the dates of whose rule are not known. Juan Francisco Treviño seems to have ruled in 1675; and Antonio Otermin was governor in 1679-83. Captain Dominguez testi­fied in 1681 that he had known fourteen governors, from Pacheco to Otermin, in the past thirty-eight years, and my list with thirteen names may therefore be regarded as nearly complete for that period.

The eastern entradas, as far as their meagre results are concerned, belong to the annals of Texas rather than of New Mexico, and have been noticed elsewhere. They include missionary tours of padres Salas, Perea, Lopez, and Diego Ortega to the country of the Jumanas, in the far east or south-east, on a river named the Nueces, in 1629-32; an expedition of Captain Alonso Vaca in 1634, eastward 300 leagues to the great river across which was Quivira; another of captains Hernán, Martin, and Diego del Castillo in 1650 to the Nueces, and far beyond to the country of the Tejas, where they found pearls; another similar one of Diego de Guadalajara in 1654, resulting in a fight with the Cuitoas; a backsliding about the middle of the century of certain families of Taos, who went out into the eastern plains, fortified a place called Cuartalejo, and remained there until the governor sent Juan de Archuleta to bring them back; and finally the fictitious entrada of Governor Peñalosa to Quivira in 1662, of which I shall have more to say a little later. A royal order of 1678 alluded to projects of exploring Quivira and Teguayo, and to conflicting reports on the geography and wealth of these and other distant provinces, calling for an investigation; and it was in reply that Padre Posadas made his later report, which is the best authority on the outside regions, but contains very little on the history proper of New Mexico, of which the author was custodio in 1660-4, and a missionary from 1650.

In February 1632, padres Arvide and Letrado were killed by the gentile Zipias somewhere beyond the Zuñi region; and the next year Padre Porras was poisoned by the Moquis. In 1640-2 there were serious difficulties between the governor and the friars, the latter being accused of assuming, as jueces eclesiásticos and officials of the inquisition, extraordinary and absolute powers, and of having even gone so far as to encourage a revolt, in connection with which Governor Rosas lost his life. We know but little of the controversy, which was deemed in Mexico very serious, and which seems to have been the beginning of a series of troubles that terminated in the great revolt of 1680. The padres were blamed, and special efforts were ordered to avoid a costly war, which it was thought could not be afforded in a province that yielded no return for an annual expenditure of 60,000 pesos.

Several writers mention a revolt of 1644, in which the governor and many friars were killed; but I suppose this is but a confused reference to the troubles of 1642 and 1680. In the time of Governor Argüello, probably about 1645 or later, there was a rising in consequence of the flogging, imprisonment, and hanging of 40 natives who refused to give up their faith; but the rebels were easily overpowered. In another revolt of the Jemes, aided by Apaches, a Spaniard named Naranjo fell, and in return the governor hanged 29, imprisoning many more for idolatry. In 1650 or thereabouts it is evident that, partly as a result of the preceding quarrels, troubles with both converts and gentiles began to assume a serious aspect. At the same time complaints of oppression on the governor’s part were sent to Mexico and Spain.

During Concha’s rule, or in 1650, there was a plot of the Tehuas and Apaches to kill the soldiers and friars on Thursday night of passion week, when all would be in church; but by chance the plot was discovered by Captain Vaca, nine leaders were hanged, and many more were sold into slavery for ten years. A like result followed an uprising of the Piros, who ran away during Governor Villanueva’s time and joined the Apaches, killing five Spaniards before they could be overpowered. Several of the same nation now or a little later were put to death for sorcery. Estevan Clemente, governor of the Salineros towns, was at the head of the next conspiracy for killing the tyrants, after stealing their horses to prevent escape; but Don Estevan was hanged. The Taos drew up on two deer-skins a plan for a general movement, but it was abandoned because the Moquis refused their aid. No dates are given for these happenings.

Diego Dionisio de Peñalosa y Briceño ruled New Mexico in 1661-4, having been appointed in 1660. He was a native of Perú, an adventurer and embustero, bent on achieving fame and fortune with the aid of his unlimited assurance and his attractive person and manners, by which alone presumably he obtained his appointment from the viceroy. Of Don Diego’s rule and acts, as in the case of other rulers of the period, almost nothing is known. It appears, however, that he visited Zuñi and the Moqui towns, heard of the great kingdom of Teguay through a Jemes Indian who had been captive there, and also of Quivira and Tejas, and the Cerro Azul, rich in gold and silver ores; and that he planned an expedition to some of these wonderful regions. I have seen an order dated at Santa Fé in 1064 which hears his autograph. Like his predecessor, Mendizábal, he became involved in troubles with the padre custodio representing the inquisition; or more probably, as I think, he went to Mexico in 1664 or later to urge his scheme of northern conquest, and there came in conflict with the holy tribunal, by which he was perhaps kept long in prison; and at any rate, in February 1668 he was forced to march bareheaded through the streets carrying a green candle, for having talked against the santo oficio and said things bordering on blasphemy. Unable to interest the viceroy and king in his project, he went to London and Paris in 1671-3, and there attempted to organize a grand filibustering enterprise of conquest against his former sovereign, freely resorting to falsehood, and claiming for himself the title of Conde de Santa Fé, with half a dozen others to which he had no claim. He died in 1687, and his efforts are closely connected with the expedition of La Salle of 1682-7; but these matters pertain to the annals of Texas, and not of New Mexico.

In France Peñalosa presented to the government what purported to be a narrative of an expedition to Quivira made by himself in 1662, written by Padre Freitas, one of the friars of his company, and sent to the Spanish king. He never made any such entrada or rendered any such report. The narrative was that of Oñate’s expedition of 1601, slightly changed to suit his purposes in Paris. I made known this fraud in an earlier volume of this series, but have since received the work of Fernandez Duro, published two years before my volume, in which that investigator, by similar arguments, reached the same conclusions. I suppose that it is to Don Diego’s statements in Europe that we must look for the origin of the famous hoax of Admiral Fonte’s voyage on the north-west coast in 1640, the story having first appeared in 1708, and Peñalosa being represented as viceadmiral of the fleet.

From about 1672 the various Apache tribes became troublesome, destroying in their raids one of the Zuñi towns and six of the pueblos farther east. Several friars lost their lives. In 1675 we are told that four natives were hanged, 43 or 47 whipped and enslaved, and many more imprisoned for having killed several missionaries and other Spaniards, besides bewitching the padre visitador, Andrés Duran; whereupon a force of warriors marched to Governor Treviño’s house to demand the release of the prisoners for a ransom, retiring on a favorable promise, but declaring they would kill all the Spaniards or flee to the sierra and risk annihilation at the hands of Apaches rather than see their sorcerers punished. Pope, prominent in a later trouble, was now a leader either of the imprisoned offenders or of the band of rescuers. All the tribes were known as Apaches, except the Yutas, occupying a part of the northern plains, and with whom Governor Otermin was the first to open communication. The Comanches did not make their appearance in the rec­ords of this century; but the Apaches del Navajo are mentioned. In 1676 the condition of affairs was reported to be serious. Towns and churches had been destroyed and many Christians killed by the Apache raiders; while the defensive force was only five men for each frontier station, and these were sadly in lack of arms and horses. A reenforcement of 40 or 50 men was needed at once if the province was to be saved. Padre Francisco Ayeta, the custodio, having come from New Mexico for succor, was preparing to start with a wagon train of supplies for the missionaries; and he made an earnest appeal for the 50 men and 1,000 horses to accompany the train, at an expense of 14,700 pesos to the royal treasury. The junta approved the measure on September 9th, perhaps of 1677; the viceroy reported to the king his resolution to send succor on January 13, 1678; the king approved on June 18th; and finally, after an unaccountable delay, the train started from the city of Mexico on the 29th or 30th of September, 1679. The relief arrived too late, as we shall see, to prevent the abandonment of the province; but it prevented still more serious disaster among the fugitive settlers and missionaries.

I close this chapter with a note from Vetancur’s standard chronicle of the Franciscans, written about 1691, but showing the missions as they existed just before the great revolt of 1680. A padrón of 1660 is said by this author to have shown a population of 24,000 Spaniards and Christian Indians, of whom it would seem the former must have numbered about 2,400 in 1680. Padre Francisco de Ayeta came as custodio, with a reenforcement of friars, in 1674, but, as we have seen, went back to Mexico for succor two years later.

 

STATISTICS OF 1860.

 

Picuríes (S. Lorenzo), 6 l. (from S. Joan), on a height; 3,000 inhab.; Fr. Ascensio de Zárate served and is buried here; P. Matias Rendon in ‘80.

Tahos (S. Gerónimo de Taos), 3 l. (?) from Picuríes and 5 l. from the river, in a fine valley; 2,000 inhab. and some Spaniards; in 1631, P. Pedro Miranda de Avila was killed here; PP. Juan de Pedrosa and Antonio de Mora in ’80.

Acoma (S. Estevan), east (?) of Cia on a peñol 1 l. in circum. and 90 estados high; 1,500 inhab., converted by P. Juan Ramirez; in ’80, P. Lucas Maldonado.

Hemes (S. Diego de Jemes), a large pueblo formed of 5 smaller ones, with 8,000 inhab.; in charge of P. Juan de Jesús.

Alona (Purisima), 24 l. from Acoma, with 2 visitas, called Mazquia and Caquima; 1,500 inhab.; P. Juan de Bal. (Zuñi prov.)

Aguico (Concepcion), 3 l. w. of Alona, with other small pueblos; 1,000 inhab; they revolted in ’32, and killed P. Fran. Letrado; in ’80 the padre escaped.

Aguatobi (S. Bernardino), in Moqui prov., 26 1. from Zuñi; 800 inhab. converted by P. Fran, de Porras; much pumice stone; P. José de Figueroa, or Concepcion, in ’80.

Xongo pabi (S. Bartolome£), 7 l. from A., with a visita called Moxainabi; 500 inhab.; P. José Trujillo in ’80.

Oraybi (S. Fran.; others say S. Miguel), farthest W. of the Moqui towns, over 70 l. from Sta Fé; had 14,000 gentiles, but a pestilence consumed them; 1,200 in a visita called Gualpi; PP. Jose de Espeleta and Agustin de Sta María.

Cochitl, 3 l. from Sto Domingo; 300 inhab. of Queres nation; the padre escaped in ’80.

Galisteo (Sta Cruz), 6 l. (from Cochití?), with S. Cridtóbal as a visita; 800 inhab. of Tanos nation; here once served P. Antonio de Aranda; in ’80 PP. Juan Bernal, custodio, and Domingo de Vera.

Pecos (Porciúncula), on the eastern or Quivira frontier, in a finely wooded country; has a magnificent church with six towers; pop. not given; P. Fern, de Velasco.

S. Marcos, on the right toward the N., 5 l. from Sto Domingo; 600 inhab. of Queres nation; 2 visitas, S. Lizaro and Cienega; P. Manuel Tinoco.

Chilili (Natividad), 3 l. from S. Lizaro; 500 Piros. converted by P. Alonso Peinado, who is buried here; this is the 1st pueblo of the Salinas valley.

Quarac (Concepcion), 3 l. from Chilili; 600 Tiguas speaking Piros lang.; converted by P. Perea; here is buried P. Gerónimo de la Liana.

Taxique (S. Miguel), 2 l. from Quarac; 300 inhab.; the padre escaped in ’80.

Abbo (S. Gregorio), in the Salinas valley, which is 10 l. in circum., and produces much excellent salt; 800 inhab.; 2 visitas, Tenabo and Tabira (Gran Quivira ?); 15 l. farther east are some Christian Jumanas served by the padre of Quarac; P. Fran, de Acebedo is buried at Abbo.

All the padres named above as serving in ’80 were killed in the revolt of that year; the survivors are named in note 5 of the next chapter.