USA > Arizona > History of Arizona, Volume I > Part 4
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The next advance was seven leagues up the river to a small pueblo called Nueva Seville, where they remained a week, while the Zaldivars were exploring the Abo pueblos. The Abo pueblo ruins are located about latitude 34° 30', twenty-five or thirty miles east of the river. Se- ville was not far from the junction of the Rio Puercos, according to Bancroft.
On the 22d of June, they advanced four leagues to an abandoned pueblo, which they named San Juan Bautista. Here the general heard of two Mexican Indians left by Castaño, and started northward on the 25th in search of them, reaching Puruai, named San Antonio, in a journey of 16 leagues, where the friars were lodged in a newly painted room. In the morn- ing, they beheld on the walls lifelike portraits of the murdered priests, Rodriguez and Lopez, murdered seventeen years before. The two
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Mexicans, Tomas and Cristobal, were brought in from another pueblo, and were thereafter used as interpreters by the Spaniards.
Before the end of June, they visited other pueblos and established their headquarters at Guipui, or Santo Domingo. On the 7th of July, seven Indian chiefs, representing thirty-four pueblos, visited the Spaniards at Santo Domingo, acknowledging the supremacy of their new mas- ters, temporal and spiritual. Tomas and Cris- tobal acted as interpreters and explained mi- nutely "the material prosperity and eternal happiness that must result from being 'good,' and submitting cheerfully to Felipe II, and God, as contrasted with present disaster and future damnation, inseparably connected with refusal; and the chiefs, disposed to be friendly or fearing the strangers' guns and horses, even if they had some lingering doubts respecting the political and doctrinal theories presented, humbly kneeled and swore the required allegiance, as was duly recorded in a ponderous document."
On July 9th, the army left the pueblo, and two days later reached San Juan, identical, or nearly so, with the pueblo still bearing that name, near the junction of the Rio Grande and the Rio Chama, just above latitude 36°, where, from the courtesy extended by the natives, the town was called San Juan de los Caballeros, and was, for several years, the Spanish capital, or center of operations. The name San Gabriel was applied by the friars to their establishment here, or, more probably, to another pueblo not far distant. It is not my intention to give the entire route of
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Oñate through New Mexico, but suffice it to say that upon Oñate's return from another explora- tion through the different pueblos, on the 11th of August, work was begun on the ditches required to bring water for the city of San Francisco, "which it was determined to found, some 1500 Indians assembling to aid in the labor." It is believed that the city was at or near the imme- diate vicinity of San Juan, and not at Santa Fe, where the city was really built in later years. Bancroft also says: "I find not the slightest rea- son to date the founding of Santa Fe from 1598." The last of the colonists arrived at San Juan de los Caballeros on the 18th of August.
From August 23d to September 7th, a church was built, which was dedicated on the 8th with great ceremonies, terminating with a sham battle between Christians and Moors, which is probably the first church ever erected in New Mexico. Here, at a general meeting of the native chiefs, including not only those who had before sub- mitted, and who came to renew their formal sub- mission, but many others, after a full explana- tion of the system by which the Almighty was represented in New Mexico, en lo temporal through the king by Oñate, and en lo spiritual through the pope by the padre comisario, "They also expressed the joy with which they would receive the friars at their pueblos as spiritual teachers and masters, after listening to the cheering assurance that if they refused or disobeyed the padres, they would all be burned alive, besides burning later in hell." Villagra, however, says that while they submitted cheer-
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fully to the king, they told the padre comisario that so far as the new faith was concerned, they had no objection to adopting it, if, after proper instructions, they found it desirable. There- upon Padre Martinez proceeded to apportion the pueblos among his colaborers.
The number of pueblos represented was re- ported to be about 170, which Bancroft thinks was greatly exaggerated. After the general as- sembly and its attendant festivities, Vicente Zaldivar was sent with fifty men to explore the buffalo plains east, about which we are not, at present, concerned.
On the 23d of October, the general started from Puarai on a western tour, accompanied by Padre Martinez, and four days later received the obediencia of Acoma. The formal submission of the pueblo having been received, Oñate con- tinued his march to Zuni and to Mohoqui, where formal submissions were rendered by the native chieftains on the 9th and 15th of November.
Of Oñate's western exploration in what is now Arizona, we know little. He was everywhere hospitably entertained by the natives with great hunts to furnish diversion and game for their guests. A party under Captains Farfan and Quesada was sent out from Moqui in search of mines, which were found in a well watered country some thirty leagues westward, probably in the region previously explored by Espejo. They found salt deposits, and, according to Villa- gra, pearl-oyster shells, which caused the belief that the coast was not far distant. The general had intended to reach the ocean on this tour, and
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had sent orders to Juan Zaldivar to turn over the command at San Juan to his brother, Vicente, as soon as the latter should arrive from the plains, and to join the general in the west with thirty men. Don Vicente returned from the plains on the 8th of November, and on the 18th Don Juan set out as ordered to join Oñate.
Through the efforts of Zutucapan, a patriotic chieftain at Acoma, a conspiracy was formed to test the invulnerability of the Spaniards by at- tacking them on their arrival, having first taken the precaution to scatter them where they would fall an easy prey. This was the condition of af- fairs at Acoma when Zaldivar and his com- panions approached the peñol. The natives met them with gifts and every demonstration of friendly feeling. They offered all the supplies that were needed, and next day the soldiers, not suspecting treachery, were sent in small parties to bring in the provisions from different parts of the pueblo. A loud shout from the Indians gave the first warning to the master of the camp of his peril. He wished to order a retreat, and thus, in his leader's absence, avoid the responsi- bility of open war, but another officer, whose name is not mentioned, but who was severely blamed by Villagra and accused of subsequent cowardice, opposed him until it was too late and retreat was impossible.
A desperate hand to hand fight of three hours ensued, in which Zaldivar fell under the clubs of Zutucapan; the natives set up a cry of victory ; five surviving Spaniards fled to the edge of the mesa and leaped down the cliff; four of them
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reached the plain alive. Three others had es- caped from the peñol, and all joined Alferez Casas, who was guarding the horses. Captain Tabora was sent to overtake Oñate; others went to warn the padres at their different stations, while the rest bore the sad tidings back to San Juan. Solemn funeral rites for the dead were hardly completed when Tabora returned, with news that he could not find the Governor. Thereupon Alferez Casas and three companions, volunteered for the service, and, after many dif- ficulties, met Oñate near Acoma. With the least possible delay, he called together the several bands of explorers, and marched his army care- fully back to San Juan, where he arrived safely on December 21st.
"Formal proceedings were now instituted be- fore Juan Gutierrez Bocanegra, appointed alcalde for the occasion, against the rebels, and after the friars had given a written opinion re- specting the elements of a just war and the rights of victors over a vanquished people, it was de- cided that Captain Vicente de Zaldivar be sent against Acoma; that the inhabitants of the town must be forced to give up the arms of the mur- dered soldiers, to leave their peñol, and to settle on the plains; that the fortress must be burned, and that all who might resist must be captured and enslaved. Seventy brave men were selected for the service under officers including Captains Zubia, Romero, Aguilar, Farfan, Villagra and Marquez, Alferez Juan Cortez, and Juan Vel- arde as secretary. This army started on the 12th of January, 1599, and on the 21st arrived
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HISTORY OF ARIZONA.
at Acoma, Villagra with twelve men, visiting Cia on the way for supplies. * * *
"At Acoma, the followers of Zutucapan were exultant, and succeeded in creating a popular belief that their past victory was but the prelude to a greater success which was to annihilate the invaders and free the whole country. Gicombo, a prominent chieftain, who had neither taken part in nor approved the first attack, and had many misgivings for the future, called a general assembly of chiefs, to which were invited certain leaders not belonging to Acoma. It seems to have been tacitly understood that after what had happened, war could not be averted, and all were ready for the struggle, but Gicombo, Zutancalpo, and Chumpo urged the necessity of removing women and children, and of other extraordinary precautions. Zutucapan and his party, however, ridiculed all fears, and boastingly proclaimed their ability to hold the peñol against the armies of the universe. When Zaldivar drew near, crowds of men and women were seen upon the walls dancing stark naked in an orgy of defiance and insult."
When Zaldivar arrived, he sent a summons through Tomas, the interpreter, to the rulers of Acoma, to come down and answer for the murder they had committed. Upon their refusal, the Spaniards pitched their tents on the plain and prepared for an assault. For two or three days the battle raged, and on the last day of the battle, the buildings of the pueblo were in flames, and hundreds killed each other in their desperation, or threw themselves down the cliff and perished,
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rather than yield. On the 24th of September, the Spaniards gained full possession of the pueblo, which they destroyed, and, at the same time, slaughtered the inhabitants as a punish- ment for their sin of rebellion, although a rem- nant of six thousand, under the venerable Chumpo, according to Villagra, were permitted to surrender and settle on the plains.
Thus was the pride of this valiant pueblo broken forever, for evidently it seemed hopeless for other New Mexican communities to attempt a revolution in which this cliff town with all its natural advantages, had failed to accomplish. From the fall of Acoma in 1599, to the general revolt of 1680, the record is lost, the data having been destroyed in the revolt.
On the 2d of March, 1599, the governor wrote to the viceroy an outline of what he had accom- plished, and described the land he had conquered, sending samples of its products. The western region, since known as Arizona, was highly praised by him as a land of great fertility and mineral promise. At the same time he asked for an increase of force with which to win for Spain the rich realms that must lie just beyond. So far as New Mexico was concerned, his letter was intended to influence the viceroy and the king, it being evident that success was dependent upon increased resources. In response to a letter from the viceroy, the king, by a cedula, dated May 31st, 1600, ordered him to give all possible support and encouragement to the New Mexico enterprise. While it is possible the re-enforce-
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HISTORY OF ARIZONA.
ments were sent, yet there is no positive evidence to that effect.
After the lesson taught at Acoma, Oñate, in his capitol at San Juan, was left in undisputed pos- session of New Mexico, but internal troubles among the soldiers, the colonists and the re- ligios, gave much trouble to him. With this, however, we are not particularly concerned, as it does not properly relate to Arizona.
After these troubles had been adjusted by ap- peal to the viceroy and the king, having most of his 200 men reunited at San Juan, with possibly a small re-enforcement brought by Zaldivar, the governor started, on October 7th, 1604, on a western expedition, in which he was accompanied by Padres Escobar and San Buenaventura, the former the new comisario. He visited the Zuni province "more thickly settled by hares and rab- bits than by Indians," from which the explorers went 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 southeast to the northwest, the Colorado Chiquito, called Colorado from the color of its water, which, no doubt, gave that name to the larger river at that time known as the Rio del Tison (Firebrand River). The place of cross- ing was called San Jose and farther to the south- west they crossed two other rivers which were branches of the Rio Verde in the region north of Prescott, where Espejo had been twenty-three years before. The country was very attractive and its people wore little crosses hanging from the hair on the forehead and were therefore
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called Cruzados. The Indians informed Oñate that the sea was twenty days or 100 leagues dis- tant, and was reached by going in two days to a small river, flowing into a larger one, which, itself, flowed into the sea. The general travelled west about fifteen leagues to the Santa Maria, or Bill Williams' Fork, which he followed to its junction with the Colorado, though they seemed to have no idea that there was any connection between the great river which they called Rio Grande de Buena Esperanza, or Good Hope, and the one they had already named Rio Colorado, but they knew it was the one which long ago had been called the Rio del Tison by Melchior Diaz.
For some distance above and below this junc- tion lived the Mohaves. Captain Marquez went up the river for a short distance, then the whole party followed the bank south, the natives being friendly, to the mouth of the Gila, below which they followed the Colorado for twenty leagues to the Gulf of California. The country was thickly populated, being inhabited by several tribes, in manners and language very similar, the popula- tion on the eastern bank alone being placed at 20,000.
Oñate reached tidewater on January 23d, 1605, and on the 25th, with the friars and nine men, he went down to the mouth of the Colorado, where he reported a fine harbor, formed by an island in the center, in which he thought a thou- sand ships could ride at anchor, and which he christened Puerto de la Conversion de San Pablo. The rest of the company came down to see the port, after which the explorers began 4
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their return by the same route to New Mexico. Their return was not unattended by hardships for they had to eat their horses, but they arrived safely at San Gabriel on the 25th of April.
Oñate ceased to rule as governor in New Mexico in 1608, and was succeeded by Pedro de Peralta. Between 1605 and 1616, was founded the villa of Santa Fe, or San Francisco de la Santa Fe. "The modern claim" says Bancroft, "that this is the oldest town in the United States rests entirely on its imaginary annals as an Indian pueblo before the Spanish Conquest."
EARLY SPANISH MISSIONS AND MISSIONARIES. 51
CHAPTER V.
EARLY SPANISH MISSIONS AND MISSIONARIES.
THE MOQUIS-FRANCISCAN FRIARS-MISSIONS- FATHER EUSEBIO FRANCISCO KINO-NUESTRA SEÑORA DE LOS DOLORES - FATHER JUAN MARIA DE SALVATIERRA-SOBAIPURIS-GUE- 1 VAVI-TUMACACORI-SAN XAVIER DEL BAC- PIMA INDIANS-IMMACULATE CONCEPTION- ST. ANDREW-SAN PEDRO Y SAN PABLO DE TUBUTAMA - SARIC - TUCUBABIA - SANTA MARIA DE SUAMCA - COCOSPERA - CASAS GRANDES-SAN DIONISIO-JESUITS-FR. FE- LIPE SEGESSER-FR. JUAN BAPTISTA GRASS- HOFFER - FR. GASPAR STEIGER - FR. JOSE CARUCHO - FR. FRANCISCO PAVER - FR. IGNACIO KELLER - FR. JACOB SEDELMAIR- REVOLT OF PIMAS-FR. ALONZO ESPINOSA- FR. IGNACIO PFEFFERKORN-FR. JIMENO- FR. PEDRO RAFAEL DIAZ-TUCSON-SANTA BARBARA - BUENA VISTA-CALABAZAS-FR. BARERA-EXPULSION OF JESUITS.
The first natives of Arizona to submit to Span- ish authority were the Moquis, who occupied the territory which at that time was known as the province of Tusayan. These Indians had prac- tically the same habits, customs and government as the Indians of Cibola. They were very intel- ligent and far advanced in civilization. Their houses were ordinarily three or four stories high, but some were seven stories. Of them, Caste- ñada says: "They cover their privy parts and all
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HISTORY OF ARIZONA.
the immodest parts with cloths made like a sort of table napkin, with fringed edges and a tassel at each corner, which they tie over the hips. They wear long robes of feathers and of the skins of hares and cotton blankets. The women wear blankets, which they tie or knot over the left shoulder, leaving the right arm out. These serve to cover the body. They wear a neat, well- shaped outer garment of skin. They gather their hair over the two ears, making a frame which looks like an old-fashioned headdress."
"This country is in a valley between moun- tains in the form of isolated cliffs. They culti- vate the corn, which does not grow very high, in patches. There are three or four large fat ears, having each eight hundred grains, on every stalk, growing upward from the ground, something not seen before in these parts. There are large numbers of bears in this province, and lions, wild-cats, deer and otter. There are very fine turquoises, although not so many as was re- ported. They collect the pine nuts each year, and store them up in advance. A man does not have more than one wife. There are estufas, or hot rooms, in the village, which are the court- vards or places where they gather for consulta- tions. They do not have chiefs as in New Spain, but are ruled by a council of the oldest men. They have priests who preach to them, whom they call papas (elder brothers). These are the elders. They go up on the highest roof of the village and preach to the village from there, like public criers, in the morning while the sun is ris- ing, the whole village being silent and sitting in the galleries to listen. They tell them how they
EARLY SPANISH MISSIONS AND MISSIONARIES. 53
are to live, and I believe that they give certain commandments for them to keep, for there is no drunkenness among them nor sodomy nor sac- rifice, neither do they eat human flesh or steal, but they are usually at work. The estufas be- long to the whole village. It is a sacrilege for the women to go into the estufas to sleep. They make the cross as a sign of peace. They burn their dead, and throw the implements used in their work into the fire with the bodies."
As we shall see in the further progress of this work, they were great diplomats, intent upon preserving their independence as a tribe, bend- ing their necks in submission to the religios when it was policy to do so, and renouncing the religion of the priests whenever a favorable op- portunity presented itself. The records for eighty years after the expedition of Oñate, were destroyed by the revolution of the Pueblos, which occurred in 1680. During this time, the information which we have is only fragmentary, not only in reference to these Indians, but to those who inhabited the Gila, where the Francis- cans were also endeavoring to bring the tribes under the control of the Church. As far as is known, there was never a permanent mission established among the Moquis, although priests were assigned to them from time to time, from whom they received religious instruction.
Bishop Salpointe, referring to the condition of the missions in New Mexico in 1626, says of the Moqui nation :
"This nation, as that of Zuni, from which it is separated by thirty leagues in the direction of the west, has a population of about 10,000 people
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distributed in several villages. The inhabitants at first joyfully received the religios, and listened to their instructions. But here, as elsewhere, the sorcerers got alarmed on seeing the confi- dence placed in the missionaries by the Indians, and tried to destroy it by ridiculing it either publicly or privately in all their speeches. As a consequence of this, and perhaps at the instiga- tion of the sorcerers themselves, a large number of Indians, either Christians or infidels, pre- sented themselves to the priest who oftentimes spoke to them on the power of the cross, and showing him a young man born blind, made him this proposition: 'Padre, if your cross has as much power as you say, why do you not try to give by it his sight to this young man? If the trial proves successful, it will be for us the proof that what you say to us is the truth, and we will believe in your word.'
"The missionary thought it his duty to acccept the challenge and relied on the grace of God for the result of what he was about to try for His greater glory. Having prayed a short time on his knees before the cross, he applied it to the eyes of the boy, who, at once, was by it made able to see. Struck by the miracle, the Indians kept their word, and applied to the religios for in- struction, and for admission to baptism, those who had remained as yet in the state of infidel- ity."
It is to be regretted that the worthy Bishop does not give us the name of the priest who per- formed this miracle, and its exact date.
Bancroft, in the History of Arizona and New Mexico, says: "At the beginning of the century
EARLY SPANISH MISSIONS AND MISSIONARIES. 55
(the 17th) the Moquis, like the other pueblos, accepted Christianity, were often visited by the friars from the first, and probably were under resident missionaries almost continu- ously for eight years; yet of all this period we know only that Fra Francisco Porras, who worked long in this field, converting some 800 souls at Aguatuvi, was killed by poison at his post in 1633; that Governor Penalosa is said to have visited the pueblos in 1661-4; and that in 1680, four Franciscans were serving the five towns, or three missions. These were Jose Figueroa at San Bernardino de Aguatuvi; Jose Trujillo at San Bartolome de Jougopavi, with the visita of Moxainavi, and Jose Espeleta, with Agustin de Santa Maria, at San Francisco de Oraibe and Gualpi, all of whom lost their lives in the great revolt. From that time the valiant Moquis maintained their independence of all Spanish or Christian control. It is not clear that they sent their warriors to take part in the wars of 1680-96 in New Mexico, but they prob- ably did so, and certainly afforded protection to fugitives from the other pueblos, the Tehuas and others, even building a new town adjoining those of the Moquis, in which part of the tribe lived from that period. In 1692, they had, like the other nations, professed their willingness to sub- mit to Governor Vargas; but in the following years, no attempt to compel their submission is recorded. In 1700, however, fearing an inva- sion, they affected penitence, permitted a friar to baptize a few children, and negotiated in vain with the Spaniards for a treaty that should per- mit each nation to retain its own religion."
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HISTORY OF ARIZONA.
At intervals of every few years from 1700, there were visitas of Franciscan friars and mili- tary detachments, the first to attempt the spirit- ual reconquest, and the latter to force subjuga- tion by threats of war, but nothing was effected, these proud chieftains maintaining their inde- pendence of Spanish or Christian control, which is preserved to a great extent up to this time.
To Father Kino, subsequently known as the Great Apostle to the Pimas, belongs the credit of establishing the first missions in Arizona. He was a Jesuit priest, and before accepting priestly orders, had acquired some reputation as a mathematician. He declined a professional chair in the college of Ingolstadt in Bavaria, be- cause, believing that he had been restored to health from a dangerous sickness through the intervention of St. Francis Xavier, at the Throne of Grace, he determined to devote his life to the conversion of the heathen in America, adding Francisco to his name, which became Eusebio Francisco Quino, afterwards changed by the Spanish to Kino. The date of his birth is unknown, but is stated to have been some- where about 1640. He was a native of Trent, in the Austrian Tyrol, and a near relative of Mar- tin Martini, S. J., a notable missionary in Asia. He died in the year 1711, having devoted twenty- six years of his life to missionary work in Sonora and Arizona.
His first mission, that of Nuestra Señora de los Dolores, was founded on March 13th, 1687, near Ures, Sonora, Mexico, which mission there- after, was the base from which his various expe- ditions into Sonora and elsewhere were started.
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