USA > New Mexico > History of New Mexico : its resources and people, Volume I > Part 5
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HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO
out consulting him. Don Antonio de Espejo, a wealthy Spaniard who had resided in Mexico, who was then visiting at Santa Barbara, volunteered to equip an expedition at his own expense and start at once in search of the menaced missionaries. The offer was gratefully accepted, and in the absence of royal authority permission to make the journey was granted by the local alcalde ( mayor).
On November 10, 1582, Espejo left San Bartolome with one hundred and fifteen men, pack mules and plenty of arms, ammunition and pro- visions. Fr. Barnardine Beltran accompanied the party as chaplain. Their course lay along the Rio Grande, or as near to that stream as they found practicable. The following winter they reached the Pueblo of Tiguex, which Espejo calls Paola, where they learned that the report of the escaped servants of the three missionaries was the truth. Fr. Baltran had accompanied the party, and he and Espejo determined to see as much of the settled country as possible before their return. They proceeded westward through what are now the counties of Sandoval, Bernalillo and Valencia, visiting the pueblos of Acoma and Zuni and the Hopi or Moqui villages, traveling as far west as the foot of the San Francisco mountains in Arizona. Their return east was over practically the same route they had traversed in going, and they arrived at what is now Laguna late in the spring of 1583. They also visited a number of the pueblos in the Rio Grande valley, continuing their march to the Pecos village, thence following the Pecos river to its mouth, and from there proceeded to Mexico.
Both these men, Beltran and Espejo, were men of humane instincts and intelligence, which lifted them above the early adventurers and some of the explorers of later days. Fr. Beltran evidently knew something of the char- acter of the military commander he had chosen, and evidently was determined upon making the relief expedition appear as peaceful and helpful as pos- sible. Coronado's great march was a long story of blood, theft and the torch after his arrival in the vicinity of Tiguex. and in his narrative he un- doubtedly eliminated many incidents of an unsavory character. The account of Espejo, on the other hand, is especially valuable, as it contains a detailed description of the country and its inhabitants. The strangest things he saw, according to the impression it made upon him, were "shoes and boots with good soles of neat's leather" on the feet of the men and women, "a thing which we never saw in any other part of New Mexico. The women keep their hair well combed and dressed, wearing nothing else on their heads. In all these towns they had caciques, people like the caciques of Mexico, with sergeants to execute their commands, who go through the town pro- claiming with a loud voice the pleasure of the cacique, commanding the same to be put into 'execution." He found that their weapons, strong bows and arrows headed with flint, would "pierce through a coat of mail." He also described their "macanas, which are clubs of half a yard to a yard long, so set with sharp flints that they are sufficient to cleave a man asunder in the midst. They also use a kind of shield made of rawhide." Espejo, being a practical miner, made a thorough examination of the mineral re- sources of the country, and speaks in flattering terms of the mineral de- posits. But we know that the early Spanish idea regarding the mineral wealth of New Mexico was exceedingly romantic. Their conception and belief regarding the fabled Seven Cities of Cibola and the Gran Ouivira well illustrate this fact. The feverish pursuit after precious metals and
11
EXPLORATION AND DISCOVERY
stones, following the great discoveries by Cortez in Mexico and by Pizarro in Peru, appears to have been the chief incentive of most of the early explorations in this Territory.
în 1862 Theodore Greiner, then agent for the Pueblo Indians, found in the pueblo of San Juan an ancient document which apparently records an interview between Cortez and Guatimotzin, in which the latter is re- corded as saying in response to an inquiry regarding the provinces of New Mexico and the extent of her gold and silver :
"I command this province, which is the first of New Mexico, the Pueblo of Tigneyo, which governs one hundred and two pueblos. In this pueblo there is a great mine close by, in which they cut with stone hatchets the gold of my crown. The great province of Zuñi, where was born the great Malinche. This pueblo is very large, increasing in Indians of light complexion, who are governed well. In this province is a silver mine, and this capital con- trols eighteen pueblos. The province of Moqui, the province of the Navajos, the great province of the Gran Quivira, that governs the pueblos of the Queres and the Tanos. These provinces have different tongues, which only Malinche understands. The province of Acoma, in which there is a blackish colored hill, in which there is found a silver mine."
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HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO
SPANISH CONQUEST UNDER ONATE.
The accounts of the Espejo expedition reawakened interest in the country to the north, and the authorities of New Spain, in co-operation with the religious bodies, now determined upon a permanent occupation of the Rio Grande region. Spanish conquest and occupation of New Mexico begins with the expedition of Juan de Oñate. This conquistador, having laid before the viceroy his plan for annexing the great northern country, with its reputed wealthy cities and golden resources, received permission, in the fall of 1595, to undertake the conquest and was granted broad civil and military authority in the territory which he should conquer.
In Oñate's memorial to the crown, dated September 21, 1595, petition- ing for permission to found a colony of the Rio Del Norte, he refers to an adventurer known as Captain Francisco de Layva Bonillo, who had pre- viously entered the province without the king's permission. By decree of the king Oñate was authorized to arrest and punish Bonillo, but there is no record of the capture of the latter.
Oñate pledged himself to take into New Mexico two hundred soldiers and supplies and provisions sufficient to carry his colony through one year. These included horses, black cattle, sheep, merchandise and agricultural and mechanical implements. In his memorial Oñate also stipulated for some extraordinary provisions on the part of the crown, including artillery, smaller arms and ammunition ; six priests with all the paraphernalia neces- ary to the establishment of as many churches; a loan of $20,000 from the royal treasury; a grant of land thirty leagues square wherever he might choose to locate it, with all the Indians residing upon it ; the hereditary title of marquis to be conferred upon him; the office of governor and the rank of captain general for four generations : a salary of 8,000 Castilian ducats per year; the privilege of working mines exempt from the usual royal tax; permission to divide the Indian inhabitants among his officers and men as slaves; and numerous other distinctions, immunities and powers which, had they been conferred in full, would have given him a power more despotic than that of the king himself. The demands were not all conceded, but the document is valuable as illustrating the manner in which the noble Spanish conquerors sought the pacification and conversion of the aborigines, and the lust for power and gold which disgraced all the Spanish conquest expeditions in America.
"In case the natives are unwilling to come quietly to the acknowledg- ment of the true Christian faith," inquires Oñate, "and listen to the evan- gelical word, and give obedience to the king our sovereign, what shall be done with them, that we may proceed according to the laws of the Catholic church and the ordinances of his Majesty? And what tributes, that they may be Christianlv borne, shall be imposed upon them, as well for the crown as for the adventurers?" Not only Oñate, but many of his successors and the missionaries of the Roman Catholic church, not only robbed the
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SPANISH CONQUEST UNDER ONATE
Indians of the land and their chattels, but compelled them to pay tribute besides. They compelled the natives to ackknowledge a faith of which they had no knowledge, administering baptism at the point of the bayonet, administering to the king vainglorious reports of the spread of Christianity through their efforts. The Indians appear to have been of a remarkably pacific and docile character during the early years of Spanish occupation, giving Oñate little trouble in consummating his original plans. Acknowl- edging the civil and religious authority of the conquerors with little or no protest, their subjugation was a matter ridiculously easy. It was not until they had been made desperate by reason of demands they were unable to comply with that they exhibited a spirit of resistance.
Followers for Oñate's northern invasion came in ample numbers as soon as his plans were made public, and in a brief time his army and equipment were complete. The prospective success of this undertaking almost proved its own undoing, for jealousy on the part of the rivals of Oñate and their desire to supplant him as leader of the invasion, being elements of influence with the newly appointed viceroy, delayed the start for nearly a year. In fact, it was not till early in 1598 that Oñate succeeded in passing the last of the inspections and visitations so that he could direct his course unhampered, by difficulties of official red tape at least, toward the northern country. Crossing the Conchos and Rio Grande rivers, in April, 1598, he took formal possession of the new region, and from the vicinity of El Paso proceeded up the Rio Grande to about the 36th parallel, north of the present Santa Fe. On the way he had obtained the submission of all the pueblo communities, the natives being found very tractable as to questions of sovereignty and religious doctrine. Just above latitude 36, Oñate established his capital or center of operations, near the native town which the Spaniards called San Juan, and until the founding of Santa Fé, some years later, this was the main stronghold of civilization in the region then known as New Mexico.
There seem to have been some elements of permanence and real sta- bility in Oñate's army of invasion, for a large proportion were soldier- colonists, accompanied on this expedition by their families, and also taking with them the tools and implements for use in permanent occupation. But the fact that Oñate's expedition did bear fruit in lasting colonization- a fact worthy of notice in contrast with the many unsuccessful attempts, about this time, to plant colonies in various parts of the new world-is not to be attributed entirely to the character and stamina of the individual members of the army of conquest; but in a larger degree to the ease with which the settlers could ohtain their subsistence from the land and its inhabitants, to the peaceableness of the natives, and to the semi-civilization which already existed in the country. These are factors of importance in connection with the pioneer period of New Mexico's history which sharply differentiates this Territory from every other division of the United States. And also at this point may be stated the eminent contrast between new world colonization as undertaken by the Spaniards and French on the one hand, and the English on the other. The Pilgrims that landed in 1620 on Plymouth Rock contained in themselves all the elements of sufficiency as a settlement-given a land of freedom and of moderate fertility, however uninviting and bare the first prospects, they would wring therefrom the means of existence, would build their schools and churches and ordain the
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HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO
principles and institutions of organized society, and, protecting with arms their inward integrity from hostile attack without, would flourish inde- pendent of all local conditions. The ideals of colonization with the Spanish and French were different; they assumed to establish their colonies either in conjunction with the native tribes or as superimposed upon them in the relation of an imperial government to a subjected people. As history proves, these foundations for their proposed social and political structure were in the great majority of cases unstable and flimsy. The natives of America, excepting those in Peru and Mexico, had no settled occupations, no institutions, no permanent civic organization ; they were nomadic, im- provident and intractable, and could no more form an integral part of a social structure built on European ideals than oil can mingle with water. For these reasons Spanish colonization was extended successfully and permanently only into those portions of the new world where some degree of civilization held the aborigines in a more or less compact national or tribal system.
From San Juan, Oñate directed the work of exploration and conquest in all directions, and soon all the pueblos recognized the authority of the conquistador, in September of 1598 a convention of native chiefs being held at San Juan, at which their formal submission was renewed. Co- operating with their usual zeal in this conquest, the friars made converts - among the docile natives and established the institutions of religion as the foremost objects of the occupation, a church being dedicated at San Juan in September with great ceremonies.
One of the last caciques or Indian chieftains to comply with the de- mand of Oñate was that of Zuta-Kapan, cacique of Acoma, who sullenly and most unwillingly took the oath October 27, 1598. On December 4 fol- lowing. Captain Juan de Zaldivar, who had been sent ahead to rendezvous in what is now the Moqui country, camped at the foot of the Acoma mesa with his little command. Confident of the fealty and friendship of the Indians, the Spaniards climbed the steep and rough trail and scattered through the pueblo in small groups. Suddenly, without a moment's warn- ing, the Indians attacked them and in a hand to hand conflict overpowered them by sheer force of numbers. Zaldivar was killed, and ten of his fol- lowers met a similar fate. Two servants were cast into deep crevices in the rock and perished miserably. Five soldiers jumped to the valley below ; one of these was instantly killed, but the other four escaped, and carried the news of the treachery back to Oñate. The latter immediately dispatched a force of seventy well-armed men, in command of Vicente de Zaldivar, to punish the Acomas. They arrived at the foot of the pueblo January 21, 1599, and on the following day began the attack, the fight continuing two days and one night before the Indians laid down their arms. Of the 3,000 inhabitants of the pueblo, the account states that but 600 remained, and that these were compelled to abandon their village and build one on the plain below, the original town being destroyed. In the light of modern research and specific inquiries among these Indians, it is not probable that this battle occurred at Acoma. The people of this pueblo have no tradition of such a fight in the destruction of their town. Furthermore, the old pueblo shows no evidence of having been razed, nor is there any indication of a settlement on the plain anywhere in that vicinity. If the record is true, in the essential facts, the Spaniards probably attacked some other pueblo
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SPANISH CONQUEST UNDER ONATE
in the belief that they were at Acoma. Within twenty miles of Acoma there are numerous pueblo ruins. One of these in particular, located about sixteen miles west of the present pueblo, the place now known as the Montezuma Mesa, is a ruin of two villages close together on the summit of a rock of about the same dimensions as that of Acoma. A study of these ruins suggests the probability that the pueblo was destroyed by some other force than that of the slow disintegration of time and the erosive forces of nature. At the foot of this mesa are the ruins of a smaller town, which possibly may be the town erected under the compulsion of Zaldivar.
On October 7, 1604, Oñate set forth with thirty-two men on his last trip of exploration recorded by historians. Hoping to gather more definite information regarding the country to the west, he passed through Acoma, Zuñi and the Moqui pueblos, and thence to southern California by way of the Gila river. The return journey nearly resulted in the extermination of the party by reason of lack of food and water. They reached Zuni in the spring of 1605.
In 1604 Oñate left San Gabriel for the purpose of exploring the region west of the Rio Grande. He visited Zuni and the Moqui villages and the Colorado river, thence traveled south to the Gila, following the latter to its mouth and penetrating to the mouth of the Colorado. Some time after his return he abandoned San Gabriel as the seat of government, for the reason that he had not sufficient military force to protect two settlements, and deemed it wisest to concentrate all the white population and make the capital of the province at the new town of Santa Fe, which was first settled about 1607.
A. F. Bandelier, in "The Gilded Man," conclusively disproves the assertions that Santa Fé is the oldest town in America, placing before its settlement San Augustine in Florida in 1560 and dating the beginning of Santa Fé not earlier than 1607. This eminent authority on the archeology of the southwest also refutes the claim that an Indian pueblo occupied the site of the city at the time of the Spanish occupation. "That the place and even the district," decides Mr. Bandelier, "played no prominent part in the sixteenth century. appears from the fact that no Spanish document specially mentions it till after the founding of the capital." It is not men- tioned by the historians of the Coronado expedition. No Spaniard came to New Mexico after that occupation until 1580, and the missionaries who came in that year did not set foot on the Santa Fé plateau. Nor was Santa Fé founded by Espejo in 1583, whose expedition, consisting of him- self and only fourteen followers, contained no possibilities or purposes of colonization. Oñate's settlement near the present Chamita, thirty miles north of Santa Fe was the first permanent Spanish post and was established in 1598. It was given the title "San Francisco de los Españoles," and in the following year the colony took the name of San Gabriel, by which the locality has ever since been identified, although evidences of a village long since disappeared. San Gabriel was the only Spanish settlement until 1608, in which year the governor took up his seat at Santa Fé.
Some writers express the conviction that soon after the founding of the town, Oñate and the friars who were with him began the construc- tion of a church, probably that of San Miguel, though there is 110 authentic record of the fact. This church was destroyed during the up- rising of 1680.
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HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO
Speaking of the "villa of Santa Fe, head of this kingdom," Benavides, in his memorial of 1630, states its Spanish population as 250, though only about fifty capable of defense and bearing arms. Later estimates of the capital's population give it, in 1749, 965 Spaniards and 575 Indians ;
In 1760, a population of 1,285.
In 1788,
=
.2,244.
In 1793,
.2,419.
In 1799,
4,194.
BENAVIDES' REPORT.
In a cedula, dated at Madrid, November 15, 1627, King Philip IV, replying to report of Juan de Santander, commissary general of the Indies, on the missionary work in New Mexico, stated that it was "more than thirty years since the religious (of the Franciscan order) made a begin- ning on the conversion of New Mexico" (at the time of Oñate's conquest) ; that during the first twelve years of their labors they were unable to make any spiritual conquests; that "some five years since" (1622) the province of New Mexico was erected into a custodia, and Fr. Alphonso Benavides appointed its custodio; that Benavides had taken twenty-six ministers with him, but "at present there are only sixteen priests and three lay brothers, the rest being dead," the living being unable adequately to care for thirty- four thousand three hundred and twenty Indians. In view of this condi- tion of affairs the cedula directed that "to the said custody of New Mexico be sent thirty religious for the said conversion and indoctrination of the Indians."
In conformity with this roval decree the additional missionaries were sent in 1692. Through them "the Lord liath wrought so many marvels and miracles and made so splendid discoveries of riches, spiritual as well as temporal," that in the following vear (1630) Fr. Benavides journeyed in person to the court of the king and presented his "memorial" on New Mexican affairs.
This Benavides memorial is one of the most important records on the state of New Mexican affairs before the revolt of 1680. The descriptive extracts and facts given in the following paragraphs are taken from the very careful translation and editing of the memorial as published in "Land of Sunshine" (Vols. 13 and 14), by Mr. Charles F. Lummis :
The nation or people who live on the way to New Mexico (between Rio Conchos and Rio Grande) are the tribes named the Tobosos, the Tarahumares, the Tepeoanes, the Tomites, the Sumas, the Hanos and oth- ers, all of whom he characterized as very wild and often at war with one another.
The nation called the Mansos, peaceable Indians, are on the Rio del Norte, "a hundred leagues before reaching New Mexico," and "since they are at the crossing (el passo) of this river they must always be encoun- tered." They live in small huts covered with foliage. The men wore no clothing of any kind. They ate their meats raw and did not take the trouble of removing the intestines of animals before devouring them.
Benavides recommends that a mission and a guard be established at the crossing, since "under this security would be settled many very rich mining camps, which are all along this road, and splendid ranch sites."
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SPANISH CONQUEST UNDER ONATE
The beginning of the huge Apache nation is thirty leagues north of the Mansos. Passing by them, "we reach the Rio del Norte again, on whose banks commence the settlements of New Mexico in the order fol- lowing :"
In the province and nation of the Piros was the first series of semi- civilized pueblos found in the journey to the north. The Piros were de- scribed as an agricultural and hunting people, dwelling in an exceedingly fertile land. They were among the last of the tribes to accept Christianity, their chief pueblo being dedicated "to the most holy virgin of Socorro" in 1626. The three monasteries and churches were founded, "one in the pueblo of Senecu, another in the pueblo of Pilabo, and the other in the pueblo of Sivilleta." The province of the Piros extended along the river fifteen leagues, from the first pueblo of Senecu to the last, of Sivilleta. Altogether there were fourteen pueblos, the chief being Socorro, on both sides of the river, with six thousand inhabitants, "all baptized."
Teoa (Tigua) nation, seven leagues north of Piros, comprised fifteen or sixteen towns located on the river and embracing a district of about thirteen leagues. It had seven thousand inhabitants and the convents of San Antonio de Sandia and San Antonio (Augustin) de Isleta.
The nation of the Queres dwelt four leagues above the Teoa, the first town of which was San Felipe. There were seven villages, with a popula- tion of four thousand, three convents and a church in each pueblo.
The nation of the Tompiras, ten leagues east of the Queres, the first town of which was Chilili. There were fourteen or fifteen villages, con- taining ten thousand inhabitants, with good churches and six monasteries.
The Tanos nation, ten leagues' march of the Tompiros, has five villages, with four thousand inhabitants, convent and church, and a training school in all the trades.
The Pecos nation, four leagues north of the Tanos, with two thou- sand inhabitants, a convent and a very elaborate church and good schools.
La Ville de Santa Fé, seven leagues west of the Pecos, the capital, with a population of two hundred and fifty Spaniards, only fifty of whom were armed. The total population was about one thousand.
"By authority of the governor the soldiers are appointed chiefs of the Indian pueblos, from whom they receive a tribute which is sufficient for their maintenance, and even for enabling them to help the needy among their countrymen." * *
The church in the city was a poor hut. The religious, thus far, had built churches for the Indians in the pueblos where they resided, and left to the Spaniards the care of building a church for themselves. "And so," says Benavides, "as soon as I came in as custodio (1622) I commenced to build the church and monastery." Benavides completed the convent and church in Santa Fé in 1629. This appears to be the first church in that city of which there is any authentic record. If the church of San Miguel had been constructed prior to that time it had not been rebuilt. From the report of Benavides one can hardly conclude that any church had been erected prior to 1629 or 1630. The building of the early church of San Miguel is clearly open to doubt.
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