Spanish Exploration continues in the Territories
Antonio de Espejo - Route of Espejo - Moquis - Mines Near Prescott - Juan de Oņate - Fits Out Expedition at Own Expense - Result of First Expedition - Founds City OF Sante Fe - Onate's Second Expedition - Onate's Third Expedition - Jealousy of Enemies - Obstacles and Delays - Aided by Friends - Juan Guerra - Dona Eufemia Penalosa - Ana de Mendoza - Nepotisim of Onate - Rio Grande - El Paso del Norte - Socorro - Abo Pueblos - Puruai (San Antonio) - Submission of Indians - San Juan - Further Submission of Indians - Revolt of Acoma Indians - Their Punishment - Praise of Arizona - Zuni Province - Rio del Tison - Cruzados - Oņate Reaches Tidewater - Pueblo de la Conversion de San Pablo - Oņate's Return - Santa Fe.
The military post established by Melchior Diaz in the Sonora Valley, at
or near the Corazones (Ures), having been captured and destroyed by the
Indians before Coronado 's return, the limits of New Spain remained the same
as before his expedition, Culiacan being its farthest northern limit. The
discovery of the rich silver mines of Zacatecas was made about the year
1542, which gave an impetus to mining in every part of New Spain, owing to
which there was no further attempt made to explore the country discovered by
Coronado for forty years, or until about 1580, when Antonio de Espejo
organized an expedition at his own expense to search for three Franciscan
fathers who were supposed to have been killed by the Indians. Accompanying
this expedition was Fra Beltran. It is more than probable that Espejo, in
making this expedition, was not entirely controlled by a desire to be of
service to his church. He was a miner who had acquired great wealth in that
vocation, and, like all prospectors, was ever ready to embark upon new
enterprises which promised a reasonable return.
Espejo was a native of Cordova, Spain, and a resident of the city of Mexico.
He was at Santa Barbara when he organized this expedition, and, with
fourteen men, he penetrated the wilds of New Mexico, going through the Zuni
villages and from thence to the Moqui villages, an account of which is
contained in Bell's "New Tracks in North America," which seems to have been
copied by Bancroft, and is as follows:
"Twenty four leagues westward from Acoma, they arrived at Zuni, by the Spaniards called Cibola, containing great numbers of Indians. Here were three Christian Indians, left by Coronado in 1540. They informed Espejo that 'three score days' journey from this place there was a mighty lake, upon the banks whereof stood many great and good towns, and that the inhabitants of the same had plenty of gold, as shown by their wearing golden bracelets and earrings.' They said that Coronado intended to have gone there, but having travelled twelve days' journey, he began to want water, and returned. Espejo, desirous of seeing this rich country, departed from Cibola, and having travelled twenty-eight leagues west, found another great province of about fifty thousand souls. As they approached a town called Zaguato, the multitude, with their caciques, met them with great joy, and poured maize upon the ground for the horses to walk upon, and they presented the captain with forty thousand mantles of cotton, white and colored, and many hard towels with tassels at the four corners, and rich metals which seemed to contain much silver. Thence traveling due west forty-five leagues, they found mines, of which they had been informed, and took out with their own hands rich metals containing silver. The mines, which were on a broad vein, were in a mountain easily ascended by an open way to the same. In the vicinity of the mines, there were numerous Indian pueblos. Hereabout they found two rivers (probably the Colorado Chiquito and Rio Verde) of a reasonable bigness, upon the banks whereof grew many vines, bearing excellent grapes, and great groves of walnut trees, and much flax, like that of Castile. Captain Espejo then returned to Zuni."
I may be permitted to remark that the Moquis, having increased from a
population of 4,000 at the time of Coronado's expedition in 1511, to 50,000
in 1581, was apparently an extremely prolific race, hardly excelled by the
record made by the Jews during their Egyptian captivity.
The mines which Espejo discovered are supposed to have been somewhere near
the base of the San Francisco mountains and not far from the present city of
Prescott.
Espejo returned to New Spain in 1583, and undoubtedly his report of the
country through which he passed gave rise to the expedition of Juan de
Oņate.
Juan de Oņate, the colonizer of New Mexico, was born in Zacatecas, Mexico,
of a wealthy family, who owned at Zacatecas, some of the richest mines in
the world. His father was a conquistador, Don Christobal. Don Juan married
Dona Isabel, daughter of Juan de Tolosa, a granddaughter of Cortes, and
great granddaughter of Montezuma. Of his explorations Lummis, in his
"Spanish Pioneers," gives the following account:
"Despite the 'golden spoon in his mouth,' Oņate desired to be an explorer.
The Crown refused to provide for further expeditions into the disappointing
north; and about 1595, Onate made a contract with the viceroy of New Spain
to colonize New Mexico at his own expense. He made all preparations and
fitted out his costly expedition. Just then a new viceroy was appointed, who
kept him waiting in Mexico with all his men for over two years, ere the
necessary permission was given him to start. At last, early in 1597, he set
out with his expedition, which had cost him the equivalent of a million
dollars, before it stirred a step. He took with him four hundred colonists,
including two hundred soldiers, with women and children, and herds of sheep
and cattle. Taking formal possession of New Mexico, May 30, 1598, he moved
up the Rio Grande to where the hamlet of Chamita now is (north of Santa Fe),
and there founded in September of that year, San Gabriel de los Espaņoles
(St. Gabriel of the Spaniards), the second town in the United States.
Oņate was remarkable not only for his success in colonizing a country so
forbidding as this then was, but also as an explorer. He ransacked all the
country round about, travelled to Acoma and put down a revolt of the Indians
and, in 1600, made an expedition into Nebraska.
In 1604, with thirty men, he marched from San Gabriel across that grim
desert to the Gulf of California, and returned to San Gabriel in April,
1605. By that time the English had penetrated no farther into the interior
of America than forty or fifty miles from the Atlantic coast.
In 1605 Oņate founded Santa Fe, the City of the Holy Faith of St. Francis,
about whose age a great many foolish fables have been written. The city
actually celebrated the three hundred and thirty-third anniversary of its
founding twenty years before it was three centuries old.
In 1606 Oņate made another expedition to the far northeast, about which
expedition we know almost nothing; and in 1608, he was superseded by Pedro
de Peralta, the second governor of New Mexico.
Oņate was of middle age when he made this very striking record. Born on the
frontier, used to the deserts, endowed with great tenacity, coolness and
knowledge of frontier warfare, he was the very man to succeed in planting
the first considerable colonies in the United States at their most dangerous
and difficult points."
The following account is condensed from Bancroft, and taken from all
accessible authorities, mainly from a book published in 1610, and from
documents obtained in modern times from the Spanish archives, and, as
Bancroft says: "Now utilized practically for the first time in writing the
history of New Mexico."
From this account it appears that Oņate was not the unselfish hero that
Lummis describes, but was not without selfish motives in his patriotic
desire to colonize and conquer the territory which had heretofore been
explored by Coronado and Espejo, and to extend the dominion of the church.
According to Gregg's resume of the memorial made by Oņate to the Crown,
Oņate offered to raise 200 men, and to supply at his own expense livestock,
implements, merchandise, and one year's provisions for the colony. In return
he asked for himself the titles of governor, etc., for five lives; 30
leagues of land with all the vassals thereon; a salary of 8,000 ducats
annually, and exemption from the crown tax for working mines; for his family
hereditary nobility and liberal encomiendas; for his army, arms and
ammunition; for his officers, repartimientos of native laborers for his
colony, a loan of 20,000 pesos from the royal treasury, and for the
spiritual wellbeing of all, 6 friars and the fitting church accoutrements.
He also asked for instructions respecting the forcible conversion of
gentiles and the collection of tribute. Gregg does not indicate what demands
were granted or declined in the marginal note, nor is it apparent whether
this was the original arrangement, or the final one, as modified by a new
viceroy. It is stated in the N. Mex. Mem. 1889, that Velasco accepted the
offer by indorsing the several articles of the petition in marginal notes.
Villagra (the poet-historian of the expedition), says that Oņate got 4,000
dollars in money; Torquemada and Calle add also 6,000 dollars as a loan.
(Marginal note, Bancroft's ''Arizona and New Mexico," pp. 1167). Concerning
which Bancroft says: "Oņate's petition and contract are not extant; but the
former with marginal notes of approval and dissent was seen by Gregg at
Santa Fe; and his brief resume, confirmed by incidental allusions in other
documents, shows that the contract did not differ materially from the
earlier ones that have been described. The empresario agreed to raise a
force of 200 men or more at his own expense; but seems to have been
furnished by the king with a considerable quantity of arms and ammunition,
and even a sum of money, being also authorized to confiscate the property of
Bonilla and other adventurers (who had preceded him into New Mexico without
the authority of the Crown) if he could catch them. He was made governor,
adelantado, and captain-general of the territories to be colonized; and his
somewhat extravagant claims for honors, titles, lands and other emoluments,
were freely granted by Velasco so far as the royal instructions would
permit."
This was about the year 1595. The contract signed, Don Juan secured the
support of the highest officials and most influential men of Mexico, Nueva
Galicia and Nueva Vizcaya and invoked the aid of his four brothers and his
four nephews, the Zaldivars, with other active friends, and began to recruit
an army, by no means a long and difficult task. Captain Vicente Zaldivar was
made sargento mayor, and unfurled his enlistment banner in the grand plaza
of Mexico with a salute of artillery. The scenes of '30 and '40 under Guzman
and Coronado were repeated; recruits came from all directions, attracted by
the favorable terms offered and the hope of wealth and fame in the north.
The ranks were soon full. Success was assured, and preparations were made
for an early departure when a change of viceroys occurred, the Count of
Monterey succeeding Velasco. Oņate 's brilliant prospects and the unusual
powers granted him created jealousy; his foes and rivals at once banding
together, had more influence over the new viceroy than over the old one.
Before he reached the capital, Monterey asked for a delay, but after Velasco
had explained the matter by letter, consented to a completion of the
arrangements. Arriving and taking possession of his office on November 5th,
Monterey proceeded leisurely to investigate the adelantado's fitness for his
position and the truth of certain charges made against him. The exact nature
of the charges is not explained, but soon everyone not interested in the
enterprise itself, seems to have had something to say against Don Juan. The
leader of the opposition, Pedro Ponce de Leon, wishing to undertake the
conquista, wrote the king on December 20th, asking that ratification of
Oņate's project be delayed until new information was obtained. The poet's
narrative of these and similar complications, says Bancroft, is confirmed by
documents from the Spanish archives.
Eventually the viceroy approved his predecessor's contract with certain
modifications, insisting particularly that Oņate should not, as he demanded,
be independent of the audiencia in the administration of justice, or of the
viceroy in war and finance, which seems to have been a proper curtailment of
his powers, for had the demands of Oņate been complied with, he would have
been an absolute despot in the country over which he was appointed to rule.
Preparations were now actively renewed for the march, but when the
modifications alluded to became known to some members of the colony, whose
privileges were more or less curtailed, a new storm of complaints gathered,
of which Oņate 's foes did not fail to take advantage. To escape these, he
made haste to begin his march northward. ''In June, 1596, Lope de Ulloa y
Lemos was commissioned by Monterey to make a visita general, or inspection
and inventory. Ulloa was also instructed to remove the army from the
settlements on account of certain complaints of disorderly conduct, and he
began his inspection in July, appointing Francisco de Esquivel as assistant
or comisario," which caused a delay, but the viceroy had sent a friendly
letter, assuring the governor that the visita was a mere formality, and soon
the force moved on, a part to the Caxco, or Taxco, mines in Durango, and the
rest still farther to the San Bartolome Valley.
A year had now passed since the contract was signed and the colony had been
considerably reduced during the delay. A courier was daily expected with
orders to march, and at last he came on the 9th of September, with a sealed
packet for Ulloa, which the general and his army thought was an order to
advance. Their disappointment can well be imagined when the packet was found
to be, instead of an order to march, a royal order directing the suspension
of the entrada until the receipt of further instructions, which was caused
by the viceroy's letter of the past December and the negotiations with Ponce
de Leon. Enclosed was the viceroy's letter of August 12th to Ulloa,
instructing that officer to make known the king's will, and to order Oņate,
under the severest penalty, including the revocation of all past
concessions, to make no further advance. In October came a repetition of
this order. The governor promised to obey, although his expenses for the
expedition, thus far, had been 500,000 ducats. Concealing the bad news from
his army, he joined in their festivities, having no thought of giving up his
enterprise. His friend Juan Guerra, came to his assistance, and generously
offered to bear a portion of the heavy expense entailed by this new delay,
which was destined to last over a year. It was, unquestionably, a
preconcerted plan of his enemies, by delays and unusual obstructions to
cause the forfeiture of his contract. One visita followed another, and to
protests against the delay on the part of Onate and bis friends, the viceroy
always replied that he could not act without royal orders. Concerning this
delay and its causes, Bancroft says:
''The adelantado's foes wished of course to break up the expedition altogether, and at times such was the policy of the government as well, but at other times there seemed to be a desire to keep the force together until Ponce de Leon or some other royally favored individual could be in some way given the command. Padre Duran became discouraged and left the company with most of his friars in spite of all remonstrances. But amid all troubles, Oņate, if we may credit his somewhat partial biographer (Villagra, the poet), stood firm as a rock, sustained by his friends, and by the influence of Dona Eufemia, the beautiful wife of Alferez Penaloza, who publicly harangued the men, urging them to imitate the fortitude of their leader. Some were mutinous, and bent on going to New Mexico in spite of the king's prohibition; but cutting off the head of their leader checked the ardor of this party.''
In 1597, came orders to get ready to start and to submit to the final visita. In September, Juan Frias de Salazar was commissioned as visitador, Esquivel retaining his position as comisario, and in December, when the army was reunited at the Santa Barbara mines, the final inspection began.
Here let me remark that there seems to have been as much politics in New
Spain at this time as there was in Arizona at any time during her
territorial vassalage, which, as we proceed, will be found to be "going
some." Every viceroy appointed was surrounded by a clique of enemies,
endeavoring at all times to accomplish his overthrow; the same with the
governors. This may account for the fact that the viceroy instructed
Salazar, secretly, to deal as leniently as possible with Oņate, disregarding
small deficiencies, for the records show there was a deficiency in both
supplies and men, of the latter only 130 remaining. To cover this
deficiency, it was decided that the viceroy should raise 80 men at Oņate's
expense, Juan Guerra and his wife. Ana de Mendoza, becoming sureties, and
about this number were indeed sent north the next year.
The final inspection was concluded on the 20th of January, 1598, and the
army started northward six days later, and on the 30th reached the Conchos.
They remained in camp on the Conchos for a week, getting rid of the
visitador, who is said to have departed without bidding the colonists
goodbye, and also having to part with Padre Marquez, their confessor.
Arrangements having been made for a new band of 10 Franciscans, these
friars, under Padre Alonzo Martinez, as comisario, came north with Captain
Farfan and his party, who had escorted Padre Marquez on his return, and
joined the army soon after the start.
It would seem that Oņate was somewhat of a nepotist, his relatives occupying
the principal positions in the command. Don Christobal de Oņate, son of Don
Juan, a youth of ten years, accompanied the expedition as teniente de
gobernador y Capitan-General; Juan de Zaldivar was master of the camp, and
Don Vicente, his brother, was sargento mayor. There were 83 wagons in the
train, and 7,000 head of cattle.
From the Conchos, Oņate proceeded north to the Rio Bravo. Two exploring
parties were sent out in advance to find a way for the wagons. The progress
of the wagons was naturally slow, but there were no adventures or
calamities. This was the first exploration of northern Chihuahua. On the
20th of April, the expedition reached the Rio Grande, and on the last day of
the month, a few leagues up the river on the western bank, Onate, with all
the complicated and curious ceremonies deemed essential in such cases, took
formal possession for God, the King and himself, of New Mexico and all the
adjoining provinces. These ceremonies were accompanied with imposing
religious ceremonies, including mass in a chapel built for the occasion, and
a sermon by the padre comisario. On the 4th of May, 1598, 25 miles above the
point where they first reached the Rio Grande, the Spaniards were shown by
the natives a ford, which the army crossed to the eastern bank. Bancroft
says:
''I have no doubt that this 'ford of the river of the north' was the original El Paso del Norte, a name that has been retained ever since for the locality where the river leaves the territory which is now New Mexico."
From the 5th to the 20th, the army marched slowly up the river on the eastern side for fifteen and a half leagues, where Captain Aguilar joined them upon his return from an advance exploration, having reached the first pueblos and entered one against the orders of his chief, who pardoned him at the intercession of his men. Fearing the natives might run away with all their food supplies, Oņate with the Zaldivars, Villagra, padres Salazar and Martinez, and fifty men, started on the 22d, and after journeying about 25 leagues in six days, reached the first group of the pueblos, the southernmost group, which is now named Socorro, occupying three pueblos of which the names of only two are given, to wit: Teipana and Qualacu. The natives extended a welcome to Oņate and his troop, and furnished them with supplies of maize, which desirable ''socorro" was sent back to the main camp. It was the middle of June when Onate and his advance party left what may be regarded as the first group of towns.
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. Seville 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 Castaņo, 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 morning, they beheld
on the walls lifelike portraits of the murdered priests, Rodriguez and
Lopez, murdered seventeen years before. The two 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 masters, temporal and
spiritual. Tomas and Cristobal acted as interpreters and explained minutely
"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 Oņate through
New Mexico, but suffice it to say that upon Oņate's return from another
exploration 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 150O Indians assembling to aid in
the labor." It is believed that the city was at or near the immediate
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 reason 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 submitted, and who came to renew their formal
submission, but many others, after a full explanation of the system by which
the Almighty was represented in New Mexico, en lo temporal through the king
by Oņate, 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 cheerfully 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.
Thereupon Padre Martinez proceeded to apportion the pueblos among his
colaborers.
The number of pueblos represented was reported to be about 170, which
Bancroft thinks was greatly exaggerated. After the general assembly 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, Oņate
continued his march to Zuni and to Mohoqui, where formal submissions were
rendered by the native chieftains on the 9th and 15th of November.
Of Oņate'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
Villagra, 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 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 Oņate.
Through the efforts of Zutucapan, a patriotic chieftain at Acoma, a
conspiracy was formed to test the invulnerability of the Spaniards by
attacking them on their arrival, having first taken the precaution to
scatter them where they would fall an easy prey. This was the condition of
affairs at Acoma when Zaldivar and his companions approached the peņol. 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 responsibility
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 reached the plain alive. Three others had escaped from the
peņol, and all joined Alferez Casas, who was guarding the horses. Captain
Tabora was sent to overtake Oņate; 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
difficulties, met Oņate near Acoma. With the least possible delay, he called
together the several bands of explorers, and marched his army carefully back
to San Juan, where he arrived safely on December 21st.
"Formal proceedings were now instituted before Juan Gutierrez Bocanegra,
appointed alcalde for the occasion, against the rebels, and after the friars
had given a written opinion respecting the elements of a just war and the
rights of victors over a vanquished people, it was decided 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 murdered soldiers, to leave their
peņol, 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, Far fan, Villagra and Marquez, Alferez Juan Cortez, and
Juan Velarde as secretary. This army started on the 12th of January, 1599,
and on the 21st arrived 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 peņol 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, 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
punishment for their sin of rebellion, although a remnant 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 accomplished, 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 reinforcements were
sent, yet there is no positive evidence to that effect.
After the lesson taught at Acoma, Onate, in his capitol at San Juan, was
left in undisputed possession of New Mexico, but internal troubles among the
soldiers, the colonists and the religios, 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 appeal to the viceroy and the
king, having most of his 200 men reunited at San Juan, with possibly a small
reinforcement 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 rabbits 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 crossing was called San Jose and farther to the southwest 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 called Cruzados. The Indians
informed Onate that the sea was twenty 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. 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 junction 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 population on the eastern
bank alone being placed at 20,000.
Onate 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 thousand 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 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.
Onate 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."
Notes About Book:
Source: History Of Arizona Volume 1, By Thomas Edwin Farish, 1915, Printed
and Published by Direction of the Second Legislature of the State of
Arizona, A. D.
Notes about Online Publication: This manuscript has been ocr'd and heavily
edited. Many of the Native American words have been reproduced as clearly as
online publication will allow us, but not all are exactly the way they were
in the original work. The structure of this manuscript has been changed to
allow better online presentation.
