The submission of New Mexico in the last years of the
seventeenth century may be regarded as permanent; the natives were now too few
and weak, and the Spanish power too firmly established, for any general
movement of revolt. Petty local troubles or rumors of troubles in the different
pueblos were of not infrequent occurrence, some of which will be noted in these
pages, as will occasional raids of the gentile tribes.
These, with the succession of governors, now and then a political controversy,
periodical renewals of efforts to make Christians of the Moquis, a few reports
of mission progress or decadence, some not very important expeditions out into
the plains or mountains, feeble revivals of the old interest in mysterious
regions of the north, rare intercourse with the Texan establishments, fears of
French and English encroachment—make up the annals of the eighteenth century.
The archive record is meagre and fragmentary, yet in respect of local and
personal details much too bulky to be fully utilized within the scope of my
work. From 1700 New Mexico settled down into that monotonously uneventful
career of inert and non-progressive existence, which sooner or later is to be
noted in the history of every Hispano-American province. The necessity of
extreme condensation may not, therefore, prove an unmixed evil.
The Moqui chief did not decide to accept the
Spaniards’ terms; and it appears that the people of Aguatuvi were even punished for past kindness shown to visiting friars. Governor Cubero
therefore marched in 1701 to the province, killing a few Moquis and capturing
many; but it was deemed good policy to release the captives, and Cubero
returned without having accomplished anything, unless to make the natives more
obstinate in their apostasy, as the not impartial Vargas declared later. In the spring of 1702 there were alarming rumors from various
quarters, resting largely on statements of Apaches,
who seem in these times to have been willing witnesses against the town
Indians. Cubero made a tour among the pueblos to investigate and administer
warnings, but he found slight ground for alarm. It appeared, however, that the
Moquis, or perhaps Tehua fugitives in the Moqui
towns, were trying to incite the Zunis and others to revolt; and it was decided
to send Captain Juan de Uribarri with a force to make
investigations, and to leave Captain Medina and nineteen men as a garrison at Zuñi. This was probably done, but, all being quiet, the escolta was soon reduced.
The remaining soldiers behaved badly, and three Spanish exiles from Santa Fé
much worse, treating the Indians harshly, and living publicly with native
women. The padre complained; the governor failed to provide any remedy; and on
March 4, 1703, the Indians killed the three Spaniards, Valdes, Palomino, and
Lucero, fleeing, some to the peñol, others to Moqui.
The soldiers seem to have run away. Padre Garaicoechea was not molested, and wrote that only seven Indians
were concerned in the affair; but evidently in his missionary zeal and sympathy
for the natives he underrated the danger. The governor, justifying his course
by the viceroy’s orders to use gentle means, sent Captain Madrid to bring away
the friar, and Zuñi, like the Moqui towns, was left
to the aborigines.
In August 1703, Cubero, learning that Vargas—whose
exoneration and reappointment have been recorded—was on the way to succeed him,
and fearing retaliation for past acts, though as a matter of
fact Vargas brought no authority to investigate his acts, left the
country without waiting to meet his rival. He claimed to have retired by
permission of the viceroy; it was said he feigned an Indian campaign as an
excuse for quitting the capital; and his successor charged that he ran away for
fear of the natives, whose hatred he had excited. Cubero was appointed governor
of Maracaibo and given other honors, but died in
Mexico in 1704. Don Diego, now marqués de la Nava de Brazinas, assumed the office of governor and
captain-general at Santa Fé, on November 10, 1703. He was urged by Padre Garaicoechea to reestablish a mission among the Zuñis, with whom the padre bad kept in communication; but
the governor lacked faith in the good-will of that people, or at least found no
time to attend to the matter during his brief rule, and that of Padre Juan
Alvarez as custodio. At the beginning of 1704 there
were more rumors of revolt, but nothing could be proved except against the
ever-hostile Moquis. In March Vargas started on a campaign against the Apaches, but was taken suddenly ill in the sierra of Sandía, died at Bernalillo on the 4th of April, and was
buried at Santa Fé in the parish church.
Juan Paez Hurtado,
lieutenant-general of the province and an old friend of Don Diego, served as
acting governor till the 10th of March, 1705, when Don
Francisco Cuervo y Valdés assumed the office of governor ad interim, that is,
by the viceroy’s appointment. The condition of affairs was not very
encouraging. Depredations by Apaches and Navajos were
frequent, the Moquis were defiant, the Zuñi rebels
still on their peñol, and the presidial soldiers in great need of clothing, arms, and horses, their pay having been cut
down about five per cent in support of the Chihuahua mission of Junta de los
Rios. Cuervo’s rule was marked by a series of appeals for aid; but except a few
arms and implements—and plenty of censure for complaining that his predecessors
had given more attention to their quarrels than to the country’s needs—nothing
was obtained. On his way north he bad to stop at El Paso to fight Apaches; and on arrival at the capital he stationed his garrison in seven detachments at exposed points. Early in 1705
Padre Garaicoechea went back to Zuñi, and brought the rebels
down to the plain to submit on April 6th to Captain Madrid. In July Don Roque
marched against the Navajos, who were incited and aided by refugee Jemes. During this campaign the horses’ thirst was
miraculously assuaged in answer to the chaplain’s prayers, whereupon the foe
was so terrified as to surrender, and the army turned back to Cia in August. In
September the finding of a knotted cord at Zuñi recalled the dread days of 1680, but nothing came of it.
In 1706 Governor Cuervo informed the viceroy that he
had founded with 30 families the new villa of Alburquerque,
named in honor of the viceroy; with 18 Tanos families
from Tesuque, he had resettled Santa María—formerly Santa Cruz—de Galisteo;
transferred some Tehua families to the old pueblo of Pujuaque, now called Guadalupe; and refounded with 29 families the old villa of old La Cañada, long abandoned, renaming it
Santa María de Grado, a name that did not last. He asked for church ornaments,
which were supplied; but he was blamed for founding the new villa without
authority, and its name was changed from San Francisco to San Felipe de Alburquerque, in honor of the king. It was ascertained
later that in all these reports Cuervo had considerably overstated his own
achievements. Captain Uribarri marched this year out
into the Cíbola plains; and at Jicarilla, 37 leagues
north-east of Taos, was kindly received by the Apaches,
who conducted him to Cuartalejo, of which he took
possession, naming the province San Luis and the Indian ranchería Santo Domingo.
The Moquis often attacked the Zuñis,
who were now for the time good Christians, and to protect whom Captain Juan
Roque Gutierrez was sent in April 1706 with eight men. With this aid the Zuñis went to Moqui in May, killed two of the foe, and recovered 70 animals. Captain Tomás Holguin was
sent with a new reenforcement, and in September
surrounded the Tehua pueblo between Gualpi and Oraibe, forcing the
Indians after a fight to sue for peace and give hostages; but the Tanos and other reenforcements arrived, attacked the Spaniards and allies as they retired, and drove them back
to Zuñi, the hostages being shot. Presently the Zuñis—now under Padre Miranda, who came occasionally from
Acoma—asked to have their escolta removed, a request
which aroused fears of a general rising in the west. A junta at Cia in April
1707 resolved to withdraw the frontier escoltas to
Santa Fé for recuperation of the horses, and thus the west was again abandoned.
It was on the 1st of August, 1707, that the governor ad interim was succeeded by the admiral Don José Chacon
Medina Salazar y Villasenor, marques de la Peñuela,
who had been appointed by the king in 1705, and who ruled till 1712. The new
ruler turned his attention like others to the Moquis, toward whom his
predecessors, according to his theory, had acted harshly, shooting captives and exasperating the natives. He sent an embassy of
Zunis with an exhortation to peace and submission; but the only reply was a
raid of refugee Tanos and Tehuas on Zuñi. Nothing more important is recorded in 1708
than the building of a parish church on the site of the one destroyed in 1680.
It was built by the marqués governor at his own
cost, though permission was obtained to employ Indians on the work, and was completed within two years. The year 1709 was
marked by a war with the Navajos, who had become very bold in their
depredations, sacking the pueblos of Jemes in June,
but who were defeated by the governor in a vigorous campaign, and forced to
make a treaty of peace. This year, also, the custodio,
Padre Juan de la Peña, collected some scattered families of Tiguas,
and with them refounded the old pueblo of San Agustin
Isleta. Padre Peña engaged moreover in a spiritual campaign against
estufa-rites and scalp-dances; and complaints sent to Mexico of abuses on the
part of the governor and alcaldes brought from the viceroy stringent orders
against forcing the Indians to work without compensation.
Padre Peña died, and was succeeded as custodio by Padre Juan de Tagle,
after Padre Lopez de Haro as vicepresident had been for a time in charge of the office. There was a quarrel in progress,
of which we know little or nothing, between the marqués and his predecessor Cuervo; and Tagle with other
friars favored the latter, and were the objects of Peñuela’s complaints in Mexico. In 1711 and the two
following years, we find several royal orders on New Mexican affairs; but none
of them has any historic importance. The soldiers had asked for an increase of
pay, the friars for reinforcements, and Governor Cuervo had reported his great
achievements in town founding; the cédulas were routine replies, ordering the
viceroy to investigate and report, but always to look out for the welfare of
the northern province. The sum total of information
seems to be that there were 34 padres in the field, which number the viceroy
deemed sufficient, though he was authorized by the king to increase the
missionary force whenever it might be deemed best.
Juan Ignacio Flores Mogollon, formerly governor of
Nuevo León, had the royal appointment as governor and captain-general; and the marqués de la Peñuela retiring at
the expiration of his term of five years, Governor Flores assumed the office on
October 5, 1712, ruling until 1715. The Sumas of the south revolted in 1712,
but were reduced by Captain Valverde, and settled at Realito de San Lorenzo, a league and a half from El Paso, probably at Otermin’s old camp of 1681. In May 1713 the natives of
Acoma and Laguna, offended by the anti-pagan zeal of Padre Carlos Delgado,
thought favorably of a proposition to kill him at the instigation of a Zuñi Indian—at least so Padre Irazábal reported; but nothing could be proved. In October of the same year Captain
Serna with 400 soldiers and allies defeated the Navajos in their own country;
and besides this achievement the Faraon Apaches were warned to desist from their depredations! In
1714 the Yutas and Taos had many fights, but the
governor restored harmony by an enforced restitution of stolen property. Navajo
raids on the Jemes had again to be checked by a
campaign of Captain Madrid, while Captain Valverde marched against the Apache hoards of Pharaoh, as did also the French from Louisiana.
A junta of civil, military, and missionary authorities
was held to deliberate on two questions deemed momentous: First, should the
Christian Indians be deprived of fire-arms? The
military favored such a policy, but the friars opposed it, both to avoid offence
and afford the converts protection; and the governor at last ordered the arms
taken away except in the case of natives especially trustworthy. Second, should
the converts be allowed to paint themselves and wear skin caps, thus causing
themselves to be suspected of crimes committed by gentiles, or enabling them to
commit offences attributed to gentiles? Governor Flores and his officers, with
some of the padres, were in favor of forbidding the custom; but the rest of the
friars took an opposite view, holding that no Christian Indian had ever been
known to use his paint for a disguise to cover crime, that it was impolitic to
accuse them of so doing, that painting was the native idea of adornment, and in
that light no worse than Spanish methods; and finally, that the custom was
objectionable only in connection with superstition, in which respect it must be
removed gradually by Christian teachings. The decision is not recorded. Like
other years of this and most other periods, 1715 had its vague rumors of an
impending revolt, ever dreaded by the New Mexicans, not traceable to any
definite foundation. I find also the record of one of
the typical campaigns against Apaches on or toward
the Colorado River, made by Juan Paez Hurtado, with
no results of importance.
It must not be supposed that nothing was heard from
the Moquis, for I find original records of five juntas de guerra at Santa Fé on their account. In June 1713 an
Indian named Naranjo was refused permission to visit the Moquis, but in
December two natives of Zuñi, through Padre Irazábal, obtained the license and were given letters. They
found the Moquis eager for peace and alliance with the Zuñis,
but the controlling element under the chief of Oraibe had no desire for the Spaniards’ friendship. In March 1715 a Moqui appeared at
the capital with favorable reports, and was sent back
with assurances of goodwill. Next, in May a chief from Oraibe came to make further investigations, reporting that a grand junta of all the
towns had decided on peace and Christianity. This chief was sent back with
gifts, and in July eight Moquis came to announce that after harvest the formal
arrangements for submission would be completed. Thus all went well so long as the Moquis were the ambassadors; but when the governor
sent messengers of his own choosing, the truth came out that the pretended
ambassadors were traders, who had invented all their reports to account for
their visits and insure their own safety, the Moqui authorities being as
hostile as ever!
Governor Flores was an old man in feeble health, who
resigned on account of his infirmities. He was succeeded by Captain Felix
Martinez, who assumed the office as acting governor, or perhaps governor ad
interim by the viceroy’s appointment, on October 30, 1715, and who, instead of
permitting his predecessor to depart with an escort for Mexico as ordered,
engaged in quarrels and lawsuits with him, keeping him under arrest for two
years. During Martinez’ rule of two years two campaigns are recorded. In August 1716 the governor marched in person against the Moquis with
68 soldiers, accompanied by the custodio, Padre
Antonio Camargo, the cabildo of Santa Fé, and a force of vecinos from Alburquerque and La Cañada. Commissioners were
sent forward from Alona, and some of the Moquis seemed
willing to submit, but the people of Gualpi and the Tanos pueblo refused. Two fights occurred in September, the
Indians being defeated, if we may credit the diary, with many killed and
wounded; but the army, after destroying corn-fields,
retreated to Santa Fé, and the pretended victories may be regarded as very
doubtful.
During the governor’s absence in the west the Yutas and Comanches—perhaps the first definite appearance
in history of the latter nation—attacked Taos, the Tehua towns, and even some of the Spanish settlements. On his return Martinez sent
Captain Serna, who attacked the foe at the Cerro de San Antonio, thirty leagues
north of Santa Fé, killing many Indians and capturing their chusma.
It subsequently came out in the governor’s residencia that the captives were
divided between Don Félix and his brother, and sold on joint account in Nueva
Vizcaya, the Yutas being told later that their chusma had died of small-pox!
In September 1716, the new viceroy, marqués de Valero, informed secretly of how things were
going in New Mexico, ordered Governor Martinez to present himself in Mexico, at
the same time directing Captain Antonio Valverde y Cosío to go up from El Paso, assume the governorship ad interim, and investigate
certain charges. Valverde arrived at Santa Fé the 9th of December; but
Martínez, supported by the cabildo, refused to give up the office or presidio
books. He could not, however, disobey the viceroy’s summons, and having
appointed Juan Paez Hurtado to act as governor in his
absence, he started on the 20th of January, 1717,
taking with him apparently Flores Mogollon, his predecessor. Valverde was
ordered to accompany him to El Paso, but feigned illness, and took refuge with
his friend, Padre Tagle, at the convent of San
Ildefonso. As to resulting complications between Hurtado and Valverde, I have
found no record, but suppose that the former ruled but a few months, and that
before the end of 1717, as soon as orders could be returned from Mexico,
Valverde assumed the office, which he held for four or five years.
A leading event of Valverde’s rule was his expedition
of 1719, with 105 Spaniards and 30 Indians, being joined also on the way by the Apaches under Captain Carlarua,
against the Yutas and Comanches, who had been
committing many depredations. His route was north, east, south-east, and
finally south-west back to Santa Fé. He thus explored the regions since known
as Colorado and Kansas, going farther north, as he believed, than any of his
predecessors. He did not overtake the foe, encountering nothing more formidable
than poison-oak, which attacked the officers as well as the privates of his
command. On the Rio Napestle, apparently the
Arkansas, Valverde met the Apaches of Cuartelejo, and found men with gunshot wounds received from
the French and their allies, the Pananas and Jumanas. An order came from the viceroy to establish a
presidio of 25 men at Cuartelejo, some 130 leagues
from Santa Fé, in the heart of the Apache region; but a council of war decided
this to be impossible, believing the viceroy bad meant Jicarilla, some 40
leagues from the capital, as the site, and that even there 25 men would not
suffice. In 1719—20 the governor made a tour of inspection, visiting every
pueblo and settlement in the province. He also sent information on the Moquis
for which he was thanked by the viceroy; and the same persistent apostates were
mentioned in a royal order, from which it appears that the Jesuits were trying
to be put in charge of the Moqui conversion, a phase of the matter that belongs
to the annals of Arizona in another chapter of this volume. From the same
document it appears that there was a dispute between the bishop of Durango and
the archbishop of Mexico on the ecclesiastic jurisdiction of New Mexico.
Don Juan de Estrada y Austria seems to have come in
1721 as juez de residencia to
investigate the still pending charges against and controversies between
ex-governors Flores and Martinez; and he may have held, as was sometimes
customary, the position of acting governor during the performance of his duties
as judge; if so, he turned over the office before the end of the year or early
in the next; and on March 2, 1722, the regularly appointed governor, Don Juan
Domingo de Bustamante, succeeded; ruling two full terms, or until 1731. A visitador general, in the person of Captain
Antonio Cobian Busto, came in 1722 to investigate the
condition of provincial affairs. Some Spaniards engaged in illicit trade with
the French inhabitants of Louisiana, which brought out prohibitory orders from
the king in 1723; and orders regulating the trade with gentile tribes were
issued by Governor Bustamante the same year. Early in 1724 the Yutas committed depredations at Jemes;
and the Comanches attacked the Apaches at Jicarilla,
forced them to give up half their women and children to save their lives and
town, burned the place, and killed all but 69 men, two women, and three
boys—all mortally wounded. In 1727 Bustamante notified the viceroy that the
French had settled at Cuartelejo and Chinali, 160 leagues from Santa Fé, proposing an expedition
to find out what was being done, and asking for troops for that purpose; but it
was decided that such an entrada was not necessary, though all possible
information should be obtained from the Indians. The Jesuits still desired to
convert the Moquis, and obtained in 1726 favorable
orders from king and viceroy, of which they made no practical use. Padres
Miranda and Irazábal visited the province in 1724,
obtaining what they considered favorable assurances for the future; and in
1730-1 padres Francisco Archundi and José Narvaez
Valverde seem to have had a like experience. The Moquis had no objections to an
occasional interview so long as they could put off their submission to a
convenient time not the present.
There was a complicated controversy in these and later
years between the missionary and episcopal authorities. The bishop of Durango
claimed New Mexico as part of his bishopric, insisting on his right to appoint
a vicar and control ecclesiastic matters in the province, which the friars
refused to recognize. Bishop Crespo, in his visita of 1725, reached El Paso, and exercised his functions without much opposition;
but in August 1730, when he extended his tour to Santa Fé, though he
administered the rite of confirmation there and at a few other towns, at some
of the missions he was not permitted to do so, the friars objecting by
instruction of the custodio, Padre Andrés Varo, and
he, of course, obeying the instructions of his superior in Mexico. The bishop
also appointed Don Santiago Roybal as juez eclesiástico,
whose authority was only partially recognized. Crespo began legal proceedings
against the Franciscan authorities in Mexico, and besides demanding recognition
of his episcopal rights, he made serious charges against the New Mexican
friars, alleging that they did not properly administer the sacraments; that
they did not learn the native language; that the neophytes, rather than confess
through an interpreter, who might reveal their secrets, did not confess at all,
except in articulo mortis; that of 30 padres
provided for, only 24 were serving; that the failure to reduce the Moquis was
their fault; that some of them neglected their duties, and others by their
conduct caused scandal; and that tithes were not properly collected or
expended. These charges, especially those connected with ignorance of the
native language, were supported by the formal testimony of 24 prominent
officials and residents, taken by the governor at Santa Fé in June 1731.
Details of the suit are too bulky and complicated for notice here. There was a
royal order of 1729 favorable to the bishop, and another of 1731 to some
extent sustaining the position of the Franciscans; but the decision in 1733 was
in substance that, pending a final decision on the great principles involved,
the bishop had, and might exercise, jurisdiction in New Mexico; and as we shall
see, he did make a visita in 1737. In Spain,
the case came up on appeal in 1736, and a main feature of the friars’ plea was
the claim that the testimony against them was false, having been given by bad
men, moved by prejudice against the padres, who had opposed their sinful
customs. To prove this, they produced the evidence, taken by the vice-custodio, Padre José Antonio Guerrero, in July 1731, of
another set of officials and citizens, to the effect that the missionaries had
performed every duty in the most exemplary and zealous manner, though it was
not pretended that they knew the native dialects. Countercharges were also
made that the governor and his officials abused the Indians, forcing them to
work without pay. The record from which I take this information was printed in
1738, when no permanent decision had been reached.
Governor Bustamante’s rule ended in 1731, and the
result of his residencia was favorable, though on one charge—that of illegal
trade, admitted to be for the benefit of the
country—he was found guilty and forced to pay the costs of trial. His successor
was Gervasio Cruzat y Góngora, who ruled for a full term of five years. The
period was a most uneventful one so far as we may judge by the meagre record in
the shape of detached items. A mission of Jicarilla Apaches was founded on the Rio Trampas, three or five leagues
from Taos, in 1733, prospering for a time under Padre Mirabal; no Indian
campaigns or troubles are recorded, and nothing is heard even of the apostate
Moquis. From the governor’s part in taking evidence for the bishop in the great
controversy already noticed, it may be presumed that he was not regarded as a
friend by the friars.
A successor was appointed—ad interim, by the
viceroy—on May 17, 1736, in the person of Enrique de Olavide y Michelena, who, however, may not have assumed the
office till 1737. This year Bishop Elizacoechea visited the province, without opposition so far as is known, and extended his
tour to the Zuñi towns. In 1738 Governor Olavide visited all the pueblos, at each publicly
announcing his presence and calling upon all who had grievances against the
alcaldes or individuals to make them known; but nothing more serious was
submitted than a few petty debts of a horse, cow, or pair of drawers. Let us
hope that Don Enrique’s orders for payment were promptly obeyed. The governor’s
residencia was prosecuted in January 1739, by Juan José Moreno as juez; and as the answers to the twenty-eight routine
questions by twenty-four witnesses, half of them Indians, were uniformly
favorable, the decision was most flattering to a ruler respecting the
occurrences of whose rule little is known.
The new governor, appointed by the king on May 12,
1737, and assuming office in January 1739, was Gaspar Domingo de Mendoza, who
ruled till 1743. About 1740 a small party of Frenchmen came by way of Jicarilla
and Taos, two of them remaining, and the rest departing by another route; and
this occurrence is rather vaguely connected by certain writers with a plan of
the French to take possession of the Rio Colorado region. In 1742 padres
Delgado and Ignacio Pino went to the Moqui towns and succeeded in bringing away
441 Tiguas, who before the great revolt had lived in
the pueblos of Sandia, Alameda, and Pajarito, which the friars now wished to
reestablish, though the governor declined to act without special instructions.
Meanwhile the recovered neophytes were distributed in different missions. Mota Padilla, the historian of Nueva Galicia, devotes some
attention to New Mexico, and gives its population of Spaniards in 1742, not
including the soldiers and their families, as 9,747, living in 24 towns.
Mendoza’s rule ended late in 1743, and his residencia, conducted by his
successor, brought to light no complaints or unfavorable testimony.
Joaquin Codallos y Rabal was the next governor, ruling for a little more than
a full term, from the end of 1743 to 1749. Colonel Francisco de la Rocha was
appointed in 1747 or earlier to succeed Codallos on
the expiration of his term; but Rocha declined on account of his age and
infirmities. The viceroy wished to appoint a substitute, but the king would not
permit it, appointing to the office Tomás Velez Cachupin,
who took command as early as May 1749, and ruled to and beyond the end of the
half-century covered by this chapter. New Mexican affairs in these years,
somewhat more fully recorded than for the preceding, may be most conveniently
grouped—except a few detached items given in a note—in four or five topics, to
each of which I devote a paragraph.
But for the route from El Paso up the Rio del Norte,
the region between Santa Fé and Zuñi on the north and
the frontier presidios of Janos, Corodeguachi, and Guevavi on the south was a tierra incognita occupied by
savage tribes. In 1747 the viceroy ordered a combined movement or campaign in
this country. Thirty soldiers and as many settlers and friendly Indians were to
march north by separate routes from each of the four southern presidios to meet
a corresponding force sent south-westward from Santa Fé. They executed the
movement and reached the Acoma region late in the year; but Governor Codallos was unable to cooperate, on account of a Comanche
raid, not reaching Cubero until the others had departed. Therefore nothing was effected against the Indians, at which the viceroy was angry, and
deducted $8,000 from the New Mexican situado, though
he later accepted the governor’s excuses. We have, unfortunately, no details of
the explorations, except that Padre Menchero was with
the El Paso company, turning to the west from the Jornada del Muerto, reached the upper Gila, and thence went north to
Acoma through an entirely new region.
The prospect of having to surrender the Moqui field to
the Jesuits was a thorn in the flesh of the Franciscans. Their great
achievement to prevent the change was the entrada of 1742, in which 441
apostates were recovered, are already related; but they continued their
efforts, mainly with the pen, the venerable Delgado being the leading spirit.
In 1743, and again in 1744, they wished to make a new entrada, but, as they
claimed, could not get the governor’s permission and aid. In 1745, however,
padres Delgado, Irigoyen, and Juan José Toledo got the required license, with
an escort of 80 Indians under an ex-soldier, and visited all the Moqui towns,
counting 10,846 Indians, who listened gladly to their preaching. Of course they made the most of their success, ridiculed the
idea that the natives had expressed a preference for the padres prietos instead of the padres azules,
and they even sent in glowing reports on the wealth of the Sierra Azul and
grandeur of the great city or empire of Teguayo, with
a view to reawaken interest in the Northern Mystery. Meanwhile the king was
induced to change his mind and to believe that he had been grossly deceived
respecting the geographical situation of Moqui, the hostility and power of its
people, and the vain efforts of the soldiers and
friars to reduce them. Surely, if two missionaries could go alone, without a
cent of expense to the royal treasury, and bring out 441 converts, the Moquinos could neither be so far off from New Mexico, nor
so confirmed in their apostasy, as had been represented. So reasoned the king;
and in a royal cédula of November 23, 1745, he explained his views, took back
all he had said in favor of the Jesuits, and ordered the viceroy to support the
Franciscans in every possible way. Thus the azules won the fight, though the Moquis were not
much nearer salvation than before. In 1748, however, the rescued Tiguas of 1742, or some of them, were united at Sandía, and their old pueblo was rebuilt at or near its
original site.
The Navajos attracted still more attention than the Moquinos. Padres Delgado and Irigoyen started in March 1744
by way of Jemes for the Navajo country,
and found the Indians apparently eager to become Christians and receive
missionaries, 4,000 of them being interviewed. They promised to come the next
full moon to see the governor, and did so, being received with flattery, gifts,
and promises of protection, as well as salvation. The padres wrote of this in
June; the governor advised the sending of several new missionaries, and
prospects were deemed excellent, though as usual there were vexatious delays.
The viceroy ordered a complete investigation; and in 1745 a dozen witnesses
formally told the governor all they knew about the Navajos, which was not much.
The king heard of the conversion of 5,000 gentiles, and ordered the viceroy to sustain the friars and help along the good work. The
viceroy authorized the founding of four missions in the Navajo country, with a
garrison of thirty men for their protection. This was in 1746, and Padre Menchero, the visitador, took up
the enterprise with much zeal, visiting the gentiles in person, and inducing
some 500 or 600 to return with him and settle temporarily at Cebolleta in the Acoma region. The hostile Apache bands in
various directions made it impossible, in Governor Codallos’
opinion, to spare the mission guard required; and a year or two later a bitter
war between the Navajos and their foes, the Yutas and Chaguaguas, interfered with the conversion of the
former. Accordingly, in 1749, in response to Menchero’s petitions, a new governor advised, what a new viceroy approved, the founding of
the missions, not in the far north or Navajo country proper, but in the Acoma
district; and this was done, some additions being made to the converts already
there, and two missions of Cebolleta and Encinal
being established, under padres Juan de Lezaun and
Manuel Bermejo. All went well for a very brief time; but in the spring of 1750
there was trouble, which Lieutenant-governor Bernardo Antonio de Bustamante,
with the vice-custodio, Padre Manuel de San Juan
Nepomuceno de Trigo, went to investigate. Then the real state
of affairs became apparent. Padre Menchero had
been liberal with his gifts, and still more so with promises of more; hence his
success in bringing the Navajos to Cebolleta. But
they said they had not received half the gifts promised, and their present
padres—against whom they had no other complaint—were too poor to make any gifts
at all. What, then, had they gained by the change? At any rate, pueblo life and
Christianity had no charms for them, and they were determined not to remain.
They would still be friends of the Spaniards and trade with them, and would
always welcome the friars, who might even baptize and teach their children;
perhaps the little ones might grow up to like a different life, but as for
themselves, they had been born free, like the deer, to go where they pleased,
and they were too old to learn new ways. Indeed, they took a very sensible view
of the situation. Thus stood the matter in 1750, and the Navajo conversion was
a failure.
Of the Yutas and Apaches during this period we know nothing
definitely, except that in most years they gave trouble in one way or
another; but respecting the Comanches our information is somewhat less
incomplete. In June 1746 they made a raid on Pecos, killing 12 inhabitants of
that pueblo, and also committed hostilities at
Galisteo and elsewhere. The popular clamor for a campaign against them was
great, and the governor asked for increased powers. The auditor in Mexico made
a long report in October on the preliminary efforts that must be made before
war could be legally waged, and corresponding instructions were sent by the
viceroy. In October 1747 Codallos, with over 500
soldiers and allies, overtook the Comanches with some Yuta allies beyond Abiquiti, and killed 107 of them, capturing 206, with
nearly 1,000 horses. Four Yuta captives were shot. In January 1748, with a
smaller force, he repulsed the foe at Pecos, though with some loss of Indian
allies; yet a month or two later he gave a friendly reception to 600 Comanches
at Taos, on their assurance that they had taken no part in the war. Later in
the year, by the viceroy’s orders, a junta was held at Santa Fé to determine
whether the Comanches should be permitted to attend the fairs at Taos for
purposes of trade. All admitted the unreliable and treacherous character of the
tribe; but a majority favored a continuance of trade because the skins, meats,
and horses they brought for sale were much needed in the province; and
moreover, their presence at the fairs would bring them within Christian
influences, especially the captives they brought for sale, who might otherwise
be killed. The governor decided accordingly, against the views of the padre custodio.
The bishop, who had practically won his case, does not
appear to have attempted in these years any exercise of his episcopal
authority; but the quarrel started by Crespo’s charges was still in progress,
as appears from two long reports of 1750. Juan Antonio de Ordenal y Maza in some secular capacity visited New Mexico in
1748-9, and made a report to the viceroy, in which in a general way he
represented the padres as neglectful of their duties, oppressive to the
Indians, often absent from their posts to engage in trade, neither learning the
native dialects nor teaching Spanish to the natives. Don Juan advised that the
number of missions should be reduced by consolidation, and that some of the
Spanish settlements should be put under curates. This being referred to the
Franciscan provincial brought out from him a long reply, in which he denies the
truth of all the charges, defends his friars, and impugns Ordenal’s motives, accusing him of being merely the mouthpiece through which Governor Cachupin expressed his well-known hatred of the padres. The
other report was one written by Padre Delgado, who had served 40 years at
Isleta, and was now in Mexico, being called upon probably to write something
that would counterbalance current charges against the friars; and the veteran
missionary did so with a vengeance. He represented the governors and alcaldes mayores of New Mexico as brutal tyrants, who treated the
natives as slaves, forcing them to work without compensation, or accomplishing
the same result by appropriating the products of their corn-fields,
obliging the friars to keep silent by refusing otherwise to sign the warrants
by which their sínodos were collected, and thus
driving the converts into apostasy, and effectually preventing the conversion
of gentiles. There are indications in other correspondence that Delgado was more or less a ‘crank’; and it is certain that in this
instance he overshot the mark; for, if true, his charges were in reality almost
as damning to the padres who submitted to these atrocities as to the officials
who committed them. I have no doubt that the natives here as elsewhere, and to
a greater extent than in many provinces, were the victims of oppression from
Spanish officials, many of whom were bent on pecuniary gain, and were favored
by their isolated position; but find in the records nothing to support, and
much to contradict, the supposition that the rulers were for the most part
blood-thirsty brutes, practically sustained in their rascalities by the Franciscans.
The standard work of Villaseñor,
published in 1748, and the manuscript report of Padre Menchero in 1744, contain some statistics and other general information on the condition
of New Mexico about the middle of the century. Descriptive matter cannot be
presented in the space at my command, but I append a statistical note. On
population Villaseñor and Menchero agree in some points, but differ widely in others.
Bonilla, however, gives a table of 1749 which agrees tolerably well with the
general conclusions of the others. The Spanish population was 3,779—too small a
figure, I think—and the number of Christian Indians 12,142, besides about 1,400
Spaniards and the same number of Indians at El Paso. This is Bonilla’s
statement. Villaseñor and Menchero give the population as 536 to 660 families of Spaniards, and 1,428 to 1,570
families of neophytes, besides 220 and 330 families in the district of El Paso. Mota Padilla’s estimate of about 9,500 Spaniards in
1742 was an exaggeration. Of course, many of the so-called Spaniards were of
mixed breed. I attach to the statistical note a chronologic list of governors
from the beginning down to 1846.
List of Spanish and Mexican governors and
captain-generals of New Mexico:
Juan de
Oñate, 1598-1608.
Pedro de
Peralta, 1608-
Felipe Zotylo, (1621-8).
Manuel de
Silva, 1629.
Fernando
de Argüello, 1640 (?).
Luis de
Rosas, 1641.
Valdés,
(1642).
Alonso
Pacheco de Heredia, 1643.
Fernando
de Argüello, 1645.
Luis de Guzman, (1647).
Hernando
de Ugarte y la Concha, 1650.
Juan de
Samaniego, 1653-4.
Enrique
de Ávila y Pacheco, 1656.
Bernardo
López de Mendizábal, to 1661.
Diego de
Peñalosa Bricelio, 1661-4.
Fernando
de Villanueva.
Juan de
Medrano.
Joan de
Miranda.
Juan Francisco
de Treviño, 1675.
Antonio
Otermin, 1679-83.
Domingo Jironza Petriz Cruzat, 1683-6.
Pedro Reneros de Posada, 1686-9.
Domingo Jironza Petriz Cruzat, 1689-91.
Diego de
Vargas Zapata Lujan Ponce de Leon, 1691-7.
Pedro Rodriguez Cubero, 1697-1703.
Diego de
Vargas, etc., marques de la Nava de Brazinas, 1703-4.
Juan Paez Hurtado, acting, 1704-5.
Francisco
Cuervo y Valdes, ad int.,
1705-7.
Jose Chacon Medina Salazar y Villaseñor, marques de la Peñuela,
1707-12.
Juan
Ignacio Flores Mogollon, 1712—15.
Felix Martinez, ad int., 1715-17.
Juan Paez Hurtado, acting, 1717.
Antonio
Valverde y Cosio, ad int.,to 1717-22.
Juan de
Estrada y Austria (?), ad int., 1721 (?).
Juan
Domingo de Bustamante, 1722-31.
Gervasio
Cruzat y Gongora, 1731-6.
Enrique
de Olavido y Michelena, ad int.,
1736-9.
Gaspar
Domingo de Mendoza, 1739—43.
Joaquin Codallos
y Rabal. 1743-9.
Francisco
de la Rocha (appt’d), 1747.
Tomás Velez Cachupin, 1749-54.
Francisco
Antonio Marin del Valle, 1754-60.
Mateo
Antonio de Mendoza, acting, 1760.
Manuel
Portillo Urrisola, acting,
1761 -2.
TomásiVelez Cachupin, 1762-7.
Pedro Fermin de Mendinueta, 1767-78.
Francisco Trebol Navarro, acting,
1778
Juan
Bautista de Anza, 1778-89.
Manuel Flon (appt’d), 1785.
Fernando
de la Concha, 1789-94.
Fernando Chacon, 1794-1805.
Joaquin del Real Alencaster, 1805-8.
Alberto Mainez, acting, 1807-8.
José
Manrique, 1810-14.
Alberto Mainez, 1815-17.
Pedro Maria de Allande, 1816-18.
Facundo
Melgares, 1818-22.
Francisco
Javier Chavez, 1822-3.
Antonio
Vizcarra, 1822-3.
Bartolomé
Vaca, 1823-5.
Antonio
Narbona, 1825-7.
Manuel
Armijo, 1827-8.
Antonio
Vizcarra, acting, 1828.
José Ant. Chavez, 1828-31.
Santiago
Abreu, 1831-3.
Francisco
Sarracino, 1833-5.
Juan
Rafael Ortiz, acting, 1834.
Mariano Chavez, acting, 1835.
Albino Perez, 1835-7.
Pedro
Muñoz, acting, 1837-8.
José Gonzalez, revolutionary gov., 1837-8.
Manuel
Armijo, 1838-46.
Antonio
Sandoval, acting, 1841.
Mariano Martinez de Lejanza, acting, 1844-5.
José Chavez, acting, 1845.
Juan
Bautista Vigil y Alarid, acting, 1846.