HISTORY OF ARIZONA AND NEW MEXICO, 1680—1888CHAPTER XIII.
LAST YEARS OF SPANISH RULE.
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The route from the Conejos was across to the Chama and down that stream
past Ojo Caliente and San Juan. The people were
uniformly kind and hospitable in their treatment of the strangers, though their
nondescript and ragged apparel, consisting of overalls, breech-cloths,
and leather coats, without covering for the head, prompted the inquiry if the
Americans were a tribe living in houses or wearing hats. Baptiste Lalande and another Frenchman tried to gain Pike’s confidence, but were regarded by him as spies. Solomon
Colly, one of the Nolan party, was living in New
Mexico, and served as interpreter. The arrival at Santa Fé was on the 3d of
March, and the adventurers were questioned by Governor Alencaster,
whose conduct was courteous and dignified, but who said that Pike and his men
must appear before General Salcedo at Chihuahua. Pike denied that Dr. Robinson
was a member of his party; attempted by a ruse to prevent the examination of
his papers, deeming himself sadly ‘deceived’ when the governor shrewdly
prevented the success of his trick; and occasionally deemed it his duty as a
free-born American to be suspicious, independent, and disagreeable to the verge
of insolence. It was never quite clear to any of Anglo-Saxon blood that a
Spanish official might rightfully interfere with his personal freedom to do as
he pleased. Yet Pike frankly admits the kindness with which he was treated, and says much in praise of the Spaniards in New
Mexico. As men, he and his party were well treated; as Americans, they must
needs have a grievance. Though assured he was not a prisoner, Pike insisted on
receiving a certificate that he was obliged to go to Chihuahua.
They left the capital on March 4th, after a dinner given by the governor
in their honor, Alencaster taking Pike in his coach
drawn by six mules for three miles. Captain Autonio Almansa commanded the escort, and the route was by way of
Santo Domingo and Albuquerque to a point below Isleta, where Lieutenant Facundo Melgares, returning southward with his dragoons, took
charge of the party. For Almansa and Melgares Pike has nothing but words of praise. Starting on
March 11th, they reached El Paso on the 21st and Chihuahua on April 2d. Here General Salcedo treated them much as Governor Alencaster had done, but insisted
on retaining Pike’s papers. The Americans were finally sent home through
Coahuila and Texas under an escort, leaving Chihuahua at the end of April, and
reaching Natchitoches in July. Pike’s book was published in 1810; he was
promoted to brigadier-general, and lost his life at
the taking of Toronto in 1813. His narrative was interesting, and at the time
of its publication of much value. Naturally, it adds but little if anything to
information derived from Pino and the archive records, yet I shall have
occasion to cite it on several points.
Moved by Pike’s account of the New Mexican country, and entertaining an
idea, perhaps, that Hidalgo’s revolution had removed the old restrictions on
trade, Robert McKnight, with a party of nine or ten, crossed the plains in
1812, and reached Santa Fé. The result was that their goods were confiscated,
and they were arrested, being held in Chihuahua and Durango as prisoners until
1822, when they were released by Iturbide’s order. Efforts had been made in
1817 in their behalf, at the intercession of John Scott, the Missouri
congressman, by Secretary Adams, through the Spanish minister Onis; but though
the latter wrote on the subject both to king and viceroy nothing could be effected.
In 1815 Auguste P. Choteau and Julius de Mun formed a partnership,
and went with a large party to the upper Arkansas to hunt and trade with
the Indians. They claim to have confined their operations to American
territory, which was perhaps somewhat elastic in their eyes; at any rate, we
have only their version. Visiting Taos and Santa Fé in 1816 they were most
favorably received by Governor Mainez, a very polite
old gentleman, who said there would be no objection to their trapping and
trading east of the mountain, and north of Red River. He even thought he might
get from the general for them a license to hunt beaver on the branches of the
Rio Grande. Retiring to the north to await the desired permission, they were
often visited by parties from the settlements, who came to trade. But early in
1817, after Governor Allande’s accession, there was a
decided change of Spanish policy. A force of 200 men under Lieutenant Francisco
Salazar, marched out to search for an American fort, said to exist on the Río
de las Animas, with cannon and 20,000 men! This fort was not found, but in June
Sergeant Mariano Bernal was sent out to arrest the Americans, and not only did
he bring in Choteau, De Mun, and 24 men as prisoners, but opened their caches
on the upper Arkansas, and took goods to the value of $30,380.74. At Santa Fe
the prisoners were tried by court-martial, kept for 48 hours in jail, and then
dismissed without their property. In September they were back at St Louis
appealing to congress for relief. In 1825-6 their claim for $50,000 damages was
still being urged; and in 1836 the committee of foreign relations reported
“that the demand ought to be made and pressed with an earnestness proportionate
to the magnitude of the injury and the unreasonable delay which has arisen in
making satisfaction for it”. Ex parte testimony in such claims for damages must of course be taken with due
allowances.
With the independence of 1821-2 the Santa Fé trade proper—legitimate but
for some liberties taken with Mexican custom-house regulations, and
unobstructed except by difficulties and dangers of the journey across the
plains—may be said to have begun; and it will be a prominent topic of later
annals. Captains Glenn, Becknell, and Stephen Cooper were the men who in 1821-2
visited Santa Fé with small parties, making large profits on the limited
quantities of goods they succeeded in bringing to market, and laying the
foundations of future success. About these earliest trips we have but little
information, except that the traders, uncertain as to the best route, endured
terrible sufferings from thirst. Becknell made two trips. Major Cooper still
lives in California, as I write in 1886; and from Joel P. Walker, one of his
companions, I have an original narrative of their adventures.
The general subject of early exploration, hunting and trapping, and
Indian trade and warfare, in the great interior, though one that is closely
connected with the history of each of these Pacific States, cannot, of course,
be fully treated in any one of my volumes. In each I note those expeditions
that directly concern its territory, and refer the
reader to the annals of other territories, as given in different volumes of
this series. Some chapters on Colorado and the regions farther north will be
found useful in connection with New Mexican history; and matter that is
especially interesting may be found in my volumes on the Northwest Coast.
During these 22 years the population of gente de razón may be said to have increased from
19,000 to 30,000 in New Mexico proper, excluding the El Paso district; while
the number of pueblo Indians remained practically unchanged, between 9,500 and
10,000. Official reports establish these figures with tolerable accuracy, but afford no satisfactory basis for more detailed
classification. The capital villa of Santa Fé reached, perhaps, a population of
6,000 in its immediate vicinity; but on account of the meagre records, frequent
discrepancies, and irregular grouping of the settlements in partidos,
local items of population have little significance. In number, location, and in
all respects except an increase of Spanish population at certain points, the
settlements remained as before, and I refer to the final note of the preceding
chapter.
Commercial methods continued as before. Presumably, fairs were still
held at Taos for trade with the Indians, though I find no direct indication of
the fact in this period; each autumn the great caravan departed for the south;
at El Paso, to a greater extent than before, the company was divided, small
parties seeking different markets; and large flocks of sheep were now driven
from the province. In 1805 the viceroy decreed that all goods bartered by New
Mexicans at the annual fair in San Bartolomé valley from the 18th to the 23d of
December should be free from the payment of taxes or duties. Down to about 1798
no coin was known, but later the salaries of officers and soldiers were paid in
money, furnishing a supply by no means adequate to provincial needs. The
government estanco on tobacco, powder, and playing-cards, especially the first, was a great burden for
the people. The total value of imports, as given by Pino from an official
report of the Vera Cruz consulado in 1804, was
$112,000 in a year; while the exports, chiefly wool, wine, and peltries, were
only $60,000, leaving a balance of trade of $52,000 against New Mexico. Exports
might easily be tripled, as Pino thought, by proper encouragement, including
the opening of ports on the Texas and Sonora coasts.
There were no new developments in agricultural industries. Products in
New Mexico proper were wholly consumed at home, and irrigation generally
protected the inhabitants against drought, as in 1803 and 1820-2; and the
Indians, as far as possible, tried to follow their old custom of storing the products of plentiful harvests, though the improvident settlers
were sometimes caught napping and suffered from scarcity. All reports praise
the agricultural, and especially the stock-raising, advantages of the province,
under proper encouragement. Spanish artisans included a few carpenters and
blacksmiths, but nearly all mechanical and other work was done by the Indians,
who still made pottery for home use, tanned leather, from which bridles were
made, and wove large quantities of coarse blankets. They also made some
progress in weaving cotton textures of low grade under an instructor from
Mexico. Governor Chacon, in 1803, says that copper is abundant, and apparently
rich, but no mines are worked, though there is much coal of good quality. Pino,
in 1812, also notes the existence of rich deposits of copper, gold, and silver,
of which no use is made; but Pike, in 1807, states that a copper mine west of
the river, in latitude 34°, yields 20,000 mule-loads of metal annually, while
vessels of wrought copper were among the country’s exports. Bartlett tells us
that the Santa Rita mine—really just below 33°—was
worked from 1804; and Prince gives more details, to the effect that the mine
was discovered in 1800 by Lieutenant-colonel Carrisco,
who sold it in 1804 to Francisco Manuel Elguea of
Chihuahua, by whom work was at once begun, 100 mules being constantly employed
to transport the metal to Mexico for use in the mint. I think there is room for
some doubt as to the early working of this nine, though a beginning was
probably made before 1822. Pino says that old silver mines were found closed up, with the tools inside, and doubtless the
prospect-holes made by the Spaniards before 1680 were thus found occasionally;
but there is little or nothing to show that any practical mining was ever done
in New Mexico under Spanish rule. Stone was not used for building, but only
adobes; yet a semitransparent yeso, or gypsum, was quarried near Santa Fé and
used for window-panes. Pike calls it a flexible talc.
Pino tells us that roads in the province were good, but he did not allude to
artificial improvements.
There were no colleges or public schools, and no professional man—except
of the military profession—or priest had been produced in New Mexico. There
were a few private teachers in the larger towns, and at El Paso from 1806-7 a
school seems to have been maintained. The only medical man in the country was
the presidial surgeon at Santa Fé. Of social manners
and customs we have nothing pertaining especially to
this period, except the somewhat superficial observations of Pike. He
represents the New Mexicans, however, as brave, industrious, and above all
hospitable, but somewhat loose in their ideas of morality, implying that on
this point he could say much more than would be in good taste, considering the
kindness with which he had been treated. In most social respects this province
closely resembled California, where the condition of affairs is well known to
readers of other volumes in this series.
The government and administration of justice were still essentially
military, as they had always been, the governor being also military chief.
There were no ayuntamientos or other municipal
bodies, no courts, no taxes, no treasuries or
municipal funds. Each of the eight alcaldes attended to all local matters in
his own alcaldía, being responsible to the
governor, from whose decision the only appeal was to the audiencia of
Guadalajara. An audiencia at Chihuahua was deemed an urgent necessity. The
governor, with a salary of $4,000, had no legal adviser or notary, but was
aided by two lieutenants and two alfereces. The alcaldes were vecinos, who got no pay. A lieutenant of the
governor in his military capacity ruled at El Paso for a salary of $2,000.
The regular military force supported by the royal treasury was 121 men,
forming the presidial or veteran company of Santa Fé.
But Pino states that an average force of 1,500 men had been required to defend
the province, which the settlers had furnished without pay, and even armed and
equipped at their own cost, thus saving the king $43,090,000 in the past 118
years. There was probably a degree of exaggeration in this, but the deputy
complained, with reason, that this system was an intolerable burden, urging that
New Mexico should be put in this respect on the same basis as other provinces;
that the militia should be properly organized, paid, and armed; and that five presidios should be established or transferred
from the south. In January 1813 Pino urged this part of his scheme anew in the cortes; it was referred to the comisión ultra marina; and in May some kind of an order had
been issued by the regency to the viceroy, probably one to investigate and
report. A year later Don Simón Elias, being called upon for his opinion,
reported against the transfer of the southern presidios to New Mexico, but
favored the establishment of two new ones on the Río Grande between Sevilleta and El Paso. So nothing
was done. At this time the presidio of Carrizal,
formerly at El Paso, was no longer considered as belonging to New Mexico.
We have seen that the number of christianized pueblo Indians neither increased nor diminished perceptibly in these 22 years;
nor were there any changes in the system of mission management. There were from
19 to 22 Franciscan friars in charge of the missions; but they lived chiefly at
the places having a large Spanish population. Pino states that in 1811 in 19
purely Indian pueblos there were but five missionaries. There was one secular
priest at Santa Fé, and there, as at Albuquerque and Santa Cruz, the friars
were supported by fees; the rest by their sinodos of $330 from the royal treasury. On one phase of
the earlier controversy—complaints of the padres against the governor and
alcaldes for ill-treating the Indians—I find nothing new, though there is
little reason to suppose that any practical reform had been effected.
Lieutenant Pike found the natives virtually slaves, and cruelly treated by the
Spanish officers. On the other hand, the friars’ shortcomings were still a
current topic of dispute. In consequence of a petition from the natives, the
exact purport of which is unknown to me, Protector-general Andrade at
Guadalajara in 1810 appointed Felipe Sandoval ‘protector partidario’
of the New Mexican Indians. Sandoval in his report stated that the padres were
content with simply saying mass, and the neophytes were in
reality deprived of spiritual instruction. This brought out a reprimand
from the bishop of Durango; and the vice-custodio,
Padre Sebastian Alvarez, called upon the friars for a defence in 1818. They indignantly denied the truth of the charges, declaring that the
‘protector’ was not only influenced by evil motives but was a thief. No bishop
visited the province after 1760, and therefore there were no confirmations.
Delegate Pino, a New Mexican 50 years of age, had never seen a bishop until he
came to Spain in 1812. He urgently demanded the erection of his province into a
separate bishopric, and the carrying-out of the royal
order and papal bull of 1777-9 in favor of a college. His idea was that the
tithes, yielding $9-10,000, as disadvantageous rented, were ample to pay the
episcopal salary and all other necessary expenses; besides, the sinodos of six missions might justly be added, since the
fees at Belen, Isleta, Abiquiú, Santa Clara, San
Juan, and Taos would suffice for the friars’ support. Accordingly, on January
26, 1813, the erection of a bishopric and establishment of the college were
decreed by the cortes; and some supplementary
instructions were issued in May; but practically nothing was done under Spanish
rule.
It is to be regretted that nothing is known of political events and
sentiments in New Mexico during the war of independence in 1811-21. There is no
indication that the great national struggle sent even a ripple of excitement to
the northern interior; and we may reasonably conclude that officials and people
here, as in California, were content to await the issue, in which they took but
slight interest, and of which in its details they were to a great extent kept
in ignorance. In New Mexico, the element of private correspondence, so
important an aid in tracing the annals of this period in California, is
entirely lacking in, the records within my reach. We have seen that in 1822 Governor Melgares was succeeded by Chavez, and
also that Vizcarra ruled for a time in the
same year. Besides this brief record, we have one important document of 1821,
which shows how news of Iturbide’s accession was received, and which may
indicate that New Mexicans were not behind Californians in the versatility
displayed in accepting the successive changes of government, with prodigious
and suddenly acquired enthusiasm for each.
It was on September 11th that the ‘dulce voz de libertad’ was first heard, and lovers of the
country and religion swore to the independence at Santa Fé; and on December
26th—¡día glorioso! ¡Día de admiracion,
y día tan eterno para los Nuevos Méxicos, que de
padres a hijos se irá trasmitiendo hasta la más remota posteridad!—came news of Iturbide’s entry into Mexico. Dozens of citizens received communications in writing and print by the
mail of that day, which they read aloud to the crowd at the post-office, the
governor reading a patriotic address from the city of Tepic, with a poetic
effusion of that ‘liberalísimo europeo’
Don Pedro Negrete, on listening to which all, from the ‘tierno parvulito’ to the ‘trémulo anciano’, were beside themselves with joy, and filled the
air with vivas, as Melgares shouted, “New Mexicans, this is the occasion for showing the heroic patriotism
that inflames you; let your sentiments of liberty and gratitude be published
abroad, and let us show tyrants that although we live at the very extremity of
North America we love the holy religion of our fathers; that we cherish and
protect the desired union between Spaniards of both hemispheres; and that, with
our last drop of blood, we will sustain the sacred independence of the Mexican
empire!”. The 6th of January, 1822, was set apart for
a formal celebration, which should, if possible, excel that of Tepic. At dawn
the salutes of artillery and the marching of processions began; and with dawn
of the next day, ended the grand baile at the
palacio. Never did Santa Fé behold such a splendid display. The independientísimo postmaster, Juan Bautista Vigil,
excelled himself in painting decorations; the excesivo independiente alcalde, Pedro Armendaris,
led a triumphant paseo; and a grand loa de las tres garantias was performed,
by Alférez Santiago Abreu representing independence,
Curate and Vicar Juan Tomás Terrazas religion, and Chaplain Francisco Osio the union. All through the day and night the villa was
painted red with independence or death, and Governor Melgares wrote a flaming account of the whole affair for the Gaceta Imperial. Doubtless Don Facundo, realizing the side on which his bread was
buttered, saw to it that nothing was lost in telling the story; and presumably
the fall of Iturbide a little later was celebrated with equal enthusiasm. There
was nothing mean or one-sided in New Mexican patriotism.