THE MARCH NORTHWARD.

127

were no adventures or calamities. Captain Landin was despatched for Mexico with letters in the middle of March. On the 20th of April they reached the Rio Grande. On the last day of the month, a few leagues up the river on the western bank, Oñate proceeded with all the complicated and curious ceremonial deemed essential in such cases, to take formal possession for God, the king, and himself, of New Mexico "and all the adjoining provinces," as appears from the long and verbose act of possession duly certified by Juan Perez, the royal escribano, in the presence of the friars and all the army." There were also imposing religious ceremonies, including mass in a chapel built for the occasion, and a sermon by the padre comisario; and finally in the evening the performance of an original comedy written by Captain Farfan on a subject connected with the conquest of New Mexico-early days of the drama, indeed.25

24

24 This acta is given in full by Villagrá, p. 129-32; and also in N. Mex. Traslado, 88-101. In this doc. Oñate alludes to the king's order of April 2, 97, approving his appointment; and also names all the friars of his company. Space does not permit the translation of this paper as a curiosity.

Hobo sermon, gran solemnidad eclesiástica y seglar, gran salva y alegría, y á la tarde comedia.' N. Mex., Ytin., 242.

CHAPTER VII.

OÑATE'S CONQUEST CONTINUED.

1598-1599.

EL PASO DEL NORTE-UP THE RIO GRANDE-THE FIRST PUEBLO Group at SOCORRO A MIRACLE AT PUARAI-FROM PUEBLO TO PUEBLO OBEDIENCE AND VASSALAGE--SAN JUAN DE LOS CABALLEROS, SAN GABRIEL, AND CITY OF SAN FRANCISCO-UNIVERSAL JUNTA-DISTRIBUTION OF MISSIONARIES-LIST OF TOWNS-ZALDÍVAR'S TRIP TO THE PLAINS— OÑATE'S SOUTH-EASTERN TOUR-THE CAPTAIN-GENERAL STARTS FOR THE MAR DEL SUR-SUBMISSION Of Acoma, Zuñi, and the Moqui TownsVISIT TO MINES IN ARIZONA-VILLAGRÁ'S ADVENTURES, ACOMA TO ZUNI-REVOLT OF ACOMA-DEATH OF ZALDÍVAR AND FIFTEEN COMPANIONS-VENGEANCE OF THE SPANIARDS-BATTLE OF THE PEÑOL-DESTRUCTION OF ACOMA AND SLAUGHTER OF THE NATIVES-END OF THE EPIC AND OTHER RECORDS.

ON the 4th of May, 1598, only twenty-five miles above the point where they first reached the Rio Grande, the Spaniards were shown by natives a convenient ford, and the army crossed to the eastern bank. The latitude is confusedly given as 31° or 31° 30'; and 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, with none but trivial incidents, if we except the death of several persons of the colony, and without applying names to localities. Here Captain Aguilar returned from an advance exploration, having reached the first pueblos and entered one of them against the orders of his chief, who, how

UP THE RIO GRANDE

129

ever, pardoned him at the intercession of his men. Fearing that the natives might be alarmed and run away with their food supplies, Oñate with the Zaldívars, Villagrá, padres Salazar and Martinez, and fifty men,' started on the 22d, and in six days, 26 or 22 leagues, reached the first group of pueblos, a storm with thunder, lightning, and perhaps an earthquake marking the approach, and drawing from the padres all the prayers of the litany.

It is noticeable that the distance of 41 or 38 leagues from El Paso confirms our identification, from the reports of earlier explorers, of the southernmost group of pueblos with the Socorro region in latitude 34°; and indeed, the pueblo of Teipana, three leagues above Qualacú of the first two, was now named Socorro. Besides these three which are mentioned as occupied, there were others abandoned, but only these two names are given. The natives gave a kind welcome to the strangers, entertained the governor in their towns, and furnished supplies of maize, which desirable 'socorro' was sent back to the main camp. It was the middle of June when Oñate and his advance party left what may be regarded as the first regarded as the first group of towns.2

The next advance up the river was to a small pueblo named Nueva Sevilla, seven leagues above Socorro, the first in which the soldiers slept, and where they remained a week while the Zaldívars went to explore the Abó pueblos, and Villagrá made a tour in search of maize. Then on the 22d of June they went on for four leagues to a new but abandoned pueblo, which they

3

1Oñate, Cop. de Carta, 303, says there were 70 men; and that one of his objects was to find and arrest Humaña. The force is not given in the Ytine

rario.

The purport of Oñate's narrative, however, indicates less clearly than those of earlier explorers a grouping of the towns; but rather makes a continuous line of pueblos at intervals of 3 or 4 1. The text of the Ytinerario leaves it slightly doubtful whether the next town was not four instead of 7 1. above Socorro.

This is the first mention of this name.

The ruins of Abó are in about lat. 34° 30, 25 or 30 miles east of the river, and agreeing very well with the indications of this record. Sevilla was not far from the junction of the Rio Puerco. The Ytinerario, 242-53, is chiefly followed for this part of the journey, as Villagrá disposes of it somewhat briefly.

HIST. ARIZ, AND N. MEX. 9

named San Juan Bautista, as they were there on the 24th, or Saint John's day. Here the general heard of two Mexican Indians left by Castaño, and started northward on the 25th in search of them, reaching Puruai, named San Antonio, in a journey of sixteen leagues. Here the friars were lodged in a newly painted room, and in the morning they beheld on the walls life-like portraits of the martyred Rodriguez and Lopez of seventeen years ago, which the natives had vainly tried to conceal with the paint! The two Mexicans, Tomás and Cristóbal, were presently brought in from another pueblo, and they proved as interpreters a most valuable acquisition to the Spaniards. Before the end of June they visited the pueblo of Tria-possibly Cia-which they named San Pedro y San Pablo ; and moved on three leagues from Puruai to San Felipe, and thence four leagues to Guipui, or Santo Domingo. This town was made a kind of headquarters or capital for a time, all of Oñate's advance party coming up apparently; and in this province we are told was chosen a convent named Asumpcion, though nothing appears later about such an institution. On the 4th of July Captain Juan de Zaldívar was sent back to bring up the rest of the wagons and colonists who had reached the first pueblos on June 26th, but who did not join the advance army till August.

5

At Santo Domingo on the 7th of July seven chieftains representing some thirty-four pueblos assembled to acknowledge the supremacy of new masters temporal and spiritual. Tomás and Cristóbal, serving as interpreters, explained at great length the material prosperity and eternal happiness that must result from

'S. Juan must have been some distance below Isleta, and must not be confounded with S. Juan de los Caballeros.

Perhaps S. Felipe was 3 1. beyond S. Pedro y S. Pablo instead of Puruai; or Sto Domingo 4 I. from P. instead of from S. Felipe. Elsewhere in the Ytinerario Sto Domingo is said to be 61. from P. Not much importance can be attached to exact distances in these records. Clearly S. Felipe and Sto Domingo correspond with those still so called, though it is not certain that the sites were not slightly changed in the next century.

'Se elixió convento de la advocacion de Nra Sra de la Asumpcion.' Ytin., 254. Perhaps it should be 'se erigió,' or was built instead of chosen.

SUBMISSION OF THE PUEBLOS.

8

131

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 of Bove, or San Ildefonso, and in two days, or ten leagues-the wagons going by a longer route of sixteen leagues via San Marcos-to Caypa, or San Juan, doubtless identical, or nearly so, with the pueblo still bearing the name near the junction of the Rio Grande and Rio Chama just above latitude 36°. From the courtesy of the people-especially after much-needed rain had been produced by the padres' prayers-this town was soon called San Juan de los Caballeros, and for several years was the Spanish capital, or centre of operations. The name San Gabriel was also applied by the friars to their establishment here, or more probably to another pueblo not far distant.'

Obediencia y Vasallaje á Su Magestad por los indios de Santo Domingo (July 7, 1598), in N. Mex. Traslado, 101-8. As there were several similar acts a little later, it will be more convenient to name the pueblos together in a subsequent note.

Of their going from Sto Dom. to S. Ild. nothing is said, nor is the distance mentioned; but it would seem that S. Ild. may have been much nearer to Sto Dom. than the pueblo now called S. Ild., else the distance of 10 l. to S. Juan would be inexplicable.

Both in the Ytinerario and in Oñate, Cop. de Carta, 304, the distance is given as 61 1. from the point where O. originally left the wagons far south of Socorro, and this corresponds nearly enough with the actual distance from a point just above lat. 33° to one just above 36°. The place is often called S. Juan Bautista, but must be distinct from the southern pueblo originally so named. Davis' statement, Span. Cong., 289, that the name 'de los Caballeros' originated from the gentlemanly conduct of the natives during the great revolt of the next century, though founded on several early statements, is an error. Several early writers speak of the villa de San Gabriel, and indeed Zaldivar so calls the Span. headquarters in 1602. N. Mex., Mem., 198. Torquemada and others cited earlier in this chapter state that the Spaniards established themselves at S. Gabriel between the Rio Grande and a smaller stream. Salmeron and Niel locate it between the Zama, or Chama, and Rio Grande. In the Arch. N. Mex., 158, the ruins of S. Gabriel are mentioned as on the Chama 6 1. above its mouth. S. Gabriel del Yunque, in Escalante Carta, 116, recalls Coronado's Yunque Yunque. It will be noted that in the subsequent distrib. of friars in Sept., S. Gabriel is named as distinct from S. Juan.