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Authors: Carroll L Riley

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Page 40
through the machinations of Lomas y Colmenares. By the time Urdiñola had cleared his name, the settlement contract had already gone to Oñate.
This latter man was the first generation of the Oñate family born in the New World. His father, Cristóbal de Oñate, originally from the Basque area of northern Spain, had come to New Spain as a young man. Born around 1504-5, he sailed to New Spain in 1524 as assistant to Rodrigo de Albornoz, the newly appointed accountant of New Spain's royal treasury. Oñate prospered in the new colony, following the savage Nuño de Guzmán to the west coast and becoming part of the brutal pacification of that region in the early 1530s. Oñate survived Guzmán's disgrace and eventually became Francisco Vázquez de Coronado's lieutenant governor of the new province of Nueva Galicia. In 1549 or 1550 he married Catalina de Salazar y de la Cadena, the daughter of a former royal factor, Gonzalo de Salazar. It was a second marriage for Catalina, and a daughter by her first marriage gave birth to the Zaldívar nephews who were so important to Juan de Oñate in New Mexico. This was an extremely tangled kin relationship, for these two nephews also had as a grandmother the sister of Cristóbal de Oñate. Catalina was interesting in another way. Like many upper-class Spaniards of the time, Doña Catalina had a converted Jewish ancestor, in her specific case on the maternal grandmother's father's side.
The Oñate couple had seven children, including Juan de Oñate. Juan was born probably in 1550, though by one account it was as late as 1552, at Pánuco near the Spanish mining town of Zacatecas. Juan de Oñate spent part of his boyhood in the Zacatecas area and part in the capital of Mexico City. The Oñate family was extremely wealthy, not only from silver mining but from ranches and encomiendas. This was the time of the "Chichimec" wars, when various groups of the hunting-gathering and marginally agricultural peoples of northern Mexico were actively resisting Spanish intrusion into the interior north of Mexico. Juan de Oñate, from a very early age (ten years, according to his friend and later comrade of arms Gaspar Pérez de Villagrá), accompanied his father on expeditions against the Chichimecs. This intermittent warfare was to rage on for many years.
By the time he was in his twenties, Juan de Oñate was outfitting, financing, and leading excursions against the Chichimecs. Around 1574 he pioneered the opening of the silver mines of Charcas a hundred miles northeast of Zacatecas, this in territory claimed by the Guachichiles, a particularly warlike Chichimec group. In the late 1580s, Oñate married the daughter of his father's old companion and partner Juan de Tolosa. Juan's daughter, Isabel de Tolosa Cortés Moctezuma had an extraordinary ancestry. Her grandmother was Isabel de Moctezuma (born Tecuichpotzin), the only surviving legitimate child of the Aztec emperor Moctezuma II. Her grandfather was Hernán Cortés. In sixteenth-century Mexico,
Page 41
Juan de Oñate's coat of arms (courtesy of the Museum of New Mexico, neg. no. 14388)

 

Page 42
the royal Aztec ancestry counted for something, as did descent from the conqueror of Mexico. In addition the marriage was between two of the wealthiest families on the north Mexican frontier. Their first child, Cristóbal, was born in 1590, and a second child, a girl named Maria, probably in the latter part of 1598.
In 1592 Juan de Oñate was appointed
alcalde mayor
(mayor) of the new Spanish settlement of San Luis Potosí. By this time he was already actively thinking of the New Mexico venture. Wealthy, in early middle age but still vigorous, and a favorite of the viceroy, Oñate was in a strong position to capture this honor. Viceroy Luis de Velasco had originally favored Urdiñola for this task, but the collapse of the Urdiñola proposal in 1594 led him to quickly find another claimant for the New Mexico expedition. Juan de Oñate moved rapidly and in September 1595 signed a contract to lead that expedition. Oñate was to recruit two hundred men and to have a certain minimum of supplies and livestock. He had already launched an ambitious project of signing up recruits.
The Oñate-Velasco agreement was a bit premature, however, for the viceroy was suddenly transferred to Peru, and in October 1595 another man, Gaspar de Zúñiga y Acevedo, Count of Monterrey, took over the reins of government of Mexico. Just before relinquishing his office, however, Velasco issued two additional documents, one appointing Oñate governor and captain-general of New Mexico, and the other giving him a set of rules to guide his operations in that area. Oñate was also promised the honorific title of
adelantado.
This much-coveted appellation (from the Spanish verb
adelantar
, ''to advance'' or "go forward") had been used in Spain since the Middle Ages. Christopher Columbus was the first New World explorer to receive this status. Oñate's designation as adelantado was not formally ratified by the Crown until February 1602.
Monterrey accepted the documents vis-à-vis Oñate but otherwise moved cautiously in planning the New Mexico venture. He made a number of modifications to the contract, the most important one being that Oñate must report to the Mexico City viceroy rather than directly to the Council of the Indies in Seville. Oñate was restricted in the future recruitment of soldiers, and also in the appointing of royal officials in New Mexico and in determining the tribute paid by Indians. The right of colonists to become gentrifiedthat is, to obtain the rank of
hidalgo
originally had been granted to all on the expedition but was restricted to those who spent five years in the new land. Oñate protested these modifications but to no avail.
At this point a new player appeared, not in Mexico but in Spain. In the early part of 1596, the Count of Bailén, Pedro Ponce de León, petitioned to be given the New Mexico contract. At the request of the king, the Council of the Indies began a series of negotiations with Ponce de León, and in September 1596 the
Page 43
Crown accepted his terms. The Oñate expedition, already on the Rio Nazas, some seventy-five miles south of Santa Bárbara, was suspended and would seem to have died before it was properly born.
But events quickly took another turn. Ponce de León failed to obtain sufficient funds to finance the colonization effort, and Oñate received strong backing from the viceroy. Eventually, in December 1596, even though the contract was still in limbo, an inspection of Oñate's volunteers and supplies on the Nazas was made by a viceregal appointee, Lope de Ulloa y Lemos. This inspection showed that Oñate had recruited 205 men, slightly more than the agreed goal, and his supplies and stock animals met the demands of the contract.
The waiting was beginning to tell on Oñate. In a letter to the viceroy dated September 13, 1596, the colonizer complained that he could have had a thousand men under his command but for the delays and uncertainties. However, several more months of lobbying went by before a royal document lifting the suspension on Oñate was produced. It was actually issued in April 1597 but did not reach the viceroy in Mexico City until summer. Viceroy Monterrey ordered a second inspection, and a second inspector, Juan de Frías Salazar, arrived in November. By this time Oñate had moved his men and supplies to Santa Bárbara, the official jumping-off spot for the expedition.
Finally, on January 26, 1598, the expedition was launched. Oñate had failed to meet his quota of men, with only 129 (at least, officially) remaining from earlier head counts. Actually, a number of soldiers were named as receiving equipment from Oñate or, in a few cases, supplying their own equipment who were not listed on the muster roll. In addition, according to Frías Salazar, there were "some men in the neighborhood of the camp who had absented themselves because of some offenses and did not dare to appear before him and he was sure that they would join the expedition." Because of the shortfall in men, an in-law of Juan de Oñate, Juan Guerra de Resa, pledged a recruitment of eighty additional men. It is not entirely clear when these men joined the Oñate party, but they may have been part of the reinforcements that reached Oñate in 1600.
A number of the soldiers had families with them. Oñate's eight-year-old son Cristóbal was given the honorary rank of lieutenant, but his wife, Isabel, remained behind, her pregnancy perhaps already evident. The two Zaldívar nephews held important offices under Oñate: Juan was named
maestro de campo
(in this case, adjutant), and Vicente,
sargento mayor
(major).
Most of the soldiers whose names are on the Frías Salazar lists gave their ages, and it was a relatively young group. Some 39 percent of the group were twenty-five or under, while only around 26 percent were over thirty-five years old (the three oldest soldiers all being around sixty years of age). They were a
Page 44
rather mixed lot, some from Spain or other parts of Europe, others from New Spain. One listed himself as a mulatto. The two most trusted sub-commanders, Vicente and Juan de Zaldívar, were twenty-five and twenty-eight years, respectively. Oñate, himself in his mid to late forties, depending on which birth date is chosen, was one of the senior men on the expedition. More than half (about 62 percent) of those individuals who signed on at the Ulloa inspection do not show up on the Salazar lists. The long wait and uncertainty had certainly taken its toll.
A considerable number of people went with Oñate. Not only did officers and soldiers have wives and children, but there were also servants and slaves including Indians, mestizos, and blacks. The population of this border area in the seventeenth century was quite diverse, consisting of native Indians and mixtures of European, black, and Indian under various names (mestizo, mulatto,
cambujo
, etc.). This was likely the case in the late 1590s, so a large number of non-Europeans, especially in the servant groups, would not be surprising on the Oñate venture. In a careful combing of the extensive documents of the period, archaeologist David H. Snow has counted approximately 560 individuals with Oñate, not including the missionaries. The expedition personnel were drawn from Mexico and from European countries, primarily Spain and Portugal, though three soldiers gave their place of origin as Belgium, Italy, and Greece. Women made up about 20 percent of the group, a fair percentage of them unmarried. There were a number of children, but they are seldom mentioned by name and their sex is normally not given. Many of the Indians were from central Mexico, though curiously enough no Tlaxcalans were mentioned. Some 25 Indian, black, mulatto, or mestizo men and 26 women, mostly Indian, were listed by name.
Extraordinarily diverse goods were brought north with the expedition, partly owned or supplied by Oñate himself, partly brought in the baggage of other party members. The inventory included crude iron and iron tools of various kinds: plowshares, hoes, axes, saws, chisels, augers, blades, picks, mallets, hammers, and anvils. The governor brought with him an estimated 13,500 nails. There were many articles of clothing as well as rolls of cloth. The expedition also carried tailoring equipment including scissors, thimbles, needles, and thread. There were mirrors, knives, earrings, rings, and beads. Listed were grinding stones and large amounts of maize and wheat, oil, wine, and sugar. Oñate brought a number of medicines and medical equipment including lancets, syringes, and a variety of medicines including laxatives, astringents, soothing balms, and various rose concoctions (see chapter 9 for a more complete list). Mining and blacksmithing equipment included quicksilver (mercury) for extracting ore, bellows, tongs, files,
Page 45
and a vise for taking harquebuses apart. Eighteen barrels of gunpowder and considerable amounts of sheet lead were brought for ammunition. Artillery included three bronze field pieces and large numbers of harquebuses, swords, and both personal and horse armor. The term
harquebus
might refer to any sort of powder and ball weapon, but generally it meant a specific kind of matchlock, heavy enough so that the barrel needed an iron fork rest.
Oñate had trade in mind. He carried some 80,000 glass beads as well as rosaries and sacred images on tin. The party traveled with perhaps 1,200 head of horses, some thousands of sheep and goats, and around 1,500 head of cattle. The equipment was carried in eighty wagons and carts, drawn for the most part by oxen though mules were also employed. Oñate himself brought two mule-drawn coaches. The expedition on the trail was said to have been spread out over two miles.
The Salazar inspection had ended at the San Gerónimo River north of Santa Bárbara. On January 26, 1598, the expedition began its northward trek to New Mexico, reaching the Conchos on January 30. Here Oñate halted for eight days, reviewing the army and preparing for the march ahead. On February 10 the group reached the San Pedro River, an east-draining tributary of the Conchos. At that point the expedition made camp and remained for a month while Sargento Mayor Vicente Zaldívar was sent northward with seventeen men to "discover a road for carts." Oñate was pioneering the route across the Chihuahuan Desert that later became the
Camino Real
, the Spanish lifeline from the New Mexican province to New Spain. There is some possibility that in 1591, seven years before, Morlete had also taken this route, but most likely he bore to the southeast from the El Paso area and followed the Rio Grande to the Conchos, a route that had been taken by earlier expeditions. In all probability, however, the Morlete party
was
the first to venture across the Jornada del Muerto (see below).
During the wait at the San Pedro, the Franciscan missionaries joined the group, escorted by Captain Marcos Farfán de los Godos. The missionaries, eight in all, under the command of Fray Alonso Martínez, arrived at the San Pedro camp on March 3. In addition to the friars, two lay brothers were listed. There also seems to have been a third lay brother, Juan de Dios, who later was sent to Pecos (see below). One of the friars, Francisco de San Miguel, had planned to go on the Espejo expedition of 1582-83 but was forced to drop out at the last moment.
Meanwhile, Zaldívar explored northward, looking for likely routes for the carts and for available water, with (probably Concho) Indian guides. These guides quickly became lost, but Zaldívar found another Indian group and kidnapped
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