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Show 450 LEADING FACTS OF NEW MEXICAN HISTORY SPANISH RULE, 1700 TO 1822 451 nine Indians, and in a battle ninety-five leagues northeast of Santa families were Fé, defeated and killed the celebrated Comanche chief, Cuerno Verde, with four of his leading sub-chiefs, his chief medicine men, the chief of Walpi.**® Mr. Bancroft was unable to find any record of what became of these converts, but believed that with them, and some others later, was founded the pueblo of Moquino, in the Laguna region. This pestilence — the smallpox — also carried off five thousand and twenty-five of the Pueblo Indians, and the governor, as a consequence, reduced the number of missions to twenty, which provoked much protest from the Franciscans. By this reduction the missions of Jemez, Santa Ana, Acoma, Nambé, Tesuque, Pecos, San Felipe, and San Ildefonso were made visitas. The frailes were very much displeased at the action of the government in making this reduction, and were constant in their efforts to secure more salaries, an increase of missionaries, and the right to collect parochial taxes, but all without success. On the 10th of August, 1789, Governor Anza was notified from El Paso that his successor, Don Fernando de la Concha, was on his way to the capital. Concha had prob- his eldest son and thirty-two of his warriors.*”* Upon his return from this highly successful campaign, and there is no doubt as to the veracity of the reports, Governor Anza tried his hand upon the Moquis, visited them and found them in a woeful condition. When Escalante visited the pueblos of Moqui in 1775, there were 7,494 souls, but now, through a drouth of three years, pestilence and famine had done their work and there were only seven hundred and ninety-eight left.*7® The Moqui chief of Oraibe declined to receive any assistance from the Spaniards, but told his people that they were free to go with the governor and become Christians if they cared to do so. Only thirty 474 Cuerno Verde led many successful Comanche raids against the Spanish settlers in the valley of the Rio Grande in the latter part of the 18th century. The Greenhorn Mountains in Colorado and the river of the same name were named for this chieftain. Anza, Juan B., Diario de la Expedicion que sale a practicdr contra la Nacton Comancha, 1779, Ms., in N. Mex. Doc., 861-922, preceded by letter of Governor Anza to Commanding General Croix and the answer of the latter thanking him. The campaign was in August and September, 1779; 200 Yutas and Apaches accompanied the army as allies, and in the battle thirty women and five hundred horses were captured. The army proceeded and returned by way of Taos, and passed by the present towns of Alamosa and Salida. 475 In N, Mex. Doc., Ms., 922-1022, we find in Moqui, Providencias tomadas & consequencia de los avisos comunicados por Anza, 1779, that. there had been a failure of crops, and it was believed that owing to their condition, the time was favorable for their conversion, as they were in danger of starvation. Many of the Moquis, it was said, had abandoned their pueblos, seeking food in o mountains and among the Navajos. It was feared that if something was re done now they would quit pueblo life and join the Navajés. Says Mr. Bancro ‘ ‘Anza wrote repeatedly to Croix on the prospects, enclosing letters from the pa dres, and advising that an effort should be made either to establish missionaries at the towns, which would require some additional force, or to induce the na tives to migrate en masse and settle in new pueblos nearer the Spanish centres. Governor Anza, in September, 1780, left the capital for the Moqui country, companied by the frailes Fernandez and Garcia, and visited all of the oo two of which were completely abandoned. Of 30,000 sheep only 300 reo and there were but five horses and no cattle. Only 500 fanegas of corn es beans could be expected from the coming crop. They had been constantly “ ed by the Utes and Navajos and some of the Moqui believed that all this tro < had come upon them because of their treatment of Fr. Garcés, in 1776. ants chief of Oraibe was offered a load of provisions to relieve immed :. but ‘‘he proudly declined the gift’’ says Mr. Bancroft, ‘‘as he had not os offer in return. He refused to listen to the friars, and in reply to nr tion hortations declared that as his nation was apparently doomed to annihila own the few who remained were resolved to die in their own homes and in their faith.’’ FERNANDO willing to accept the offer of the governor, including DE APPOINTED LA CONCHA GOVERNOR The archives ably been appointed the year previous but he did not arrive at Santa Fé until after the middle of the year 1789.*7" do not reveal much of interest during the term of office of Governor de la Concha, nor during that of his successor, Lieutenant-Colonel Fernando Chacon. Indian affairs constitute all that is of interest and even as to these there is not much worth recording. The Spaniards seem to have been enjoying peace with all the tribes of the plains, except the Apaches, against whom constant warfare was waged, the authorities in New Mexico co-operating with those of the neighboring provinces to the south. In May, 1793, the Indians held a meeting at the pueblo of San Ildefonso, which gave rise to some apprehension on the part of the authorities, resulting in some arrests and a long investigation, as a result of which nothing was definitely proven, although a number of the Indians were publicly whipped and some of them condemned to imprisonment for Several months in chains. (Oar *78 Anza, Juan B., Diario i. ° ° de la expedicion que hace 4 la provincia de Moqut, +» Original in the Pinart Collection. Anza only remained at Moqui four days, leaving on the 24th of September and reaching Santa Fé on the Ist of October. 477 Gomez, Diario, 214-16, says that Lieutenant-Colonel Manuel nee <img from Spain in 1785 with a commission as governor; he never assumed the office. 2 |