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Show 260 LEADING FACTS OF NEW MEXICAN HISTORY THE called San Pablo, in the Teguas province, he stopped to rest under a tree, where the Indians killed him and burned his remains. The two remaining friars lived some time in peace and quiet at Puara, and pursued their labors without interruption. One afternoon Friar Lopez retired about a league from the village to engage in his devotions, and, while occupied in prayer, was killed by an Indian, who inflicted two mortal wounds upon his temples. The Indians *** afterwards pointed out to Friar Rodriguez the place where the body of his companion had been buried, which he caused to be disinterred and re-buried in the pueblo, according to the forms of the Catholic religion. The death of Friar Lopez was a sore affliction to the sole survivor, who mourned his loss in bitterness of spirit. He felt now, in truth, that he was alone in the midst of these barbarians, with no one upon whom he could rely save Him whose cause he most earnestly espoused. SJOUVW The war-captain of the pueblo of Puara was much grieved over the death of the friars and, in order to save Friar Rodriguez from the same fate, he removed him to the pueblo of Santiago, a league and a half further up the river. But his death had been resolved upon and it was impossible to save him. A few days afterward he met the same fate as his brethren, and almost before the breath of life was out of his body, it was thrown into the Rio Grande, at that time in flood. ‘‘F'rom the sacrifice of these three friars,’’ says Davis, ‘‘the old chroniclers contend there sprung a plentiful harvest of souls. They record that from that time down to the year 1629, there were baptized thirty-four thousand six hundred and fifty Indians, and many others were in a state of conversion; and that in the same period the friars had erected, without cost to forty-three churches in New Mexico.”’ the government or king, The body of the friar Lopez remained buried at Puara for thirty- three years, when the place of interment was pointed out to Estevan an@16 Porquemada, Fr. Juan de, Monarquia Indiana, iii, 459, 626-2, gives story of the death of the friars about as it is given by Fr. Zarate-Salmeron. the says that Fr. Rodriguez was a lay friar, a native of Niebla, in Spain, who He had penetrated some distance northward for his Fr. Juan expedition. de Santa Fr. Lopez Maria was was before he went to Mexico to get a license an Andalusian and superior of the band. a Catalan, versed in astrology, which particularly led him to try a new route for his return. The friars went on 150 leagues after the soldiers left them to New Mexico, so named by Torquemada. SPANISH FRIARS 261 de Perea, commissary of the province.2*7 The remains were disinterred in the month of February, 1614, and deposited in the church at the Sandia pueblo,?’* with great ceremony, a number of priests marching on foot, dressed in full robes. It is related in one of the writings of one of the priests who was present, that when the procession began to move the saint in the church commenced to perform miracles. The brothers of the order of Franciscans who were at the time located in the province of Nueva Biscaya, hearing of the accounts of the death of Friar Rodriguez, were very much troubled over the fate of the remaining friars,?”° at that time not knowing of their 277 In this locality has lived the Perea family for many generations. 278 The old church at Sandia, now a ruin. 279 The correct location of Puaray, the place of the death of Friar Rodriguez, is of considerable importance. It is one of the most historical of all the pueblos. It lay in front of the southern portion of the present town of Bernaillo, on a gravelly bluff overlooking the river, which at that time had its course very near the present located line of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fé Railway, at the town of Bernalillo. From this point a magnificent view of the towering Sandia is to be had. The pueblo of Puara was the pueblo of the Worm or the Insect. Vetancurt in his Cronica, at page 312, says: ‘‘El nombre Puray quiere decir gusanos, que es un genero de que abunda aquel lugar.’’ Just what kind of a ‘‘worm’? or ‘‘insect’’ is meant is difficult to tell, but it must have been a peculiar kind of beetle, of which there are specimens along the Rio Grande in that locality, of a singular species. Bandelier says that the pueblo never had to exceed five hundred inhabitants, and quotes Vetancurt as authority, who says it had ‘‘doscientas personas de nacion Tiguas.’’ Nothing but foundations and mounds are now to be seen, but there have been excavated a number of rooms, covered up with the vast rubbish. Lying south and east of the larger ruin were two smaller structures, which appear to have been built of lava rock, of which there is plenty in that vicinity. It is possible that the one east may have been the chapel which was standing at the time of the Pueblo rebellion in 1680. The village has also been known as the Pueblo de Santiago, although I think this is a mistake, although the war-captain at Puara removed Fr. Rodriguez from Puara to Santiago, which was up the river, shortly before he was killed. The patron saint of Puara is St. Bartholomew, Vetancurt says: ‘‘La Yglesia es al apost6l San Bartolomé dedicada.’’ I am of the opinion that the Friar Juan de Santa Maria was killed very near the site of old San Pedro, in Santa Fé county. Bandelier thinks that there was an old pueblo near this place. Zarate-Salmeron says, in writing of the death of Fr. Juan de Santa Maria: ‘“Por que al tercero dia que se despidio de sus compafieros hermanos llegando 4 sestear debajo de un arbol los Indios Tiguas del pueblo que ahora se llama Sn Pablo lo mataron, y quemaron Sus huesos.’’ Zarate-Salmeron says that Puara and Santiago were two different pueblos, Relaciones de todas las cosas, par. 7. After stating that Fr. Franciseo Lopez and Fray Agustin Rodriguez had established themselves at Puaray and that the former had been killed at Puaray, he says: ‘‘El capitan del pueblo dio muestras de sentimiento por la muerte del religioso y porque no sucedie se lo mismo con |