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Show 332 LEADING FACTS OF NEW or Palizade, probably Los Cadauchos, MEXICAN THE HISTORY thus gaining a right to the eastern country.**? IT RTT ATT There seems to be little doubt that he was in New Mexico about that date, but it is generally conceded that he ceased to exercise the functions and authority of governor in the year 1608, and that his successor in office was Don Pedro de Peralta. According to the reports of the friars, at this time, more than eight thousand natives had been converted to the Christian religion, Fr. Alonzo Peinado having come as successor to Fr. Escobar, as comisario, and bringing with him eight or nine additional friars. Fr. Peinado was succeeded in 1614 by Fr. Estevan Perea. The names of the governors who succeeded Peralta are unknown, and for a dozen or more years after his rule the history of the country is almost a blank.??* The city of Santa Fé was founded some time between the years 1605 and 1616, in all probability in the first named year, but certainly not before the month of April. FOUNDING OF THE CiITy Onate returned to San Gabriel from his auren OF SANTA FE trip to the mouth of the Colorado river, as we have seen, on the 25th day of April, 1605. This date is given by Fr. Zarate-Salmeron and is confirmed by the inscription on the rock of the ‘‘Morro’”’ or Inscription Rock, where it is stated that Ofiate passed through there on the 16th day of April of the year ‘‘del descubrimiento de la Mar del Sur.’? Consequently there was no Spanish settlement at Santa Fé at that time. All that has been said and published concerning the foundation Sree eApial of New Mexico by Don Antonio de Espejo, in at eet Francisco Vasquez Coronado, in 1540, or by an unknown founder, in 1550, is devoid of all historical basis. Espejo 882 Barreiro, Ojeada, 7. Davis, in his Conquest of New Mexico, 276-7, makes the same statement, and he probably secured his information from Barreiro. 888 Bancroft, H. H., Hist ory of Arizona and New Mexico, p. 158. Calle, Noticias, p- 103, says that a new governor was appointed in 1608, with a salary of $2,000. Vetancurt, Cronica, p. 9 . both the soldiers and ‘th, 6, says that in 1608 the king assumed the support of tract with Ofiate. me Davi at Ra ic - e frailes, and that this probably oe ‘ Spanish Conquest of New Mexico, put an end to the con- 420, found evidence in that Peralta was governor nine years after Ofiate’s coming, which wouldrelives make it in 1 1 when Ofiate came to ee tex ts iii etiiatowitait tis e CONQUEST OF NEW MEXICO 333 founded no colonies whatever, and, as we have seen, was in no position, nor did he have the force, with which to found any settlement. Espejo may have been in the neighborhood of Santa Fé, but he nowhere mentions the fact even of any pueblo being located upon the present site of the capital; in fact, when he returned to Mexico, all the propositions which he made to the crown for the settlement of New Mexico had in view the establishment of a post at Acoma,?** whereas the country of the Tanos, in which the site of Santa Fé was situated, is treated by him merely as one of the many ranges of sedentary tribes which might be brought under Spanish sway in course of time. The date of this proposal to the king was in 1584. It was never carried out, as Espejo died soon after. When Onate came in 1598, he went directly to San Juan, established a camp there, and proceeded to found San Gabriel,®** on the opposite bank of the Rio Grande. It is abundantly proven, by documentary evidence, that from San Gabriel the seat of government was moved to Santa Fé, and this appears to have been done in 1605.**° In the year 1617, as appears from a petition to the king by the cabildo of Santa Fé, in which aid was asked for the ‘‘nueva poblacion,’’ although the friars had built eleven churches, converted 14,000 natives, and prepared as many more for conversion, there were only forty-eight soldiers and settlers in the province. In re334 Doc. de Indias, vol. xv, pp. 156, 157. 835 Ofiate, Discurso de las Jornadas, pp. 256, 263. 886 Posadas, Fr. Alonzo de, Informe al Rey (Ms): ‘‘La Villa de Santa Fé . . . descubriola el afio de 1605 el Adelantado D. Juan de Ofiate, Nevando en su compania algunos soldados y religiosos de mi serafica religion, y por Presidente al padre predicador Fr. Francisco de Escobar.’’ Bandelier, A. F., Final Report, part i, pp. 124-125: ‘‘That site (Santa Fé) was deserted in the sixteenth century, the two pueblos of Tehua Indians that stood there once having been abandoned long previous to this date. Consequently an interval or vacant space of some thirty miles separated the northern Tehuas from their southern kinsmen, the Ta-ge-uing-ge or Tanos.’’ There is nowhere any mention of a pueblo at Santa Fé. There had been one formerly, as the ruins attest, but when the Spaniards came, it was in ruins. These ruins are now almost obliterated, and they are not those of the so-called ‘‘oldest house,’’ opposite the chapel of San Miguel. Bancroft, H. H., History of Arizona and New Mexico, pp. 158-159: ‘‘ There are slight indications, if any, that Santa Fé was built on the site of a pueblo; and its identification with Cicuyé, Tiguex, or any other particular or prominent pueblo, has no foundation whatever. We have seen that Ofiate’s capital from 1598 was San Juan, and that preparations were made for building a city of San Francisco in that vicinity. Naturally, in the troubles that ensued, little if any progress was made, and after the controversies were past, it was deemed best to build the villa on a new site.’’ |
