Juan de Oñate

“ Juan de Oñate, colonizer of New Mexico and founder of Santa Fé, passed over Espejo’s route for a part of his journey through Chihuahua to the new province, but instead of traversing the Conchos to its junction with the Rio Grande, he made a more northerly course to the crossing of the latter stream at the present El Paso, consequently leaving the country of the Jumano on his right. ”

“ Mota Padilla, Cong. N. Gal., 105. ↑ Oñate's brother, Juan, was one of the stanchest partisans of Guzman. When the news arrived in Nueva Galicia, where Juan de Oñate had remained, of Guzman's imprisonment, and that Torre was empowered to take the residencia of all subordinate officials, he was advised by Cristóbal to effect his escape. He accordingly fled to Peru, where some assert that he died poor and blind. Id. ↑ Mendoza, on the 10th of December, 1537, reported to the king that although this province was rich in resources, it would be lost unless his Majesty applied some remedy. ”

“ The total of perhaps 6,000 Apaches with which we have still to deal is not large in comparison with the numbers of some other tribes—but it is enough.
[IV'-29] See note13, p. 615, note14, p. 616, note15, p. 618; also, note24, p. 743. The towns here mentioned are those usually called San Domingo, San Felipe, and Sandia—the latter being the Tañoan one Pike elsewhere speaks of as St. Dies.
[IV'-30] Juan de Oñate, first governor of New Mexico, b. Guadalajara, Mex., about 1555, d. after 1611. "He was a son of the founder of Guadalajara, and was married to a granddaughter of Hernando Cortés. ”

“ This latter San Juan was made the capital of New Mexico by Oñate in 1598-99, and so remained until the founding of Santa Fé.—Ed.
51 "The Gila was known to the whites before the Mississippi was discovered; it was long better known than the Rio Grande and down to the present century was far better known than the Rio Colorado."— (Coues, Expeditions of Zebulon M. Pike, ii, p. 374.) The first name, Rio del Nombre de Jesus, was given to it by Oñate in 1604; the present name dates from 1697. ”

“ More determined than ever, Alvarado replied: "The die is cast; I trust in God!" Thereupon he set out from Guadalajara with his forces, horse, foot, and Indians, toward Nochistlan. He stirred within his men their vanity and their valor; it was absurd to think of waiting for more men; the fewer the number the greater the share of plunder. Thus was opened the last campaign of the dashing adelantado, one of the most reckless, and one of the most cruel.
Unable to remain inactive, Oñate followed with twenty-five horsemen. Should his fears be realized, he would be near to render aid ”

“ In addition to Juan de la Cosa, he had as a companion Francisco Pizarro, who afterwards conquered Peru. The former, knowing from previous voyages the savage character of the natives, advised Ojeda not to stop there, but to proceed to the bay of Uraba. Such advice was useless to a proud warrior, who despised a naked and a savage foe. Having failed to keep his commander from danger, the faithful Juan could only stand by to aid him. Ojeda, who was a good Catholic, thought that he performed a pious duty in reducing the savages to the dominion of the king and the knowledge of the true faith. ”

“ Oñate prepared to march against the victorious rebels, as soon as the news of the disaster reached him, but when this was followed by additional information from the agents among the Indians, showing how widespread were the alliances of those who had begun the revolt, and that the Indians throughout the province of New Galicia were already in arms, he retired to Guadalajara. The defenses of this town were strengthened as much as possible, and messengers were dispatched to Mexico for reenforcements. ”

“ Alonso de Ojeda, Juan Ponce de Leon and Pedro Margarite rode with the Admiral. Others followed on black and bay and white horses. Juan Lepe marched with the footmen. He was glad to find Luis Torres.
Before setting out we went to mass in the new church. Candles burned, incense rose in clouds, the friars chanted, the bell rang, we took the wafer, the priest lifted the chalice.
The sun rose, the trumpets rang, we were gone. South, before us, the mountain line was broken by a deep notch. That would be our pass, afar, and set high, filled with an intense, a burning sapphire. ”

“ When the ship was beyond the frontier of Jaime’s kingdom, Juan said, “Carguin Cargon, overturn the king’s realm.” Carguin Cargon obeyed. Many houses were destroyed, and hundreds of people were crushed to death. When the ship was within seven miles of the city, Oirin Oiron heard the king say, “I’ll give my daughter in marriage to Juan if he will restore my kingdom.” Oirin Oiron told Juan what he had heard. ”

“ No choice was left his feelings or his pride,
Save death or Doctors’ Commons—so he died.
Dying intestate, Juan was sole heir
To a chancery suit, and messuages, and lands,
Which, with a long minority and care,
Promised to turn out well in proper hands:
Inez became sole guardian, which was fair,
And answer’d but to nature’s just demands;
An only son left with an only mother
Is brought up much more wisely than another. ”

“ After taking immediate measures to protect the priests, Oñate sent a force of seventy men, under Zaldivar's brother, to punish the people of Acoma.
The Indians, warned of the Spaniards' coming, closely guarded their rocky staircases. When the second Zaldivar summoned them to surrender, they mocked him, bade their medicine men curse him, and flung showers of arrows and stones down upon him. The Spaniards, unable to reach their foes, were obliged to take refuge under the overhanging rock to escape the missiles hurled down upon them. ”

“ No man has lived since as did those magnificent possessors of Philip’s thumbprints.
The Rancho del Refugio in the little known reaches of Papagueria was one of these fiefs of the king. Michael O’Donohue, a wild man of the red Irish who had fought English kings and queens under the banner of Spain, had come by the grant originally and had taken a lady of Granada to the new world to bear him heirs worthy of their inheritance. Michael O’Donohue became Don Miguel O’Donoju, lord of a desert principality and a power at the Viceroy’s court in the City of Mexico. ”

“ This future companion of Alonzo is not an agreeable character; he has entered the convent in order to escape the punishment following parricide, and is a man who ‘envies Judas the thirty pieces of silver for which the Redeemer of mankind was sold.’ For money he has now undertaken to assist in the liberation of Alonzo. In spite of Juan’s encouragements, Alonzo feels despondent and disconsolate. He fully understands the difficulties of his enterprise; even if he should manage to quit the convent in safety, where could a runaway Spanish monk find refuge? ”

“ But the dark storm to which it was the prelude, and which gathered deeper and deeper round the Spaniards during the remainder of their residence in the capital, must form the subject of a separate Book.
Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo y Valdés was born in 1478. He belonged to an ancient family of the Asturias. Every family, indeed, claims to be ancient in this last retreat of the intrepid Goths. He was early introduced at court, and was appointed page to Prince{99} Juan, the only son of Ferdinand and Isabella, on whom their hopes, and those of the nation, deservedly rested. ”

“ The two adventurers arrived at Hispaniola at the same time; but Ojeda set out first on his voyage of discovery, and landed at Carthagena in 1510. Advancing into the country he was surprised and defeated by the Indians in the bloody battle of Turbaco, losing seventy Spaniards, among them Juan de la Cosa, Ojeda’s lieutenant. At this time Nicuesa arrived, and, in spite of former jealousies and quarrels, offered assistance to Ojeda. ”

“ Amongst other faculties that he possessed, was one for seeming to understand an almost incredible amount of bad Spanish. His sympathy with the foreigner, whose incoherent ravings proved him to be labouring under the influence of "somebody's Spanish teacher," was without end. Don Juan's looks of intelligence and soothing "Si, Señor," cheered such as one in his darkest moments and most agonising paroxysms.
A busy man was Juan—an indispensable man, weighed down by his own, his American friends', his clients', his neighbours', and the State's affairs. ”

“ It would seem that in reaching Hispañola the best-intentioned man laid aside his kind disposition to give way to his worst instincts. Thinking only of shipping as much gold as possible, in order to convince the King of Spain of the merit of his administration, Ovando was pitiless to the Indians. These unfortunate people, accustomed to the sunshine, were made to live in the depths of the earth ”

“ As the Indians had entertained their guests with various national games, Ovando invited them in return to witness certain games of his country. Among these was a tilting match or joust with reeds; a chivalrous game which the Spaniards had learnt from the Moors of Granada. The Spanish cavalry, in those days, were as remarkable for the skillful management, as for the ostentatious caparison of their horses. Among the troops brought out from Spain by Ovando, one horseman had disciplined his horse to prance and curvet in time to the music of a viol. ”

“ On the other hand, the queen, whom he revered and loved, had commissioned him to conduct the Spaniards to her mother's abode. He did not dare to disobey her commands. Either alternative was more to be dreaded by him than death. The ingenuous young man had, therefore, endeavored to escape from the dilemma by self-destruction.
Juan De Añasco was not only deeply grieved by the fate of his young friend, but also greatly perplexed as to the course he was then to pursue. None of the Indian attendants knew where the widow was concealed. ”

“ It may be said that the conduct of one tyrannical governor should not be charged to the discredit of a people. This would be a fair argument had Ovando been promptly recalled when the news of his atrocities at Xaragua reached Spain, as was in our own day Governor Eyre, when the news of his high-handed proceedings in Jamaica reached England. Ovando’s proceedings{70} were indeed so repugnant to the humane heart of Isabella that with her dying breath she exacted a promise from Ferdinand that he should be recalled from his government. ”

“ He would show Oñate a thing or two, and teach him how to quell his own disturbances. "By Santiago!" he exclaimed, "there are not Indians enough in the country to withstand my attack, and a disgrace would it be to Spanish valor to employ more men. God has guided me hither and I shall vanquish the rebels alone. With a smaller force than this I have discomfited greater hosts. It is disgraceful that the barking of such a pack should suffice to alarm the country. I shall leave this city on the day of St John [8] with my own force, and not a citizen or soldier from Guadalajara shall follow. ”

“ Alonzo de Ojeda, a native of New Castile, was one of this numerous class. He had fought against the Moors when a youth, and had accompanied Columbus on his second voyage when only twenty-one years of age. One of his relatives, a Dominican friar, was one of the first inquisitors of Spain, and was an intimate of the Bishop Fonseca, who had the chief management of the affairs of the Indies, which then included all the countries as yet known in the New World. Ojeda, therefore, was naturally and easily introduced to the Bishop’s notice, who took him under his special protection. ”

“ He was a very intelligent man, and it is proper to regard his statements as fairly accurate. He says the first villages coming up the river from Mexico were one hundred leagues south of Taos. They were Qualcu and Senecu. This is apparently the same point at which Onate placed his first villages forty-one leagues above El Paso. Fifteen leagues up the river from Senecu was Sevilleta. Then there was a blank of seven leagues. Then came the Teoas villages, evidently identical with the Tiguex of Coronado and the Tiguas of Espejo. ”

“ Ovando, though he well knew what little credit was due to such profligate men, marched without further inquiry towards Zaragua, with three hundred foot, and seventy horsemen. To prevent the Indians from taking alarm at this hostile appearance, he gave out that his sole intention was to visit Anacoana, to whom his countrymen had been so much indebted, in the most respectful manner, and to regulate with her the mode of levying the tribute payable to the king of Spain. ”

“ On September 28, 1595, Juan de Ornate asked for permission and assistance in establishing a Spanish colony in the new country, which was granted, and many flourishing missions and settlements sprang up. In 1680 the pueblos of New Mexico, and the Apaches, of Arizona, arose in rebellion and drove the Spanish from the country. ”

“ The natives of Cuitzeo, however, were not at all inclined to receive the strangers with open arms, and their cacique sent answer "that he knew what sort of men the Spaniards were, and challenged them to enter bis country." Guzman is said to have hesitated as to what course he should pursue, but Cristóbal de Oñate soon solved his doubts by tauntingly observing that Cortés would never have achieved his glorious triumphs had he allowed himself to be regulated by formalities and requerimientos. He made his demands with foot in stirrup, and entered the very camp of the foe to hear the answer. ”