Part 6 (1/2)

Plans to Occupy Monterey Bay.--Plans were now made for occupying the port of Monterey, but delays ensued and a new viceroy concluded that a port in the mid-Pacific was more needed than one on the California coast. Accordingly, in 1611 Vizcaino was sent to explore certain islands called Rica de Oro and Rica de Plata, but the expedition failed.

THE FOUNDING OF NEW MEXICO

Renewed exploration of New Mexico.--The expansion of Nueva Vizcaya and renewed activities on the Pacific coast in the later sixteenth century stimulated a new advance into New Mexico. Coronado's expedition had proved disappointing, and for four decades no further explorations had been made in the region. Nevertheless, the tales of great cities had not been forgotten, and in the meantime a new line of approach to New Mexico had been opened by way of the central plateau. By 1580 mines and missions had reached Santa Barbara, while slave hunting expeditions had descended the Conchos to the Rio Grande. Through reports given by the outlying tribes, a new interest in the Pueblo region was aroused.

Rodriguez and Espejo.--To follow up these reports, with a view to missionary work, trade, and exploration, an expedition was organized at Santa Barbara in 1580 by Fray Augustin Rodriguez, a Franciscan lay brother, and Francisco Sanchez Chamuscado. In the next year the party of three friars and nine soldiers and traders descended the Conchos River, ascended the Rio Grande to the Pueblo region, visited the buffalo plains, acoma, and Zuni, and returned, leaving two friars at Puaray, one having been killed. In the following year a rescue and trading party was led to New Mexico over the same trail by Fray Bernaldino Beltran and Antonio de Espejo. The friars had already been slain by the natives, but before returning Espejo went to Zuni, Moqui, and western Arizona, where he discovered mines, returning to Santa Barbara by way of the Pecos River.

Plans to colonize New Mexico.--The expeditions of Rodriguez and Espejo aroused new zeal for northern exploration and settlement, and there were dreams now, not only of conquering New Mexico, but of going beyond to colonize Quivira and the sh.o.r.es of the Strait of Anian. The king ordered a contract made for the purpose, and soon there was a crowd of applicants for the honor. While these men were competing for the desired contract, Castano de Sosa in 1590 led a colony from Nuevo Leon up the Pecos to the Pueblos and began their conquest, but was soon arrested and taken back. Some three years later two men named Leyva and Gutierrez de Humana led an unlicensed expedition from Nueva Vizcaya to New Mexico, whence Gutierrez went to northeastern Kansas, and apparently reached the Platte River.

Onate and the founding of New Mexico.--The contract to colonize New Mexico was finally a.s.signed in 1595 to Juan de Onate, son of Cristobal, one of the founders of Zacatecas. In accordance with the ordinances of 1573 he was made governor, adelantado, and captain-general, granted extensive privileges, lands, and encomiendas, while his colonists were given the usual privileges of first settlers (_primeros pobladores_). It was February, 1598, when Onate left northern Nueva Vizcaya with his colony. It included one hundred and thirty soldiers, some with their families, a band of Franciscans under Father Martinez, and more than seven thousand head of stock. Previous expeditions had followed the Conchos, but Onate opened a more direct route through El Paso. Without difficulty he secured the submission of the tribes, settled his colony at San Juan, and distributed the friars among the pueblos.

Onate's explorations.--Having established his colony, Onate turned to exploration in the east and the west. In the fall of 1598 Vicente Zaldivar was sent to the Buffalo Plains, while the governor set out for the South Sea. At Moqui he turned back, but Marcos Farfan continued west with a party, and staked out mining claims on Bill Williams Fork. acoma rebelled at this time and as a punishment was razed. In 1599 Zaldivar was sent to the South Sea and seems to have reached the lower Colorado.

Early in 1601 Onate, with seventy men, descended the Canadian River and crossed the Arkansas to an Indian settlement called Quivira, apparently at Wichita, Kansas. During Onate's absence most of the colonists deserted, but they were brought back, with reinforcements. Still bent on reaching the South Sea, in 1604 Onate descended Bill Williams Fork and the Colorado to the Gulf of California, where he got the idea that California was an island. He had reexplored most of the ground covered by Coronado and had opened new trails. But he had lost the confidence and support of the authorities, and in 1608 resigned and was displaced by a royal governor.

Santa Fe founded.--In 1609 Santa Fe was founded and became the new capital. This event, which occurred just a hundred years after the occupation of Darien, may be regarded as the culmination of a century of northward expansion.

[Ill.u.s.tration: New Mexico in Onate's Time (From Bancroft, _Arizona and New Mexico_, p. 137).]

SPANISH ACHIEVEMENTS IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY

Population and industries.--The heroic age of Spanish colonization had now pa.s.sed. The surprising results achieved in the New World during the first eighty years, not counting the work of exploration, are set forth in a description of the colonies in 1574 written by Lopez de Velasco, official geographer. At that time there were in North and South America about two hundred Spanish towns and cities, besides numerous mining camps, haciendas, and stock ranches. The Spanish population was 32,000 families, or perhaps from 160,000 to 200,000 persons. Of these about five-eighths lived in North America. In the two Americas there were 4000 encomenderos, the rest being mainly miners, merchants, ranchers, and soldiers, with their families. The population included 40,000 negro slaves, and a large element of mulattoes and mestizos. About 1,500,000 male Indians paid tribute, representing a population of 5,000,000. In many parts occupied by Spaniards there were no encomiendas, for the Indians had died out. Mining, commerce, cattle ranching, grain and sugar raising had been established on a considerable scale.

Cities and towns.--Before the end of the sixteenth century most of the present-day state capitals and other large cities in Spanish North America had been founded. Mexico City had a population of over 2000 Spanish families (perhaps 15,000 persons), Santo Domingo, Puebla, and Guatemala 500 families each, Trinidad (in Guatemala) and Panama 400 each, Oaxaca 350, Zacatecas 300, Toluca, Zultepec, Vera Cruz, Granada, Chiapas, and Nombre de Dios 200 each, Guadalajara and San Salvador 150 each, and many others lesser numbers.

Administrative divisions.--Spanish America was now divided into two viceroyalties, New Spain and Peru. New Spain included all of the American mainland north of Panama, the West Indies, part of the northern coast of South America, the Islas del Poniente, and the Philippines. It comprised the four audiencias of Espanola, Mexico, Guatemala, and Nueva Galicia, the Audiencia of Panama being a part of the viceroyalty of Peru. The four northern audiencia districts were subdivided into seventeen or eighteen gobiernos or provinces, corresponding closely to the modern states. The provinces were divided into _corregimientos_ embracing Indian _partidos_. North America embraced twelve dioceses and the two archdioceses of Santo Domingo and Mexico.

Churches and monasteries.--Many fine churches, some of them still standing, had been built in the larger towns. The Franciscans, Dominicans, and Augustinians were well established in New Spain, and the Jesuits had just begun their work. The friars were subject to their chapters and the Jesuits to their general in Spain. The Franciscans already had four provinces in New Spain, the Dominicans and Augustinians only one each. Hundreds of monasteries had been established, especially wherever there were Indians in encomienda. The expense of erecting them was borne jointly by king, encomenderos, and Indians.

The Universities.--”Enthusiasm for education characterizes the earliest establishment of the Spanish colonies in America. Wherever the priests went, a school was soon established for the instruction of the natives or a college for its clericals who were already at work as well as for those who were soon to take holy orders. From the colleges sprang the universities which, in all the Spanish dominions, were founded at a very early date for the pursuit of the 'general studies' which were at that time taught in the great peninsular universities of Alcala and Salamanca. Half a century before Jamestown was founded by the English, the University of Mexico was conferring degrees upon graduates in law and theology. Before the seventeenth century closed, no less that seven universities had been erected in Spanish America, and their graduates were accepted on an equality with those of Spanish inst.i.tutions of like grade.” (Priestley.)

READINGS

THE REIGN OF PHILIP II

Chapman, Charles E., _A History of Spain_, Chapter x.x.xIII; Gayarre, C.E.A., _Philip II of Spain_; Hume, M.A.S., _Philip II of Spain_; Hume, M.A.S., _Spain, Its Greatness and Decay_; Hume, M.A.S., _The Spanish People_; Lea, H.C., _A History of the Inquisition of Spain_; Merriman, R.B., _The Rise of the Spanish Empire_; Prescott, W.H., _History of the Reign of Philip the Second_; Cheyney, E.P., _European Background of American History_, Chapter X.

ADVANCE INTO NORTHERN MEXICO

Bancroft, H.H., _History of Mexico_, II, chs. 22, 24, 34; _North Mexican States and Texas_, I, ch. 5; Cavo, Andres, _Tres Siglos de Mexico_; Coroleu, Jose, _America, Historia de su Colonizacion_; Frejes, Fr. F., _Conquista de los Estados_; Gonzales, J.E., _Collecion de Noticias_; _Historia de Nuevo Leon_; Leon, A., _Historia de Nuevo Leon_; Mota Padilla, M., _Historia de Nueva Galicia_, ch. 23; Ortega, Fr. Joseph, _Apostolica Afanes_.

SETTLEMENT OF FLORIDA

Hamilton, P.J., _The Colonization of the South_, chs. 1-2; Lowery, Woodbury, _Spanish Settlements_, I, ch. 8, II; Shea, J.G., _The Catholic Church in Colonial Days_, pp. 100-183.

SETTLEMENT OF NEW MEXICO

Bancroft, H.H., _Arizona and New Mexico_, 74-146; Bandelier, A.D.F., _Final Report of Investigations among the Indians of the Southwestern United States_ (Papers of the Archaeological Inst.i.tute of America, III-IV); Benavides, Memorial on New Mexico (Mrs. E.E. Ayer, trans.); Bolton, H.E., ed., _Spanish Exploration in the Southwest_, 135-278; Davis, W.H.H., _Spanish Conquest in New Mexico_, 234-407; Farrand, Livingston, _The Basis of American History_, 176-187; Lummis, C.F., _Spanish Pioneers in the Southwest_, 125-143; Prince, L.B., _Historical Sketches of New Mexico_, 149-166; Twitch.e.l.l, R.E., _Leading Facts of New Mexican History_, I, 7-45, 252-333; Vulagra, Gaspar de, _Historia de Nuevo Mexico_.

THE PHILIPPINES AND CALIFORNIA