Don Juan de Oñate, colonizer of New Mexico, 1595-1628

About this book

This is the dramatic and complete story of the colonization New Mexico, translated by two noted scholars from documents, some previously published but most of them significantly new, found in the famous Archives of the Indies in Spain. The courageous and able Don Juan de Oñate, son of one of New Mexico's great families, came to the New World soon after the conquest by Cortéz. To this bleak and barren region he brought soldiers and colonists, in 1598--and planted the flag, religion, and civilization of Spain. Up and down the Rio Grande Valley the Indian chiefs swore allegiance both to God and king; the soldiers and missionaries built new homes and ranches; and the Acoma and Jumano revolts were successfully quelled. To the east, Oñate and his captains explored as far as distant Quivira, and west to the Gulf of California. Oñate, striving against bitter odds to conquer and Christianize, carried his mission to success with a Spaniard's traditional courage and ability--but the country proved too poor to justly reward his efforts. And so the land remained, for two centuries, Spain's missionary province.