Illegal Expeditions Lead to Arrests, More Bloodshed

The Journal is publishing a biweekly series of history articles to commemorate the settlement of New Mexico by Juan de Oñate in 1598. This one covers the expeditions of Juan Morlete in 1590-91 and Leyva and Humana in 1593.

By Miguel Encinias
For the Journal
Gaspar Castaño de Sosa, on an unauthorized and illegal expedition into New Mexico, arrived at the Pueblo of Guipui -- which he named Santo Domingo -- in March 1591.
The explorer was full of optimism after his recent success at Pecos.
He started making plans to send Capt. Alonso Jaimez back south for reinforcements and then went on to visit other pueblos.
But on March 29, 1591, Juan Morlete arrived at the first pueblos of the Rio Abajo on a mission of very bad consequence for Castaño de Sosa and his would-be settlers.
In June 1590, Morlete had been sent to Almadén -- then Castaño de Sosa's headquarters as lieutenant governor of Nueva Vizcaya -- with two warnings: He must stop capturing Indians as slaves, and he must not attempt any incursion into New Mexico without official authorization.
Castaño de Sosa, of course, did leave for New Mexico, and Viceroy Velasco soon found out.
On Oct. 1, 1590, the viceroy ordered Morlete, who was then mayor of Saltillo, to proceed with 40 men and bring back the entire Castaño de Sosa expedition as prisoners.
Morlete took the route which would later become the Camino Real, with the final leg up the Rio Bravo (Rio Grande). When he arrived at Santo Domingo either in late April or early July, Castaño de Sosa was away.
The renegade explorer learned from the Indians he was visiting that some new Spaniards had arrived at Santo Domingo. Puzzled, he hurried back to the pueblo and probably was not too thrilled when he saw who was leading the recent arrivals: his old nemesis, Morlete.
In true Spanish fashion, they embraced, but Morlete did not lose any time in pulling out the order for Castaño de Sosa's arrest. The would-be conquerer knew better than to resist and was immediately put in shackles.
Morlete was not in much of a hurry to get back to New Spain and did some exploring himself, which delayed his departure about 40 days. Eventually he delivered his prisoners to Mexico for trial.
Castaño de Sosa was found guilty of illegally raising troops and entering New Mexico after being prohibited from doing so. He was sentenced to exile in the Philippines for six years.
His sentence was appealed to the Council of the Indies in Spain, which cleared him of all guilt. The news came too late for Castaño de Sosa, however, because he was killed while on a voyage to the Moluccas.
Castaño de Sosa's fiasco either was not sufficiently publicized, or some frontier Spaniards just were very daring.
In 1593, Gov. Diego Fernandez de Velasco of Nueva Vizcaya sent Capt. Francisco Leyva de Bonilla north in search of hostile nomadic Indians who had been raiding Spanish cattle ranches.
Once up close to New Mexico, however, Leyva could not resist the siren call. With Capt. Antonio Gutierrez de Humana and a few soldiers and Indian servants, he started up the Rio Bravo.
Nothing was heard about this group again for five years. Eventually their tragic story was told by the only survivor.
One of the minor missions entrusted to Juan de Oñate, the founder of New Mexico, was to search out and arrest Leyva and Humana for their illegal expedition.
Their fate was told to Oñate by an Indian named Jusepe on Feb. 16, 1598, in the Pueblo of San Juan Bautista.
Vicente de Zaldivar, Oñate's nephew and sergeant major, had run across Jusepe at Pecos and taken him as an interpreter while exploring the buffalo country.
The story Jusepe told finally cleared up the mystery of the Leyva-Humana expedition.
He told Oñate that his full name was Jusepe Gutierrez and that he originally was from Culhuacán, Mexico. The Indian said he had been recruited by Humana.
After a prolonged stay at San Ildefonso Pueblo, he said, the small band struck out on a trek first to Pecos then, according to his description and judging by the time it took to get there, to Quivira.
Three days after passing a great pueblo, the two captains had an argument.
The following day, Humana spent the whole morning and most of the afternoon in his tent writing. Then he sent soldier Miguel Perez to call Leyva over to see him.
As Leyva approached Humana's tent, Humana drew a knife and stabbed Leyva twice, killing the expedition leader. Humana took command.
Soon after, local Indians attacked, killing all but five, who fled south.
Jusepe and a companion reached an Indian camp, where his companion was soon killed. Jusepe escaped but was captured at another camp. After a year, he escaped from that group and eventually reached pueblo land.
NEXT: Oñate gets a contract.

Miguel Encinias is an Albuquerque historian. His novel, "Two Lives for Oñate," was published this year by the University of New Mexico Press.