Desertions Plague New Colony

By Miguel Encinias
For the Journal
As discontent mounted at San Gabriel, the first capital of New Mexico, Gov. Juan de Oñate seemed at a loss about what to do.
He had gotten rid of one outspokenly critical captain and another suspected ringleader, perhaps to set an example for the rest of the disillusioned or malcontented settlers.
Yet in spite of this threat to the colony -- or perhaps because of it -- in the spring of 1601 Oñate began making plans for an expedition to Quivira (Kansas).
Jusepe Rodriguez, the sole survivor of the Leyva-Humana expedition of 1593, had described Quivira as highly populated and prosperous.
Before plans for the trip could be completed, however, Oñate sent Capt. Geronimo Marquez in search of five deserters who had fled the settlement.
Marquez met and arrested the deserters as they headed back to San Gabriel. They reported that two of them had been killed by the Jumano Indians, who lived east of the Manzano Mountains.
On May 18, 1601, at the insistence of settlers who feared an uprising while Oñate was in Quivira, the governor sent maese de campo Vicente de Zaldivar with 72 soldiers to punish the Jumanos. Zaldivar was the captain who had led the battle against Acoma.
In the Jumano battle, which lasted several days, a large number of natives were killed and many Spaniards were wounded, including Zaldivar.
On June 23, Oñate set off for Quivira with 72 men. Also in the group were two friars and many servants.
The expedition assembled at Galisteo and headed in a northeasterly direction, crossing the Glorieta Mesa and the Pecos and Gallinas Rivers. When they reached the Canadian River, they followed it to the Texas panhandle and then turned northward onto a great plain full of buffalo.
The first group of Indians that Oñate encountered after arriving in Quivira were the Kansas, who lived in round huts covered with tanned hides.
Several Kansas Indians accompanied the Spaniards up to the Arkansas River. To the north of the river lay the territory of the Wichitas, which was hostile ground for the Kansas. They told Oñate that it was the Wichitas who killed Leyva and Humana and their men.
As the Spaniards advanced, they were amazed at the large quantity of corn and other vegetables the Wichitas kept stored. This was not the kind of wealth Oñate was seeking, however, and the group soon turned back.
Zaldivar, on a scouting sortie during the return trip, discovered upon re-encountering the Kansas that they were angry because the Spaniards had not punished their enemies.
As Oñate and his force approached, more than 1,500 Kansas warriors blocked their way.
A battle ensued in which the Spaniards retreated beyond arrow range and fired volley after volley of gunfire, killing many Indians.
After two hours, Oñate called a cease-fire and released the Indians who already had been captured. With this, the fighting stopped.
On Sept. 25, the small expedition started back to New Mexico. When Oñate arrived at Pecos, the natives told the governor that most of the people he had left behind had deserted.
Oñate arrived back in San Gabriel on Nov. 24. Shortly after, he sent Zaldivar to arrest the deserters and continue on to Mexico City to plead his case for reinforcements.
It was not until April 1602 that Oñate found out that Zaldivar had arrived too late at Santa Barbara, and that the deserters had entered under the protection of his nemesis, Viceroy Gaspar de Zuñiga y Acevedo, the count of Monterey.
NEXT: The desertion.

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