Desperate Oñate Looks for South Sea

By Miguel Encinias
For the Journal
Capt. Vicente de Zaldivar, Juan de Oñate's right-hand man and his nephew, returned to the New World from Spain during the summer of 1603. But he did not go back to New Mexico because he did not have anything to take back.
The purpose of his trip across the Atlantic had been to secure aid for the troubled New Mexico colony from Spanish officials, and he went as far as securing an audience with the king.
Zaldivar waited in Zacatecas for reinforcements promised by the Council of the Indies in the form of a few musketeers and shipwrights.
In New Mexico, after a visit to Acoma, an embattled Oñate prepared to play what would be perhaps his last card: the discovery of a northern land route to the South Sea, which had been aborted in late 1598 because of bad weather.
On Oct. 17, 1604, Oñate set out with 30 soldiers and Commissary Fray Francisco de Escobar, who kept a diary of the expedition.
As he had done in 1598, Oñate stopped at Zuni. Escobar reported that Zuni consisted of six pueblos, four of which were in a deteriorated condition.
As before, the Spaniards were welcomed into Zuni homes and regaled with the denizens' best culinary offerings. From there they traveled northwest to Hopi land with its five pueblos of which four were half in ruins as described by Escobar. There also, the group was lodged and fed most graciously.
Ten leagues southwest of the Hopi settlements, the sojourners came across a river given the name of St. Joseph, whose feas day it was when they arrived. It now is called the Little Colorado River.
Still heading southwest, the group crossed another small river, probably the present-day Verde, and descended into the Chino Valley, then across another range.
Beyond the mountain range they came upon a large desert valley and traveled along the Santa Maria River.
Now heading west, the small troop intercepted the San Andres River, which is now known as the Bill Williams River.
After that, it was the mighty Colorado River, which they named the Buena Esperanza, or Good Hope, probably because it offered hope that it would lead to the expedition's destination since it was very large and navigable.
Along its banks, they encountered a very large group of people, which Escobar called the Amavaca. These probably were Yuma or related natives.
On the feast day of the conversion of St. Paul the Apostle, the Spaniards reached the Gulf of California, which they took for the South Sea, thinking the land visible to the west to be an island.
The explorers were very favorably impressed with the mouth of the river, calling it "the most famous bay or harbor any of our seamen had ever seen."
The Spaniards decided not to go further west because the land did not appear to have grass for their already emaciated horses.
NEXT: Yumas tell fantastic stories.

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