Author Note

Juan de Oñate (1549?-1624) was the son of wealthy conquistador and miner Cristóbal de Oñate. After the expeditions of Rodríguez and Espejo (see AJ-004 to AJ-008), interest in the mineral wealth of New Mexico convinced the Spanish viceroy to license further expeditions. Espejo applied for a license, proposing a four-hundred-man army to conquer and settle New Mexico, as did several other adventurers and investors. The bidding process was long and drawn out, and the lure of New Mexico was so strong that some parties embarked for the north without permission. In 1593, Francisco Leyva de Bonilla and Antonio Gutiérrez de Humaña led one such unauthorized expedition into New Mexico. They spent a year among the pueblos and journeyed east into Quivira as far as the Platte River in Kansas before Humaña murdered Leyva, and all but one survivor were killed by Indians (see AJ-103).

Finally in 1595, the Spanish viceroy named Juan de Oñate to be the governor of New Mexico, adelantado and captain-general of the new province. Oñate was the son of Cristóbal de Oñate, the conqueror of Nueva Galicia where he operated mines, and one of the founders of Zacatecas. His wife was the granddaughter of the famous conquistador Hernando Cortez and the great-granddaughter of the Aztec leader Montezuma.

Oņate’s Expeditions, 1598-1604

Although rivals impeded planning for the governor’s great expedition, Oņate recruited colonists by promising them privileges and exemptions. In the spring of 1596, four-hundred settlers, soldiers, their families, and servants assembled eighty-three carts and wagons for the trip north with seven-thousand head of livestock. After splitting up to traverse the great sand dunes south of El Paso, Oņate took formal possession of the “kingdoms and provinces of New Mexico for King Philip II of Spain” on April 30, 1596. Oņate took a party of sixty men north to subdue the pueblos. He established his first headquarters at the Caypa pueblo, which he renamed San Juan, on August 18, 1596. While a church was being built, Oņate met with chiefs of the surrounding pueblos and convened a general assembly of all the chiefs and representatives on September 9, 1596. At that convention the province of New Mexico was formally established.

Next Oņate turned his attention to exploit other nearby lands. He took sixty men to the Pecos River to hunt buffalo. He visited salt mines near the Jumano and Zuni pueblos. He sent Captain Marcos Farfán to explore Arizona near Moqui, finding abundant silver veins. On one such expedition, in November 1598, Juan de Zaldívar was killed at Acoma by the Hopi. Oņate retaliated by subduing Acoma in two days of hand-to-hand fighting in which “the Indians were punished by fire and bloodshed, and the pueblo was completely laid waste and burned.” In 1601, Oņate explored the route taken by Humaņa to the Platte River and Kansas eight years earlier. In 1604 he followed a route to the Gulf of California and retraced the expeditions made by Coronado, Espejo, and Humaņa during the previous decades.

Document Note

This brief account describes Oņate’s trip that began October 6, 1598, from the first New Mexico capital at San Juan in Teguas province, in hopes of visiting the South Sea (Gulf of California). The first section of this trip lasted about a week, bringing Oņate to Gallinas with its large expanses of salt flats. He intended to chart a route to the South Sea that took him past Los Alamos and the pueblo of Acoma. At Acoma, which Oņate describes as a thriving village with five hundred houses, the local Indians provided his party with a feast of turkey, maize, and water.

From Acoma, Oņate traveled through the Zuni province, crossing the Bad News (Malas Nuevas) River and climbing into the mountains where it snowed abundantly. Horses stampeded in the snow and several were lost. When they reached the Zuni pueblos of Cibola (also Granada), the Zuni provided Oņate’s party with a feast of maize, tortillas, and rabbit. Coronado had visited Cibola more than sixty years earlier (see AJ-086) and the families of two Indians loyal to him still lived there. Nearby, Oņate found more high-grade salt deposits that he obediently dedicated to the king.

On November 8, 1598, Oņate headed north to Mohoqui to explore for mineral deposits. The inhabitants of Mohoqui were at first generous, providing the Spanish tortillas and sprinkling the men and their horses with “fine flour.” Oņate sent Captain Marcos Farfán de los Godos to search for mineral deposits reported by Espejo (see AJ-006 to AJ-008), which were described as being high-quality silver ore. Despite his intent to travel to the South Sea, Oņate did not reach it on this trip. His expedition was cut short when Indians at Acoma killed several Spaniards, including Juan de Zaldívar. Oņate returned to San Juan, leaving orders for Captain Farfán to avoid Acoma on his return. The expedition returned to San Juan de Baptista by Christmas 1598.

Other Internet and Reference Sources

For more information on Oņate, see the "Handbook of Texas Online" to read the biography and see more details about the expedition.

The standard biography is Marc Simmons’ The Last Conquistador: Juan de Oņate and the Settling of the Far Southwest (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1991). Also see George Hammond’s (ed.) Don Juan de Oņate and the Founding of New Mexico (Santa Fe: El Palacio Press, 1927). A wide selection of primary documents are printed in George P. Hammond and Agapito Rey, eds., Don Juan de Oņate: Colonizer of New Mexico, 1595-1628 (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1953).