El Morro National Monument

The Spaniards: Conquistadors

Search for Cibola

The second generation of conquistadors – those who had missed the Mexican conquest – pursued a medieval myth of golden cities to be found at a place called Cibola. Shipwrecked Spaniards wandering from Texas through New Spain’s northern deserts heard stories of Indians who lived in cities yet farther north. If this was Cibola, it meant the chance to relive the glories and riches of Aztec Mexico.

Francisco Vasquez de Coronado

But for explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado and those he led in 1540, the Zuni and other Pueblo Indian towns proved disappointing. These Pueblo Indians lived in solid towns, pueblos built of masonry or adobe. They gained a sufficiency from their agriculture. But their riches were intangible – the songs and ceremonies that kept them in harmony with the spirit world and with each other – not the gold of Aztec or Inca Coronado sought.

Decades passed as New Spain’s frontier slowly pushed northward, lured by discovery of silver deposits. In 1581 the Franciscan brother Fray Augustin Rodriquez shared leadership of an expedition that revisited the pueblos of New Mexico. Inspired with religious zeal, conquistadors Fray Augustin and another friar stayed on with the Indians when the expedition returned. This episode was important. It foreshadowed the primary purpose of New Mexico as the northern outpost of New Spain: Lacking riches, the future colony was eventually supported and justified as a field for missionizing. Salvation of Indian souls would serve both God and State.

Don Juan

Another expedition, sent to search for the two friars, resulted in the first historical record of El Morro. Antonio de Espejo headed north to the Rio Grande pueblos, where he confirmed that the Franciscans had been killed. Then he explored westerly toward Zuni. On March 11, 1583, he recorded his stop at a place he called El Estangue de Penol (the pool at the great rock). In 1598 Don Juan de Onate officially colonized New Mexico. He brought 400 colonists and 10 Franciscans north, along with 7,000 head of stock. From the beginning, hard winters, lack of food, and the great distance from Mexico caused hardship and discontent among the colonists. Onate’s explorations finally killed the last hopes for quick riches. Returning from one of these expeditions, Onate inscribed his name at El Morro on April 16, 1605 – the first known European inscription on the rock.

There followed scored of other Spanish inscriptions as governors, soldiers, and priests took the El Morro route to Zuni and other western pueblos. These brief notes in stone give a thumbnail sketch of New Mexico’s Spanish history as it happened on those far western marches. Routine records of passage – a name and a date attached to the standard paso por aqui – vary with accounts of battle and revenge for an ambushed detachment or a martyred priest. For this was the very fringe of the New Mexican frontier, far from Santa Fe. The western Pueblo Indians used this distance to buffer Spain’s religious and secular controls.

Over the years, resentment of these controls forged Pueblo Indian unity. They revolted in 1680 and killed or drove the Spaniards from New Mexico. After the Reconquest by Don Diego de Vargas (recorded by the general on El Morro in autumn 1692), peace and war alternated on the western marches, according to the character of the missionaries and governors. By 1750 the energies of both Church and State had declined in the poor and isolated province of New Mexico. This was caused partly by increased warfare with encircling Navajo, Apache, Ute, and Comanche Indians. Few Spanish travelers passed by El Morro during this period.

A final surge of Navajo campaigns, trail blazing, and visits to the Zuni and Hopi pueblos occurred as the 1700s shaded into the 1800s. But in fact the western pueblos and El Morro stood beyond the effective dominion of Spain. During the years under Mexico 1821-46, the New Mexicans devoted their western frontier energies to war with the Navajo Indians north of the Zuni-El Morro area. Indian travelers had the rock and its pool mainly to themselves.

Don Juan de Onate: The Last Conquistador

In the history of Don Juan de Onate is the essence of the Spanish New Mexican story. He founded the first permanent colony in New Mexico, explored its terrain, and opened a history that has lasted nearly 400 years. He was visionary, tenacious, sometimes ruthless, and always courageous – in every way a Spaniard of his time.

Because of persistent stories of mines, threats from other powers, and the many Pueblo Indians to be missionized, Spain’s Philip II decided to found the far-northern colony. Onate got the contract. He paid for the expedition; Philip gave him honors and titles and furnished priests. Onate’s colony proved marginal. Difficulty and danger sapped the colonists’ resolve. Distance from Mexico City slowed supplies and reinforcements.

Onate came under criticism from dissidents in his own ranks. His harsh treatment of the Acoma Indians, who resisted the conquerors, prompted charges of inhumane severity at the court of inquiry that examined his governorship. Through all these troubles, Onate persevered and held the settlement together.

Onate’s expeditions brought home the truth about New Mexico. This was a country that could sustain colonists willing to work the land. Its Indians could be converted and made citizens of Spain’s empire. New Mexico lacked precious metals, so its history would be the history of villagers, Spanish and Pueblo, adjusting to each other. Onate and the stalwart colonists and Franciscans who survived those first hard years laid the foundation.