Juan de Ye and Plains Apaches

At least twice, once in March and again in May, don Juan de Ye showed up at the governor's palace with Plains Apaches in tow. The first time there were three of them. They explained to Vargas through an interpreter that they had arrived at Pecos with three tipis of their people. There they had learned of the Spaniards' return. Willingly they had come to render homage to the Spanish governor, to make his acquaintance, and to ask his permission to bring the rest of their rancheria to Pecos to trade "about the end of the rains, which is around October." They told Vargas how they used to come and go trading in peace before the Spaniards had vanished in 1680. This trade had proven beneficial to all concerned. Just so the people they had left at Pecos would know for sure that the Spaniards were back, the three Apaches requested that half a dozen of the reconquerors accompany them that far.

Vargas was delighted. He feted the three and assured them that they and their people would be welcome any time. On his orders, Maese de campo Lorenzo de Madrid, Aide-de-camp Antonio Valverde, an interpreter, and a party of soldiers and settlers rode with them over the mountain. The Pecos staged the kind of festive reception the Spaniards were coming to expect from them. The visiting Apaches

were most pleased at their sight. They presented them liberally with the buffalo meat and tanned skins they had brought, saying that they were going now and that in October, the stated time, the rest of their rancheria would be at this pueblo of the Pecos, to which they [the Spaniards] could come down for the trade fairs as they used to do in the time of those who had left. [28]

But they did not wait until October. On May 2, Juan de Ye presented himself at the casas reales in Santa Fe with a captain of the Apache rancherias of the plains and eight other Indians. Domingo de Herrera interpreted. This Apache had come in response to Vargas' previous invitation. He wanted to confirm the desire of his people to resume trade with the Spaniards when the ears were on the maize, just as in the old days. As tokens of their good faith, he laid before the Spanish governor three buffalo robes and "a campaign tent of light buffalo or elk skins." Vargas asked how far it was to their rancherias. Fourteen days, answered the Apache, and ten to where the buffalo bulls and cows roamed. There was much water, he added.

Next Vargas asked "the captain of the Apaches Faraones" why he was not a Christian. Using his hands, the Indian made signs that they should pour water on his head right then. If the Spaniards would just finish off the rebels, his Apaches would come live in their pueblos and become Christians. That, Vargas allowed, was an excellent thought provided the rebels did not reoccupy them. He explained to the Indian that as an adult he would have to be instructed before baptism. He must learn the prayers which Christians said on their knees. "He trusted me and the Spaniards implicitly," Vargas wrote, "showing by the outward joy of his countenance that he was already a Christian like us." [29]

Two days later at a formal audience, Ye and the first Plains Apache captain, who must have been serving with the Pecos auxiliaries, told Governor Vargas and his staff that the time had come for them and their horses to rest. It was the time for planting milpas, the time for each of them to return to his land. Before they departed, Vargas had some questions for the Apache. While the answers he gave do not rank him with the Turk, the glib plainsman did tell the Spaniards what they wanted to hear.

A Plains Apache Briefs Vargas

As they were having their chocolate, Vargas pointed to a silver dish and asked the Apache if they had anything like that in his land. The native said yes. Within a day's travel, there was a little range of mountains and at its base were some rocks of the same material just over half a vara tall. They called them hierro blanco, white iron. So heavy and hard were they that he had no way of breaking off a piece to bring to don Diego. After more questions, the Spanish governor told the Apache that he would pay him anything he wanted for a piece of the rock, "because it is a remedy for eye and heart disease." The Indian asked for an iron ax to break off a piece. "At once," wrote Vargas, "I ordered that it be brought as well as many goods with which I regaled him and likewise a horse he had asked me for, all of which was most pleasing to him."

Peso or Pacer, a Plains Apache chief. National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution

The governor had also inquired about Texas and Quivira. The kingdom of the Tejas, according to the obliging Apache, lay seven days from his rancheria. Asked if there were watering places, he replied that there were rivers in abundance, many buffalo, and much fruit in the summer. Were there Spaniards? In years past there had been, but he did not know if they were still there. This answer satisfied Vargas that the Apache captain was telling the truth, for there had indeed been Spaniards in Texas recently searching for LaSalle. How far was Quivira? Using his fingers, the Indian calculated that the first settlement was some twenty-five to thirty days from his rancheria. His people knew this well because they went to Quivira to make war and capture children to trade for horses.

Vargas reminded the Apache not to forget the white iron. He should bring it when the ears were on the maize, to the pueblo of the Pecos where he and his people were welcome to come and trade with the Spaniards. Vargas would give the citizens of Santa Fe permission to go down to Pecos. He would aid the Apaches in every way, and he would pay well for the hierro blanco. [30]

Spaniards Join Again in Pecos Trade Fair

Evidently the white iron did not pan out. When a Plains Apache captain known to the Spaniards, possibly the same one, sent word through the Pecos late in August that eleven tipis were coming to trade, Vargas made no mention of the metal. Still, he cooperated in every way. At the request of the Pecos war captains, who did not wish to offend the Apaches or miss out themselves, he postponed his campaign against the northern Pueblo rebels and decreed a trading holiday.

Vargas' proclamation of the trading at Pecos was promulgated before large crowds in both of Santa Fe's plazas "to the sound of drum and bugle and in the voice of Sebastián Rodriguez, black drummer." The governor, anxious that his relatively small military force not be weakened further, imposed one restriction. Anyone who wanted to do so could go down to Pecos and enter freely in the trade, except using horses that bore his brand or were otherwise specified "on my account" as needed for war, regardless of who had them now. He who traded such a horse would lose not only the price but the animal as well.

The governor had reason to be pleased. The Pecos fair was visible proof that the kingdom could live in peace, as it had before 1680. [31]

Juan de Ye's Ultimate Sacrifice

During the first six months of his rigorous campaign to restore effective Spanish sovereignty over New Mexico, no Indian, with the possible exception of Bartolomé de Ojeda of Zia, served Diego de Vargas as devotedly or as productively as don Juan de Ye. Whatever his motives, he was always in Santa Fe, or in the field with his Pecos auxiliaries. He entered into Vargas' negotiation to win over the rebels, on several occasions interceding to save the life of an Indian who might favorably influence his fellows.

Once, don Juan came in to ask the Spanish governor's forgiveness for allowing a venerable former governor of the Jémez to live at Pecos. The old man, who still enjoyed considerable respect among his people, according to Ye, could be used to counter the propaganda of the rebellious Tewas and bring the Jémez back down from the mesas. Vargas was willing. But it would take more than diplomacy. When next the Spaniards tried force, don Juan was there with his Pecos. This time it would cost him his life. [32]

On San Juan's Day eve, June 23, 1694, a disgruntled train of colonists entered the gates of Santa Fe to the sparse cheering of the citizenry. This second wave, recruited in Mexico City and shepherded all the way by Franciscan procurador fray Francisco Farfán, increased the population by over two hundred, including three French survivors of the massacred LaSalle colony. No one felt more the need for numbers than Vargas did, but at the same time, with the maize supply so desperately low, he now had to provide for just that many more bellies.

His first priority was to deal swiftly with the rebel Santo Domingos and Jémez, whose harrying raids on the loyal Keres of San Felipe, Santa Ana, and Zia had caused these Indians to doubt the Spaniards' guarantee of protection. As Vargas plotted his move, don Juan de Ye rode in to say that the Rio Grande was up. Even with rafts, the crossing would be risky. Forced to shift priorities, Vargas now rerouted the expedition northward. From the stores of the abandoned rebel pueblos, by purchase, or by force, he would lay in enough maize to see his hungry colony through to harvest time.

His journal entry for July 3 told of a noble but foolhardy act on the part of don Juan de Ye. They had found Taos deserted. Fresh tracks led to the peoples' accustomed refuge, a deep and rugged mountain canyon whose entrance gaped open half a league from the pueblo. A rancheria of Plains Apaches who had come to Taos to trade greeted the Spaniards with handshakes and abrazos. These were mild compared to the demonstrative welcome they gave Juan de Ye, "their friend and acquaintance."

Parleying with Defiant Taos

The Apaches arranged a meeting at the mouth of the canyon between Vargas and Francisco Pacheco, governor of the Taos, who suddenly appeared with a menacing number of his men. Ye considered Pacheco an old friend. He interpreted, evidently from Tiwa to Towa, with Sgt. Juan Ruiz de Cáceres or another Towa-Spanish speaker taking it from there. "With great force of words" Ye tried to persuade Pacheco and his people to come down to the pueblo and accept pardon from Governor Vargas. They had done so without harm in October of 1692, why not now? But it was no use.

Taos pueblo. E. P. Tenney, Colorado: and Homes in the New West (Boston, 1880)

"Moved by impulse and by fervent Catholic zeal," Diego de Vargas now risked his life, which he recorded in his journal, advancing to where Pacheco stood. The sun had set. Recognizing that he could accomplish little before nightfall, he bid the Taos governor an affectionate good-bye and told him that he would be waiting for him the next day at the pueblo. He had ordered camp made far enough away so that the Spaniards' horses and mules would not damage the Taos' crops. Juan de Ye repeated what Vargas had said. The wily Pacheco, feigning affection and professing the friendship of Taos and Pecos, invited don Juan to stay the night with him so they could discuss at leisure the Spaniards' proposal. Ye accepted.

Immediately Gov. don Juan de Ye, with more joy than if he had been entering his own house, consented most genuinely to stay. Although Sgt. Juan Ruiz de Cáceres and Sargento mayor Francisco de Anaya Almazán told him to consider well what he was doing and not to expose himself because some misfortune might befall him, he replied that he was safe and that he had confidence in Governor Pacheco, his friend.

Three Taos leaders, 1870s: Antonio José Atencio, Juan Jesús León, and Antonio Archuleta. National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution

Sergeant Ruiz suggested to Vargas that he order Ye to return the arquebus he was carrying, which belonged to the governor, and his mule as well. Rather than betray a lack of confidence, Vargas rode over to don Juan, who was already dismounted. He repeated the warning of Ruiz and Anaya. The Indian's reply was the same.

He removed his spurs and the powder pouches from his belt, handing them over with the mule and his cloak to the sergeant along with the arquebus and his shield, telling him to look after them for him. He said good-bye to me, giving me an embrace and his hand. He did the same to the others. The Taos looked on attentively with their Governor Pacheco, to whom I repeated "God be with you," and that I would be waiting for him, and for don Juan de Ye, early at my tent to serve him chocolate.

When neither Pacheco nor Ye showed next morning, Vargas rode to the mouth of the canyon. He told his interpreter to shout up to the Taos sentinels that if their governor and don Juan did not appear by one o'clock, the Spaniards would sack the pueblo. No one appeared and Vargas gave the order. Once broken into, the pueblo yielded a wealth of maize. For more than two days they husked and loaded the edible booty, then under cover of darkness headed north into present Colorado to double back by the easier more westerly trail of the Ute traders.

As for Juan de Ye, don Diego never saw him again. From two Taos Indians captured July 7 he learned that don Juan was still alive but tied up. Ten days later, safely back in Santa Fe with the maize, Vargas heard that Ye was still missing. Several Pecos Indians "loaded with glazed earthenware to sell" had come to town. A little while later don Lorenzo de Ye, son of don Juan, arrived. His father had not returned to the pueblo. When he had listened to the Spaniard's explanation of how don Juan had gone alone and of his own free will to parley with the Taos, when he had been given his father's weapons and cloak, don Lorenzo was, in Vargas' words, "satisfied but sad about the end that had befallen his father."

Through an interpreter, Diego de Vargas tried "with efficacious words" to express his sympathy. No Spaniard deserved the title reconqueror more than don Juan de Ye, governor of the Pecos. Vargas would never forget him. [33]

Pecos Glaze V pot. Kidder, Pottery, II

Refounding the Missions

For the friars, the reconquest so far had been frustrating. Eager to restore their missions but unwilling to risk their lives foolishly, they had been confined to Santa Fe where they had ministered to the complaining colonists and got in one another's way. Some had served with Vargas on campaign, absolving the men before battle and the prisoners before they were shot. Originally there had been eighteen. On Palm Sunday, April 4, Custos Salvador de San Antonio, who had been openly critical of the governor, and three of the others had departed for El Paso with the wagons and mules sent to the aid of Farfán's colonists. Fray Juan Muñoz de Castro was left in charge at Santa Fe as vice-custos. Late the same month, Vargas began to talk again of refounding missions.

Fresh from a victory of sorts over the rebels on the mesa of Cochiti, the reconqueror sent a delegation to the quarters of Vice-custos Muñoz. He would donate to the reestablishment of missions two hundred head of the sheep he had captured. It seemed to him only right, "because of the friendship and the good relations we have with their natives," that the first be founded for the Pecos and the second for the Keres of San Felipe, Santa Ana, and Zia. Until that time he would put the flock in the care of a trustworthy Keres. Another hundred sheep he gave to Muñoz and the thirteen religious in Santa Fe "so that they are assured of meat to eat for a few weeks." He also deferred to the friars first choice of the boys among the Cochiti prisoners. For all this Father Muñoz expressed to don Diego the friars' gratitude. [34]

San Ildefonso pueblo with Black Mesa beyond. John K. Hillers, 1879. Museum of New Mexico.

Still, for five long months no mission was refounded. Not until September when Vargas, aided by Pecos, Keres, and Jémez auxiliaries, finally humbled the rebels on Black Mesa and received the allegiance of the Tewa and Tano pueblos, did the time seem right. Then, with "not only moral but physical" assurance of the rebels' genuine submission, the eight missionaries remaining in Santa Fe petitioned Vice-custos Muñoz to send them into the field. It was no coincidence that the first mission they revived was Pecos, pueblo of the deceased don Juan de Ye. [35]

Father Zeinos Installed at Pecos

An earnest priest if ever there was, Fray Diego de Zeinos had served as secretary and notary of the friars since their departure from El Paso. He also bore the title lector, which meant that he had been a lecturer in a seminary or university. Whatever his other credentials, Fray Diego was assigned to Pecos. [36]

Governor Vargas set out for Pecos with his usual pomp on Friday morning, September 24, 1694. His purpose was two-fold, to carry out the visitation required by his office and to install Father Zeinos. With him went the royal standard, his staff, the presidial garrison, Vice-custos Muñoz, Zeinos, and the three other friars assigned to San Felipe, Santa Ana, and Jémez. Making good time over the mountain, they entered the pueblo of the Pecos early the same afternoon in time for the customary formalities.

The assembled natives had heard it all before. They had anticipated this day. "They promised," according to Vargas' journal,

that they would build their church in order that divine worship might be celebrated in greater decency than at present. They have provided for the construction of a chapel which they proved by showing me the beams to roof it.

I, said governor and captain general, instructed them at length, speaking and conferring with the cacique and governor whom they have had and likewise with the captains and the old Indian leaders and warriors through interpreters Capt. Francisco Lucero de Godoy and Sgt. Juan Ruiz de Cáceres. They responded unanimously, saying that they were most pleased that I had come to conduct the visitation and brought them the above-mentioned Reverend Father Lector for their minister. They had rebuilt for him its very ample and decent convento and residence.

Vargas thanked the old Pecos governor and his natives for "their superior effort." He told them that "in order to live civilly" they must elect and present to him their pueblo officials. He made no secret of his support for the incumbent governor. "Indeed, when they understood my will, they asked me that it be thus, saying that it was their will." At two in the afternoon, the Pecos put forward their slate, returning to the Spanish governor the symbolic staffs of office so that he might present them anew and administer "in His Majesty's name the oath they must swear in legal form by God Our Lord and the sign of the Holy Cross." Sworn in were:

Diego Marcos, governor
Agustín [Sebastián], lieutenant governor
Pedro Pupo and Salvador Tunoque, alcaldes
[Diego] Unfeto, jailer
Pedro Cristóbal Tundia, constable
Antonio Quoac, Pedro Cochze, Diego Ystico, and Agustín Guocho, fiscales
Juan Chiuta, head war captain
Pedro Lucero Tuque, Miguel Echo, Juan Omvire, Miguel Himuiro, Juan Diego, Diego Stayo, don Lorenzo de Ye, and Agustín Tafuno, war captains

Francisco de Anaya Almazán

Anaya Named Alcalde Mayor

According to Vargas, the Pecos then asked him to appoint Sargento mayor Francisco de Anaya Almazán, "a most worthy person," as alcalde mayor and military chief of their pueblo. Before the revolt of 1680, the alcalde mayor of the Tanos had administered Pecos as well. Anaya, in fact, had held the office for a time in the mid-1660s. Now, with the Tanos dispersed and the Galisteo Basin deserted, the governor named an alcalde mayor for Pecos alone, giving him the oath, the writ of title, and the staff of office.

Described in 1681 as a man of "medium build, protruding eyes, a thick and partly gray beard, and wavy chestnut hair," the veteran don Francisco de Anaya must have been in 1694 at least sixty-one. He had outlived two wives and was wed to a third, Felipa Cedillo Rico de Rojas. With María de Madrid, who must have been a relative if not his fourth wife, he alternated as godparent for dozens of Pecos children in the next nineteen months. Vargas called him "a linguist and old soldier." By all accounts, don Francisco, unlike his pre-revolt predecessors, cooperated with the missionary in every way.

Before Governor Vargas led his retinue back to the Rio Grande to perform similar rites at San Felipe, he "asked them the name of the patron saint of this chapel which is to be transferred to the church they will rebuild and erect anew in the coming year." They told him that they wished to retain the patroness who had been theirs before the deluge of 1680, Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles de la Porciúncula. With that, Vargas concluded the visitation. The mission at Pecos, after a lapse of fourteen years, was reborn. [37]

Zeinos as Pastor and Advocate of the Pecos

The ministry of Fray Diego de Zeinos was a success while it lasted, about one year. In less than three weeks, he could boast a temporary church. Constructed by the Pecos, presumably under the supervision of the friar and Alcalde mayor Anaya, it utilized the massive, still-standing north wall of the convento. It lay atop the leveled mound covering the south wall of the pre-1680 church and measured inside roughly twenty by sixty or seventy feet. The nave paralleled that of its monumental predecessor but the orientation was reversed: the altar was at the east end, the entrance at the west. [38]

A page from the Pecos book of baptisms, October 26-27, 1694. Among the children baptized simply in 1692, who later received full ceremonies, was eleven-year-old José Astipi, son of the deceased don Juan de Ye (fourth entry from top). Alcalde mayor Anaya stood as godfather.

Between October 11, 1694, and September 7, 1695, Father Zeinos baptized 103 Indians, mostly infants and children. Francisco de Anaya stood as godparent for seventeen of them, María de Madrid for twelve. The new resident missionary also celebrated full solemn baptism with all the prayers and ceremonies for 240 of the 248 persons baptized in the simple form by Father Corvera in 1692, running through as many as twenty-two in one day. So that a complete record might be kept in the Pecos book of baptisms, Zeinos had each of these 240 appear with a godparent, not necessarily the same one as in 1692. Anaya thus became godfather to three children of the deceased don Juan de Ye, and to twenty-three others, while María de Madrid collected forty-three more god children. [39]

To ingratiate himself with his new charges, Father Zeinos appeared in Santa Fe with a petition. Because the Pecos had demonstrated their loyalty by warning the Spaniards in 1680 and again during the reconquest, he thought they deserved a reward, "some exemption or privilege." He requested Vargas to confirm the Pecos' loyalty and forward the petition to the viceroy. The governor did so the same day. In Mexico City the viceroy's attorney pointed out that the Pueblos of New Mexico were already exempt from tribute and labor, the usual reward in such cases. That left Governor Vargas free to express to the Pecos his profound thanks in the name of the king, no more no less. [40]

Custos Vargas Asks Questions

On the first day of November 1694, a new custos arrived in Santa Fe. He was Fray Francisco de Vargas, a Spaniard himself but unrelated and unattracted to the lofty don Diego de Vargas. The two had already clashed, when Fray Francisco had been custos before, over mission property in the El Paso district. Now the friar had something else on his mind.

Fray Francisco de Vargas, Custodio

Someone, perhaps ex-custos San Antonio, had complained to the superiors that Vice-custos Muñoz de Castro had used duress to install Father Zeinos and the other friars in missions where there were no soldiers for their protection. The superiors wanted a full report on the state of these missions. The ever efficient custos drew up a ten-point questionnaire that went straight to the mark. "First Your Reverence will declare what motivated you to go to the mission and whether you were forced to do so by any prelate."

Fray Diego de Zeinos of Pecos was still secretary of the custody. In mid-December, he reported to Santa Fe to assist the custos with the questionnaire. In his legible, studied hand, Fray Diego penned the original which would be submitted to Mexico City with the replies of the individual missionaries. Then he went back to Pecos to answer the questions himself. The first one posed no problem for him.

To the first point I say that the motivating and even ultimate reason for my having come to this pueblo of Pecos was the one that brought me to this holy and venerable custody, namely, the object of converting souls redeemed with the precious blood of Our Redeemer. No force on the part of any prelate preceded my coming to this pueblo. Rather, with the minds of the missionaries favorably disposed to the least suggestion, they all went gladly to their assignments.

The rest of his answers showed the capable Father Zeinos to have been neither a sorry pessimist nor a visionary romantic, but rather a realist with faith. The Pecos, adults as well as children, were attending catechism, he said, "whenever they are able." With respect to prayer "I found them so far removed that most did not know how to cross themselves." Very gradual instruction seemed to him the best remedy.

How many of the persons they had baptized had since died, the custos wanted to know. This figure, if any, indicated the success of their ministry, particularly in the case of innocent children. Of all the individuals Zeinos had baptized or annointed with holy oils, nine children and three adults had died, a dozen souls who otherwise would not have known God's grace. He averred that in all but one case, he had been advised immediately when someone was in danger from sickness, a claim few of his successors would make. None of the Pecos had applied to him for marriage, yet on his own initiative he had already united eleven couples who had been living together illicitly.