The viceroy lost interest in Nuevo México after the defeat of Pedro de Villasur because it no longer was as critical to the empire as the new colonies in Tejas. His advisor, Juan de Oliván y Rebolledo, recognized the strength of the Comanche and the weakness of the Apache, but didn’t believe their conflict was critical to the future of Mexico.
The viceroy abandoned plans for a presidio at Jicarilla, and told the governor to resettle the Apache and convert them to Spanish life. Those at Jicarilla had little choice but to acquiesce. The ones at El Cuartelejo had welcomed Bourgmont and the French in 1724. Their autonomy was respected, they were promised peace from the east, and, in fact, were given some support against the Comanche.
The 200 peso fine levied on Valverde was used to benefit the church, not the colony. Three-fourths was set aside "to help buy chalices and ornaments for the missions of La Junta de los Ríos." The mission, at the confluence of the Conchos with the Río Grande, was intended to pacify local bands hostile to slave raids. It was important to the safety of El Paso.
The rest was to be used to pay priests "for masses for the souls of the soldiers killed in this campaign." Nothing went to the families of the fallen. Most were married, and many of those, no doubt, had children. Those women who didn’t remarry quickly would have faced hard times.
In fact, only five widows did remarry before 1730. Only one of those had a husband wealthy enough to leave an estate, Jean l’Archevêque. He and Manuela Roybal had been married less than year and as yet had no children. With that inheritance and the support of her father, Ignacio de Roybal, she would have been comfortable. She married Bernardo de Sena in 1727. He had considerable real estate in Santa Fé.
Archevêque had two children by his first wife, Antonia Gutíerrez. Both had married before his death, the boy to Manuela’s sister, the girl to the son of Capitán Francisco Lorenzo de Casados. Both father and son were legal go-betweens in Santa Fé.
In addition, he had fathered another son while he was married to Antonia by an unnamed unmarried woman. Augustín also had married before his father’s death and was active in his father’s business in Santa Fé. His wife was the granddaughter of a soldier, Manuella Trujillo. Her father, Augustín, was the son of Mateo Trujillo and María de Tapia.
The vulnerable one was the infant born in 1719 just before Archevêque’s second marriage. The mother, María de Mascareñas, was an orphan who served as a servant in his household. Even though she was remembered in the will, Juan later used his mother’s name.
Destitution would have been the fate of others whose extended families could not support them. Ana Maria de la Vega, the widow of Domingo de Mendizábal, had no parents. She would have had difficult years before she married Manuel Flores in 1723. He was the son of a skilled tradesman.
In the absence of state support for veterans and their families, men in the military looked after one another. Juana de Abeytia, widow of José Antonio Fernández, married Antonio de Armenta, survivor of the expedition, in 1725. She would have suffered years of hardship because her father was dead.
Josefa Montoya, widow of Manuel de Silva, married José Santisteban, survivor of the expedition, in 1720. Her father, Andres Montoya, was an ayudante and owned considerable land in Santa Fé. His father, Salvador Santisteban, was an alférez.
Maria Vigil, wife of Domingo Romero de Pedraza, married José Tenorio, in 1722. He was the grandson of Miguel Tenorio Alba, who died in the expedition. She would not have been secure because her father, Francisco Montes Vigil, a survivor, had land.
The survivors may have fared better. The Reglamento de Habana stipulated totally disabled veterans in Cuba should be granted salaries if they had served 15 years. Those wounded in battle who’d served fewer years were given half salary.
Notes: Juan de Acuña was the viceroy in 1727. Francisco Lorenzo de Casados’ son was Francisco Casados.
Chávez, Angélico. New Mexico Roots, Ltd, 1982; there is a gap in the surviving record from 1730 to 1750.
____. Origins of New Mexico Families, 1992 revised edition.
Cloud, William A., Steve Black and Jennifer Piehl. "La Junta de los Rios: Spanish Frontier 1715-1821," Texas beyond History website.
Felipe V. Reglamento de Habana, 1719, in Thomas H. Naylor and Charles W. Polzer, Pedro de Rivera and the Military Regulations for Northern New Spain, 1724-1729, 1988.
Oliván y Rebolledo, Juan de. Report to the viceroy, 29 May 1727, in José Antonio Pichardo, manuscript, translated and annotated by Charles Wilson Hackett as Pichardo’s Treatise of the Limits of Louisiana and Texas, volume 1, 1931.
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