Dedicating rivers and other landmarks to Spanish saints served the dual purpose of extending the rule of the crown and Christianizing the land. For Roque de Madrid and Juan de Ulibarrí it was done with a sense of deeds well done. For Antonio Valverde, one senses an underlying discomfort with anything unfamiliar.
When he met leaders of Apache bands who could confirm rumors about the French, he didn’t simply treat them as vassals owing him homage as their liege. He couldn’t overcome his awareness of their separateness as heathen pagans. They, of course, were wise enough to further their own ends by disguising their feelings and adopting the appropriate gestures.
On the second day of his journey, Bernardo Casillas surprised a small settlement. "As soon as these Apache learned of the coming of the Spaniards, they came to see the governor, who received them very kindly and gave them tobacco and something to eat. The pagans, after giving many signs of pleasure, said their enemies, the Comanche, were persecuting and killing their kinsmen and others of their nations."
The next day, Carlana arrived with representatives of the Sierra Blanca Apache. After he partook of the proffered plate of mutton, he said they were fleeing their country to get help from the Jicarilla Apache. Valverde said, he "entertained them all that he could. Then, having said good-bye, they went away greatly contented."
A day later they arrived at the Jicarilla camp only to find the leader, El Coxo, was elsewhere seeking help from the Navajo. His sons told him they were standing on the spot where the Comanche and Ute had killed sixty. Valverde remembered, he "received them with his accustomed kindness, entertained, fed them and gave them tobacco."
That afternoon, Valverde, the priest, José de Tagle Villegas, Francisco Montes Vigil, and "some soldiers" rode up stream to a settlement. The Apache "welcomed the señor governor with great rejoicing. At the same time it was observed that many women and children, a mob of heathens who heard the bustle and confusion at the arrival of the governor, fled to the hills."
Carlana returned on September 27 with 69 men prepared to find their enemies. The next day, he suggested they dispatch scouts. Valverde agreed. "After ordering them to be given chocolate and tobacco," he sent them off.
They returned two days later. "The Christian Indians tried to go where the latter were, but the governor would not allow it, but kept them alone." Carlana told them they were nearing the enemy camps. He said they should go nearer the mountains and travel by night.
Valverde wrote, "At this news all the settlers gathered around the tent of the governor. He ordered them seated and chocolate brought to them. Considerable tobacco was given to the Apaches and the interpreters, for this is the best gift that can be made to them."
Some days later, on October 7, Carlana told him the enemy had set up more than sixty tents where they were riding. He "rewarded him with meat and flour. This made him very happy."
Three days later, Valverde no longer trusted Carlana, though he didn’t say why. Perhaps he blamed the native for the rough terrain and bad weather. On October 10, he simply reported "in order better to bolster up the fidelity of the Apaches two of his nation should go with four outside Indians, two of the pueblo of Taos and two of those from the Picuríes."
The next day they began going down the Arkansas river where they met ten men from El Cuartelejo on October 14. Two days later, Valverde decided he wanted "to visit the numerous ranchería" of the group coming to meet him. When he got near, on October 18, he sent two "Indians of the Taos nation" ahead with a message saying he was coming in peace to talk. They responded they would come with another group, the Calchufines.
The unnamed representatives arrived on October 20. They asked him to delay leaving, because all their people were coming "because of his great fame." Valverde reminded the viceroy he had been instructed to "solicit by all means possible the reciprocal friendship of the Apaches of El Cuartelejo, both for the good purpose and Catholic zeal of his excellency to convert them to our faith, and to be able, by means of them, to attain knowledge of the location, designs, and movements of the French."
The next day, he, the priest, Villegras, Vigil, José de la Fuente, and "other active and retired officers" went with the Apace chiefs to see the rancherías on the other side of the river. There they saw the dogs." He added, he was "considerably surprised to behold that aggregate of heathenism and to see so many souls apart from our holy mother Church."
On October 22, he heard more concrete details about the activities of the French from a Calchufine who had been shot during an attack by the Pawnee and Jumano. The unnamed man said, "they had seized their lands, and taken them from that time on." He provided more facts about the French, which they "were told by some women of their tribe who were made captives among the French on the occasions when they had war, but who had fled and returned to their kinsmen."
Once he had the intelligence he needed, Valverde wanted to return immediately to Santa Fé. He said he couldn’t wait the arrival of more refugees who were facing a winter with no reserved food supplies. He said he would return, but had to leave because his people had nothing to eat, meaning he and his followers couldn’t live on the buffalo and corn that would sustain his audience if they were lucky enough to be left unmolested.
Notes: José de Tagle Villegas was described as Valverde’s lieutenant; from the Tagle name and his position as a confidant, one would guess he was a countryman of Valverde. Francisco Montes Vigil was a lieutenant. José de la Fuente was a royal ensign. Bernardo Casillas was an ensign. The priest was Juan del Piño who had been assigned to Pecos pueblo. Calchufine also were called the Paloma. The Pawnee were probably the Skidi band of southern Pawnee.
Valverde y Cosío, Antonio. Diary of the campaign against the Ute and Comanche, 1719, reproduced by Alfred B. Thomas in After Coronado, 1935.
Showing posts with label 02 Apache 1-5. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 02 Apache 1-5. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
Wednesday, August 19, 2015
Frontier Expeditions: Antonio Valverde
Antonio Valverde led the 1719 campaign against the Comanche and Ute. The council that authorized the governor’s actions was discussed in the posting for 9 July 2015. In many ways it was a repetition of the one led against the Faraón by Juan Páez Hurtado in 1715. It began too late in the season, never found its quarry, and disappointed potential Apache allies.
They went north along the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo until they reached the Arkansas river near modern day Pueblo. From there they followed the Comanche down river as far as modern day Rocky Ford. The pages of Valverde’s diary describing the return journey were torn away.
Perhaps because he grew grapes near El Paso, Valverde recorded the ways they lived off the land. Armies on the move still scavenged as they went. Their commanders were responsible for maintaining the horse herds and providing materiel, but not with provisioning their men. When he ordered his men to leave unmolested the crops of Apache living near La Flecha, it wasn’t acts of maliciousness by his men that concerned him, but their effects on potential allies.
They left Taos on September 20. Two days later, Carlana arrived while Valverde was eating "boiled meat and vegetables." He gave the leader of the Sierra Blanca a plate, but the Apache would only eat the mutton, not the chicken, "which surprised all."
The next day Carlana returned the hospitality when he "gave them ears of green corn."
A week later, on 27 September, soon after crossing the Purgatorie river, seven soldiers and some settlers encountered the hitherto unknown poison ivy. He gave them "pinole and mutton" and had the barber, Antonio Durán de Armijo, attend them. A few days later, Valverde recorded they tried chocolate for relief. Many followed Francisco de Casados, who discovered rubbing saliva on the welts gave some relief.
The next day they arrived at the Canadian river, where they found "a grove of plum trees, many willows and many wild grapes, from which vinegar was made." There also were deer. The auxiliaries surrounded "them, drove them into camp, at which there was great glee and shouting." He adds, they "caught many deer so that the Indians were sufficiently provisioned with good fat meat."
Carlana told Valverde it was time to send out scouts, implying they had reached Comanche territory. The governor ordered "four squads of settlers formed as a guard, in whose custody the camp would be during the night." Since they would now begin traveling at night, he "ordered the sheep that were being driven killed and dressed, to be carried upon the pack animals."
The next day one of the Santa Cruz settlers, Cristóbal Rodarte, died. When Valverde was told the man was ill, he had him brought to his own tent and given "medicines that appeared proper for his case (these medicines and others he carried as a precaution.)" He then had the priest, Juan del Piño, administer the "sacrament of penitence."
After he died, the governor had the sergeant major, Alejandro Rael de Aguilar, "bring together all the settlers in order to provision them [...] they were already in considerable need, having sustained themselves the day before with nothing but meat from the deer which they had caught, and that no other governor of the past had done as much." That was the day he was having the sheep killed for himself.
The following day they passed a river junction with "many plums, which though wild are of fine flavor and taste. With these and many very delicious wild grapes the people satisfied themselves."
They were now in country teaming with game. On October 3, "they hunted and caught many deer and a lot of good fat prairie hens with which they made very delicious tamales." The next day they saw more "deer and prairie chickens which moved about in flocks." Valverde ordered a settler who "was very sick with a pain in his stomach" be given a "cup of tea."
They reached the Huerfano, a tributary of the Arkansas, on October 5. Soldiers gathered from the "large groves of plum trees and cherries" before crossing the next day onto grassy plains. They saw their first buffalo on the seventh. They killed more than twelve head, "so the whole camp was provided with meat."
They continued to find evidence of Comanche encampments. On October 10, they again saw many herds of buffalo, of which "the Christian Indians and the heathen Apaches killed about fifteen head." Valverde sent out two groups of soldiers to herd them toward the camp. "In this way they succeeded in provisioning the camp with meat."
They were now marching downstream. On October 13, "here were also many buffalo herds, walking about feeding and wandering in all directions on those plains." However, Carlana told him, the Comanche had altered their route to enter land with "few springs and those too scanty to support the horse herd."
They were around Rocky Ford on the fourteenth when Valverde realized they no longer had provisions to continue. He sent "the settlers, two squads of soldiers" along with "the Indian people, to kill some buffalo for meat."
Valverde began with 105 soldiers and settlers, then added 30 auxiliaries from the pueblos and 69 Sierra Blanca. More than 200 men, for there must have been uncounted servants. They had to be fed everyday. It hardly mattered if they shared food, or each group foraged for itself, they were an aggregated demand of calories to be extracted from the wilds.
While Valverde and his men debated the wisdom of returning to Sante Fé, the first representatives from El Cuartelejo arrived to say more were coming to meet them. They continued to live on buffalo while waiting for them.
Five days later, on 20 October, they had used up the meat they had prepared. Valverde sent the alcalde mayor of Taos, Miguel Tenorio y Alba, with a plea for the pueblo priest to send aid. He wrote Juan de la Cruz "of his great want, which made it necessary for them to eat buffalo meat and gruel made from corn meal, and for some this was scarce."
When the chief arrived the next day, Valverde listened when told the Paloma were now refugees evicted from their lands by "French united with Pawnee and Jumano." The camp expanded to include another thousand hungry people, and more were expected.
Two days later Valverde inspected the gun shot wound suffered by one. However, he said, they could no longer wait for the rest, but must return because their "supply of provisions had failed."
He promised they would return to "expel the French from it as the lands belong only to the majesty of our king." With this the homeless were "were consoled and pleased."
Notes: Current place names have been used. The Purgatorie was then called Río de las Animas. The Pawnee were probably the Skidi band of southern Pawnee.
Thomas, Alfred B. After Coronado, 1935.
Valverde y Cosío, Antonio. Diary of the campaign against the Ute and Comanche, 1719, reproduced in Thomas; not sure if tamale was in the original, or if this is a translator’s modernization.
They went north along the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo until they reached the Arkansas river near modern day Pueblo. From there they followed the Comanche down river as far as modern day Rocky Ford. The pages of Valverde’s diary describing the return journey were torn away.
Perhaps because he grew grapes near El Paso, Valverde recorded the ways they lived off the land. Armies on the move still scavenged as they went. Their commanders were responsible for maintaining the horse herds and providing materiel, but not with provisioning their men. When he ordered his men to leave unmolested the crops of Apache living near La Flecha, it wasn’t acts of maliciousness by his men that concerned him, but their effects on potential allies.
They left Taos on September 20. Two days later, Carlana arrived while Valverde was eating "boiled meat and vegetables." He gave the leader of the Sierra Blanca a plate, but the Apache would only eat the mutton, not the chicken, "which surprised all."
The next day Carlana returned the hospitality when he "gave them ears of green corn."
A week later, on 27 September, soon after crossing the Purgatorie river, seven soldiers and some settlers encountered the hitherto unknown poison ivy. He gave them "pinole and mutton" and had the barber, Antonio Durán de Armijo, attend them. A few days later, Valverde recorded they tried chocolate for relief. Many followed Francisco de Casados, who discovered rubbing saliva on the welts gave some relief.
The next day they arrived at the Canadian river, where they found "a grove of plum trees, many willows and many wild grapes, from which vinegar was made." There also were deer. The auxiliaries surrounded "them, drove them into camp, at which there was great glee and shouting." He adds, they "caught many deer so that the Indians were sufficiently provisioned with good fat meat."
Carlana told Valverde it was time to send out scouts, implying they had reached Comanche territory. The governor ordered "four squads of settlers formed as a guard, in whose custody the camp would be during the night." Since they would now begin traveling at night, he "ordered the sheep that were being driven killed and dressed, to be carried upon the pack animals."
The next day one of the Santa Cruz settlers, Cristóbal Rodarte, died. When Valverde was told the man was ill, he had him brought to his own tent and given "medicines that appeared proper for his case (these medicines and others he carried as a precaution.)" He then had the priest, Juan del Piño, administer the "sacrament of penitence."
After he died, the governor had the sergeant major, Alejandro Rael de Aguilar, "bring together all the settlers in order to provision them [...] they were already in considerable need, having sustained themselves the day before with nothing but meat from the deer which they had caught, and that no other governor of the past had done as much." That was the day he was having the sheep killed for himself.
The following day they passed a river junction with "many plums, which though wild are of fine flavor and taste. With these and many very delicious wild grapes the people satisfied themselves."
They were now in country teaming with game. On October 3, "they hunted and caught many deer and a lot of good fat prairie hens with which they made very delicious tamales." The next day they saw more "deer and prairie chickens which moved about in flocks." Valverde ordered a settler who "was very sick with a pain in his stomach" be given a "cup of tea."
They reached the Huerfano, a tributary of the Arkansas, on October 5. Soldiers gathered from the "large groves of plum trees and cherries" before crossing the next day onto grassy plains. They saw their first buffalo on the seventh. They killed more than twelve head, "so the whole camp was provided with meat."
They continued to find evidence of Comanche encampments. On October 10, they again saw many herds of buffalo, of which "the Christian Indians and the heathen Apaches killed about fifteen head." Valverde sent out two groups of soldiers to herd them toward the camp. "In this way they succeeded in provisioning the camp with meat."
They were now marching downstream. On October 13, "here were also many buffalo herds, walking about feeding and wandering in all directions on those plains." However, Carlana told him, the Comanche had altered their route to enter land with "few springs and those too scanty to support the horse herd."
They were around Rocky Ford on the fourteenth when Valverde realized they no longer had provisions to continue. He sent "the settlers, two squads of soldiers" along with "the Indian people, to kill some buffalo for meat."
Valverde began with 105 soldiers and settlers, then added 30 auxiliaries from the pueblos and 69 Sierra Blanca. More than 200 men, for there must have been uncounted servants. They had to be fed everyday. It hardly mattered if they shared food, or each group foraged for itself, they were an aggregated demand of calories to be extracted from the wilds.
While Valverde and his men debated the wisdom of returning to Sante Fé, the first representatives from El Cuartelejo arrived to say more were coming to meet them. They continued to live on buffalo while waiting for them.
Five days later, on 20 October, they had used up the meat they had prepared. Valverde sent the alcalde mayor of Taos, Miguel Tenorio y Alba, with a plea for the pueblo priest to send aid. He wrote Juan de la Cruz "of his great want, which made it necessary for them to eat buffalo meat and gruel made from corn meal, and for some this was scarce."
When the chief arrived the next day, Valverde listened when told the Paloma were now refugees evicted from their lands by "French united with Pawnee and Jumano." The camp expanded to include another thousand hungry people, and more were expected.
Two days later Valverde inspected the gun shot wound suffered by one. However, he said, they could no longer wait for the rest, but must return because their "supply of provisions had failed."
He promised they would return to "expel the French from it as the lands belong only to the majesty of our king." With this the homeless were "were consoled and pleased."
Notes: Current place names have been used. The Purgatorie was then called Río de las Animas. The Pawnee were probably the Skidi band of southern Pawnee.
Thomas, Alfred B. After Coronado, 1935.
Valverde y Cosío, Antonio. Diary of the campaign against the Ute and Comanche, 1719, reproduced in Thomas; not sure if tamale was in the original, or if this is a translator’s modernization.
Sunday, August 16, 2015
Frontier Expeditions: Juan Páez Hurtado
Faraón Apache were raiding areas east of the Sangre de Cristo in the summer of 1715. They came to fairs at Pecos, and preyed on the Jicarilla Apache to their north.
The governor, Juan Flores Mogollón, and his advisors debated much of the summer. Gerónimo Ye, lieutenant governor of Taos, recommended they attack in mid-August while the Apache bands were harvesting their crops. Once they buried their shelled corn, they would leave for the buffalo plains, not to return to their rancherías until planting time in May.
The Spaniards did not listen. According to Elizabeth John, they harvested their own corn in September, and couldn’t believe a crop planted in May would be ripe by August.
Juan Páez Hurtado led the expedition that left in September. They traveled for two weeks, but never saw a Faraón. Páez concluded someone from Pecos must have warned them. Gerónimo had cautioned Flores against including that group in his plans, since the two groups had intermarried.
John noted it still was an important expedition because it was the first time a governor had included non-Christianized Indians among the auxiliaries. Unfortunately, she noted, "failing contact with the enemy, the Jicarilla and Cuartelejos had no chance to show their mettle and ample reason to grow disgusted with Spanish management of the effort."
Páez reviewed the troops in Picurís on August 30. The roster indicated he took 239 horses and 34 mules for 36 soldiers and 21 settlers. The soldiers averaged 4.6 horses, militia from Albuquerque and Santa Fé 5.8, and men from La Cañada 2.3. Men from the last were the ones who were more likely to bring mules as well as horses, although two capitánes from Santa Fé brought 11 animals. Mounts for the 149 auxiliaries weren’t recorded.
Below is the list of men associated with Santa Cruz, along with some from Santa Fé and Albuquerque for comparison. Note especially the differences in numbers of horses each commanded.
Presidio Officers (9 in complete list, named by rank)
Madrid, Roque. Maestro de Campo, left behind with flux.
Domínguez, Jose. Adjutant-general, fully armed and provisioned with 5 horses.
Santisteban, Salvador de. Sublieutenant, detached, fully armed and provisioned with 6 horses.
Luján, Pedro. Capitán de Campaña, fully armed with 4 horses.
Rael de Aguilar, Alonso. Capitán de Campaña, fully armed and provisioned, with 5 horses.
Rael de Aguilar, Eusebio. Royal ensign, fully armed and munitioned with 3 horses and 1 mule.
Presidio Soldiers (28 in complete list, named in alphabetical order)
Baca, Bernabe. In place of Juan José de Archuleta, who was unprepared; fully armed and provisioned with 5 horses.
Córdoba, Simón de. Fully armed and provisioned with 5 horses.
Durán, Miguel, Fully armed and provisioned with 4 horses; warned for abusing members of Galisteo pueblo in 1708.
García de Noriega, Alonso. Corporal, fully armed and provisioned with 7 horses; named in complaint of abuse in 1708, not punished.
Griego, José. Fully armed and provisioned, with 5 horses.
Jirón, Dimas.
Lobato, Blas. Fully armed and provisioned with 4 horses.
López, Antonio. Fully armed and provisioned with 4 horses.
Luján, Juan. Fully armed, lacking leather jacket, provisioned with 5 horses.
Martínez, Juan de Dios Sandoval. Fully armed and provisioned with 5 horses.
Ribera, Juan Felipe de.
Rodríguez, Lorenzo. Corporal, fully armed and provisioned with 4 horses; named in complaint of 1708 for obeying abusive orders from Miguel Durán.
Romero de Pedraza, Domingo. Fully armed and provisioned with 5 horses.
Sánchez, Juan. Fully armed and provisioned with 4 horses.
Silva, Manuel de. Fully armed and provisioned with 6 horses.
Tafoya, Antonio. Corporal, fully armed and provisioned with 6 horses.
Trujillo, Domingo. Fully armed and provisioned with 5 horses.
Settlers from La Canada (complete list, alphabetized)
Apodaca, Juan Antonio. Fully armed with 1 horse and 1 mule.
Archuleta, Diego. Fully armed, lacking leather jacket, with 4 horses.
Baca, Simón. Fully armed, lacking leather jacket, provisioned with 1 horse and 2 mules.
Candelaría, Juan de. Fully armed, lacking leather jacket, with 4 horses.
Griego, Lorenzo. Fully armed, lacked jacket with 2 horses. Rejected because he was not ready. Son-in-law of Cristóbal de la Serna.
López, Juan. Fully armed, lacking leather jacket, provisioned, with 2 horses and 2 mules.
López, Luis. Fully armed, lacking leather jacket, with 2 mares, 1 horse, and 1 mule.
Luján, José. Fully armed and lacking provisions, with 2 horses and 3 mules.
Márquez, Diego. Fully armed, with 1 mare and 2 mules.
Martín, Antonio. For his father, Diego Martín; full armed and provisioned, lacking leather jacket with 3 horses.
Martín, Francisco. Fully armed, lacking leather jacket and sword, with 2 horses.
Rodarte, Cristóbal. Fully armed, lacking leather jacket, with 2 horses and 2 mules.
Settlers from Santa Fe (7 in complete list, alphabetized)
Armijo, Bisente de. Fully Armed and provisioned with 11 horses.
Griego, Nicolás. Who volunteers, fully armed and provisioned with 2 horses and 1 mule.
L’Archevêque, Jean de. Capitán, fully armed and provisioned with 6 horses and 5 mules; he takes an armed personal servant.
Settlers from Albuquerque (3 in complete list, alphabetized)
García, Luis. Capitán, fully armed, lacking leather jacket, provisioned with 10 horses and 1 mule.
Ulibarrí, Antonio de. Capitán, fully armed, lacking leather jacket, provisioned, with 6 horses.
Auxiliaries (Complete list has 8 pueblos; 3 had guns)
Santa Clara, 12.
San Juan, 17, for three having hidden, remained behind. The alcalde mayor will have to give account of them.
Notes: The Faraón also were called Chipaynes, Lemitas, and Sejines.
Presidio soldiers from Santa Cruz were those whose surnames appear at some time in a Santa Cruz land or marriage record. Valverde also took roll on August 28 in Santa Fé. Among those who were on that list but not on the one for August 30 were: Alejo Gutíerrez, Antonio de Herrera, Joachim Sánchez, Ensign Cristóbal de Torres, and Francisco Trujillo from the presidio.
The August 30 roster does not include Ambrosio Fresqui or Bartolomé Sánchez, although their names appeared in the journal of the expedition. José López Naranjo was listed with the pueblo contingent as capitán.
Names have been standardized. Details on disciplinary incident appeared in the post for 26 May 2015.
John, Elizabeth A. H. Storms Brewed in Other Men’s Worlds, 1996 edition.
Thomas, Alfred B. After Coronado, 1935; contains rosters for August 28 and August 30.
The governor, Juan Flores Mogollón, and his advisors debated much of the summer. Gerónimo Ye, lieutenant governor of Taos, recommended they attack in mid-August while the Apache bands were harvesting their crops. Once they buried their shelled corn, they would leave for the buffalo plains, not to return to their rancherías until planting time in May.
The Spaniards did not listen. According to Elizabeth John, they harvested their own corn in September, and couldn’t believe a crop planted in May would be ripe by August.
Juan Páez Hurtado led the expedition that left in September. They traveled for two weeks, but never saw a Faraón. Páez concluded someone from Pecos must have warned them. Gerónimo had cautioned Flores against including that group in his plans, since the two groups had intermarried.
John noted it still was an important expedition because it was the first time a governor had included non-Christianized Indians among the auxiliaries. Unfortunately, she noted, "failing contact with the enemy, the Jicarilla and Cuartelejos had no chance to show their mettle and ample reason to grow disgusted with Spanish management of the effort."
Páez reviewed the troops in Picurís on August 30. The roster indicated he took 239 horses and 34 mules for 36 soldiers and 21 settlers. The soldiers averaged 4.6 horses, militia from Albuquerque and Santa Fé 5.8, and men from La Cañada 2.3. Men from the last were the ones who were more likely to bring mules as well as horses, although two capitánes from Santa Fé brought 11 animals. Mounts for the 149 auxiliaries weren’t recorded.
Below is the list of men associated with Santa Cruz, along with some from Santa Fé and Albuquerque for comparison. Note especially the differences in numbers of horses each commanded.
Presidio Officers (9 in complete list, named by rank)
Madrid, Roque. Maestro de Campo, left behind with flux.
Domínguez, Jose. Adjutant-general, fully armed and provisioned with 5 horses.
Santisteban, Salvador de. Sublieutenant, detached, fully armed and provisioned with 6 horses.
Luján, Pedro. Capitán de Campaña, fully armed with 4 horses.
Rael de Aguilar, Alonso. Capitán de Campaña, fully armed and provisioned, with 5 horses.
Rael de Aguilar, Eusebio. Royal ensign, fully armed and munitioned with 3 horses and 1 mule.
Presidio Soldiers (28 in complete list, named in alphabetical order)
Baca, Bernabe. In place of Juan José de Archuleta, who was unprepared; fully armed and provisioned with 5 horses.
Córdoba, Simón de. Fully armed and provisioned with 5 horses.
Durán, Miguel, Fully armed and provisioned with 4 horses; warned for abusing members of Galisteo pueblo in 1708.
García de Noriega, Alonso. Corporal, fully armed and provisioned with 7 horses; named in complaint of abuse in 1708, not punished.
Griego, José. Fully armed and provisioned, with 5 horses.
Jirón, Dimas.
Lobato, Blas. Fully armed and provisioned with 4 horses.
López, Antonio. Fully armed and provisioned with 4 horses.
Luján, Juan. Fully armed, lacking leather jacket, provisioned with 5 horses.
Martínez, Juan de Dios Sandoval. Fully armed and provisioned with 5 horses.
Ribera, Juan Felipe de.
Rodríguez, Lorenzo. Corporal, fully armed and provisioned with 4 horses; named in complaint of 1708 for obeying abusive orders from Miguel Durán.
Romero de Pedraza, Domingo. Fully armed and provisioned with 5 horses.
Sánchez, Juan. Fully armed and provisioned with 4 horses.
Silva, Manuel de. Fully armed and provisioned with 6 horses.
Tafoya, Antonio. Corporal, fully armed and provisioned with 6 horses.
Trujillo, Domingo. Fully armed and provisioned with 5 horses.
Settlers from La Canada (complete list, alphabetized)
Apodaca, Juan Antonio. Fully armed with 1 horse and 1 mule.
Archuleta, Diego. Fully armed, lacking leather jacket, with 4 horses.
Baca, Simón. Fully armed, lacking leather jacket, provisioned with 1 horse and 2 mules.
Candelaría, Juan de. Fully armed, lacking leather jacket, with 4 horses.
Griego, Lorenzo. Fully armed, lacked jacket with 2 horses. Rejected because he was not ready. Son-in-law of Cristóbal de la Serna.
López, Juan. Fully armed, lacking leather jacket, provisioned, with 2 horses and 2 mules.
López, Luis. Fully armed, lacking leather jacket, with 2 mares, 1 horse, and 1 mule.
Luján, José. Fully armed and lacking provisions, with 2 horses and 3 mules.
Márquez, Diego. Fully armed, with 1 mare and 2 mules.
Martín, Antonio. For his father, Diego Martín; full armed and provisioned, lacking leather jacket with 3 horses.
Martín, Francisco. Fully armed, lacking leather jacket and sword, with 2 horses.
Rodarte, Cristóbal. Fully armed, lacking leather jacket, with 2 horses and 2 mules.
Settlers from Santa Fe (7 in complete list, alphabetized)
Armijo, Bisente de. Fully Armed and provisioned with 11 horses.
Griego, Nicolás. Who volunteers, fully armed and provisioned with 2 horses and 1 mule.
L’Archevêque, Jean de. Capitán, fully armed and provisioned with 6 horses and 5 mules; he takes an armed personal servant.
Settlers from Albuquerque (3 in complete list, alphabetized)
García, Luis. Capitán, fully armed, lacking leather jacket, provisioned with 10 horses and 1 mule.
Ulibarrí, Antonio de. Capitán, fully armed, lacking leather jacket, provisioned, with 6 horses.
Auxiliaries (Complete list has 8 pueblos; 3 had guns)
Santa Clara, 12.
San Juan, 17, for three having hidden, remained behind. The alcalde mayor will have to give account of them.
Notes: The Faraón also were called Chipaynes, Lemitas, and Sejines.
Presidio soldiers from Santa Cruz were those whose surnames appear at some time in a Santa Cruz land or marriage record. Valverde also took roll on August 28 in Santa Fé. Among those who were on that list but not on the one for August 30 were: Alejo Gutíerrez, Antonio de Herrera, Joachim Sánchez, Ensign Cristóbal de Torres, and Francisco Trujillo from the presidio.
The August 30 roster does not include Ambrosio Fresqui or Bartolomé Sánchez, although their names appeared in the journal of the expedition. José López Naranjo was listed with the pueblo contingent as capitán.
Names have been standardized. Details on disciplinary incident appeared in the post for 26 May 2015.
John, Elizabeth A. H. Storms Brewed in Other Men’s Worlds, 1996 edition.
Thomas, Alfred B. After Coronado, 1935; contains rosters for August 28 and August 30.
Thursday, July 09, 2015
Regulating the Captive Trade
The entrepreneurial role in the captive trade was assumed by Apache bands who desired horses. They set the terms of trade, but families of captives enforced the norms that regulated it. Utes and Shoshone disciplined the Penxaye Apache in July of 1706.
The markets for horses and captives weren’t saturated. According to Hubert Bancroft, Francisco Cuervo was forced to abandon attempts to subdue the Moqui in April of 1707, because troops were needed in Santa Fé to recover horses stolen while he was in the west. No sooner were they recovered, than they disappeared again. In August, José Chacón issued orders prohibiting the sale of presidio horses, and repeated them in 1708.
The trade in captives continued. In 1712, Juan Flores Mogollón again prohibited settlers from visiting "ranches of the wild Indians for the purposes of barter and trade." Two years later, he surrendered authority. Instead of bans, he ordered captives be baptized as if they were African slaves.
The attempted transformation of captives into slaves accelerated under Félix Martínez. In 1716, he ordered an attack on Utes and their allies. Cristóbal de la Serna descended upon a peaceful encampment near Antonio mountain. Martínez sent the captives to Nueva Viscaya where they were sold. He divided the profits with his brother.
Sebastían Martín’s descendants told Ralph Twitchell in the early twentieth century, that he had been the one responsible, and that the raid had been led by two of this sons-in-laws, Juan Antonio de Padilla and Carlos Fernandéz. The latter wasn’t involved; he didn’t marry into the family until much later. However, Serna’s daughter had married Martín’s nephew, Nicolás Jacinto Martín, in 1712.
The sale of captives into slavery violated one of the unwritten rules of the captive trade. As long as captives were kept in Nuevo México, it was possible to see them, or at least hear about them. They, no doubt, were sources of information about colonial life, and maltreatment would have been known. It was even possible for captives to escape. Exile to distant lands was a death sentence.
Regulatory enforcement of Martínez’s misbehavior took awhile, but relatives of the 1716 victims raided Serna’s ranch at Embudo in 1719. They took four hoses and a captive boy. The same night they shot arrows at Diego Romero in Arroyo Hondo. He was able to flee to safety.
Something had changed. When not enough horses were available for trade, they were stolen. José López Naranjo noticed an increase in thefts around 1718. Perhaps there were, indeed, fewer horses available, perhaps there were more natives. Not only did native sons come of age, but more Shoshone may have been filtering south.
Shoshone attitudes toward the Apache, who were selling captives, hardened. Miguel de la Vega y Coca, alcalde of Taos and Picurís said they came "for the purpose of interfering with the little barter which this kingdom has with the nations which come in to ransom."
Santa Fé merchant Jean l'Archevêque added, "that for more than seven or eight years they have come to steal horses and rob herds and run away with the goods in the trade which this kingdom has with the Apaches of El Cuartelejo." He called the proposed expedition against the Utes a "just war." In fact, to him, it was a just trade war.
Diego Romero was described as a coyote by the local alcalde, Miguel Tenorio de Alba. What he was doing so far north and west of Taos pueblo isn’t known. He may have used captive labor, he may have been a middleman, he may have been an unexpected witness.
Angélico Chávez said he was the great-grandson of Francisco Cadimo, who came as a soldier with Oñate. Francisco had two daughters. One must have had an illegitimate child, Alonso Cadimo, who lived with Felipe Romero in the Río Abajo before the revolt and took his last name. Chávez identified Alonso as a criado.
Diego had some ties to La Cañada. In 1661, Felipe Romero had been associated with Bartolomé Gómez Robledo. There was another Alonso Romero, who was the son of Miguel Romero de la Cruz. The Inquisition prosecuted him for bigamy after he married Bartolomé’s niece, María. Diego’s mother later married Mateo Trujillo. He himself "acquired considerable land at Taos," according to Chávez.
The attack on Romero frightened the pueblo priest into writing the governor. Juan de la Cruz said, "all the valley of Taos is harassed by a growing number of Utes" and "it is feared that they might attack the pueblo or do some injury."
Coincidentally, the priest at Cochití pueblo, Manuel de la Peña, said a Queres had been killed by Utes. When they went searching for them, they found evidence a great many had been in the area.
Antonio Valverde called a council of war in August. Each man repeated the same words, that they came as friends, but stole their horses. Serna added, with the murders, they "have declared themselves enemies, let war be made." Those who testified after him repeated his words.
The council authorized an expedition led by the governor. On the plains they were joined by warriors from Sierra Blanca under Carlana. Whenever they met Apache families, they were told of depredations. However, they never saw more than remains of camp sites.
The alliance between the Ute and the Shoshone frayed. Around 1719, the Ute began grouping them with the Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Kiowa as Komántica. Marvin Opler was told, that meant "anyone who wants to fight with me all the time." Ernest Wallace said, they narrowed the term to refer only to Comanche around 1726.
The captives for horses trade continued, with little official interference. The identities of the captives and the sellers changed. In 1732, the governor, Gervasio Cruzat y Góngora, tried to assert some Apache were under the protection of the government, and weren’t to be sold. Five years later, the next governor condoned trades that were treated as ransoms. Enrique de Olavide only asked to be notified.
Notes: Mooney believed the first document to use Cumanche was the 1719 dairy of Valverde. It referred to "naciones Yutas y Cumanches." The meetings of the council of war held a month earlier used the term "los Yndios Yutas." I am using Shoshone until 1719. I suspect most translations of earlier documents used the common term, and not the historic one, especially when some of the historic terms were confusing.
Bancroft, Hubert Howe. History of Arizona and New Mexico, 1530-1888, 1889.
Chacón Medina Salazar y Villaseñor, José. Order, prohibiting the sale of horses from the horse herd, 11 August 1707; order, prohibiting the taking of horses or mules from the caballada. 6 May 1708; in Twitchell, Archives.
Chávez, Angélico. Origins of New Mexico Families, 1992 revised edition.
Cruz, Juan de la. Letter to the governor, Antonio Valverde Cosio, 12 August 1719; in Thomas.
Cruzat y Góngora, Gervasio. Bando, prohibiting the sale of Apache captives to the Pueblo Indians, 6 December 1732; in Twitchell, Archives.
Flores Magollón, Juan Ignacio. Order, prohibiting the settlers visiting the ranches of the wild Indians, 16 December 1712; bando, ordering the baptism of Apache captives in the same manner as Negro slaves, 26 September 1714; in Twitchell, Archives.
L'Archevêque, Jean. Opinion on proposed expedition, 19 August 1719; in Thomas.
Mooney, James. The Ghost-Dance Religion and the Sioux Outbreak of 1890, 1896.
Naranjo, José López. Opinion on proposed expedition, 19 August 1719; in Thomas.
Olavide y Michelena, Enrique. Bando, in relation to trade with the wild tribes, 7 January 1737; cited by Pekka Hämäläinen, The Comanche Empire, 2008.
Opler, Marvin K. "The Origins of Comanche and Ute," American Anthropologist 45:155-158:1943.
Peña, Manuel de la. Letter to Antonio Valverde quoted by Thomas.
Serna, Cristobal de la. Opinion on proposed expedition, 19 August 1719; in Thomas.
Thomas, Alfred B. After Coronado, 1935.
Twitchell, Ralph Emerson. The Leading Facts of New Mexico History, volume 1, 1911; on Martínez family legend.
_____. Spanish Archives of New Mexico: Compiled and Chronologically Arranged, volume 2, 1914.
Ulibarrí, Juan de. Diary of expedition to El Cuartelejo, 1706; in Thomas; on Penxaye Apache.
Valverde y Cosío, Antonio. Diary of the campaign against the Ute and Comanche Indians, 1719; in Thomas.
Wallace, Ernest and E. Adamson Hoebel. The Comanches, 1986 edition.
The markets for horses and captives weren’t saturated. According to Hubert Bancroft, Francisco Cuervo was forced to abandon attempts to subdue the Moqui in April of 1707, because troops were needed in Santa Fé to recover horses stolen while he was in the west. No sooner were they recovered, than they disappeared again. In August, José Chacón issued orders prohibiting the sale of presidio horses, and repeated them in 1708.
The trade in captives continued. In 1712, Juan Flores Mogollón again prohibited settlers from visiting "ranches of the wild Indians for the purposes of barter and trade." Two years later, he surrendered authority. Instead of bans, he ordered captives be baptized as if they were African slaves.
The attempted transformation of captives into slaves accelerated under Félix Martínez. In 1716, he ordered an attack on Utes and their allies. Cristóbal de la Serna descended upon a peaceful encampment near Antonio mountain. Martínez sent the captives to Nueva Viscaya where they were sold. He divided the profits with his brother.
Sebastían Martín’s descendants told Ralph Twitchell in the early twentieth century, that he had been the one responsible, and that the raid had been led by two of this sons-in-laws, Juan Antonio de Padilla and Carlos Fernandéz. The latter wasn’t involved; he didn’t marry into the family until much later. However, Serna’s daughter had married Martín’s nephew, Nicolás Jacinto Martín, in 1712.
The sale of captives into slavery violated one of the unwritten rules of the captive trade. As long as captives were kept in Nuevo México, it was possible to see them, or at least hear about them. They, no doubt, were sources of information about colonial life, and maltreatment would have been known. It was even possible for captives to escape. Exile to distant lands was a death sentence.
Regulatory enforcement of Martínez’s misbehavior took awhile, but relatives of the 1716 victims raided Serna’s ranch at Embudo in 1719. They took four hoses and a captive boy. The same night they shot arrows at Diego Romero in Arroyo Hondo. He was able to flee to safety.
Something had changed. When not enough horses were available for trade, they were stolen. José López Naranjo noticed an increase in thefts around 1718. Perhaps there were, indeed, fewer horses available, perhaps there were more natives. Not only did native sons come of age, but more Shoshone may have been filtering south.
Shoshone attitudes toward the Apache, who were selling captives, hardened. Miguel de la Vega y Coca, alcalde of Taos and Picurís said they came "for the purpose of interfering with the little barter which this kingdom has with the nations which come in to ransom."
Santa Fé merchant Jean l'Archevêque added, "that for more than seven or eight years they have come to steal horses and rob herds and run away with the goods in the trade which this kingdom has with the Apaches of El Cuartelejo." He called the proposed expedition against the Utes a "just war." In fact, to him, it was a just trade war.
Diego Romero was described as a coyote by the local alcalde, Miguel Tenorio de Alba. What he was doing so far north and west of Taos pueblo isn’t known. He may have used captive labor, he may have been a middleman, he may have been an unexpected witness.
Angélico Chávez said he was the great-grandson of Francisco Cadimo, who came as a soldier with Oñate. Francisco had two daughters. One must have had an illegitimate child, Alonso Cadimo, who lived with Felipe Romero in the Río Abajo before the revolt and took his last name. Chávez identified Alonso as a criado.
Diego had some ties to La Cañada. In 1661, Felipe Romero had been associated with Bartolomé Gómez Robledo. There was another Alonso Romero, who was the son of Miguel Romero de la Cruz. The Inquisition prosecuted him for bigamy after he married Bartolomé’s niece, María. Diego’s mother later married Mateo Trujillo. He himself "acquired considerable land at Taos," according to Chávez.
The attack on Romero frightened the pueblo priest into writing the governor. Juan de la Cruz said, "all the valley of Taos is harassed by a growing number of Utes" and "it is feared that they might attack the pueblo or do some injury."
Coincidentally, the priest at Cochití pueblo, Manuel de la Peña, said a Queres had been killed by Utes. When they went searching for them, they found evidence a great many had been in the area.
Antonio Valverde called a council of war in August. Each man repeated the same words, that they came as friends, but stole their horses. Serna added, with the murders, they "have declared themselves enemies, let war be made." Those who testified after him repeated his words.
The council authorized an expedition led by the governor. On the plains they were joined by warriors from Sierra Blanca under Carlana. Whenever they met Apache families, they were told of depredations. However, they never saw more than remains of camp sites.
The alliance between the Ute and the Shoshone frayed. Around 1719, the Ute began grouping them with the Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Kiowa as Komántica. Marvin Opler was told, that meant "anyone who wants to fight with me all the time." Ernest Wallace said, they narrowed the term to refer only to Comanche around 1726.
The captives for horses trade continued, with little official interference. The identities of the captives and the sellers changed. In 1732, the governor, Gervasio Cruzat y Góngora, tried to assert some Apache were under the protection of the government, and weren’t to be sold. Five years later, the next governor condoned trades that were treated as ransoms. Enrique de Olavide only asked to be notified.
Notes: Mooney believed the first document to use Cumanche was the 1719 dairy of Valverde. It referred to "naciones Yutas y Cumanches." The meetings of the council of war held a month earlier used the term "los Yndios Yutas." I am using Shoshone until 1719. I suspect most translations of earlier documents used the common term, and not the historic one, especially when some of the historic terms were confusing.
Bancroft, Hubert Howe. History of Arizona and New Mexico, 1530-1888, 1889.
Chacón Medina Salazar y Villaseñor, José. Order, prohibiting the sale of horses from the horse herd, 11 August 1707; order, prohibiting the taking of horses or mules from the caballada. 6 May 1708; in Twitchell, Archives.
Chávez, Angélico. Origins of New Mexico Families, 1992 revised edition.
Cruz, Juan de la. Letter to the governor, Antonio Valverde Cosio, 12 August 1719; in Thomas.
Cruzat y Góngora, Gervasio. Bando, prohibiting the sale of Apache captives to the Pueblo Indians, 6 December 1732; in Twitchell, Archives.
Flores Magollón, Juan Ignacio. Order, prohibiting the settlers visiting the ranches of the wild Indians, 16 December 1712; bando, ordering the baptism of Apache captives in the same manner as Negro slaves, 26 September 1714; in Twitchell, Archives.
L'Archevêque, Jean. Opinion on proposed expedition, 19 August 1719; in Thomas.
Mooney, James. The Ghost-Dance Religion and the Sioux Outbreak of 1890, 1896.
Naranjo, José López. Opinion on proposed expedition, 19 August 1719; in Thomas.
Olavide y Michelena, Enrique. Bando, in relation to trade with the wild tribes, 7 January 1737; cited by Pekka Hämäläinen, The Comanche Empire, 2008.
Opler, Marvin K. "The Origins of Comanche and Ute," American Anthropologist 45:155-158:1943.
Peña, Manuel de la. Letter to Antonio Valverde quoted by Thomas.
Serna, Cristobal de la. Opinion on proposed expedition, 19 August 1719; in Thomas.
Thomas, Alfred B. After Coronado, 1935.
Twitchell, Ralph Emerson. The Leading Facts of New Mexico History, volume 1, 1911; on Martínez family legend.
_____. Spanish Archives of New Mexico: Compiled and Chronologically Arranged, volume 2, 1914.
Ulibarrí, Juan de. Diary of expedition to El Cuartelejo, 1706; in Thomas; on Penxaye Apache.
Valverde y Cosío, Antonio. Diary of the campaign against the Ute and Comanche Indians, 1719; in Thomas.
Wallace, Ernest and E. Adamson Hoebel. The Comanches, 1986 edition.
Tuesday, July 07, 2015
Captives for Horses
Slavery is an economic transaction. It requires at least one merchant, some customers, and rules for doing business.
Españoles had relied on native and captive labor before the Pueblo Revolt of 1690. Diego de Vargas legitimized its reintroduction in 1694 when he gave 342 captive Cochití women and children to settlers and soldiers.
The business relationship between buyers and the providers of captives became asymmetric. Sellers had an unlimited supply of valuable captives, but Nuevo México had little of value to offer in return. In the east, English and French traders imported metal tools and utensils, but Spanish goods were scarce and deemed inferior.
When the French ran short of inventory, the more ingenious began fabricating desirable items. To encourage native conversions, northern Jesuits had given away brass finger-rings embossed with symbolic letters or the Mexican bleeding heart. After they became valued, the rings were taken over as trade goods by the coureurs. Judith Hauser hasn’t found references to where they were manufactured, but thinks the cruder ones used in the fur trade after 1700 must have been made in home workshops.
Charles Town merchants converted guns into currency. In 1700, a native near Mobile Bay told Charles Levasseur, an aide to Henri Tonti, "men take the women and children away and sell them to the English, each person being traded for a gun." Thomas Nairne discovered a higher exchange rate in 1708: Chickasaw and Talapoosie claimed they received "‘a Gun, ammunition, horse, hatchet, and suit of Cloathes’ for just one slave - a whole year’s worth of deerskins."
Nuevo México refused to trade weapons, partly for religious reasons, partly from memories of the Revolt. In 1696, Plains Apaches came to San Juan to sell Ute women and children. No notice was made if other Shoshone speakers were among the captives. Gerald Betty didn’t report what they took in exchange, but in July of that year de Vargas acted to stop colonists from selling arms to natives in July. In October, he gave 84 women and children to soldiers.
De Vargas unintentionally created the substitute exchange medium when he confiscated horses from the pueblos. To regain their livestock, natives raided and traded. Settlers from Taos began visiting Apache villages to trade "two or three horses for a captive boy or girl." In 1703 he prohibited such activities, but two years later his successor, Francisco Cuervo, issued a new set of bans.
The complaints to de Vargas and Cuervo didn’t come from the friars, but from the cabildo in Santa Fé. This implied they were more concerned with the potential development of a competing trade center, than with the ethics of the business. Unlike, the English and the French, Nuevo México didn’t develop a true merchant class that could have organized the trade to the benefit of all.
The closest the city had was a captive reared in the same northern trading culture as many of the coureurs. Jean l’Archevêque was born in Bayonne, France, in 1672 to a Huguenot family that had moved there when his grandfather converted to Roman Catholicism in the 1650s. Jean’s parents subsequently moved to Saint Dominique on the western side of Hispañola.
A French pirate, Jean le Vasseur, had established a Huguenot colony on Tortuga, a small island off Hispañola’s northwest coast in 1640. The Spanish ousted them, but Bertrand d’Ogeron retook control and moved onto the main island where he encouraged tobacco plantations. Saint-Dominique was just converting to sugarcane when La Salle’s flotilla of colonists landed at the port of Petit-Goâve.
At some time, l’Archevêque was apprenticed to Pierre Duhaut. Sources disagree if the merchant was already on the island, or arrived with La Salle. The boy, just shy of twelve years of age, joined the expedition. When disaster follower disaster, Duhaut murdered La Salle in 1687 by using the lad as a decoy.
After he was allowed to retire from the presidio, probably in 1714 when he joined the council of war, l’Archevêque became a merchant banker importing goods from México.
Notes:
Axtell, James. The Indians’ New South, 1997.
Betty, Gerald. Comanche Society, 2002; quotation on Taos transaction.
Cabildo de Santa Fé. Petition, complaining about sale of horses, 26 November 1703; petition, relative to bartering with the Apache, 1 June 1705; in Twitchell.
Cuervo y Valdés, Francisco. Decree, relative to bartering with the Apaches, 1 June 1705; in Twitchell.
De Vargas, Diego. Bando, prohibiting sale of arms, 31 May 1696; bando, prohibiting soldiers from gambling for their horses, 3 November 1703; decree, regarding sale of horses, 26 November 1703; in Twitchell.
Hauser, Judith Ann. Jesuit Rings from Fort Michimackinac and Other European Contact Sites, 1982.
Lafleur, Gérard and Lucien Abénon. "The Protestants and the Colonization of the French West Indies," in Bertrand Van Ruymbeke and Randy J. Sparks, Memory and Identity: The Huguenots in France and the Atlantic Diaspora, 2003.
Levasseur, Charles. Voyage de M. de Sauvole, 1701, translated by Vernon J. Knight, Junior, and Sherée L. Adams in "A Voyage to the Mobile and Tomeh in 1700, with Notes on the Interior of Alabama," Ethnohistory 28:179-194:1981; quote by Axtell.
Nairne, Thomas. Nairne’s Muskhogean Journals, edited by Alexander Moore, 1988; quoted by Axtell.
Páez Hurtado, Juan. Letter, relative to bartering with Apache, 1 June 1705; in Twitchell.
Twitchell, Ralph Emerson. Spanish Archives of New Mexico: Compiled and Chronologically Arranged, volume 2, 1914.
Weddle, Robert S. The Wreck of the Belle, the Ruin of La Salle, 2001; thinks Duhaut was with La Salle.
Wikipedia. "Jean l'Archevêque;" thinks Duhaut was in Saint-Dominique.
Españoles had relied on native and captive labor before the Pueblo Revolt of 1690. Diego de Vargas legitimized its reintroduction in 1694 when he gave 342 captive Cochití women and children to settlers and soldiers.
The business relationship between buyers and the providers of captives became asymmetric. Sellers had an unlimited supply of valuable captives, but Nuevo México had little of value to offer in return. In the east, English and French traders imported metal tools and utensils, but Spanish goods were scarce and deemed inferior.
When the French ran short of inventory, the more ingenious began fabricating desirable items. To encourage native conversions, northern Jesuits had given away brass finger-rings embossed with symbolic letters or the Mexican bleeding heart. After they became valued, the rings were taken over as trade goods by the coureurs. Judith Hauser hasn’t found references to where they were manufactured, but thinks the cruder ones used in the fur trade after 1700 must have been made in home workshops.
Charles Town merchants converted guns into currency. In 1700, a native near Mobile Bay told Charles Levasseur, an aide to Henri Tonti, "men take the women and children away and sell them to the English, each person being traded for a gun." Thomas Nairne discovered a higher exchange rate in 1708: Chickasaw and Talapoosie claimed they received "‘a Gun, ammunition, horse, hatchet, and suit of Cloathes’ for just one slave - a whole year’s worth of deerskins."
Nuevo México refused to trade weapons, partly for religious reasons, partly from memories of the Revolt. In 1696, Plains Apaches came to San Juan to sell Ute women and children. No notice was made if other Shoshone speakers were among the captives. Gerald Betty didn’t report what they took in exchange, but in July of that year de Vargas acted to stop colonists from selling arms to natives in July. In October, he gave 84 women and children to soldiers.
De Vargas unintentionally created the substitute exchange medium when he confiscated horses from the pueblos. To regain their livestock, natives raided and traded. Settlers from Taos began visiting Apache villages to trade "two or three horses for a captive boy or girl." In 1703 he prohibited such activities, but two years later his successor, Francisco Cuervo, issued a new set of bans.
The complaints to de Vargas and Cuervo didn’t come from the friars, but from the cabildo in Santa Fé. This implied they were more concerned with the potential development of a competing trade center, than with the ethics of the business. Unlike, the English and the French, Nuevo México didn’t develop a true merchant class that could have organized the trade to the benefit of all.
The closest the city had was a captive reared in the same northern trading culture as many of the coureurs. Jean l’Archevêque was born in Bayonne, France, in 1672 to a Huguenot family that had moved there when his grandfather converted to Roman Catholicism in the 1650s. Jean’s parents subsequently moved to Saint Dominique on the western side of Hispañola.
A French pirate, Jean le Vasseur, had established a Huguenot colony on Tortuga, a small island off Hispañola’s northwest coast in 1640. The Spanish ousted them, but Bertrand d’Ogeron retook control and moved onto the main island where he encouraged tobacco plantations. Saint-Dominique was just converting to sugarcane when La Salle’s flotilla of colonists landed at the port of Petit-Goâve.
At some time, l’Archevêque was apprenticed to Pierre Duhaut. Sources disagree if the merchant was already on the island, or arrived with La Salle. The boy, just shy of twelve years of age, joined the expedition. When disaster follower disaster, Duhaut murdered La Salle in 1687 by using the lad as a decoy.
After he was allowed to retire from the presidio, probably in 1714 when he joined the council of war, l’Archevêque became a merchant banker importing goods from México.
Notes:
Axtell, James. The Indians’ New South, 1997.
Betty, Gerald. Comanche Society, 2002; quotation on Taos transaction.
Cabildo de Santa Fé. Petition, complaining about sale of horses, 26 November 1703; petition, relative to bartering with the Apache, 1 June 1705; in Twitchell.
Cuervo y Valdés, Francisco. Decree, relative to bartering with the Apaches, 1 June 1705; in Twitchell.
De Vargas, Diego. Bando, prohibiting sale of arms, 31 May 1696; bando, prohibiting soldiers from gambling for their horses, 3 November 1703; decree, regarding sale of horses, 26 November 1703; in Twitchell.
Hauser, Judith Ann. Jesuit Rings from Fort Michimackinac and Other European Contact Sites, 1982.
Lafleur, Gérard and Lucien Abénon. "The Protestants and the Colonization of the French West Indies," in Bertrand Van Ruymbeke and Randy J. Sparks, Memory and Identity: The Huguenots in France and the Atlantic Diaspora, 2003.
Levasseur, Charles. Voyage de M. de Sauvole, 1701, translated by Vernon J. Knight, Junior, and Sherée L. Adams in "A Voyage to the Mobile and Tomeh in 1700, with Notes on the Interior of Alabama," Ethnohistory 28:179-194:1981; quote by Axtell.
Nairne, Thomas. Nairne’s Muskhogean Journals, edited by Alexander Moore, 1988; quoted by Axtell.
Páez Hurtado, Juan. Letter, relative to bartering with Apache, 1 June 1705; in Twitchell.
Twitchell, Ralph Emerson. Spanish Archives of New Mexico: Compiled and Chronologically Arranged, volume 2, 1914.
Weddle, Robert S. The Wreck of the Belle, the Ruin of La Salle, 2001; thinks Duhaut was with La Salle.
Wikipedia. "Jean l'Archevêque;" thinks Duhaut was in Saint-Dominique.
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