The most important distinction between Antonio Valverde and Etienne de Véniard, sieur de Bourgmont, didn’t arise from their characters. Both were resilient enough to survive disgraces following military catastrophes: the one by expanding his hacienda near El Paso, the other by producing a detailed description of the Missouri river.
The defining experiences occurred when they entered the New World as young men. Zacatecas and the other mining towns of northern New Spain were urban oasis surrounded by hostile natives. Even the largest landowners spent most of their time in towns where plaza life had been transferred from Spain.
France had not found wealth in the residium of geological history that supported large settlements. Their income came from the fur trade, which required men willing to go to ever-shifting frontiers to trade. Bourgmont was apprenticed in the ways of coureurs who lived with bands, and married their women.
While he was with the Mascouten and the Missouri, Valverde was in a garrison isolated among Christian pueblos hemmed in by combative Suma and Faraón Apache. At El Paso, he no doubt heard tales of the Pueblo Revolt retold by survivors who didn’t return, and reheard memorats from their descendants. It was likely the same miasma of fear that preconditioned Leonor Domínguez’s response to the San Juan.
The differences in their familiarity with other ways of living colored how the men and their soldiers behaved on bivouac. When Bourgmont’s party was traveling with the Kansa, it was the native leader, not Bourgmont, who "ordered his camp master to place the French camp on the right, with the Missouris next and their tribes in two lines, with the head of our camp facing west and the rear facing east."
When Bourgmont and his entourage of Missouri and Osage had first approached a small encampment of Kansa, "They welcomed him and the Frenchmen who were with him with calumet raised high and with great rejoicing. After inviting the Frenchmen to smoke, they spread out the warmat and offered a feast consisting of the food they had all prepared. They also invited to the feast the Osages and Missouris."
Bourgmont and his escort were taken to the main Kansa camp, where the supply convoy had not yet arrived. Bourgmont was placed in a difficult position. He did not expect to be treated by the Kansa, nor did he expect the Missouri and Osage to poach on their hunting grounds. He told his chronicler, "that he had 160 Indians to feed and that it was necessary to trade European goods every day for their subsistence."
He did not begin to discuss his mission to the Apache until the goods arrived. After he laid out the goods, "corresponding to the presents the Kansas had given him," he concluded: "For that, you have only to collect many peltries and to announce right away in your village to your people - men, women, and even children - that they may come to trade their peltries to the Frenchmen who are with me, whom I have instructed to trade with you. Bring whatever horses you have, I will trade for them and pay you well, for I need them for my voyage to the" Apache.
Negotiations were difficult. The Kansa claimed they had been paid twice what was being offered by other Frenchmen and by the Illinois. Bourgmont broke off trade. Then an Iowa stole one of his horses, and Bourgmont got angry. The Kansa chief made appeasing noises and trade resumed.
Apparently the trade had two purposes: provisioning the expedition and financing it. Philippe de la Renaudiére noted that just before the group resumed its journey west, "Our pirogues left at eight this morning to return to Fort d’Orléans with our sick, and the slaves and peltries that the Frenchmen had acquired by trading."
Notes: Bourgmont deserted his command after gunfire at Fort Ponchartrain killed the Jesuit priest dead. Valverde was governor when an expedition he sent to the Pawnee was destroyed by an ambush. Pirogue is a flat-bottomed boat. The history of Leonor Domínguez appeared between March 26 and April 21 of this year.
Norall, Frank. Bourgmont, 1988.
Renaudiére, Philippe de la. Journal of the Voyage of Monsieur de Bourgmont, translation in Norall.
Showing posts with label 08 Santa Cruz 11-15. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 08 Santa Cruz 11-15. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 16, 2015
Sunday, September 13, 2015
Parallel Lives, Diverging Worlds (continued)
Bourgmont reappeared in the historic record when Cadillac was appointed governor of La Louisiane in 1712. He’d left Ohio to spend the intervening years in the west where he’d married a Missouri woman. When he, his wife and son began their trip down river with furs, Jesuits asked Montréal to arrest him for his unsettling influence among the natives.
Valverde never married, but fathered three daughters and a son. Descendants have determined the mother of his children was María Esparza. Since she was not acknowledged, we can assume he followed the Spanish form of clandestine liaisons with natives or servants.
Frank Norall believed the fugitive Bourgmont must have had some private agreement with Cadillac, because, when he returned north he took accurate notes on the course of the Missouri river, at least as far north as the Platte. His log was forwarded to Paris where Guillaume Delise turned it into the first accurate map of the river.
Cadillac moved back to France in 1717. A few years later, Bourgmont was in Paris soliciting support for his mission to the Apache. The utility of his map apparently overrode objections from the Augustinians, who were still trying to collect the fine in Normandy, and the Jesuits, who still wanted him arrested in Nouvelle France.
Needless to say, Bourgmont took no missionaries with him on his expedition to the Apache. Philippe de la Renaudiére noted there were two groups among the French: soldiers and his own employees. He was described as a mining engineer, which means the expedition included some pretensions of scientific exploration.
Renaudiére apparently wasn’t well trained, but was available. In 1718, he was listed at Kaskaskia as "Clerk of the Company and Conductor of Mines." His comments about geological formations were more perfunctory than knowledgeable.
On October 10 he wrote: "Several hills with rocks on their surface. Along the streams we find also pieces of slate, and on the prairie some reddish, marbled stones that protrude one, two and three feet out of the ground. Some are more than six feet in diameter."
Valverde was more observant when he noted "a small lake with water, and opposite at a distance of a league, there are some red hills with many outcroppings of ore, apparently mineralized."
What was extraordinary in Renaudiére’s account were the earlier sentences in the log. "We crossed two small rivers and three streams. We traveled eight leagues on a compass bearing of west-south-west."
He was carrying a compass and a time piece. It was no longer necessary to give detailed descriptions of the terrane. With a reasonably accurate measure of distance and a compass, anyone could repeat their journey.
The application of scientific instruments to the land replaced religious names as a way to assert sovereignty. This was equivalent to the change in surveying from the metes and bounds still used in Santa Cruz to the grid used by William Penn in his 1683 plan for Philadelphia. That in turn utilized geometric coordinates introduced by René Descartes in 1637.
The only mention of religion in Renaudiére’s log came after they completed their journey. A Te Deum Laudamus was sung at Fort de Chartres. The hymn can be detached from the mass to give thanks "to God for some special blessing" like "the publication of a treaty of peace."
Bourgmont retired to Normandy where he had married Jacqueline Bouvet des Bordeaux, daughter of François Bouvet, sieur des Bordeaux, when he was there in 1721. They lived on Bourgmont’s family land, which he expanded several times. None of their children survived infancy. However, an Apache slave he took with him, Marie Angélique, had a six-year-old son when she married a local man in 1732.
Valverde never returned to Spain. He lived his final years at San Antonio de Padua, his hacienda near El Paso. According to Wikipedia, it included "large wheat fields, a flour mill, a vineyard, a farm (comprising sheep and cattle, hundreds of horses and mules, hogs and goats), 9 black and mulato slaves, and more of 30 Apache and farm laborers, etc."
Notes: Cadillac was the one who found and developed the lead mine near Fort de Chartres and Kaskaskia. The settlement name was Mine La Motte.
Chávez, Angélico. Origins of New Mexico Families, 1992 revised edition.
Descartes, René. La Géométrie, 1637.
Herbermann, Charles George, et alia. "The Te Deum," The Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913.
LoLyn. "Bustamante - Promising Lead," New Mexico Bustamante Family website, 3 May 2009; on María Esparza.
Mills, Elizabeth Shown. "Parallel Lives: Philippe de La Renaudière and Philippe (de) Renault Directors of the Mines, Company of the Indies," The Natchitoches Genealogist, April 1998.
Norall, Frank. Bourgmont, 1988.
Penn, William. City plan prepared by Thomas Holmes for Portraiture of the City of Philadelphia, an 1683 prospectus for investors.
Renaudiére, Philippe de la. Journal of the Voyage of Monsieur de Bourgmont, translation in Norall.
Valverde, Antonio. Diary of the campaign against the Ute and Comanche, 1719, reproduced in Alfred B. Thomas, After Coronado, 1935.
Wikipedia. "Antonio Valverde y Cosío;" its source for the description of Valverde’s holdings could not be verified.
Valverde never married, but fathered three daughters and a son. Descendants have determined the mother of his children was María Esparza. Since she was not acknowledged, we can assume he followed the Spanish form of clandestine liaisons with natives or servants.
Frank Norall believed the fugitive Bourgmont must have had some private agreement with Cadillac, because, when he returned north he took accurate notes on the course of the Missouri river, at least as far north as the Platte. His log was forwarded to Paris where Guillaume Delise turned it into the first accurate map of the river.
Cadillac moved back to France in 1717. A few years later, Bourgmont was in Paris soliciting support for his mission to the Apache. The utility of his map apparently overrode objections from the Augustinians, who were still trying to collect the fine in Normandy, and the Jesuits, who still wanted him arrested in Nouvelle France.
Needless to say, Bourgmont took no missionaries with him on his expedition to the Apache. Philippe de la Renaudiére noted there were two groups among the French: soldiers and his own employees. He was described as a mining engineer, which means the expedition included some pretensions of scientific exploration.
Renaudiére apparently wasn’t well trained, but was available. In 1718, he was listed at Kaskaskia as "Clerk of the Company and Conductor of Mines." His comments about geological formations were more perfunctory than knowledgeable.
On October 10 he wrote: "Several hills with rocks on their surface. Along the streams we find also pieces of slate, and on the prairie some reddish, marbled stones that protrude one, two and three feet out of the ground. Some are more than six feet in diameter."
Valverde was more observant when he noted "a small lake with water, and opposite at a distance of a league, there are some red hills with many outcroppings of ore, apparently mineralized."
What was extraordinary in Renaudiére’s account were the earlier sentences in the log. "We crossed two small rivers and three streams. We traveled eight leagues on a compass bearing of west-south-west."
He was carrying a compass and a time piece. It was no longer necessary to give detailed descriptions of the terrane. With a reasonably accurate measure of distance and a compass, anyone could repeat their journey.
The application of scientific instruments to the land replaced religious names as a way to assert sovereignty. This was equivalent to the change in surveying from the metes and bounds still used in Santa Cruz to the grid used by William Penn in his 1683 plan for Philadelphia. That in turn utilized geometric coordinates introduced by René Descartes in 1637.
The only mention of religion in Renaudiére’s log came after they completed their journey. A Te Deum Laudamus was sung at Fort de Chartres. The hymn can be detached from the mass to give thanks "to God for some special blessing" like "the publication of a treaty of peace."
Bourgmont retired to Normandy where he had married Jacqueline Bouvet des Bordeaux, daughter of François Bouvet, sieur des Bordeaux, when he was there in 1721. They lived on Bourgmont’s family land, which he expanded several times. None of their children survived infancy. However, an Apache slave he took with him, Marie Angélique, had a six-year-old son when she married a local man in 1732.
Valverde never returned to Spain. He lived his final years at San Antonio de Padua, his hacienda near El Paso. According to Wikipedia, it included "large wheat fields, a flour mill, a vineyard, a farm (comprising sheep and cattle, hundreds of horses and mules, hogs and goats), 9 black and mulato slaves, and more of 30 Apache and farm laborers, etc."
Notes: Cadillac was the one who found and developed the lead mine near Fort de Chartres and Kaskaskia. The settlement name was Mine La Motte.
Chávez, Angélico. Origins of New Mexico Families, 1992 revised edition.
Descartes, René. La Géométrie, 1637.
Herbermann, Charles George, et alia. "The Te Deum," The Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913.
LoLyn. "Bustamante - Promising Lead," New Mexico Bustamante Family website, 3 May 2009; on María Esparza.
Mills, Elizabeth Shown. "Parallel Lives: Philippe de La Renaudière and Philippe (de) Renault Directors of the Mines, Company of the Indies," The Natchitoches Genealogist, April 1998.
Norall, Frank. Bourgmont, 1988.
Penn, William. City plan prepared by Thomas Holmes for Portraiture of the City of Philadelphia, an 1683 prospectus for investors.
Renaudiére, Philippe de la. Journal of the Voyage of Monsieur de Bourgmont, translation in Norall.
Valverde, Antonio. Diary of the campaign against the Ute and Comanche, 1719, reproduced in Alfred B. Thomas, After Coronado, 1935.
Wikipedia. "Antonio Valverde y Cosío;" its source for the description of Valverde’s holdings could not be verified.
Wednesday, September 09, 2015
Parallel Lives, Diverging Worlds
Antonio Velarde and Etienne de Véniard came from similar social backgrounds. Both were literate, which implied their families had some resources. Frank Norall said the Frenchman came from " a family of ancient lineage, the males tending to marry daughters of noble families" in central Normandy. Sons of noble families did not marry downward. Each man was so aware of such fine distinctions in his hierarchical society that the one used the name Antonio Valverde y Cosío and the other sieur de Bourgmont.
Bourgmont’s father was a surgeon who died when he was young. His mother remarried and he grew into a headstrong youth. When he was 19 he was fined for poaching the grounds of the local monastery. Rather than pay, he emigrated to Québec where a great uncle was in the church. Although nothing is known about Valverde, it is suspected he too may have had connections with the church in Zacatecas.
Both men enlisted, Valverde with Diego de Vargas 1693, Bourgmont with the Troupes de la Marine in 1698. The miliary in both colonial outposts was paid poorly. Men joined for the opportunities to make money on the side. Vargas was plagued by men selling ammunition, horses and other supplies. Bourgmont cashiered two men for trading slaves and horses.
Bourgmont’s first known assignment was with Charles Juchereau’s expedition to the Ohio river. He apparently spent time with the Mascouten trading furs and hides in Illinois country. Valverde was assigned to the presidio at El Paso where he began acquiring land.
One of the mysteries concerning Bourgmont’s life was the identity of the patron who continually eased his way with authorities. The Jesuits in the north had come to wield the same kind of power as the Franciscans before the Pueblo Revolt. One reason La Salle had proposed a colony in the south was to elude their oversight.
Antoine de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac, had similar motives when he suggested Nouvelle France take advantage of the Iroquois retreat east to exploit the Great Lakes route to the Saint Lawrence that had been blocked by Iroquois aggression. Jesuit missionaries protested when their Ottawa moved south to the new Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit, at the narrows between Lakes Huron and Erie. Merchants and others in Montréal feared a competing economic and political center.
Cadillac was summoned to Montréal to defend himself against accusations he traded in furs and alcohol. He left Alphonse de Tonty in command. The younger brother of Henri, first mentioned in the post for 12 May 2015 as an ally of La Salle, was chronically in debt. He underpaid his soldiers, charged exorbitant fees to commercial visitors to the fort, and sold supplies, including ammunition, to the highest bidder.
When Bourgmont was sent to relieve him, he found only 14 soldiers left of the 100 man contingent. The rest had deserted, taking supplies with them. The Ottawa were feuding with the Miami, whose territory Cadillac had encroached. When that culminated in gunfire, everyone fled. The Ottawa went back north, Bourgmont disappeared into the wilds south of Lake Erie that he’d explored earlier for Juchereau’s tannery.
Valverde, it will be remembered from the post for 20 June 2015, became governor when Félix Martínez de Torrelaguna was removed over petty chiseling. The soldiers in the Santa Fé presidio complained over the way they were paid.
Pecos pueblo demanded restitution for "two thousand boards he ordered them to cut, dress and haul to ‘his palace or houses he built’." They also reported he hadn’t delivered the "two horses, the agreed-upon price, owed to Chistoe for an Indian boy acquired from heathens and sold to Martínez."
Notes: Détroit means strait in French. When the lower Great Lakes were blocked, furs were taken across the Ottawa river from the northern end of Lake Huron. Juchereau was first mentioned in the post for 17 May 2015. Mascouten were Algonquin speakers living along the Mississippi near the modern Illinois-Wisconsin border.
Kessell, John L. Kiva, Cross and Crown, 1995; quotation from Pecos residencia, the review that followed after a governor's left office.
Norall, Frank. Bourgmont, 1988.
Renaudiére, Philippe de la. Journal of the Voyage of Monsieur de Bourgmont, translation in Norall.
Russ, C. J. "Tonty, Alphonse (de)," Dictionary of Canadian Biography, volume 2, 1969.
Bourgmont’s father was a surgeon who died when he was young. His mother remarried and he grew into a headstrong youth. When he was 19 he was fined for poaching the grounds of the local monastery. Rather than pay, he emigrated to Québec where a great uncle was in the church. Although nothing is known about Valverde, it is suspected he too may have had connections with the church in Zacatecas.
Both men enlisted, Valverde with Diego de Vargas 1693, Bourgmont with the Troupes de la Marine in 1698. The miliary in both colonial outposts was paid poorly. Men joined for the opportunities to make money on the side. Vargas was plagued by men selling ammunition, horses and other supplies. Bourgmont cashiered two men for trading slaves and horses.
Bourgmont’s first known assignment was with Charles Juchereau’s expedition to the Ohio river. He apparently spent time with the Mascouten trading furs and hides in Illinois country. Valverde was assigned to the presidio at El Paso where he began acquiring land.
One of the mysteries concerning Bourgmont’s life was the identity of the patron who continually eased his way with authorities. The Jesuits in the north had come to wield the same kind of power as the Franciscans before the Pueblo Revolt. One reason La Salle had proposed a colony in the south was to elude their oversight.
Antoine de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac, had similar motives when he suggested Nouvelle France take advantage of the Iroquois retreat east to exploit the Great Lakes route to the Saint Lawrence that had been blocked by Iroquois aggression. Jesuit missionaries protested when their Ottawa moved south to the new Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit, at the narrows between Lakes Huron and Erie. Merchants and others in Montréal feared a competing economic and political center.
Cadillac was summoned to Montréal to defend himself against accusations he traded in furs and alcohol. He left Alphonse de Tonty in command. The younger brother of Henri, first mentioned in the post for 12 May 2015 as an ally of La Salle, was chronically in debt. He underpaid his soldiers, charged exorbitant fees to commercial visitors to the fort, and sold supplies, including ammunition, to the highest bidder.
When Bourgmont was sent to relieve him, he found only 14 soldiers left of the 100 man contingent. The rest had deserted, taking supplies with them. The Ottawa were feuding with the Miami, whose territory Cadillac had encroached. When that culminated in gunfire, everyone fled. The Ottawa went back north, Bourgmont disappeared into the wilds south of Lake Erie that he’d explored earlier for Juchereau’s tannery.
Valverde, it will be remembered from the post for 20 June 2015, became governor when Félix Martínez de Torrelaguna was removed over petty chiseling. The soldiers in the Santa Fé presidio complained over the way they were paid.
Pecos pueblo demanded restitution for "two thousand boards he ordered them to cut, dress and haul to ‘his palace or houses he built’." They also reported he hadn’t delivered the "two horses, the agreed-upon price, owed to Chistoe for an Indian boy acquired from heathens and sold to Martínez."
Notes: Détroit means strait in French. When the lower Great Lakes were blocked, furs were taken across the Ottawa river from the northern end of Lake Huron. Juchereau was first mentioned in the post for 17 May 2015. Mascouten were Algonquin speakers living along the Mississippi near the modern Illinois-Wisconsin border.
Kessell, John L. Kiva, Cross and Crown, 1995; quotation from Pecos residencia, the review that followed after a governor's left office.
Norall, Frank. Bourgmont, 1988.
Renaudiére, Philippe de la. Journal of the Voyage of Monsieur de Bourgmont, translation in Norall.
Russ, C. J. "Tonty, Alphonse (de)," Dictionary of Canadian Biography, volume 2, 1969.
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
Antonio Valverde and the Apache
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.
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.
Sunday, August 23, 2015
Antonio Valverde’s World
Antonio Valverde y Cosío was raised in Villapresente, a remote village in the Cantabrian mountains of Spain not far from the Altamira cave. The population in 1594 was 60 vecinos, or about 300 people. Beneath the Marqués de Villapresente, the principal families included the Bustamantes y Tagles and the Ruizes de Peredo.
Juan de Valverde was a master stonemason in the Burgos area village in 1608. However, Antonio’s parents were Antonio Velarde and Juana de Velarde y Cosío.
He was in Sombrerete by 1693 when he was 21. There Valverde enrolled with Diego de Vargas. He spent the rest of his life in the civil service, but amassed his fortune around El Paso.
No one from Villapresente appears to have been part of the conquistador generation. Hugh Thomas has found a Luis de Bustamante from Palencia, to the west of Villapresente, who was actually the son of Martín García and Mari García.
A Francisco Valverde was with Pánfilo de Narváez in 1520. Another Francisco from Trujillo was related to Francisco Pizarro. His family settled in Cuba and Perú. A third Francisco de Valverde joined the Franciscans in Zacatecas in 1617.
Thomas mentions no Velardes. If Antonio came from an unknown family of Velardes, Valverde was a prestigious near-assonant to appropriate.
More than likely, one man or maybe several emigrated from Villapresente to New Spain, but maintained contacts with their families. From there, others must have followed in a chain. While we don’t know who helped Valverde settle in México, we can surmise that after he moved, his sister’s son, Juan Domingo de Bustamante came over from Villapresente. After him, Bernardo de Bustamante y Tagle arrived from Madrid. Angélico Chávez said, he might have been the brother, nephew, or even son of Juan.
As fitted his assumed position, Valverde lived within a social hierarchy in which the governor outranked representatives of the church, and each outranked his senior officers. Soldiers of the presidio were more important than settlers, and both were more important than auxiliaries.
He informed the viceroy, he always maintained the proper degrees of formality with each caste, and defined the times he had met with the lower orders, like when they were seriously ill, as acts of great generosity on his part.
Valverde was more religious than either Roque de Madrid or Juan de Ulibarrí. He not only took a priest with him on his campaign against the Comanche, but Juan George del Pino celebrated mass every morning. On the day before the feast day "of the glorious patriarch San Francisco," he, the priest and the "military chiefs" shared "a small keg of rich spiritous brandy made at the Pass of the Río del Norte of the governor’s own vintage" to toast the saint.
The next morning, after mass, he ate with "the father chaplain and officers of war." Again Valverde "ordered a cask of wine which had been made at the pass to be brought out. With it they all drank the health of the governor and of the chaplain and celebrated the saint’s day of San Francisco." He noted he had "regaled" them with "the best rich bread and melon preserves he carried for such an occasion to entertain the reverend father chaplain and himself."
Like Madrid and Ulibarrí, Valverde named landmarks he passed, though he primarily limited himself to rivers and camp sites. Many were named for Franciscan notables or people associated directly with Christ.
His references to Mary were not to her Virgin status, but to her interventions in the affairs of mortals. He renamed the Apache’s Río de Colorado as Nuestra Señora de la Soledad. Springs and camp sites were dedicated to Nuestra Señora de Dolores, Nuestra Señora del Carmel, and Nuestra Señora de Pilar de Zaragosa.
Cimarron creek was called La Flecha by the Apache. Valverde renamed it "Nuestra Señora de Rosario." That manifestation was especially dear to him. On October 1, he, "with all the camp [...] prayed with zeal to the Holy Mary of the Rosary. This was the day on which by her intercession her most Holy Son granted that celebrated victory which to all Christendom has been, is, will be one of great rejoicing."
After breakfast "with some persons and settlers whom he wished to entertain," he served "very good glasses of wine" in her honor. Later that same day Cristóbal Rodarte died and Valverde distributed rations to hungry settlers.
Villapresente still celebrates four festivals: El Carmen, Christ, La Esperanza, and La Flor or Our Lady of the Rosary. They observe the last on October 15. According to Wikipedia, the date was changed to October 7 in 1571. Valverde’s October 1 is the day used for this rite in eastern orthodox churches.
This was not the only hint of cultural ties between his family’s tradition and the levant. He named places for Santa Efijenia, an Ethiopian converted by Matthew; for San Onofre, an Egyptian hermit; and for San Nicolás Obispo, a Greek bishop. He also recalled La Exaltazión de la Santa Cruz, which was an allusion to Helen, mother of Constantine.
When he died, he left money to Villapresente to build a chapel dedicated to Nuestra Señora de la Ermita de La Guarda and a school to teach residents "to read, write and counting, and also be instructed in the Christian doctrine and the principal mysteries of the Catholic faith."
Notes:
Alvarez, Mariña. "En Busca del Pasado de Villapresente," El Diario Montanes, 08 April 2009.
Cantabria government website. "López Marcano Presentará Mañana En Villapresente El Libro ‘Fundación de la Capellanía de Nuestra Señora de la Ermita de La Guarda y Obra Pía de Escuela de Primeras Letras’," 11 December 2009.
González Echegaray, María del Carmen. Artistas Cántabros de la Edad Moderna, 1991; on Juan de Valverde.
González Montes, Francisco and JI Alútiz Santiago Rubio. "Villapresente in Memory;" population number for 1594.
Hendricks, Rick. "Settling the Estate of Bernardo Antonio Bustamante y Tagle," New Mexico History website.
Hoyo, Eugenio del. Historia del Nuevo Reino de León (1577-1723), 2005; on the Francisco de Valverde in Zacatecas.
Reocín city government website. "Villapresente."
Thomas, Alfred B. After Coronado, 1935.
Thomas, Hugh. Who’s Who of the Conquistadors, 2000.
Valverde y Cosío, Antonio. Diary of the campaign against the Ute and Comanche, 1719, reproduced in Alfred Thomas. The other place names he bestowed were:
Associated with Christ
Stream - San José, father
River - San Miguel, archangel
Camp site - Santa María Magdalena
Spot - San Pablo, apostle
Associated with Franciscans
River - San Francisco
River - San Antonio
Canyon - Santa Rosa
Spot - Santa Theresa
Associated with Dominicans
River - Santo Domingo
Associated with Jesuits
Spring - San Ignacio, named by Piño, not Valverde
Wikipedia. Entries on Marian Feast Days, Antonio Valverde y Cosío, and Villapresente.
Juan de Valverde was a master stonemason in the Burgos area village in 1608. However, Antonio’s parents were Antonio Velarde and Juana de Velarde y Cosío.
He was in Sombrerete by 1693 when he was 21. There Valverde enrolled with Diego de Vargas. He spent the rest of his life in the civil service, but amassed his fortune around El Paso.
No one from Villapresente appears to have been part of the conquistador generation. Hugh Thomas has found a Luis de Bustamante from Palencia, to the west of Villapresente, who was actually the son of Martín García and Mari García.
A Francisco Valverde was with Pánfilo de Narváez in 1520. Another Francisco from Trujillo was related to Francisco Pizarro. His family settled in Cuba and Perú. A third Francisco de Valverde joined the Franciscans in Zacatecas in 1617.
Thomas mentions no Velardes. If Antonio came from an unknown family of Velardes, Valverde was a prestigious near-assonant to appropriate.
More than likely, one man or maybe several emigrated from Villapresente to New Spain, but maintained contacts with their families. From there, others must have followed in a chain. While we don’t know who helped Valverde settle in México, we can surmise that after he moved, his sister’s son, Juan Domingo de Bustamante came over from Villapresente. After him, Bernardo de Bustamante y Tagle arrived from Madrid. Angélico Chávez said, he might have been the brother, nephew, or even son of Juan.
As fitted his assumed position, Valverde lived within a social hierarchy in which the governor outranked representatives of the church, and each outranked his senior officers. Soldiers of the presidio were more important than settlers, and both were more important than auxiliaries.
He informed the viceroy, he always maintained the proper degrees of formality with each caste, and defined the times he had met with the lower orders, like when they were seriously ill, as acts of great generosity on his part.
Valverde was more religious than either Roque de Madrid or Juan de Ulibarrí. He not only took a priest with him on his campaign against the Comanche, but Juan George del Pino celebrated mass every morning. On the day before the feast day "of the glorious patriarch San Francisco," he, the priest and the "military chiefs" shared "a small keg of rich spiritous brandy made at the Pass of the Río del Norte of the governor’s own vintage" to toast the saint.
The next morning, after mass, he ate with "the father chaplain and officers of war." Again Valverde "ordered a cask of wine which had been made at the pass to be brought out. With it they all drank the health of the governor and of the chaplain and celebrated the saint’s day of San Francisco." He noted he had "regaled" them with "the best rich bread and melon preserves he carried for such an occasion to entertain the reverend father chaplain and himself."
Like Madrid and Ulibarrí, Valverde named landmarks he passed, though he primarily limited himself to rivers and camp sites. Many were named for Franciscan notables or people associated directly with Christ.
His references to Mary were not to her Virgin status, but to her interventions in the affairs of mortals. He renamed the Apache’s Río de Colorado as Nuestra Señora de la Soledad. Springs and camp sites were dedicated to Nuestra Señora de Dolores, Nuestra Señora del Carmel, and Nuestra Señora de Pilar de Zaragosa.
Cimarron creek was called La Flecha by the Apache. Valverde renamed it "Nuestra Señora de Rosario." That manifestation was especially dear to him. On October 1, he, "with all the camp [...] prayed with zeal to the Holy Mary of the Rosary. This was the day on which by her intercession her most Holy Son granted that celebrated victory which to all Christendom has been, is, will be one of great rejoicing."
After breakfast "with some persons and settlers whom he wished to entertain," he served "very good glasses of wine" in her honor. Later that same day Cristóbal Rodarte died and Valverde distributed rations to hungry settlers.
Villapresente still celebrates four festivals: El Carmen, Christ, La Esperanza, and La Flor or Our Lady of the Rosary. They observe the last on October 15. According to Wikipedia, the date was changed to October 7 in 1571. Valverde’s October 1 is the day used for this rite in eastern orthodox churches.
This was not the only hint of cultural ties between his family’s tradition and the levant. He named places for Santa Efijenia, an Ethiopian converted by Matthew; for San Onofre, an Egyptian hermit; and for San Nicolás Obispo, a Greek bishop. He also recalled La Exaltazión de la Santa Cruz, which was an allusion to Helen, mother of Constantine.
When he died, he left money to Villapresente to build a chapel dedicated to Nuestra Señora de la Ermita de La Guarda and a school to teach residents "to read, write and counting, and also be instructed in the Christian doctrine and the principal mysteries of the Catholic faith."
Notes:
Alvarez, Mariña. "En Busca del Pasado de Villapresente," El Diario Montanes, 08 April 2009.
Cantabria government website. "López Marcano Presentará Mañana En Villapresente El Libro ‘Fundación de la Capellanía de Nuestra Señora de la Ermita de La Guarda y Obra Pía de Escuela de Primeras Letras’," 11 December 2009.
González Echegaray, María del Carmen. Artistas Cántabros de la Edad Moderna, 1991; on Juan de Valverde.
González Montes, Francisco and JI Alútiz Santiago Rubio. "Villapresente in Memory;" population number for 1594.
Hendricks, Rick. "Settling the Estate of Bernardo Antonio Bustamante y Tagle," New Mexico History website.
Hoyo, Eugenio del. Historia del Nuevo Reino de León (1577-1723), 2005; on the Francisco de Valverde in Zacatecas.
Reocín city government website. "Villapresente."
Thomas, Alfred B. After Coronado, 1935.
Thomas, Hugh. Who’s Who of the Conquistadors, 2000.
Valverde y Cosío, Antonio. Diary of the campaign against the Ute and Comanche, 1719, reproduced in Alfred Thomas. The other place names he bestowed were:
Associated with Christ
Stream - San José, father
River - San Miguel, archangel
Camp site - Santa María Magdalena
Spot - San Pablo, apostle
Associated with Franciscans
River - San Francisco
River - San Antonio
Canyon - Santa Rosa
Spot - Santa Theresa
Associated with Dominicans
River - Santo Domingo
Associated with Jesuits
Spring - San Ignacio, named by Piño, not Valverde
Wikipedia. Entries on Marian Feast Days, Antonio Valverde y Cosío, and Villapresente.
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