124 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES 
Antonio de Espejo the next year. They had both ascended the Rio 
Grande, which they called the Guadalquivir (gwa-dal-kee-veer’), 
from the mouth of the Rio Conchos. In 1598 Juan de Ofiate reached 
the Rio Grande 25 miles below El Paso with a band of heroic colonists 
consisting of 130 soldiers or more, most of them with their families, 
with 83 wagons and 7,000 cattle. This expedition crossed the river 
at El Paso and took possession of all the region to the north in 
the name of King Philip II of Spain, calling it Nuevo Méjico. Ofiate 
then ascended the Rio Grande Valley to the mouth of the Rio Chama, 
in New Mexico, where his colony was established under the name of 
San Juan de los Caballeros. The headquarters of this Spanish 
colony was subsequently removed to Santa Fe, and it was from that 
place, at the time of the pueblo rebellion in 1680, that about 1,000 
settlers and some loyal Indians fied down the valley to the mission 
of Nuestra Sefiora de Guadalupe, started by the Franciscans in 1659 
on the south side of the river, at the present Ciudad Judrez (seeyou- 
dahd’ hwah’race).” This incident led to the establishing of a presidio 
(fort) and supply station at the mission, which was the beginning of 
settlement in the general E] Paso region. Twelve years after the 
revolt Diego de Vargas left El Paso and effected an easy reconquest 
of the Pueblo Indians. 
In 1700 the settlement at the ford had a population of 5,000, 
including 637 Indians, and the white inhabitants of the whole terri- 
tory numbered perhaps 19,000 and the Indians 10,000. The place 
had a large traffic, especially in January, when an annual fair held 
in Chihuahua was attended by New Mexican traders, at times 
numbering 500. The neighborhood was famous for its orchards and 
vineyards, supported by irrigation from a dam, which was usually 
destroyed by each summer’s floods. Zebulon Pike was the first 
English-speaking person to visit the place, having been taken there 
in 1807 as a prisoner by Spanish forces. At this time there was no 
settlement on the north side of the river, but the sites of the Mills 
Building and the Southern Pacific station in El Paso were occupied 
by the adobe buildings of the hacienda of a Mexican named Ponce de 
Leén. On his death in 1857 it came into American hands, the first 
owner being Franklin Coontze, after whom Mount Franklin is 
named. About that time James Magoffin, whose diplomacy had 
secured for the United States the acquisition of New Mexico from 
Mexico without the firing of a single shot, established a trading post 
near by which was called Magoffinsville. Fort Bliss, a short distance 
northeast, was started by the United States Government in 1848 for 
the protection of the frontier. The region was generally referred to 
as El Paso (the pass). 
; % N. e for. ee Te * . - . 
oe ne had de coma ape Bian Juarez, first President of Mexico, who at 
