MODERN PUEBLOS. 63 



were killed. Word was sent to the other villages 

 of the miscarriage of the plot and the priests and Span- 

 iards living in them were killed. Governor Otermin, 

 after several days of unsuccessful fighting about Santa 

 Fe, which had become the capital, fled with many of 

 the Spanish inhabitants to El Paso. He returned the 

 next year, succeeded in capturing Isleta, but failed to 

 reestablish his rule. 



Diego de Vargas, having been appointed governor, 

 conducted a vigorous war from 1692 until 1696 during 

 which he tried in vain to take the Black Mesa near 

 Espafiola upon which the inhabitants of San Ildefonso 

 had established themselves, but succeeded in capturing 

 Old Cochiti in a night attack. After the warriors, most 

 of whom had escaped, by a counter attack had released 

 half of the 340 women and children held as prisoners, 

 Vargas burned the village and took the stored corn to 

 Santa Fe. In the end peace was established but the 

 Indians were not again forced to work the mines and 

 the priests were more tolerant toward the native 

 religious practices and less insistent upon anything 

 but a nominal acceptance of Christianity. 



Distribution in 1540. 



If we assume that all the inhabited pueblos, with one 

 exception mentioned below, were seen by members of 

 Coronado's party, it appears that there had already 

 been a considerable shrinkage in the pueblo area. 



