16 
Introduction 
Bárbara, San Juan, and Indé were opened up by Rodrigo del Río de Losa. 
In 1564 Ibarra extended his operations across the Sierra Madre into the 
Sinaloa region. Within the next few years his authority was established 
over the coast region from Chiametla to the Río Fuerte, on which stream 
the temporary settlement of San Juan de Sinaloa was established. By him 
the country was developed and in 1567 he led an expedition, partly over 
Coronado’s route, as far north as Casas Grandes in Northern Chihuahua. 
Shortly afterward the enforced abandonment of San Juan caused a 
recession of the frontier of settlement in the northwest to the Petatlán 
River. 14 About 1572 Francisco de Ibarra died and was succeeded as 
governor by his uncle, Diego de Ibarra. 15 
After the death of Francisco de Ibarra the failure to occupy the Rio 
Fuerte region resulted in the establishment in 1584 of the permanent villa 
of San Felipe on the Río Petatlán, where, at irregular intervals until 1596, 
a commandant of the governor of Nueva Vizcaya was stationed. In the 
latter year a presidio and about the same time a Jesuit mission and Aztec 
and Tlascaltecan families were established there. But while the Chi¬ 
ametla, Culiacán, and Sinaloa regions constituted parts of the political 
jurisdiction of Nueva Vizcaya, Chiametla was under the judicial juris¬ 
diction of the Audiencia of New Spain until about 1574, when it was 
transferred to the Audiencia of Nueva Galicia. Also as late as 1574 the 
Audiencia of New Spain claimed jurisdiction over the Sinaloa region 
north of Culiacán. 16 
In contrast to the unsettled condition west of the Sierra Madre, marked 
success attended the colonizing movement up the plateau to the east of the 
range, and by 1580 an outpost had been established at San Bartolomé at 
the head-waters of the Río Conchos. Along this stream and the Rio del 
Norte, or Rio Grande, into which it flowed, a way to New Mexico was 
soon to be opened up from Nueva Vizcaya. 17 
As a result of the opening of the mines of Zacatecas and the need for 
a direct line of communication between them and Mexico City the task 
of occupying the intermediate region was undertaken by Viceroy Velasco. 
With the help of loyal native chieftains in the viceroy’s service the town 
of Querétaro was founded about the middle of the century, and several 
years later Silao and Santa Fé de Guanajuato. The founding of these 
towns was followed by the discovery of rich mines which at one attracted 
settlers. As a result new towns and presidios were established and the 
safety and occupation of the region definitely effected. 18 
After Querétaro was founded it became a base for the central move¬ 
ment into the north. The pioneer in this movement was Francisco de 
Urdiñola, an agent of Viceroy Velasco, who, about 1550, began the con¬ 
quest of the region directly north of Querétaro, now San Luís Potosí, 
14 Bancroft, North Mexican States and Texas, I. 102-116; Bolton and Marshall, op. cit., 
pp. 56-58. 
15 See above, note 13. 
16 López de Velasco, op. cit., pp. 275-277. 
17 Anne Hughes, The Beginnings of Spanish Settlement in the El Paso District, in 
University of California Publications in History, I. (Berkeley, 1914) 296-297. 
18 Bolton and Marshall, op. cit., p. 58. 
