II. i. INTRODUCTION. 
Renewed Exploration and Attempted Settlement of 
New Mexico, 1580-1593. 
The advance of the frontier of settlement in Nueva Vizcaya and Nuevo 
León was followed by reports of explorers and adventurers which caused 
a revival of interest in the Pueblo region to the north, a region which had 
been practically forgotten since Coronado’s expedition of 1540-1542. The 
result was the renewed exploration and attempted settlement, after 1580, 
of New Mexico, in the course of which new routes to that country were 
opened up. The first expedition to New Mexico after that of Coronado 
was made in 1581. In that year Fray Agustín Rodriguez and Francisco 
Sánchez Chamuscado led an expedition composed of three friars, nine sol¬ 
diers, and a number of Indian followers from Santa Bárbara, near the 
headwaters of the Río Conchos, to New Mexico. The route followed was 
down the Conchos to the Rio Grande and then up that river and north to 
the Pueblo region. By the members of the expedition the country was 
explored to the east as far as the Pecos River and to the west as far as 
Acorna and Zuñi, after which the soldiers of the expedition returned to 
Nueva Vizcaya. One of the missionaries, Father Santa Maria, was 
killed soon after reaching the Pueblos; the other two, Fathers Rodriguez 
and Francisco López, remained in one of the Tigua pueblos after the sol¬ 
diers left for Nueva Vizcaya. 1 
Upon the return of the soldiers to Santa Bárbara, the Franciscans there, 
anxious concerning the safety of Fathers Rodriguez and López, promoted 
another expedition to New Mexico. This expedition was led by Fray 
Bernaldino Beltrán and Antonio de Espejo, organizer and chief of a mili¬ 
tary escort of twelve soldiers. The journey was made in the winter of 
1582-1583, the route followed being that opened up by the Rodriguez 
expedition of the year before. After reaching the Tigua pueblos, where 
the death of the missionaries was ascertained, the country was explored 
beyond Zuñi and Moqui to some mines in western Arizona. On the 
return the expedition divided. Espejo and one division, after visiting the 
Queres and Taños tribes, south and southwest of modern Santa Fé, de¬ 
scended the Pecos River for 120 leagues and then crossed to the mouth of 
the Conchos River, which they ascended to San Bartolomé. Father 
Beltrán and the other division returned to Nueva Vizcaya by the more 
direct route. 2 
In 1590 while many persons were clamoring for the position of 
adelantado of New Mexico, a definite attempt to settle that country was 
made by Castaño de Sosa, lieutenant-governor of Nuevo León. In that 
year, accompanied by the entire body of settlers of Almadén, Sosa pro¬ 
ceeded north to the junction of the Pecos and the Rio Grande and thence 
1 H. E. Bolton, Spanish Exploration in the Southwest, pp. 137-160. 
2 Bolton, op. cit., pp. 163-195. 
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