Introduction 
209 
a second “ Río de las Conchas ”. There Oñate wrote a letter to the king, 
advising that he had made progress “ despite the violent efforts of the 
Count of Monterey to dissuade ” him from going on, and of his belief 
that the count had not ceased “ putting stumbling-blocks ” in his way. 
On February 14, 1598, according to this letter, Oñate had sent Sar¬ 
gento Mayor Vicente de Zaldivar, with sixteen men to open a new and 
more direct route to the Rio del Norte. This river Zaldivar reached 
after proceeding sixty leagues within two weeks time. On his return he 
reported that the road was a good one and had a sufficient number of good 
water-holes along it. Oñate concluded his letter with a passionate appeal 
for the king to confirm him in the privileges specified in the contract 
signed by Viceroy Velasco. 62 
So much for the events of the period from September 21, 1595—the 
date when Oñate presented his petition to Velasco—to March 15, 1598— 
at which time he was well on his way to New Mexico—the narrative 
of which is herewith presented for the first time. The more than 
sixty documents published for the first time hereinafter, which detail 
these events and upon which this introduction thus far is almost entirely 
based, constitute, including as they do nine supplementary documents 
from the Ayer Collection, the most complete collection of sources yet 
printed or assembled, so far as the writer knows, for this significant period 
of two and one-half years. In fact the addition of the supplementary tran¬ 
scripts from the Ayer Collection makes the collection covering the years 
1 595 t0 1598, printed hereinafter, practically complete, 63 so far as is known. 
If the events from 1595 t° 1598 have heretofore in largest measure been 
completely unknown, the outlines at least of the events of the journey from 
the Rio de las Conchas, the planting of the colony, and the explorations of 
Oñate from 1598 until his resignation in 1608, are fairly well known. For 
instance Bolton 64 has published the translations of a number of the more 
pertinent documents dealing with these events. In his “ Introduction ” 
to these translations he also summarily lists and describes the principal 
printed sources for the entire episode after the expedition had got 
under way. 
oñate, que Benia Entrando, a su descubrimiento, Y llego al Rio q llaman El de el sacra- 
m’to que por averse selebrado, alli el del Sto matrimonio con un Juo de carabajal le puso 
el dho adelantado este nombre del Sacramento Y arbolando el R 1 estandarte aprigendio la 
pocession para el nuo mexco ”. See Autos sobre los Socorros, loe. cit., f. 126. 
62 Letter from Oñate to the king, Río de las Conchas, March 15, 1598. This volume, 
P- 397 - 
63 The Bandelier Collection contains a large number of sources relating to events 
from 1595 to 1598. On the other hand the Ayer Collection, according to a manuscript 
catalogue of Spanish transcripts therein, has few sources on this period, but has a very 
large collection for the period beginning with 1598. For this reason the sources for 
the first period have been made practically complete, so far as information now extends, 
by securing the supplementary documents from the Ayer Collection. On the other hand, 
because of the much larger number of sources in the Ayer Collection, no attempt was 
made to do more than to publish the few documents in the Bandelier Collection which 
relate to events after 1598. 
64 Bolton, Spanish Exploration, pp. 212-280. 
