Juan de Oñate, 1596 
359 
and the inevitable expenses— all appearing to them very easy and plain. 
But now that they have learned and seen how much it is costing them, 
and will cost them, in labor and expense to accomplish the end which they 
desire, they are all now hanging by a hair, and a very slight occasion 
would be sufficient to turn them all back without leaving a single one. 
Indeed, without having it, it is necessary for me to practise artifice and 
craft, with not a little trouble to detain and hold them, and no greater 
cause could happen to break them up and turn them back, without the 
possibility of stopping them, than for them to hear the news of the change 
and delay in the expedition, and to learn that some other person than 
I is to make it. It is very certain that if I have no more than a thousand 
men with me to-day it is due to the delay in delivering my warrants to 
me, with which occasion was given for doubts to arise as to whether I was 
to go on the expedition or not. All of this has become thoroughly well 
known to Don Lope de Ulloa and those with him in the little time since 
they reached this army and have travelled with it, and he, fulfilling his 
duty, without failing in what he is charged with, has come to my assis¬ 
tance with such courage and judgment with whatever I had need of that 
he has placed me under deep obligations, and this is the chief reason why 
all the people and expedition are not to-day broken up, as they would 
have been if any other person had come on the errand on which he came. 
The rumors that have been spread through this country against it and in 
my disfavor have been so many that it has been very necessary to have it 
accredited by him with the authority of his person as the representative 
of your lordship in everything, and by the encouragement of the people 
by his generous conduct to lay aside the burden of their indolence and 
hasten to this camp, as they have done and those who are still on the road 
are doing. For this reason I render anew to your lordship the thanks 
due for the favor which you did me in committing this business to him 
and that his agents are such as they are, for they certainly appear in every 
respect to be servants [worthy] of such a house and master. 
It is also right that your lordship should consider what a great disaster 
it would be for those who have been induced to join this expedition in the 
service of his Majesty for the reason that I was conducting it ; these are 
many, as I have already said. For, in order to provision themselves for 
it some have spent their fortunes, others have sold their lands to come 
as they are coming, with their wives and children, while others, who have 
neither the one [fortunes] nor the other [families], are coming attached 
to me. Among them there are some gentlemen of quality, and, on the 
day when I do not continue [to conduct] the expeditions as I have begun 
it, it is impossible that any of them will be able or will wish to go upon it, 
or that they will fail to remain abandoned and shelterless, and in the most 
extreme poverty and necessity, and it will be one of the greatest misfor¬ 
tunes that can be imagined to see so many people ruined. The thought 
of it causes me the greatest pain and trouble, and I do not know how his 
Majesty can repair such a great injury as this unless he shows them more 
favor; it is even well that your lordship should consider what may be 
feared from people who must see themselves ruined for having wished to 
go on the service of his Majesty. 
