Juan de Oñate, 1596 
385 
Don Juan having agreed afterwards on his part to the limitations with 
which the contract and expedition were moderated and approved—if it be 
not carried out, without being preceded by any blame or fault on his part 
for it. 
2. For this reason it is apparent that if the expedition be committed 
to another Don Juan will wish and will be able to ask from his Majesty, 
by right and justice, interest on the expenses incurred. His Majesty will 
be defeated in this if it be heard in judicial proceeding and will have to 
order that he be paid for them, at the expense of some large sum, against 
the intention of the ordinances, according to which such explorations are 
not to be made at any expense to the royal exchequer. 
3. There are many relatives and friends of Don Juan, apart from those 
who have helped him in his preparations with their property, who are 
going in person on the expedition and are taking their wives and children, 
and who, in order to prepare and buy what was necessary for it, have sold 
or mortgaged their property, and if they do not go upon it, after having 
made their preparations in good faith, they will be left in disorder and 
discomfort, all of which ought to be considered. 
4. If the people whom Don Juan has collected be disbanded during the 
interval until they are again brought together under the other who goes 
to conduct the expedition, there will be many robberies and outrages in 
the country. In any case there will be scattered all through it those who 
went on this exploration, and who, if they were dissolute men before, will 
be made worse by their desperation. 
5. This difficulty is greatly to be apprehended, for that part of the 
people who will return from the place where they are, without order and 
in bands, will have to pass through all the country of the Chichimecos, and 
it is to be feared that, as many of them are delinquents, they will wander 
there in the mountains as forest robbers and bandits, inciting the Indians, 
who were formerly such, to accompany them in that exercise, returning to 
their ancient custom and disturbing the peace. Even though this does not 
happen, it is to be feared that the robberies, injuries, and ill conduct which 
the soldiers will commit on the roads of the frontier upon the Chichimecos 
Indians, and other people, will anger them and cause them to uprise and 
break the peace so recently made and so greatly in danger of being lost 
upon any slight occasion. 
6. It is to be feared that part of the people will join together and make 
an unauthorized entrance into the interior of New Mexico, ill treating 
the Indians and discrediting the religion and nation of the Spaniards for 
later attempts. Or, what would be worse, that they will unite with Captain 
Leyva, 49 who entered and is also there without authority and would prob¬ 
ably commit the same outrages. And if, for this reason, it would cause 
serious trouble for the remedy to be delayed, it would cause still greater 
if by uniting with him the soldiers should make a sufficient force to embol¬ 
den them to resist the entering governor. 
7. The annoyances which these provinces have experienced in the levy 
and transportation of the people of this expedition they will have to ex¬ 
perience a second time and all over again if the expedition is once more 
undertaken. This is important, for, as has been noted, the people engaged 
