Juan de Oñate, 1596 
387 
in new discoveries are more dissolute than any others and cause the most 
resentment wherever they go. 
8. Since this entrance into New Mexico was most highly esteemed, 
should the opinion and credit of it be changed among the people, it will be 
most difficult to find the means to make this or others, and there will 
scarcely be found one person native to these provinces who will dare to con¬ 
tract and prepare for new discoveries, or who will be able to find people to 
follow him and venture to get ready for it by selling their property and 
moving their households and families, for the married people are the 
principal avenue for the accomplishment of pacifications. 
9. However it is looked at and considered, if the body of people which 
Don Juan now has gathered together is broken up, to collect it again and 
put it in the state in which it now is will cost long delay and much trouble; 
always in such cases difficulties are encountered which delay or prevent 
the undertaking, all of which is to be considered, since this exploration 
of New Mexico is so important to the service of God and our lord, the 
king, and so greatly desired by his Majesty and his royal Council, as it is 
publicly known to be, and as was very clearly shown in the unauthorized 
entrance made by Captain Castaño 50 in those provinces, for orders were 
given for his arrest and punishment for having done this, and he was taken 
away from there after he and some soldiers had already made a settlement. 
He wrote to his Majesty, showing himself to be aggrieved because this 
was done, to the ruin of that little beginning of a settlement, although it 
was a very slight pledge for the reduction and conversion of that country 
in comparison with such a great and orderly gathering of religious and 
ministers of the gospel and soldiers and necessary goods as is known to 
be ready to enter according to order and contract. 
10. It is greatly doubted here, by persons who are well informed and 
of good judgment, that whoever comes from Spain, without possessing 
any property in this country or being related in it to persons who do pos¬ 
sess it, will be able to collect by means of money alone, even though it 
be a large sum, the people and quantities of goods needed for the journey, 
for even with all these advantages it must cost many million pesos. 
11. It is a great disadvantage if the governor be not a person of much 
knowledge and experience in dealing with the Indians, and does not know 
how to accommodate himself to the endearments and caresses which are 
the principal means required in making such entrances. It seems unlikely 
that a person coming from Spain, even though he may have been here for 
some time, can be as clever and skillful in handling [the affairs of] this 
part as one who was born and reared in this country and has passed his 
life in it, with good reputation in middle life, and, before that, as a Chris¬ 
tian man of affable temper and good sense. 
12. The person who may come from Spain, no matter how important 
a person he may be, cannot bring with him many near relatives and friends 
upon whom he can depend to keep himself feared and loved by his soldiers, 
as is very important. For in these cases the leaders are held in less esteem 
because the expedition is not made directly in the name of his Majesty, 
and at the expense of the real hacienda, and because many of the people 
are common vagabonds, accustomed to commit outrages and robberies, 
