Ouate and Ponce de León 
391 
rence might be expected. His Majesty therefore decided to make the 
agreement with Don Pedro, and a cédula was immediately despatched 
that the viceroy should not give permission to Don Juan to continue the 
expedition, but that he should be detained until his Majesty should order 
otherwise. 
The said viceroy writes now by the last despatch-boat, in a letter of last 
November, that after Don Juan ele Oñate had already set out on the march 
with his men and equipment, and he [the viceroy] had sent his captain of 
the guard in the rear of the said men to see that they did no damage, and 
to take a muster after they had passed the last settlements 52 for the pur¬ 
pose of ascertaining whether Don Juan was taking all that he had offered 
and whether he was carrying out the terms of his contract, he [the vice¬ 
roy] had received the aforesaid cédula and had sent it with an auto to 
notify the said Don Juan. It overtook him at the Río de las Nazas, almost 
at the last settlements, and he replied to the notification in the letter of 
which he was sending a copy. In this letter he says that he yields very 
obediently and that he will not go on, as his Majesty orders him [not to], 
although he shows great feeling, and represents the great expense which 
he and his relatives and friends, most of whom he is taking with him, have 
incurred; the troubles which they have experienced in carrying it to that 
point; the great difficulty of detaining the men when they should learn 
that he was not to make the expedition; the disturbance that would result 
to it in its advanced state; the scattering of all the men; and the difficulty 
that one other than he would have in making it. Finally, he claims to 
have acquired the right to it by virtue of his contract and to have fulfilled 
it up to that day. Furthermore he asked that the viceroy should allow 
him to proceed as far as the last settlement, where the captain of the guard 
should take the muster, assuring the viceroy that neither he nor anyone 
with him would enter on the exploration. 
The viceroy says this business has had him in a state of the greatest 
anxiety and perplexity, seeing that the second order of his Majesty was 
delayed and not knowing what orders it would give for Don Juan de 
Oñate, but that nevertheless he had held it to be right to give him permis¬ 
sion to continue the journey—led to this by fear that the men might break 
away and enter without orders, and by the fact that anyone coming from 
Spain to make the expedition would experience many difficulties. The 
Audiencia, with which he consulted on two occasions, did not resolve to 
make a decision or to make any change in what his Majesty ordered, ex¬ 
pecting that instructions would come by the fleet for what was to be done; 
nevertheless they regret the inconveniences of the disruption of this expe¬ 
dition in the state in which it was, and the impossibility of holding the men 
and equipment which Don Juan has collected, no matter what effort he 
may make for it, or what assistance he may have from the viceroy. He 
[the viceroy] had again sent to notify him [Oñate] by another auto, in 
confirmation of the first, that he should obey the orders which had been 
given him, to which he was awaiting a reply, but that he was certain that 
Don Juan would not go or permit any one to go contrary to the order, 
although in a man of fewer obligations and pledges in that land and one 
of more irritable temper this event might be greatly feared. 
