Juan de Oñate, 1602 
399 
should be given the title of governor of the said provinces for your life 
and for that of a son or heir, to which you should be appointed, in con¬ 
formity with the contents of an article of the instructions for new dis¬ 
coveries and settlements of the Indies, 
And, inasmuch as supplication has been made to me upon your part 
that, in view of the expenses which you have incurred in the journey and 
the troubles which you have endured, I should order that it be approved, 
I have decided favorably upon it, after being advised so to do, and by 
these presents it is my will and pleasure that now and henceforth, for all 
the days of your life you shall be my governor of the said provinces of 
New Mexico and of the towns that may be settled in them, and after you 
your son or heir or any person whom you may name. As such you shall 
have the power to exercise the said office in all affairs pertaining and 
belonging to it, according and as it is exercised by my governors of my 
kingdoms of Castile and of the said Indies. 
In the use and exercise of the said office and the practice of the rights 
pertaining to it, you shall observe, and you and your said son or heir or 
person whom you may name shall be under obligation to observe, the 
laws and decrees of these my kingdoms which regulate it. You shall be 
empowered to enjoy and you shall enjoy and there shall be secured to you 
all the honors, grants, favors, franchises, privileges and exemptions, pref¬ 
erences, prerogatives, immunities, and all and every one of the other 
things which by reason of being my governor you have the right to have 
and enjoy and that ought to be secured to you. You shall have and 
receive the salary, rights, and other things owing and pertaining to the 
said office of governor, and, by this, my letter, I command my councillors, 
justices, regidores , gentlemen, squires, officials, and all good men of all 
the cities, towns, and villages of the said province of New Mexico, that 
they shall receive and hold you and your son or heir or person whom you 
may name as my governor; that they shall exercise the said office with 
you and with him in all the cases and affairs pertaining and belonging 
to it, and shall observe and cause to be observed all the honors, grants, 
favors, franchises, privileges, exemptions, preferences, prerogatives, im¬ 
munities, and all and every one of the other things that by reason of the 
said office you have the right to have and enjoy and that ought to be 
secured to you; and that they shall pay and cause to be paid before every¬ 
thing the rights and salaries due and pertaining to it, in full and com¬ 
plete, with no decrease to you in anything, in accordance with the method 
which has been practised and in which payments have been made, and as 
they ought to be practised and made, with the other governors who have 
been and are in these my kingdoms of Castile and in the Indies. They 
shall not place or allow to be placed any obstacle or impediment against 
you in it or any part of it; for I by this writing receive and have received 
you into the use and exercise of it, and I give you the power and authority 
to make use of it [this writing] in case that you shall not be received in it 
[the office] by them or any one of them. Given at Villalpando, Febru¬ 
ary 7, 1602. I the King. I, Juan de Ybarra, secretary to our lord 
the king, by whose order it was written. The licentiate Laguna, Doctor 
