Fernando de Oñate, 1612 
453 
and capacity, the said viceroy selected and named him for the said office, 
and this witness saw him fill and exercise it most acceptably and with 
much rectitude, as appears from the good report that he gave of it and to 
which this witness refers. And at the same time this witness saw that 
the said viceroy gave the commission and office of his captain of the guard 
to Alonso de Oñate, legitimate brother of the said Don Fernando, and 
uncle of the said Don Fernando, the younger, who filled the said office 
with much dignity, as it requires, and as he was able to do in his character 
as a gentleman so well known in this kingdom. This he affirms. 
To the fourth question he declared that this witness knows and saw 
that the said governor, Don Juan de Oñate, went on the campaign to 
New Mexico—an enterprise worthy of great esteem as an affair from 
which many good results redounded to his Majesty. Since the said 
expedition was very expensive, because of the length of time that the said 
governor was detained in the said conquest, where he left some settle¬ 
ments reduced to the rule of his Majesty, this witness knows that it was 
necessary for him to avail himself of the help—not only to be able to go, 
but also to sustain himself there while on the said campaign, as was pub¬ 
lic and well known—of the said Don Fernando de Oñate and Don Cris¬ 
tóbal de Oñate, his brothers, and it was impossible for him to sustain 
himself on the said campaign in any other way, and this he knows to be 
true as it is stated in the question. This he affirms. 
To the fifth question he declared that he knows and saw and it is true 
that the said Don Fernando de Oñate, the younger, is legitimately married 
according to the order of Holy Mother Church with Doña Magdalena de 
Mendoza, his cousin, legitimate daughter of Vicente de Zaldivar and 
Doña Magdalena de Mendoza, his wife, noble persons of pure lineage, and 
held and known to be such in this kingdom and in that of Nueva Galicia, 
where for a long time the said Vicente de Zaldivar served his Majesty in 
the office of lieutenant-captain-general. This marriage this witness knows 
was contracted between the aforesaid by dispensation, and he has seen 
that they are at present living in matrimony. As this witness has already 
said, he knows that the said Don Fernando, the younger, by derivation and 
descent from his said parents, is known to be a gentleman, and is esteemed 
as such in this New Spain, as well as his parents, grandparents, and an¬ 
cestors, by all the nobles in it. This witness knows and has seen that in 
his person he is a virtuous man, and an honorable and serious gentleman 
of great ability, upon whom any one of the favors which he asks for, as 
stated in the question, will sit very well. He knows nothing to the con¬ 
trary, and what he has declared under the said oath is true. It was signed 
by the said señor oidor, the licentiate Diego Núñez Morquecho. Alonso 
López de Bocanegra. 
In the City of Mexico, on the fifth day of the month of March, 1611, 
the said señor licentiate Diego Núñez Morquecho received for the said 
evidence the oath from the father master in holy theology, Fray Juan de 
Guzmán, of the Order of Saint Augustine, formerly provincial of this prov¬ 
ince, in the sacred name of Jesus, which he gave in verbo sacerdotisa 1 
