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Document 18: Appointment as Lieutenant of the Governor and Captain General, Santa Fe, February 10, 1667
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112 Part One descendants resettled after 1693. He was married to Josefa de Herrera. Chávez, Origins of New Mexico Families, 73. (E & S) 9. The Spanish reads “piezas de Apaches.” These were Apaches captured during “just war” of reprisal. Their legal status was that of involuntary laborers assigned by formal legal process to vecinos who were obligated to teach Christian ways and doctrine to them. For all practical purposes, however, they were slaves. They were freely bought and sold, and as this document indicates, numbers of them were sent to New Spain to be sold as household servants or as laborers in mines and on cattle ranches. Provincial governors occasionally sent young Apache boys and girls to their friends in the viceregal capital. In the 1660s and 1670s the authorities in New Spain made an effort to prohibit this form of involuntary service. Document 18 Appointment as Lieutenant of the Governor and Captain General Santa Fe, February 10, 16671 Captain and Sargento Mayor don Fernando de Villanueva, governor and captain general of these provinces of New Mexico for the king, our lord, etc. Captain Andrés de Gracia of El Paso del Río del Norte of this jurisdiction wrote letters asking for aid because the Manso nation was in revolt, as a result of which the friars of that conversion were in danger.2 With regard to these letters, councils of the captains, cabildo, and retired officials were held and edicts [were pronounced] in which the said Paso del Río del Norte was declared to be of this jurisdiction.3 And in accordance with the said council I issued an order that Maestre de Campo Tomé Domínguez de Mendoza should go forth with twenty-five men, with powder and munitions, to help the said friars and make the said conversion safe and peaceful, and [to execute] the rest contained in the edicts. In the second dispatch from the said Captain Andrés de Gracia, he states that the said aid is unnecessary and the [men] should halt and turn back because he has hanged two Indians, abettors of the uprising. [He has done this] without remitting autos or knowing how to prepare them. By these letters he shows that he made himself judge without jurisdiction or authority from me. In addition, the Indians of the ranchería of El Chilmo and Capitán Chiquito were in revolt and attacked the highways, although they had been friendly and at peace.4 Councils were also held concerning this, and an order was Military Service Records 113 figure 3 Report on military and administrative affairs by New Mexico Governor Fernando de Villanueva, which contains the appointment of Juan Domínguez de Mendoza as lieutenant governor and captain general. February 10, 1667. [184.72.135.210] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 17:14 GMT) 114 Part One issued to the alcalde mayor of Senecú, Juan García,5 to go in peace to the said rancherías and summon and bring the said captains to me in order to learn the reason for their unrest so that they might be calmed and the roads made safe for the peace and tranquility of this kingdom. When the said alcalde mayor of Senecú, Juan García, went to the said rancherías and dwellings of the aforementioned [captains], he found them abandoned, for they had fled. Therefore, I issued an edict covering both matters to the effect that when the active wars which were then going on in this Custodia and these provinces were quieted, I would go down in person to tranquilize the said Mansos and Apaches del Chilmo and Paso del Río del Norte and [to attend to] matters pertaining to the services of His Majesty. And our Lord God has been pleased to bring the Apache nation to recognition of their errors by means of the punishments inflicted upon them, which caused them to come to sue for peace, which was granted and given to all of them generally except to El Chilmo and Capitán Chiquito, who have not come. For this reason I am going in person for the said purpose of making the roads safe and pacifying the said Mansos and all else under the royal jurisdiction of this kingdom. Because it is a distance of 130 leagues from this villa to the said Paso del Río del Norte, and since I do not know whether for the said royal jurisdiction I shall go farther on...