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Military Service Records 225 Document 48 Excerpt from a Letter of Governor Domingo Jironza Petríz de Cruzate to the Viceroy El Paso, August 26, 16851 With regard to the Jumano expedition, I have already informed Your Excellency in a previous letter that the story of the holy cross turned out to be false.2 From this it must be inferred that all the rest contained in the journal is probably the same. Your Excellency has already been informed of the behavior of the individual who made it, for having summoned extrajudicially the soldiers who went on the said journey, when I showed them what the itinerary said, they told me that [the truth is] very contrary to its content, and for this reason I sent Captain Diego de Luna to the capital so that he might inform Your Excellency orally, as will be seen by my letter.3 I have received information that the Very Reverend Father fray Nicolás López has gone so far as to propose that this governorship should be granted to Juan Domínguez de Mendoza, who was the commander and chief of the said expedition, in remuneration of the work he had. This individual is the one mentioned against whom Your Excellency ordered me to institute proceedings, along with don Pedro Durán y Chaves, against both of whom cases have been remitted by my predecessors which are preserved in the archive of the supreme government.4 The said don Pedro is the one whom Your Excellency informed me was present at the death of don Luis de Rosas, which they say was so ignominious, although I did not find the proceedings that were fulminated with regard to this matter because they must have been lost in the general uprising in New Mexico.5 And his said son-in-law, Juan Domínguez de Mendoza, is the one who had Alonso Catití and other chiefs and instigators of that uprising in his hand, communicating and trading with them, and let them go free, as is shown by what my predecessor wrote concerning this matter.6 Although it is true that I have twice been ordered to fulminate cases against them, I have already informed Your Excellency that I have not done so because of the disadvantages and because the military operations of this time do not permit it if greater difficulties are to be avoided, for the said individual is widely related and his father-in-law is now in the jurisdiction of Parral.7 I am informed that when General don Fernando de Villanueva left the said Juan Domínguez de Mendoza to act as his lieutenant general during his 226 Part One absence, he fabricated a royal standard and appointed ministers of justice and war. He had a large number of infidel Apache beheaded in cold blood and under pledge of peace, and he seized their children and wives. For this reason General don Juan de Medrano sentenced him to death but because of appeals he stayed execution. I understand that the proceedings with regard to the aforesaid are preserved in those archives [of the supreme government]. In this kingdom it is so public and notorious that the rumors which have reached here of the pretension he has with regard to this government have troubled all the citizens and they have been scandalized to see that such an individual should have the audacity to pretend to what he cannot obtain because he is a citizen of this kingdom and suffers the impediments which have been related here. My predecessor, General don Antonio de Otermín, Sargento Mayor Bartolomé Gómez Robledo, Maestre de Campo Francisco Xavier, Sargento Mayor Luis de Quintana, and other citizens of this kingdom who are in that capital will be able to inform Your Excellency about everything. I, most excellent sir, have made this relation to Your Excellency because of seeing these citizens so notably afflicted, for as far as I am concerned, any successor Your Excellency may be pleased to send me will be very well received as Your Excellency’s choice. El Paso, August 26, 1685. Most excellent lord, humble servant of Your Excellency, who kisses your feet, don Domingo Jironza Petríz de Cruzate (rubric). Notes 1. AGN, México, Provincias Internas, vol. 35, exp. 4, ff. 120–23. 2. In a letter to the viceroy, dated July 25, 1684, Petríz de Cruzate wrote as follows: “I have already informed Your Excellency that...

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