-
Appendix D: The Oñate Maps
- University Press of Colorado
- Chapter
- Additional Information
307 appendix D The Oñate Maps THE 1602 MarTínEz MaP (FigUrE 20.1) Juan Rodríguez,1 a native of Chutuma, Spain, enlisted with Oñate at age forty. He served as a commander in the company of Captain Francisco de Zúñiga and took part in all of the discoveries conducted by Oñate and his maestre de campo (second in command). He was back in Mexico City in April 1602, where he testified on behalf of Vicente de Zaldívar and gave the Valverde Inquiry a lengthy report regarding the Quivira expediton.2 He is also the Juan Rodríguez who provided cartographer Enrico Martínez with the very creditable details for preparing a map depicting Oñate’s New Mexico province in 1602 and his expedition’s march to Quivira.3 Martínez was an experienced navigator who had sailed up the California coast and later visited the Philippine Islands. One would suspect , however, that Rodríguez must have helped with the actual drawing of the map or that he had detailed notes and sketches for reference. 308 A p p e n d i x d The Martínez map is lacking identifiable landmarks, particularly streams, that would help viewers today better understand precisely where beyond the Canadian River the expedition went. Still, it remarkably reflects many aspects of the march and the topography of southwestern America that are recognizable four centuries later through narrative accounts, archaeological study, and known landmarks. Among these are certain identifiable rivers, particularly the Rio Grande and Canadian; the locations of important ancient pueblos such as San Gabriel, Galisteo, and Pecos; the expedition’s crossing of the Manzano Mountains through Galisteo Pass; the march eastward to the New Mexico bend of the Canadian; the march down that watercourse passing the two tributaries that could be today’s Ute and the Rita Blanco; the critical-to-course swing northeastward at another bend in the river, possibly near Borger, Texas; and the march’s abrupt turn north again at the Escanjaque village (also shown on the map drawn by Miguel, discussed in the next section). It is significant that these aspects are one and all supported in the various narrative accounts. We do not know with such certainty that it was a tributary of the Arkansas River on which Quivira—the “Pueblo del nuevo descubrir,” or “Village of New Discovery”—was found.But today many scholars believe the river shown at the upper right of the map, on whose tributary the Indian settlement is depicted, was indeed the Arkansas between Wichita and Great Bend. Also, the theory that the big river’s tributary was Cow Creek is supported (though not proven) by archaeological evidence that has been found there. This study differs from others on a crucial point, making the argument that the turn from the Canadian occurred at a series of sand hills on the Canadian River above Borger,Texas,rather than at the Antelope Hills (see appendix C). Whether the turn was at the Antelope Hills or at the Borger point, however, the map clearly shows the line of the march to be north by east, which would take it directly into present Kansas. Beyond the Canadian River, the Martínez map leaves us uncertain regarding what streams are designated. But though the map does not tell us everything we wish to know, we should be grateful that it does tell us a great deal. In accepting that Oñate turned from the Canadian into Kansas,theorists are presented with three prominent options as to the tributary of the Arkansas River on which he found the Rayado village: Cow Creek, the [54.234.136.147] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 12:27 GMT) 309 T h e O ñ a T e M a p s Little Arkansas, and Walnut Creek (feeding south into Arkansas City). The northeasterly line of the march indicated on the Martínez map and the predominant flow of the streams to the east at the Rayado site seem to make Cow Creek the most likely candidate of the three. MigUEl’s MaP, 1602 (sEE FigUrE 21.1) Miguel,an Indian slave whose original home was at the site he designated asTancoa on a map,had originally been taken prisoner by the Escanjaques. Recaptured by Juan de Oñate’s men during their clash with that tribe in 1601, he was taken first to Oñate’s headquarters at San Gabriel, New Mexico, and then to...