Came Men on Horses: The Conquistador Expeditions of Francisco Vásquez de Coronado and Don Juan de Oñate

21. The Colonists Revolt

243 21 The Colonists Revolt The natives had helped us during the four years that we have been here, hereby giving us all the provisions they had saved up for many years, and the situation has become so desperate that many of the natives are starving to death. gregorio Céssar1 When the Quivira expedition returned to San Gabriel, Oñate found to his great dismay that during his absence a sizable number of colonists, officers, soldiers, and churchmen had banded together and returned to Mexico. When he departed for the plains in June, he had left behind seventy people, including a number of families.2 As they watched him march away with a large portion of his army, a majority of those remaining felt a great rush of freedom. They saw their chance to escape from the oppression and sordid conditions under which they had lived for many months. Led by the friars and some army officers, many colonists began making plans to flee back to Mexico before the Quivira expedition returned and to report to the viceroy their “legitimate” reasons for abandoning the post.3 They had many grievances,all of which were exacerbated,as Viceroy Monterrey informed King Philip,“by fear of the threats and punishments inflicted by Don Juan [de Oñate] until then to prevent their departure 244 T h e C o l o n i s T s R e v o l T and to maintain the colony. This situation was intensified by their lack of freedom to send accounts to Mexico of their demands or complaints, which can easily be understood from the meagerness or lack of correspondence with them during the last five years.”4 The rising mutiny among those at San Gabriel had come to the attention of Francisco de Sosa Peñalosa, whom Oñate had appointed lieutenant governor and captain general to command the post during his absence. Though Sosa Peñalosa empathized with the complainants, he had duly rejected requests of those seeking to leave. But the call to escape became so widespread among the Spaniards still at San Gabriel that the lieutenant governor called a general meeting of army officers, church officials, and others to discuss the matter.5 Thus, on September 7, 1601, as Oñate’s Quivira expedition marched across the buffalo prairies of western Kansas, the Spanish residents of San Gabriel pueblo gathered at their church to discuss and give testimony in support of abandoning Oñate’s effort to colonize New Mexico. After Fray Francisco de San Miguel (vice commissary of the province) and four other frays had conducted a high mass, Sosa Peñalosa recorded testimony from the friars and sympathetic army men as to why it was desirable to move to another place (safely out of Oñate’s jurisdiction of New Mexico) from which the viceroy could be informed of their reasons for leaving San Gabriel. Fray San Miguel was the first to make his religious and legal oath and to testify. In his lengthy statement he observed, “From the time he came here to the moment of this statement, his conscience has ever been disturbed by the mistreatment of these natives.”6 Fray San Miguel said that for some time he had been trying to hold back those who wanted to leave because he felt they would take the few horses still left in camp. In doing so, they would endanger those remaining at the hands of Indians who were waiting for an opportune moment to attack. But now, because of such great poverty and the absence of the rule of law in the land, he had concluded that people must be allowed to leave and report the true state of affairs to the viceroy. Fray Francisco de Zamora concurred and spoke also regarding the treatment of natives: “They [Oñate’s men] took away from them by force all the food that they had gathered for many years, without leaving them any for the support of themselves and their children.”7 He also swore to having seen Indians stabbed and knifed when goods were taken from them and complained of soldiers violating Indian women along the roads. 245 T h e C o l o n i s T s R e v o l T Fray Lope Izquierdo also testified concerning the injustices perpetrated upon pueblo natives, telling how “our men, with little...