COLONY OF NUEVO SANTANDER
COAST OF THE GULF OF MEXICO
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settlers of this town and that they would bring their families, to which the said honorable colonel agreed
and further he elected and named him as captain of it designating, at the same time, the borders and
jurisdiction that this town should comprise which is from the coming together of the Sabine and Salado
Rivers to the deep hold and pass that permits the Río Grand to approach la Bahía del Espíritu Santo which
is at a distance from this settlement to this pass of twenty-five leagues and from the said joining of the
rivers southward to the Charco de Enmedio going around la Loma de Panalate Arroyo de la Salinilla where
the Río Grande passes and giving the other dispositions that he found suitable to establish this said town;
and that for all this foundation neither its residents nor those that came at the beginning nor those who later
have increased, that are about seven in all, have had any financial aid nor means that have favored their
support.
To the third question he said: that in this settlement there are no Indians congregated or converted
and therefore there are no quarters or shacks for their living either within or outside of this town.
To the fourth question he said: that he does not know that, in the name of the Indians with the title
of mission, there might be any land turned over to the Apostolic Minister nor given possession of any sites
in which to found their support but that he knows that, with this title within this same settlement, the
Missionary Priest has his house and, following it, six "caballerías" of land that are designated for when the
time comes of some congregation and that for the same thing he has some goods for farming like
plowshares, hoes, axes, and "barretas" with more than thirty-three cows which have been taken, through
the endeavours of the declarant, from the wilds and raised in the fields and they were added to the said
mission so that they would have this beginning with which to go along building some encouragement; and
regarding that which concerns the settlers and residents, as yet no possession of lands has been given to
them because they are all enjoying them in common, each one working wherever he finds best and that in
these terms they have already put two measures of corn into cultivation.
To the fifth question he said: that the river that passes through this settlement is called el Río Salado
which begins in Santa Rosa, province of Coahuila, and ends in the Río Grande at three leagues from this
settlement; and that another river called Sabinas which begins in Boca de Leones of el Nuevo Reino and,
nine leagues before arriving in this settlement, enters and terminates in the said Río Salado; and that
although he has gone along the coast of the river of las Nueces for more than eight days, he does not know
where it begins, he knows that it continues through that part of la Bahía del Espíritu Santo or the Presidio
that they call Santa Dorotea and, without entering into this colony, it goes to end at the sea, and he knows
of no others.
To the sixth question he said: that he has not traveled through the settlements of this colony where
he has seen irrigation canals nor does he know where they might be building one; only in Mier does he
know that they have one of these in operation and the same is being practiced by him and the residents in
this settlement from its Río Salado.
To the seventh question he said: that he knows that in Santander they have built an irrigation canal
from a spring with which they water their lands and he does not know of other settlements that have the
same benefit.
To the eighth question he said: that the use that they make of irrigating the lands is for the planting
of corn, cane, beans, and other seeds, plants, and vegetables, and that which is most important to make
use of the early harvest and free them of weather accidents being the corn which needs the most of this type
of care as much for it being the most useful for their food as for it being the most acredited in the crops.
To the ninth question he said: that in this present year there could be about two measures of corn
that might be planted in this settlement and that in the preceeding years it has been much less for which
reason they have no experience as to how much each one of planting could produce and, for the same
reason, they have been buying what they have needed for their support and now they are doing the same
in exchange for salt of that which they harvest in the salt mines and of the meat that the gathering of wild
cattle produces for them and also from the products of their goods, taking them to the Presidio de Río
Grande, jurisdiction of Monterrey, and to other parts of the border provovinces where they give them and
exchange them, doing the same with those entering and exiting who come with corn to collect from these
species.
To the tenth question he said: that the settlements of this colony in which he has been are
Santander, San Fernando, Camargo, Mier, and this one of Revilla and that, although he has heard that
there are others, he has not been in them nor does he know the distances that they are from the sea and that
he does not know whether there may be a port, bays, or anchorages in all this coast in which major or
minor vessels could enter.
To the eleventh question he said: that, from what he has seen in this colony, all the land is suitable
to raise and keep major and minor livestock and that in this settlement several residents have established
ranches of this type in its jurisdiction in which they experience good increases.
To the twelfth question he said: that he does not know of any mines but that he has heard that on
the other side of the Río Grande in the region that they call La Sierrecilla, fourteen leagues distance from
this settlement, there are ore veins and that Captain Juan García, already deceased, in the time of the
honorable General Arriaga, governor of el Nuevo Reino, in some of the entries that he made into those
regions took stones fromid mines which, when assayed, showed they contained gold and that he does not
know of others.
To the thirteenth question he said: that on the other side of the Río Grande there is a salt mine of
salt crystallized into rock called el Padre Mariano at about fifty leagues from this settlement, that the
declarant has sent someone to check it this present year and he was told that it was already beginning to
crystallize which he believes it to be, due to the good sunshine they have had, perfectly in season; another
salt mine, of rock salt and salt plates so large that it is necessary to use bars to cut it, that he know exists
called la Salina Grande which is also on the other side of the Río Grande next to the shore; another salt
mine that he know exists of red salt, also of crystallized rock at about twenty leagues from Mier also
towards the coast of the sea, and that he knows of no others.
To the fourteenth question he said: that the settlements of this colony remain quiet and peaceful
and that, concerning this town, its residents have good communication with each other and that nowhere
do the Indian congregations cause any problems, nor even in this town at present do they experience any
injuries from the Carrizos, the Cacalotes, the Cotonames, the Cueros Quemados, the Malagüecos, the
Garzas Indians or some of the Pescados and Pistispiagüeles nor do they fear them even though their being
three or four leagues distance from it, the first one on the other part of the Río Grande and the last three
tribes in the "coomedio" of Mier, not one problem other than a few thefts of livestock which is known to
be their inclination.
To the fifteenth question he said: that the Sierra Madre is the one he knows as divider of this
colony and he can give no report about the name of Sierra Gorda and that he has not been in la Sierra
Tamaulipa, for which reason he cannot say what proportions it might have to be able to place settlements
there.
To the sixteenth question he said: that the borders of el Nuevo Reino de León to this colony are:
Linares, Cadereyta, Cerralvo, and Sabinas, that he does not know at what distances but that he is very sure
that, since this colony was populated, those do not have the injuries from the Indians of which they were
so bothered before.
To the seventeenth question he said: that he does not know the number of captains, corporals, and
soldiers enlisted and with salary that all this colony has but that, in this town, the declarant is its captain,
that he has no salary whatever nor are there any soldiers with salary in this settlement because the declarant
and its residents serve and do everything needed at their own expense.
To the eighteenth question about the General Legal Data he said: that they do not concern him in
anyway and, it having been read again to him ad verbum, all that he has said and declared, so that he say
whether he needs to add or remove anything or that it be ratified, he said: that what he has said is the same
that he will say again if it were necessary without needing to change or remove anything, and that he
affirms and approves it for it being the truth by the oath that he has made and he signed it and stated being
of the age of fifty years, the said gentleman Don José Tienda de Cuervo signed it with the witnesses
present. - José Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) - José B�ez Benavidez - (rubric) -Roque Fern�ndez Marcial.
-(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
Two witnesses follow who declared the same as the preceeding one and they are the following:
Don Bernabé Gutiérrez de Lara, resident and settler of the town of Revilla of fifty years of age.
Juan Antonio Tabares, resident of said town of fifty-four years of age.
DOCUMENT - In the town of Revilla in nineteen days of the month of July of seventeen hundred
fifty-seven years, the honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo, having seen the proceedings practiced in
this town regarding the examination of its state, according to the chapters of its instruction, considering
them as sufficient for his report, desirous of not wasting time on the rest that he should continue to
complete his commission with the most possible brevity and to avoid the costs that the delays could cause
to the Royal Treasury, ordered that everything acted upon in this settlement be put in a separate folder for
its best information and thus he order and signed it. - José Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) -Roque Fern�ndez
Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
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HACIENDA DE DOLORES
In the Hacienda de Dolores, situated on the other side of the Río Grande on the north part in twenty
days of the month of July of seventeen hundred fifty-seven years, the honorable Don José Tienda de
Cuervo, Gentleman of the Order of Santiago, Captain of Dragoons of la Nueva Ciudad de Veracruz and
Inspecting Judge of the Gulf of Mexico by the Most Excellent honorable Viceroy Marquis of las Amarillas,
having arrived in this site at about ten in the morning in continuation of his its survey and state, found that
it is composed only of one ranch in which Don José V�zquez Borrego lives with several servants who
compose several families, all converted to dwelling in twenty small shacks of sticks and "horcones"
covered with grass, in which are included those which serve in the kitchen; and desirous, according to his
instruction, to acquaint himself from the beginning in its duration and state, he ordered that Don José
V�zquez Borrego, owner of said hacienda, who is named its captain by the colonel Don José de
Escandón, give a list of the servants he has, their families specifing women and children, their number
and the names of the goods that the declared captain might have and of those that, perhaps, the said
servants might have acquired or can possess, with the distinction of the types; and that, besides the
aforesaid, that, in order to review them, he present them tomorrow the twenty-first of the present [month]
in the morning before the said gentleman, making known to him all of the aforesaid for its completion,
giving him in writing reports of that aforesaid and of the rest of the questions that would be useful to ask
him, with the aim that everything serve for the best information of this hacienda and thus he provided and
signed it with the witnesses present. - José Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) -Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
STATEMENT OF DON BARTOLOME BORREGO - In the said Hacienda de Dolores in twenty
days of the month of July of seventeen hundred fifty-seven years, the honorable Don José Tienda de
Cuervo. desirous of informing himself of the state and survey of it in satisfaction of his charges, seeing
that the small size of which it is composed does not require all the tediousness of the instruction nor of the
interrogation that is set out for the other settlements and which is found in the folder number one of these
proceedings, finding a more succinct expression sufficient in order not to waste any time nor to hesitate
in what he tries to perform here, formed several questions in which to found his justification and to take
the statements about them, which would prove them, from those people who, with some residency, would
be able to give information of that region and, for it, he had appear before him Don Bartolomé Borrego,
steward of this said hacienda, from whom he received an oath by God and a cross so that he tell the truth
in that which would be asked and, his having done and offered it, he was asked who the owner of this
hacienda is, since when it is established, and of what servants and families it is composed, he said: that the
owner of this hacienda is Don José V�zquez Borrego, uncle of the declarant who is captain of it by the
honorable Colonel Escandón, that it is established in this site with the name of Nuestra Señora de los
Dolores (although there is no chapel or church to say mass because, when it is needed, it is said under any
arbor) since the year seventeen hundred fifty and it is composed of thirty families of servants more or less,
that he does not know, offhand, the persons that comprise it, and he attests.
Asked what goods or livestock are raised in it and to whom they belong, whether the land is
suitable for their conservation and if they experience good growth, he said: that the livestock and goods
of which this hacienda is composed are horses, donkeys, mules, mares, cows, and oxen which belong
almost totally to the owner of this hacienda with the exception of one or another small herd that some of
the servants have and that the land is suitable for raising these species and for their conservation since they
experience msny increases and good progress in them and that he has no minor livestock, and he attests.
Asked if there are Indians united to this hacienda, he said: that in this hacienda there are only two
old Indians united to this area three to four years ago who are baptized in the Misión de la Punta del
Lampazo, province of el Nuevo Reino de León, and he attests.
Asked which ecclesiastical minister aids in instructing and administering the sacraments to the
inhabitants of this hacienda, he said: that the ecclesiastical minister whom they solicit for the urgencies that
illnesses or other accidents of confession offer, they make use of the missionary priest of the settlement of
Revilla, a distance of twelve leagues of this site; and that to comply with the church, these inhabitants go
annually to said Revilla to receive the sacraments, and he attests.
Asked what the name of the river is that passes by this site, where it begins and where it ends, he
said: that it is called el Río Grande del Norte, that he does not know where it begins but that he has heard
that it ends at the sea, and he attests.
Asked if this hacienda has any field for planting, of what seed it is composed, what do these
produce per measure in the crops, and whether the land is suitable for planting seed, he said: that it has
no field nor has it had one up to the present because it is maintained from the seeds produced by another
hacienda that the said captain has in the jurisdiction of Coahuila, and he attests.
Asked by which means this hacienda and its families protect themselves from the risks of the
surrounding Indians, he said: that from the same servants of this hacienda twelve men are designated to
go out and inspect the lands and to pursue the Indians whenever they give cause for it or commit any
injuries, and he attests.
Asked what the Indian tribes that live in the immediate lands are called and whether he knows of
what number they might be composed, he said: that the Indians who live most immediate to this land are
those called Borrados, Carrizos, Tepemacas, and several others that he does not have present in mind and
that he has heard about the Borrados that they should be about three hundred warriors but that he has not
heard speak of the others regarding this affair because, since the land is so extensive, they have not been
able to estimate their number and that from these, from year to year, they usually experience some thefts
of their livestock but no other injuries, and he attests.
Asked of he knows whether in these regions there might be some mines and mineral veins, he said:
that he does not know nor has he heard that there are any, and he attests.
Asked if he knows at what terms this hacienda has been added to la Colonia of the Gulf of Mexico
established by the colonel Don José de Escandón and if this land has the proportions and is suitable to
found a settlement on it, he said: that this hacienda was established by the uncle of the declarant, Don José
Borrego, in the year of seventeen hundred fifty and, after having it in perfection and having brought the
livestock for its improvement, he went to Santander in solicitation of Don José de Escandón, who at that
time was found involved in the establishment of the settlements of the Gulf of Mexico, and from there it
resulted in that his aforesaid uncle, returning with the title of captain under the privileges of la Colonia,
remained to continue this hacienda without the declarant knowing on what terms they agreed for it. And
that regarding the land to found settlements, it has no more water than that of its river and it is not suitable
for farming nor does it have lands suitable for it but it is very good for raising livestock since, regarding
farming, they are always at the mercy of the weather and, since they have had no experience, one cannot
speak positively in this particular, and he attests.
Asked if he knows with what title the captain don José V�zquez Borrego established himself on
this land, on what terms it was begun, and whether he has obtained property or possession of them [lands],
he said: that the captain Don José Borrego, his uncle, finding himself harassed in the hacienda that he has
in the province of Coahuila by the much livestock that was carried off and by the injuries that the Apache
Indians caused, sent some men to come and inspect these unpopulated lands to see if they could find a
region suitable where he could establish an hacienda and, in fact, having returned with the information of
this site, he deliberated placing himself on it as he did it from the beginning without anyone placing any
impediment before him and that, after being settled in this establishment with the colonel Don José
Escandón on the terms that he has referred to previously, having arrived the year of fifty-four, the said
honorable colonel came to this hacienda and saw the witness who gave possession of this land to the
aforesaid uncle and that they measured ten leagues of land down river which were designated for his goods,
taking five leagues toward the north for the same aim; that this is what he saw and has come to understand
in this affair and all that he has said being the truth by the oath that he has made and in it he affirms and
ratifies it and he signed it and said being of the age of thirty-seven years; the said Don José Tienda de
Cuervo signed it with the witnesses present. - José Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) - Bartolomé Borrego -
(rubric) -Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
One witness follows who declared the same as the preceding one and he is the following:
Antonio Marcial Flores, corporal of said hacienda of forty years of age.
Having taken charge of the contents of the order of Your Majesty which occupies this and and the
preceeding sheet, complying with that which is prepared he said: that I present the list of the families that
I support on my salary in this hacienda and population of Dolores as much for the keeping and custody of
the goods of the field that I have in it, as for the containment of the hostilities and injuries which, before
its establishment, they experienced from the barbarian Indians in this frontier and the roads that are
traveled in it, for which end, especially the twelve men which compose the said families, I have them
equipped with arms and horses so they are always ready for whatever difficulty that might occur of the said
hostilities. And so that your Lordship make a review of them tomorrow at the time assigned, they will be
ready. Said list also contains the goods of the fields and their species which I have in this said hacienda
and population, the expressed servants have none because, as I have said, they are supported at my salary.
I, as captain named by the populace, in virtue of the title that the honerable general Don José de
Escandón conferred on me, do not enjoy any salary because I have always served and serve now his
Majesty at my own cost, my servants also have none other that that which I pay them, distributing to them
all my supplies with much pleasure so that my services be verified with no interest and today I find myself
pledged to six thousand pesos without being able to balance the account of those supplies.
Finding myself in the province of Coahuila where I have a parcle of land and that province already
being quiet and peaceful and my knowing through reports that were given to me that these lands were
desert and the travel made hostile by the barbaric Indians, desirous of performing a new service for his
Majesty, may God keep him, determined to populate these lands with twelve men and my major livestock
with the hope of increasing it in families, as I, in fact, did it the year of seven hundred fifty, with much
difficulty due to the fear that the people had of coming among the barbarians who lived here, which was
obtained with money and double salaries. And after I had already placed the twelve families and a portion
of livestock, knowing at the same time that the honorable general Don José de Escandón was populating
la Colonia, I sent notice of this, my populace, so that he would appropriate it to his jurisdiction, which he
did since this said populace was so important for the connection of this colony with Presidio de la Bahía
of la Provincia de Texas due to this being the pass of the road which I made possible with a canoe which
is serving for the benefit of the passengers in which virtue the said gentleman did me the favor and a
donation of fifty sites for minor livestock.
Regarding the point as to whether there are Indians on this hacienda, I say that although the
honorable general added twenty-seven families that I supported at great cost and work more than five years
with corn, meat, clothing, and education, they did not wish to convert and they left for the old dwellings
in order not to do the work.
The administration of this hacienda pertains to the town of Revilla and, at this time the M.R.F.
Fray Miguel de Santa María, apostolic priest of el Colegio de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe de Zacatecas,
is there as minister.
Regarding the river that runs immediate to this hacienda and is the one which the people use to
drink, it is called el Río Grande del Norte whose origin I do not know, it empties at this immediate coast
at a distance of eighty leagues; there is no other immediate one other than that of las Nueces that is a
distance of thirty leagues from here toward la Bahía, its origin is about one hundred leagues from here to
the northeast and it empties alone at the sea towards the east.
As to plantings of some seeds, although these lands could be suitable for them in their season, up
to now we have had no experience because nothing has been planted.
As you check to see whether some financial aid has thus been distributed to this poplulace, I say
that not even a maravedi nor has any particular contributed to its equipment since I alone have paid for
all the expenses from my own pocket.
Regarding what Your Lordship asks me about the establishment of these lands, I have responded
above and I only add that this poplulace was the first that was placed in those of this colony pertaining to
the north and, until today, I have had no more possession of lands than that personal one nor more property
than that which the right acquired by constant inhabiting permits.
Regarding whether the land is suitable for the raising and conservation of major and minor
livestock, I say: that, of the lands that I possess, they are elegant for major livestock and horses, as much
for raising as for conservation and increasing; I have no experience in minor livestock because of having
lands in the province of Coahuila, I keep them there and, in general about la Colonia, I have heard that
the lands are suitable for both.
About the point of the measures that I have taken for the best protection and safety of these
families, it has been that of often checking the confines of my summer pastures with a squadron of twelve
men whom I have armed for this end and, if they see any Indian tracks, they follow them to avoid all
damage and with all the more reason all the peons have arms in their homes that I have given them for their
defence and if they go out far to collect [something] they take them along, with which precaution there
have been no deaths since I populated these lands.
About that regarding the Indian tribes that border this hacienda, there are many although far away;
the ones that usually collect here are those of the Carrizos, these come to sell and traffic in deer pelts, I
know of no other circumstance.
From this population to the presidio today called Santa Dorotea, there are sixty short leagues.
Regarding looking at the lands that are not populated between the Río Grande and la Bahía, I say:
that these are many and according to reports that I have of those seen up to now, they are very excellent
and provided with water, I cannot compare their distance and thirty leagues from this populace my
squadron discovered, going out in security of Indians, a low hill in which two creeks are formed and
connect at a distance of fifteen leagues that appear to be permanant.
Regarding the roads that there are for the Province of Texas from this hacienda, I say: that it is
founded in the same one that goes out directly from la Canoa toward the direction of the north and goes
to la Bahía and San Antonio de Béjar, which are the two most immediate populaces of this colony; to the
first one from this populace there are seventy leagues and to San Antonio de Béjar seventy-five; the
watering places to one or the other presidio, that there are, are convenient, good, permanent, and
proportioned for the excursions of beasts of burden of the very M.R.F.s of Zacatecas which continually
pass through here, and of others that travel among them.
There is also a road from this hacienda toward the province of Coahuila, and the populace most
immediate to this hacienda that there is belonging to said province is that of el Presidio del Río Grande de
San Juan Bautista which is fifty leagues above the river; there are good and proportioned watering places.
Regarding the point of the terms with which this hacienda was attached to la Colonia and the
comforts its enjoys, I am satisfied in my previous answers and only add that it does not offer a convenience
for population for there not being any more water then that of the river and this one [being] extremely deep
and it being sandy and of very dry soil.
Another point I almost missed in satisfying Your Lordship, that is whether I know where the Río
de las Nueces originates, of which point, although not in its place, I give an extensive report.
I also need to say that regarding the point of some interest having been furnished in this populace,
it has been about five years that the honorable general Don José de Escandon sent to me from Camargo
about fifty pesos of stitched clothes for the Indians that he had appropriated for me which I later gave to
them and that is all that has been distributed here and because I forgot I did not respond on this
corresponding point.
With which I believe I have satisfied that which Your Lordship orders me with his preceding
document, if anything else be needed, I am ready to satisfy it with the same solemnity and oath in which
I ratify myself all of the preceeding points that are answered as they correspond and it is evident to me.
Dolores and July twenty-first of seventeen hundred fifty-seven years. - José V�zquez Borrego - (rubric)
In the Hacienda de Dolores, in twenty-one days of the month of July of seventeen hundred fifty-seven years, the said honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo, in completion of that which he has ordered
to make a review of the families and persons of which it is composed, having found everyone present
before the shack where he was present, executed and made its review in this form:
REVIEW
Captain Don José V�zquez Borrego, owner of this hacienda who is married and has his family,
houses, and hacienda in the Provincia de Coahuila.
Don Bartolomé V�zquez Borrego, overseer of this hacienda, of the state of bachelorhood.
Juan García, married to Antonia Navarro, has three children.
Victorino Guerrero, married to María Andrea, one son.
Mauricio Bautista, married to Juana de la Cruz, has eight children.
Cayetano Bautista, married to Petra Muñoz, has two children.
Juan José Flores, married to Francisca Guerrero, has four children.
Dionisio Teodoro, married to Dolores Martínez, two children.
Margarita de la Garza, widow, has five children.
Inés, widow,has four children.
Francisco de Luna, married to Juana Rosa, two children.
Juan Navarro, married to Tadea Fermina, has three children.
Luis Gonz�lez, bachelor.
Bautista Ju�rez, married to María Zaragoza, has eight children.
Manuel Ju�rez, married to Josefa, has two children.
Felipe Ju�rez, married to Jesusa, has one son.
Javier Rodríguez, married to Juana Micaela, has one son.
Hilario Guerrero, married to Juana, has two children.
José de Rojas, married to María Isabel, has three children.
Antonio Marcial, widower, has three children.
Pedro Salazar, married to Juana García
Lucio de los Reyes, married to Marcela de los Ríos.
José Martínez, bachelor.
Ignacio Tola, married to María Gertrudis, has two children.
Pascual, married to Francisca, has two children
Justo, bachelor.
Pedro de la Cruz, bachelor.
Gregorio Marcos, married to María Luisa, two children.
Juan José de Ochoa, married to María de la Cruz, has one daughter.
Ramón Navarro, bachelor.
Antonio Mauricio, bachelor.
That, as it seems, this hacienda is composed of inhabitants and servants, of twenty-three families
with one hundred twenty-two persons included in them twelve servants that form a squadron of eleven
soldiers and one sergeant, well equipped with horses and armed, in complete harmony, with black leather
jackets and carbine belts, shields, a rifle, a gun, a knife, and a sword, all with greyish horses very splendid
and in good order, the ones who, other than doing the service of this hacienda in the occupations for which
they are designated, go out on the necessary occasions to check the lands and repair the damages that the
barbaric Indians cause.
And the goods and livestock of which this hacienda is composed, belonging to its captain Don José
V�zquez Borrego, are the following: breeding mares three thousand, tame horses four hundred, master
donkeys two hundred fifty, wild mules one thousand five hundred, tame mules one hundred, breeding
female donkeys eight hundred, and cattle three thousand.
And all the aforesaid being the goods that this hacienda comprises, the said honorable Don José
Tienda de Cuervo, finding the proceedings that he has practiced up to now sufficient and being informed
in the survey of its state and of what composes it, ordered that this review be added to the documents and
that those that correspond to this said hacienda be concluded with it in order not to detain it with any more
delay and to reduce the costs that could follow for the Royal Treasury; and thus he decreed and signed it
with the witnesses present. - José Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) -Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
REPORT - On the thirteenth of February of seventeen hundred fifty-eight testimony was taken from
this folder to inform his Majesty and it was placed in the Secretariet of his Majesty.
______________________________
TOWN OF LAREDO
DOCUMENT - In the town of Laredo, in twenty-two days of the month of July of seventeen
hundred fifty-seven years, the honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo, Gentleman of the Order of
Santiago, Captain of Dragoons of la Nueva Ciudad de Veracruz and Inspecting Judge of the Gulf of
Mexico by the Most Excellent honorable Viceroy Marquis de las Amarillas, having arrived in this site
today the day of this date at nine in the morning and having recognized that its situation is on the other side
of the Río Grande on the north part and that its population is very small, desirous of becoming acquainted
with it and imformed of its state, ordered that it be made known to its captain Don Tom�s S�nchez that
he cite and quickly ready its residents and inhabitants so that tomorrow that shall be counted as the twenty-third of the current month at nine o'clock he present its residents and inhabitants to make a review in front
of the shack with said gentleman present and that, in this interval the statements that are found suitable be
taken to arrive at the most justifiable inspection of its state, taking the statement of the said captain and of
the other persons that they find suitable for the said discussion for those question that concern the relations
of this small populace according to the chapters of instruction, excusing all its tediousness in respect to this
said settlement not having the same foundations as others, as is seen, to follow that same method and to
be able to save the time and costs that the delay would cause; and, for the completion of all that which is
related, he thus decreed, ordered, and signed it with the witnesses present. - José Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) -Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
STATEMENT OF DON TOMAS SANCHEZ - In the town of Laredo in twenty-two days of the
month of July of seventeen hundred fifty-seven years, in continuation of that ordered, the said gentleman
Don José Tienda de Cuervo had appear before him Don Tom�s S�nchez, captain of this settlement and
first settler of it, from whom he received an oath by God and a cross so that he would tell the truth in all
that he would be asked and, his having done and offered it as is required, he was asked how many years
it has been since this settlement was established, of how many residents was it first composed, with what
permission and who was it that founded or facilitated this establishment, he said: that in the year of fifty-five in the month of May, the declarant made the first foundation in this site bringing another three families
with him who established themselves at the same time, coming from Dolores for this end, and that the
permission for the declarant and the others to come to establish themselves in this site was given by the
honorable Colonel Escandón by means of Don José Borrego, captain and owner of the Hacienda de
Dolores; and that the one who founded this establishment was the declarant alone and at his expense and
he brought those first families and also those which have increased up to now, that, in all there are ten
families and several bachelors and, up to the present, he has helped them and is helping them in everything
that they need for their maintenance, and this he attests.
Asked if this site were passable or open or if there were a ranch on it or another beginning of a
town, he said: that this site was passable and open since about nine years before the declarant formed this
said settlement, that its pass was opened by a so called Jacinto de León and since then it kept the name
of el Paso de Jacinto, that it is upriver of this settlement at about a quarter of a league continuing passable
up to the present and that there was no ranch or anything else in this region, and he attests.
Asked under what circumstances the declarant and the other residents moved to this area, he said:
that the circumstances under which this settlement was established were with an agreement and contract
that the declarant made with the honorable Colonel Escandón in the settlement of Revilla where he was
consulted for this aim in the year of fifty-four, granting him permission to populate in this part of the north
but it was especially the desire to establish himself at the Río de las Nueces where he went and traveled
it in several places and he was unable to find any apparent site in which to establish himself and, having
returned, he deliberated placing himself in this one where he is today, having spent some time there earlier,
encountering in it some families that asked him to interest himself in its establishment, for which reason
he returned to ask the said honorable colonel through the said captain Don José Borrego who facilitated
all the necessary steps for this end and thus he learned that they were permitted the free use of these lands
with the offer that they would be given to them as property without designating the number, and this he
attests.
Asked how this site was called and for what reason it was given the name of Laredo which it has
today, he said: that the name that this site had was El Paso de Jacinto and that for calling it Laredo he has
no reason other than the honorable Colonel Escandón having called it that in the title that he has given to
the declarant as captain and in the other letters and orders that he has sent, and he attests.
Asked what advantages this land provides for the conservation of this establishment and whether
it facilitates some for the frontier provinces, he said: that the advantages that the land offers is, to its
residents, the raising and conservation of major and minor livestock since for that end it is quite
advantageous because of its good pastures and they experience many gains and, although it has good lands
for farming, since they are exposed to the storms and these in the very contrary seasons due to the many
droughts that they experience in the interim in the coming of some or other rains, since it happens that, in
raining early, the crops come into a beautiful state and afterwards they delay so much that all the crops wilt
and die and that, for the frontier provinces it already offers such an open and easy and useful pass for its
commerce that it leaves nothing to desire, and he attests.
Asked what borders are designated for them and how many leagues they comprise and what
plantings they have made, he said: that this settlement has no designated boundaries nor any formality made
in this affair nor in any other because, up to now, the honorable Colones Escandón has not come there
nor has he remitted any rule and thus they are enjoying it as far as they can extend themselves under the
good faith of that permit that was given to them to come here and that, concerning plantings, until the
present year they had not started making any but finding themselves now with seven or eight "almudes"
planted and sprouted, they see them in a such deplorable state due to the lack of water that they do not
expect to have any harvest at all, and he attests.
Asked whether he believes that this settlement can subsist and support itself with only the livestock
that they raise as far as the residents that he has now are concerned as well as the others that might
increase, he said: that if the lands that would be given to them would be sufficient to extend themselves
in the raising of their livestock, they are sure they could maintain and support themselves by the much
commerce that these have, some selling them here and others taking them to other parts, and he attests.
Asked who administers the sacraments to these residents and whether there are any Indians
congregated or hopes of having them, he said: that the one who administers the sacraments is the
missionary priest of the settlement of Revilla at a distance from this settlement of twenty-two leagues, the
one they bring for their needs and for the complying with the annual order and they finance it, well at this
last time, which was last month, they gave him thirty pesos in goods from those that their goods produce
and, besides, they pay the offering of the first fruits, and that there is not nor has there been any Indians
congregated nor hope of having them due to not having any disposition for it, and he attests.
Asked what Indian tribes are the most immediate to this settlement, of what number they might be
composed, at what distance they are, and whether they cause any injuries, he said: that the names of the
most immediate barbarian Indians are so many that it cannot be included and that they must be situated at
about thirty or forty leagues from this settlelment although some of the Apaches often approach this area
but they maintain themselves in peace and that they have had no problems from any of them since they
have been there, and he attests.
Asked if any financial aid has been expedited for the support of those residents or with the title of
supporting Indians, he said: that no financial help has been given here neither for the residents nor for the
Indians because the declarant has helped with his money in any necessities that have come up, and he
attests.
Asked if there is any salary paid by his Majesty in this settlement or some other coast from the
account of the Royal Treasury, he said: that there is no salary paid here from the account of his Majesty
nor, up to now, has its Royal Treasury had any costs in this settlement, and he attests.
Asked what the name of the river that passes through this town is, where it originates and ends,
and whether they expect to be able to have an irrigation canal from it or from some spring or water source,
he said: that the river is called el Grande del Norte, that he does not know where it originates but that it
ends at the sea, and that he has no hopes of being able to build an irrigation canal from it nor does this
settlement have any springs or water sources that they can use for this benefit, and he attests.
Asked what pass this said river affords immediate to this settlement where one can put a boat for
his more comfortable transit and whether they are thinking of putting one in, he said: that in front of this
town is the pass which is suitable to place a boat and obtain the comfort of its transit and that the declarant
is interested in placing one there at his his cost and that, in the interim, the river is passed and waded along
the area called Miguel de la Garza at a distance of three leagues from this settlement, a pass that is easy
since minor livestock pass through it, and he attests.
Asked whether he knows of any mines in these lands, he said: that he knows of none, and he
attests.
Asked which are the border provinces of this colony and what settlements of theirs are the most
immediate, he said: that they are Texas, and that the most immediate settlement of this one is the presidio
called Santa Dorotea at a distance of about fifty leagues more or less from this colony, and that the
province and presidio of San Antonio de Béjar, of the same province, is about fifteen leagues farther; of
the province of Coahuila, the presidio called el Río Grande del Norte with the title of San Juan Bautista,
at a distance of this colony and its line of about twenty-five leagues, and that of Nuevo Reino de León, the
settlements borders to this colony are la Punta at about thirty leagues from the line and Sabinas at about
a little more than another thirty. And what he has said he said to be true by the oath that he has made and
he affirms himself in it and ratifies it and he signed it and said being of the age of forty-eight years; the said
gentleman signed it with the witnesses present. - José Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) -Roque Fern�ndez
Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
Following are two witnesses who stated the same thing as the preceeding one and they are the
following:
Juan Eusebio Treviño, resident of Laredo, of forty years of age.
Juan Bautista S�nchez, resident of Laredo, of forty-three years of age.
REVIEW - In the said town of Laredo in twenty-three days of the month of July of seventeen
hundred fifty-seven years, the said honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo, continuing his best report in
the aquaintance and state of this settlement, executed the review of its citizenry, as it is ordered and, in
fact, its settlers having presented themselves before the shack of his abode, this action was done
recognizing their said arms and asking them questions that they found suitable and everything was executed
in the following manner:
RESIDENTS OF WHICH THIS SETTLEMENT IS COMPOSED
Captain Don Tom�s S�nchez, married to Doña Catarina de Uribe, nine children, seventy horses,
ten male donkeys, twenty female donkeys, all arms, seven servants, one married and has a daughter.
Don Juan García Zaldívar, married to Doña Catarina de las Casas, all arms, five horses, and
two servants.
Don Prudencio García, married to Doña Josefa S�nchez, five children, all arms, and ten horses.
Don José Leonardo Treviño, married to Doña Ana Moreno, six children, all arms, and twelve
horses.
Juan Francisco García, married to María Rita, seven children, all arms, and six horses.
Don Juan Bautista S�nchez, married to Doña Juana Díaz, ten children, all arms, and two horses.
Don Agustín S�nchez, married to Doña Francisca Rodríguez, two children, all arms, and two
horses.
Leonardo S�nchez, bachelor, all arms, ten horses, one donkey, and one servant.
Don José Flores, married, three children, all arms, fifteen horses, and two donkeys.
José Díaz, bachelor, has his mother with him, all arms, and six horses.
José Ramón, absent with permission, married to Doña María Gertrudis, two children, all arms,
six horses, and two donkeys.
Leonardo García, bachelor, all arms, and four horses.
Don José Salinas, married to Isabel Treviño, one son, all arms, and two horses.
Pedro Salinas, bachelor, has his mother and a sister with him, all arms, and eight horses.
Juan Diego, bachelor, all arms, and four horses.
That, as it appears in this review, the families are eleven of which this citizenry is composed,
composed of eighty-five persons having for their own private goods seven hundred twelve breeding horses,
one hundred twenty-five mules, two yokes of oxen, nine thousand eighty heads of minor livestock, one
hundred one heads of cattle, fifteen female donkeys and sixteen male donkeys, and one hundred sixty
horses for their service. And all the aforesaid being that which is justified in this review, the said
gentleman ordered it be made evident in these documents in the terms that are set out for whatever effect
is useful and he signed it with the witnesses present. - José Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) -Roque
Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
DOCUMENT - In the said town in twenty-three days of the month of July in seventeen hundred
fifty-seven years, the honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo, having seen the proceedings practiced in
this settlement regarding the inspection of its state according to that which is ordered and to that which the
smallness of this small establishment permits, considering them as sufficient for his report plus having seen
and informed himself about the rest that was suitable, desirous of not wasting time on the rest that he
should continue to complete his commission with the brevity possible and avoid the costs that delays could
cause to the Royal Treasury, ordered that everything acted upon in this settlement be put in a separate
folder for its better information and thus he decreed and signed it with the witnesses present. - José Tienda
de Cuervo. -(rubric) -Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
REPORT - On the seventeenth of February of seventeen hundred fifty-eight, testimony was taken
from this folder in order to inform his Majesty and it was placed in the Chamber of the Secretariat of his
Majesty.
---------------------------------------
TOWN OF BURGOS
In the town of Burgos in thirty-one days of the month of July of seventeen hundred fifty-seven
years, the honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo, Gentleman of the Order of Santiago, Captain of
Dragoons of la Nueva Ciudad de Veracruz and Inspecting Judge of the Gulf of Mexico by the Most
Excellent honorable Viceroy Marquis de las Amarillas, having arrived in this site yesterday in the evening
that was counted as thirtieth of the current month, in continuation of his charges to acquaint himself in the
inspection of its state according to the instruction in which he is commissioned which is placed at the
beginning of the first folder of documents of these proceedings from folio four to eight, ordered that all
those that he conducts for this intention follow at the continuation of this document and that the statements
that shall be received be according to the interrogation which is found in the cited folder number one, folio
fifty-four, all being acted upon in the presence of the witnesses that were designated for this end from the
first proceedings of this commission and, so that all be done with the required justification, he thus decreed
and signed it with the witnesses present. - José Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) -Roque Fern�ndez Marcial.
-(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
PROCEEDING - In the town of Burgos in thirty-one days of the month of July of seventeen
hundred fifty-seven years, the honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo, having managed, after entering into
this settlement, to inform himself whether there were a mission and collected or congregated Indians in it
or not, found that in this settlement there is the assignation of an apostolic missionary priest with salary by
the king but that this one, since the eighth of May of this present year, went out of this town and has not
returned to it nor anyone else in his stead and that there are also no Indians collected or congregated nor
hopes of there being any, all of which, so that it be evident, the said gentleman ordered it be put as a
proceeding in these documents for whatever purpose necessary and, in this continuation, he also ordered
that the statements that shall be taken in discussion of the state of this town follow for it most evident
justification. - José Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) -Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José
de Haro. -(rubric).
STATEMENT OF THE CAPTAIN DON JOSE ANTONIO LEAL - In the said town of Burgos
in thirty-one days of the month of July of seventeen hundred fifty-seven years, the said honorable Don José
Tienda de Cuervo, continuing in the best justification of these proceedings, had appear before him Don
José Antonio Leal, captain of this settlement, in whom is found the political and military command of it,
from whom he received an oath by God and a cross that he keep secret in it and his responses and, having
done and offered it as is required, he promised to tell the truth under which it was presented to him
according to interrogatory that has been cited and he responded the following:
To the first question he said: that he does not know how the Sierra Gorda was before the conquest
nor what settlements were in it but that he does know that, in what today is a colony, San Antonio de los
Llanos was populated, that it depended on the jurisdiction of el Nuevo Reino at that time, an establishment
that was of Spaniards and civilized Tlaxcalteco and Hualagüice Indians congregated in the mission to whom
a Franciscan priest ministered, that he does not know of what number that populace was composed nor how
many baptised Indians there might have been.
To the second question he said: that the first settlers who came to the establishment of this town
were thirty, all proceeding from el Nuevo Reino de León from where they were led by Don Antonio de
Guevara to the town of Santander and from there the declarant took charge in the moving to this site, those
which came aided by financial help for costs for the trip with one hundred pesos each family and that the
declarant, although coming as the elected captain with a designated salary by the king, was also given two
hundred pesos by the honorable Colonel Escandón, of which he gave him a receipt and that he does not
have present in mind how many residents there could be that have increased up to the present but that
these have had no financial help; and that the means that have favored the subsistance of the first families
established in the year of forty-nine when this foundation began were two hundred measures of rice which
the said honorable colonel placed at the disposition of the declarant so that he distribute it among the
settlers, that each measure placed in this settlement should have cost eighteen reales and, in the same
manner, the said honorable colonel gave twenty-four heifers to be distributed also to the said settlers with
the aim that they begin domesticating them and applying them to the work, that the normal value of each
one could be five pesos, and he also gave some tools like hoes, axes, and three "barretas" which were
used in the building of the irrigation canal and that, to some hamlets of apostate Indians of el Nuevo Reino
de León that were united in this site when they came here to place this settlement, the said honorable
colonel distributed some clothes like blackets, cloaks, breeches, and other trifles and skirts of flannel for
the Indian women, that he could no tell the value of this amount nor of the other same distributions that
he made on other occasions.
To the third question he said: that in this town there are no quarters, shacks, or logings for Indians
since they have not collected or congregated them, although at the beginning of this establishment, as he
has said, there were some apostates gathered here and they promised to subsist as subjects to the mission
and there were corresponding sites and lands designated for them next to this settlement and they tried to
treat them kindly for their permanency, it had no effect, since six or eight months later they went to bed
here but did not arise here and they did not return until in the year of fifty, these using their treason,
surprised this town, shot five people with arrows, and took about one thousand heads of minor livestock
which they were not able to restore and, since then, there have been no more Indians in this settlement nor
in its mission, nor are there any hopes of there being any.
To the fourth question he said: that he does not know whether the missionary priest was given any
possession of lands in the name of the Indians but that he does know that the site, where they should found
the mission selected with its appellation, is designated and the lands that it should enjoy are separated but
that this priest, up to now, has not placed any into work or cultivation, nor does he know whether he might
have any goods dedicated to the mission and that this said priest, called Fray Simón del Fierro, left this
town in the beginning of May of this present year for the city of Mexico and that up to the present he has
not returned nor have they had another in his place; and, regarding possession of lands, there has not been
any execution of its order in this area because they are enjoying the five leagues to the four winds which
its boundaries comprise in common and that, of these, some have worked at putting those they feel are best
accommodated into work in which terms he feels, up to eight or ten measures are already plowed and ready
to plant.
To the fifth question he said: that the rivulet that passes through this settlement and serves for its
use takes the name Burgos from its first transit that it makes in this town and it begins at a distance from
it of about three leagues in the marshes they call Caballero and it ends at the Río de Conchas at a distance
from this town of four leagues and that the related Río de Conchas begins in la Sierra Madre and comes
to end at the sea on the other side of the settlement of San Fernando.
To the sixth question he said: that in this settlement they have had a canal taken from its rivulet
which produced the common benefit of being able to irrigate the plantings and yards of its citizenry but,
a large flood having occurred last year, it destroyed the canal and made it impossible such that it left no
hope of being able to rebuild it in that current, for which reason this citizenry has consulted the honorable
Colonel Escandón so that he give them permission with the aim of being able to move this settlement one
league upriver to the north part where they have measured the facility of having an irrigation canal with
which to irrigate the good lands that are furnished and, in fact, they already have this permission ready to
execute said change as soon as possible.
To the seventh question he said: that he knows that in Santander there is a spring or water source
from which they obtain irrigation for the lands and that he does not know whether there might be other
settlements that have the same benefit.
To the eighth question he said: that the use made of the irrigation is to plant corn, beans, cane,
cotton, and other seeds, plants, and vegetables, especially to obtain the early harvests, the corn being the
most accredited and into which they place the most effort since it is the one upon which the maintenance
depends.
To the ninth question he said: that the number of measures of corn that they must have planted in
this settlement in the three years before this one, which was the one in which they enjoyed the benefit of
the irrigation canal, were about six, that these, although not all, were equally obtained and they produced
sufficiently to support this citizenry since they can calculate from its production that they supplied up to
about one hundred thirty for each one of planting; and that afterwards, in this present year, because of not
having an irrigation canal, they have lost their will and they have not been encouraged to continue farming
fearing the contingencies of the weather since, in the small amount that they have planted which might be
about two measures, they see it at present in the miserable state of being lost due to the draught and lack
of rains that they experience, for which reason they find themselves obliged to buy the corn for their
maintenance in the immediate borders in exchange for their livestock and goods, resulting in their
subsisting in a state with no advantages since it is necessary to make use of what their breeding produces
to support themselves.
To the tenth question he said: that the settlements of this colony in which he has been are:
Santander, San Fernando, and this one of Burgos and, although he has reports and know that there are
several others, he has not been in them nor does he know at what distance they are from the sea and that
he also does not know whether there might be any port other than the one they call Santander where, he
has heard, the schooners of the honorable colonel enter.
To the eleventh question he said: that all the land of this colony is suitable for raising major and
minor livestock and that, concerning this settlement, it has no established ranches or haciendas of this type
up to the present because the one they have, they keep in the environs of this town and in sight, fearful of
the risks of the neighboring Indians.
To the twelfth question he said: that he knows that in la Tamaulipa Nueva, in the hill called
Bercebú, there are four open mineral "catas" which were discovered many years back and a resident of
el Reino de Leon called Don Carlos Cantú got some benefit from them, that he does not know if any assay
was made of its metals but that it is at a distance of this settlement of about six leagues; and that he also
knows that at a quarter league from this town on the south in the hill called el Corcovado, there is a
mineral vein which was discovered by Cristóbal de Leyva, resident of this settlement (already deceased)
who took some stones and dirt from it that he had assayed in the "fragua" and the declarant recognized that
it had produced a grain of silver and that he know of no others.
To the thirteenth question he said: that the salt mines that he knows there are on the shores of this
colony are those of Soto la Marina or Port of Santander, those of San Fernando, and the other shore of el
Río Grande, that all are so abundant that they can supply this colony, its frontiers, and la Nueva España
and, besides these, at a distance of six leagues of this settlement on the north part, road to Camargo in the
rivulet they call San Lorenzo, there is a lake produced by the same rivulet of water, inactive of the same
fissures of which it is composed, that this one crystallizes every year that they experience a drought and
produces good salt abundantly which this settlement uses for its consumption and to sell and, from it, the
immediate frontiers are provided since its abundance is sufficient for this and much more.
To the fourteenth question he said: that the settlements, congregations and haciendas of this colony
are found totally quiet and peaceful and, concerning this town, its residents have good communication with
one another, they only live with the fear of the apostate Indians of el Nuevo Reino de León who live in la
Nueva Tamaulipa and in the immediacy of this settlement at one, two, and up to three leagues distance
from it, of whom they have the justified reason of misgiving due to the annoyances that they experience
from them and the injuries and thefts of livestock plus the distrust that they can attack this settlement as
they have done at other times causing deaths in the shepherds and residents, these apostates being simply
the ones who operate with the most malice, attracting the heathens to the evils that they commit united,
these having as excuses the reason of being able to use the Spanish language which they know and speak,
but it is argued and evident that these are the ones who commit the annoyances and who have this
settlement in constant assault.
To the fifteenth question he said: that he does not know if the Sierra Madre or Sierra Gorda are
one because he has had no reason to become acquainted with this part; and that la Sierra Tamaulipa la
Nueva furnishes the site called El Potrero de las Nueces in which to be able to place a settlement and he
believes that, in putting one there, it would be a total containment to remove the refuge from the Indians
that they have in that area since it is the lurking place of all their recourse and it could be expected that,
their not having that site, they might convert and perhaps they might begin collecting at the missions.
To the sixteenth question he said: that the settlements of el Nuevo Reino de León, borders to this
colony, are the town of Linares, el Valle de la Mota, and Pilón and that he does not know of the other
provinces which might also be borders; and that he holds as prudent that the said frontiers, since this
colony was populated, have much benefit in respect to the annoyances that they had from the Indians
before.
To the seventeenth question he said: that he does not know the exact number comprised by the
captains, corporals, and soldiers enlisted and with salary that there are in all this colony but, regarding this
settlement, there is a posted squadron with salary which is composed of a captain, who is the declarant who
has five hundred pesos salary per year, a sergeant with two hundred fifty, and nine soldiers at two hundred
twenty-five; and that, although there has been one more soldier attached to this squadron called Manuel
Benito, this one was introduced to it by the honorable Colonel Escandón, sentenced to live in punishment
of some crimes he had committed, with only the salary of two reales daily, and the destiny of this one has
been to always serve and assist the missionary priest and, in fact, today he is absent with the said priest
since the beginning of May of this present year; and also there are in this town two soldiers of the squadron
of San Fernando who alternately come and go detached to aid this settlement in whatever the nearness of
the Indians might warrent; and that the method of payment of the salaries is in goods for which pay the
declarant remits, in company of his soldiers, the power to Mexico to Don Agustín de Iglesias so that he
collect his salaries and they send him the order so that he remit its amount in goods which he executes by
the hand of the honorable Colonel Escandón who sends them to the declarant and this one distributes them
among his squadron, well understood that if, in the interim, a soldier need some goods or reales, he sends
it to Santander asking said honorable colonel to supply them and that the service that they perform is the
declarant, as captain, has the command of this town, the sergeant sees to it that the soldiers comply with
their obligation and these are ready for anything that comes up in the Royal Service and keeping the horses
and going out to inspect the land, being escorts, and whatever else comes up.
To the eighteenth question about the General Legal Data he said that they do not concern him in
anything. And it having been read again to him ad verbum all that he has said and declared so that he say
whether he needs to add or remove anything or that he ratify himself in it, he said: that what he has said
is the same that he would say again if it were necessary without needing to change or remove anything and
that he affirms and ratifies it for it being the truth by the oath that he has made and he signed it and stated
being of the age of fifty years; the said gentleman Don José Tienda de Cuervo signed it with the witnesses
present. - José Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) - José Antonio Leal de León y Guerra- (rubric) -Roque
Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
Following are two witnesses who stated the same as the preceeding and they are the following:
Don Francisco Javier Treviño, resident of Burgos of forty-three years of age.
José de Villafuerte, settler and resident of Burgos of fifty-four years of age.
REVIEW - In the town of Burgos on the first day of the month of August of seventeen hundred
fifty-seven years, the said honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo, to justifiably inform himself of the state
and inspection of this settlement, ordered that they make a review which he has ordered in these documents
and for it, having had the list given by the captain of its squadron, settlers, and residents to formalize it,
all those aforesaid being together and formed, they began this act calling each one by name, registering
the arms of their use composed of a rifle, a sword, a shield, some pistols, a knife, and blunderbusses, it
was executed in the following manner:
SQUADRON OF OFFICERS AND SOLDIERS
WITH SALARY
Captain Don José Antonio Leal, married to Doña María Magdalena Tijerina, three children, all
arms, twelve horses, eight male donkeys and ten female donkeys, ten servants, and he enjoys five hundred
pesos salary per year.
José Cortés, sergeant of this squadron, married to Juana Rodríguez, four daughters, all arms,
eight horses, and he enjoys two hundred fifty pesos.
Pedro de Iglesias, married to Ana de la Garza, all arms, six horses, and he enjoys two hundred
twenty-five pesos.
Lorenzo de la Garza, bachelor, all arms, six horses, and he enjoys two hundred twenty-five pesos.
Tadeo de la Garza, married to Doña Clara Treviño, two daughters, all arms, six horses, and he
enjoys two hundred twenty-five pesos.
Antonio Gonz�lez, married to Tomasa Perales, two children, all arms, five horses, and he enjoys
two hundred twenty-five pesos.
Juan de León, bachelor, all arms, eight horses, and he enjoys two hundred twenty-five pesos.
L�zaro Duque, bachelor, all arms, seven horses, and he enjoys two hundred twenty-five pesos.
Cristóbal Guerra, bachelor, all arms, ten horses, and he enjoys two hundred twenty-five pesos.
Clemente Gutiérrez, bachelor, all arms, eight horses, one donkey, he enjoys two hundred twenty-five pesos.
Toribio García, bachelor, absent with permission, all arms, ten horses, and he enjoys two hundred
twenty-five pesos.
José Manuel Benito, married to María Josefa de Soto, two children, all arms, and four horses;
is absent with the missionary priest whom he continually serve and assists and he enjoys no more than two
reales per day because he was penalized by the honorable Escandón to serve on these terms because of
some crime he committed.
José Francisco Flores, married to Rosalía López, two children, all arms, six horses, and he
enjoys two hundred twenty-five pesos and is a soldier of the Squadron of San Fernando where he was not
reviewed because of having left it for this occasion and he is one of the detached ones for the reinforcement
of this settlement and it has been three years that he has remained in it.
Salvador Rivera, bachelor, all arms, eight horses, and he enjoys two hundred twenty-five pesos
per year and he is a soldier of the Squadrom of San Fernando of those that are detached monthly and
alternate as a reinforcement of this settlement and he was not reviewed in that squadron reserving the
including him in this occassion.
SETTLERS WITH FINANCIAL AID
Doña Isabel Treviño, widow, has one niece.
Juan Antonio García, married to María Perales, eleven children, all arms, and four horses.
Cristóbal Gonz�lez, married to Isabel Perales, seven children, all arms, and two horses.
José Villafuerte, married to María García, has seven children, all arms, eight horses, and two
donkeys.
Nicol�s Rodríguez, married to Juana Ríos, two children, all arms, and two horses.
Miguel Zamora, married to María Caballero, five children, a rifle, a shield and a knife, and one
horse.
Ana Zamora, widow, has two children
María Antonia de Aguirre, widow, four children.
Tom�s de la Garza, absent with permission, married to María de Peña, one son, all arms, and
three horses.
Francisco Ramos, married to María S�enz, five children, arms, a rifle, and five horses.
María Josefa Ayala, widow, six children.
Blas Cantú, married to María Hern�ndez, arms and two horses.
Francisco Rodríguez, married to Rosa Bartola, five children.
José Camarillo, absent with permission, married to Ana Garza, four children, all arms, and three
horses.
Felipe Gallegos, married to Rosa de Ochoa, seven children, a rifle, a shield, and two horses.
José Selvera, absent with permission, married to Manuela de la Serna, three children, arms, and
four horses.
Tom�s García, married to Ana Joaquina, has six children, arms, and eight horses.
María Cantú, widow, has two children and eight horses.
Nicol�s Granado, married to Juana Villafuerte, six children, a rifle, and a shield.
Santiago de León, married to Doña María Rodríguez, arms, and four horses.
María de Ochoa, widow, two children.
María Rodríguez, widow, one daughter.
Juana de Villafranca, absent with permission, married to María Zamora, has two children and
arms.
RESIDENTS INCREASED WITHOUT FINANCIAL AID
Don Ignacio Leal, absent with permission, married to Doña Ana Tijerina, all arms, and ten
horses.
Juan Cristóbal, married to Francisca García, has one son, arms, without a sword, and two
horses.
Damasio Molina, married to María de Villafuerte, two children, one donkey, twelve horses, and
without arms.
Domingo Cristóbal S�nchez, married to María de Hinojosa, three children, arms, and two
horses; he is ill.
Pedro Botello, married to Josefa Quiroz, has one son.
Nicol�s Valli, absent with permission, married to Doña María Rodríguez, three children and three
Indians servants [female], all arms, and six horses.
Bartolomé Valli, absent with permission, bachelor, all arms, and six horses.
Nicol�s Valli, bachelor, all arms, four horses, absent with permission.
José Valli, absent with permission, married to Josefa Cisneros, arms, and four horses.
Juan Valli, absent with permission, bachelor, arms, anf four horses.
María de Ochoa, married, two children, deserted her husband José Bernardo Gonz�lez four
years ago.
María Josefa de Ochoa, widow, one daughter.
Antonio Perales, married to Gertrudis Caballero, has one son.
Nicol�s Falcón, married to Josefa Cantú, has one daughter.
Don Ignacio Guerra, married to Doña María de León, four children, arms, and five horsesl.
Don José de León, married to Doña María de la Garza, three childrem, arms, five horses, and
two donkeys.
Juana de los Santos, widow, one daughter.
Juana de los Ríos, widow, two children, all arms, and six horses.
Don Francisco Javier Treviño, married to Doña Ana de la Garza, ten children, all arms, thirty
horses, and three orphans.
Santiago de Ochoa, married to María Rosa, has one son, all arms, and six horses.
Santiago de la Garza, married to María Guadalupe, arms and two horses.
José García, widower, absent with permission, all arms and ten horses.
José Florencio, bachelor, arms, and ten horses.
Faustino de Villafuerte, married to Gregoria Camarilla, all arms, and four horses.
Bernardo de León, absent with permission, married to María Galv�n, all arms and three horses.
José de Leyva, married to María Cantú, one son, arms, and three horses.
That as it appears in this review, the families of this settlement are composed of fifty-one from
which one is discounted in the squadron of soldiers due to recognizing it being credited in its place in the
settlement of San Fernando, for which reason there remain only fifty with two hundred fifty-six persons
whose goods are one thousand six hundred ten heads of breeding horses, two hundred twenty-nine mules,
twenty-three yokes of oxen, six thousand for hundred sixyy heads of minor livestock, five hundred thirty-five head of cattle, twenty-four male and female donkeys, and three hundred four horses for their use and
service, as it is evident from the parts of this rview after reducing the entry pertaining to José Francisco
de Flores, understood to be duplicated in the squadron; and so that everything is evident in its conclusion
in these terms, it is placed in these documents for the necessary purposes and the said honorable Don José
Tienda de Cuervo signed it with the witnesses present. - José Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) -Roque
Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
In completion of the preceeding order of Your Lordship, I deliver the list that you request of me
in which is contained the number of settlers of this town, the Royal Squadron designated for it, its families,
persons of which they are composed and the goods that they have and, having taken charge of the other
expressed points in the cited order, I say: regarding the first one that when this town was founded the
region in which it is found was wilderness and unpopulated, about which he has not heard it having any
owner nor that it was possessed by anyone before.
The foundation of this said town was on the twentieth of February in the year of seven hundred
forty-nine; its first establishment was with thirty residents who were recruited from several places and
regions of the jurisdiction of el Nuevo Reino de León, each one with the financial aid of one hundred pesos
which were given to them for their conveyance
The priest, minister of this town, is the R.F. Fray Simón del Fierro, apostolic preacher of el
Colegio de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe de Zacatecas, who also came with the appointment of minister
of the mission which would be placed in the site that was destined for it; about three month ago he went
to the city of Mexico on the order of his prelate to make a statement in the information that is being taken
for the beatification of the venerable priest Fray Antonio Margil de Jesús.
About a quarter of a league from this town there is an assigned area for a mission in case there
would be a congregation of Indians of which there are none today since, although in the first year of this
foundation about two hundred persons of all sexes and ages of the apostate Indians who inhabit la Sierra
de Tamaulipa had congregated, they stayed about four months and [then] one night, without any reason,
left for their homes at said sierra. I do not think that there might be any goods of the mission over which
I defer to that which I have stated before Your Lordship.
The Indians most immediate to this settlement are the apostates of el Nuevo Reino de León who
live in said Sierra de Tamaulipa la Nueva who have performed several hostilities and, in the beginning of
the population, they were able to fall against it with the desire of destroying it and they tried the same at
three other occasions which they defended and forced them to withdraw; and today, because of having
deserted their old towns at said Reino de León to which they had come and left for their old abodes, they
fear they might return and repeat their depraved intentions and hostilities which they did before.
The region in which this town is situated today was considered suitable for that and, in fact, it is;
but due to the fact that the great flood of this rivulet destroyed the irrigation canal and its opening which
was in use, the residents, along with me, have considered moving it to a distance of a little less than one
league from where it is because of the ease of building a new opening for the canal.
The building of a new canal opening presents no difficulty in the said region, which had this benefit
of a canal opening and the fact of having lost it I have already expressed; regarding congregated Indians
I have already responded [that] there were some at the beginning and they deserted.
I have prepared the residents to make a review before Your Lordship at the time that your order
prepares.
With which I have complied in that which I have stated. Town of Burgos and August 1 of 1757
years. José Antonio Leal de León y Guerra. - (rubric)
DOCUMENT - In the town of Burgos on the first of August of seventeen hundred fifty-seven, the
honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo, having seen the proceedings practiced in this settlement,
considering them sufficient to come to the recognition of its state and to be able to report what is useful
to the Most Excellant Honorable Viceroy in virtue of his charges, desirous of avoiding the costs to the
Royal Treasury that would follow in any loss of time, ordered that everything acted upon and
corresponding to this town be accumulated, collected, and placed in a separate folder so that this way
whatever corresponds to this said settlement be comprehended with more ease and thus he decreed and
signed it with the witnesses present. - José Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) -Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
REPORT - On the seventeenth of February of seventeen hundred fifty-eight, testimony was taken
from this folder to give a report to his Majesty and it was placed in the His Excellency's Secretariat.
SAN LORENZO DEL JAUMAVE
DOCUMENT - In San Lorenzo del Jaumave in nine days of the month of August of seventeen
hundred fifty-seven years, the honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo, Gentleman of the Order of
Santiago, Captain of Dragoons of la Nueva Ciudad de Veracruz and Inspecting Judge of the Gulf of
Mexico by the Most Excellent honorable Viceroy Marquis de las Amarillas. Having arrived in this
settlement today of this date, he found it useful to become acquainted in its inspection and state and in this
virtue he ordered a letter of entreaty be sent to the M.R.F. Fray Juan Llanos, Franciscan minister of the
province of Michoac�n of San Pedro y San Pablo who lives in this mission, so that he be served to give
his certification regarding the questions that they find useful to ask him, to have his response at its
continuation; and, at the same time, he also ordered that the lieutenant of this settlement be notified and
be made to know that for tomorrow, that will be counted as the tenth of the current at nine o'clock, he have
ready and present all the citizenry, residents and settlers with their arms, in order to make a review and
that, for it, he give a list with expression and names, that of their wives and number of children, and goods
they might have; and that the statements that might be taken in this settlement be according to a special
interrogation that, up to now, has been followed in the other folders in respect to this said settlement not
being embraced in those of the Gulf of Mexico, and only in that which pertains to la Sierra Gorda, all being
acted upon in the presence of the witnesses that were designated for this commission in the folder number
one of the other proceedings; and, so that all be done as it is ordered, he thus decreed and signed it with
the witnesses present. - José Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) -Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco
José de Haro. -(rubric).
REVIEW OF INDIANS - In San Lorenzo del Jaumave in nine days of the month of August of
seventeen hundred fifty-seven years, the said honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo, in order to set upon
the recognition and state of the mission of this settlement which is found situated at a little less than one
league distance and its Indians, went to it and, having seen that site, found that it is composed of a
moderately decent church formed of a vault of rough stone, whitewashed on the inside, the roof of very
well worked wood, with its poarch and flat-roofed house embanked, three alters and in the major one,
located in a nitch with its glass case, the miraculous crucifix which was found in the root of a tree called
mezquite, its sacristy and abode of the missionary priest next to it, and near it several shacks in which the
Indians and familes, of which this mission is composed, live. And, having asked its missionary Franciscan
priest that he serve to have them collected to review them, he conceeded to it and, in fact, presented
fourteen adult warriors among whom there us a ministerial officer plus a governor, all baptised, sujected
to bell and doctrine, of the Pisones tribe, most of whom speak Spanish and especially the governor called
Francisco Miguel Buitrón and, besides these, he found fifteen women and sixteen children, all also
baptised and, those who are married, are according to the provision of the holy church.
And having made this inspection, the Indians dismissed, the said gentleman asked the said priest
minister Fray Juan Llanos that he serve to report how these Indians were reputed in obedience to the
mission when they had reports of the uprising that they committed last year in which several deaths
resulted, to which he answered that, although it is true that the Indians who were found in said mission
executed the uprising last year on the twelfth of November except for one or two Indians, it was because
(so they report) the said priest having given permission to an Indian to go get some watermelons which he
had cultivated in the woods, this one not having returned, from several proceedures that were done in
search of him, the other Indians came to believe, because of some blood that they found and the
watermelon rinds, that the Spaniards had killed him and that they fled in order to avenge this death, and
fearful of others [deaths]; and that the father of the dead Indian influenced the others in this and that they
killed Spaniards before they finished with them and, in fact, they killed four residents of this settlement
whom they found working in the region called Cerrito Prieto; and this disaster having been known in this
settlement, a company of armed residents, accompanied by those of Palmillas and of el Valle de Maíz
which must have composed about eighty men, left in search of said Indians; that, having found them in la
Boca de Santa Rosa, they attacked and six residents of this Jaumave and one of el Valle died in the
skirmish. That a month later, by the persuasion of an Indian woman whom the priest sent to the sierra,
they began to come down and, having been informed by the same Indian woman, the said priest went to
treat with them so that they return to the mission and he began to be successful except for nine, four of
whom stayed at the sierra, two who were killed by the people of the settlement, one by the same Indians,
and two who have been taken to a house of corrections because they discovered their being the motivators.
And that seven families of the Pame Indians, whom they also had in said mission and rose up at the same
time, have not returned and they have reports that they went to their land which is towards la Palma in el
Valle de Maíz.
And that this is the state that this mission has for which reason he recognizes that they are
submissive and obedient and he always finds them prepared for subjection and work, with which the said
gentleman finding everything acted upon sufficient, beside other reports which he especially received from
the said priest, found it useful that all the aroresaid be placed as a proceeding as it is related and he signed
it, entreating the said missionary priest that he serve to do the same in respect to his concurrence of all the
above. - José Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) - Fray Juan Llanos- (rubric) -Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
STATEMENT OF JUAN BERMUDEZ - In San Lorenzo del Jaumave in nine days of the month
of August of seventeen hundred fifty-seven years, the said honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo, in
order to acquaint himself in the recognition and state of this settlement with the required justification, had
appear before him Juan de Bermúdez, resident of this settlement since the year of seventeen hundred
forty-three, from whom he received an oath by God and a cross so that he tell the truth in all that would
be asked; and, having done it as required, he offered it and to keep secret in it and his responses in virtue
of which he was interrogated according to what the interrogatory inserted in these documents contains and
he responded the following:
To the first question he said: that the Sierra Gorda or Madre, before the honorable Colonel
Escandón came to conquer it, was populated with peaceful Indians who had abodes built and maize fields
planted from which they supported themselves and that also already established were this settlement of el
Jaumave and that of Santa B�rbara, called Tanguanchin at that time, which was composed of seven or eight
residents in company of several peaceful Indians who also lived in that site, and some and others supported
themselves from farming and raising of livestock, the same occuring in this aforesaid settlement of el
Jaumave that was fomented in the said year of forty-three with only seven families although before, many
years of precedence, it had been populated and it had been extinguished because of the grievances and
damages that the Indians caused them in that first establishment; and in this second one the declarant and
the other six came voluntarily with their wives and children without having had any encouragement for it
nor further stimulus than that of the sterility that they experienced in the jurisdiction of Río Blanco of the
Reino de León of which they were natives and that, in this same site, when they came here, they found it
inhabited by Pizon Indians who were present and living there with their shacks and maize fields, by whom
they were well received and they must have been about the number of seventy, those who were present
here without including others that were in the vicinity among whom there were some christians since, from
two to three, even up to four years of interim, a Franciscan priest of Tula used to come and he was
accompanied by a company of men whom he brought as guards who were composed of soldiers of said
Tula and of Guadalc�zar and he would come as far as the site of Santa Rosa which is two leagues farther
up from this settlement in the aforesaid Sierra and there was a chapel there in which to baptize the Indians
children, a chapel, he had a report, which was built many years before by a Franciscan priest who had
been in that region as head of the old missions; and that the presence, that the said priest who would come
from Tula, made in that region was about two or three days and then he would leave again with his retinue
and that at that beginning this settlement had, a resident called Antonio de los Ríos Calvillo, who earned
the office to be lieutenant of it over which the other residents were opposed and from this controversy it
resulted in that the aforesaid Calvillo, after some time, the colonel Don José de Escandón finding himself
in charge of the visitation of the missions of Sierra Gorda, ran to him and it resulted in that the said
honorable colonel came to this said settlement in the year of forty-four, at which time it already had
eighteen residents, and then he told them that he had no commission whatsoever to impose any regimen,
that he would report of its state and afterwards they would see what needed to be done and, although he
returned later to enter to inspect la Colonia, he ordered nothing else other than to support a brother of the
declarant in the service of chief corporal of this settlement, having gotten the office from the Royal Court
for it and that afterwards no families have come from the hand of said honorable general nor through his
disposition since the ones that have increased up to the present, he has heard, would be eighty-seven, all
have come voluntarily financed by themselves. And that the Indians who are at present in this mission are
those Pizones whose number he does not know nor how many might be baptised but that they and this
settlement are attended by a Franciscan priest.
To the second question he said: that, as he has said in the preceeding question, the declarant and
the first settlers who accompanied him proceed from the jurisdiction of el Nuevo Reino de León and the
rest, who have increased up to the present, from various parts from outside lands, that they have not been
assisted by any financial aid nor have they had any other means for their conservation and subsistance, that
he only has had a report that, for the Indians in the mission, the honorable colonel Escandón has placed
some yokes of land and cows but that he does not know how much either one might be.
To the third question he said: that in the site of the mission at a distance of one league from this
settlement, called San Juan Bautista, the Indians have shacks in which they live.
To the fourth question he said: that the lands designated for the aforesaid mission by the honorable
Colonel Escandón, which are those that the Indians aided by the missionary priest farm and cultivate, he
does not know whether he has been given any possession of them and that he does not know whether the
said priest might have any other goods or livestock belonging to said Indians other than the plantings that
these make and benefit with their work. And that, as far as a designation of limits is concerned, this
settlement does not have it even today, only the first settlers have been designated a "caballería" of land
by order of the honorable Escandón and to the more modern residents less quantity; and that, regarding
the Indians of this mission, they fear, justifiably, the effects of the uprisings that they often do, as has been
experienced twice, although in the first one, which was the year of fifty-three, they did not cause any
damage and they returned to the mission without committing any excesses, in the one of fifty-six they
caused much trouble to this settlement, caused several deaths, and afterwards part of them have returned
to the said mission for which reason they place no confidence in them and much less in the rest of the
heathens of the Sierra from whom not only have they experienced damages, but also deaths, as it has been
seen in the shepherds of the haciendas of the missions of California and in other soldiers who left Aguayo
to help them.
To the fifth question he said: that the river immediate to this settlement is the one called Jamauve
that begins in Palmillas six leagues from this settlement and that for their service, irrigation, and cultivation
of lands, they have three springs from which they obtain the amenity and fertilization of their lands and
that he does not know how many measures of corn they might have planted in this year but that, from the
experience they have themselves and other residents, they can surmise that for each measure of planting
they should reap one hundred fifty in the harvests and that this settlement, with the benefit they have of
irrigation, always harvests sufficient to support themselves without needing to supply themselves with corn
from any other part.
To the sixth question he said: that the settlements situated in that which they call Sierra Gorda
under the jurisdiction of the honorable Colonel Escandón are this one of el Jaumave, Palmillas, Santa
B�rbara, and Real de los Infantes.
To the seventh question he said: that the land of this settlement is suitable for raising major and
minor livestock and that in its benefit they recognize very good increases.
To the eighth question he said: that at six leagues from this settlement, going towards the east on
the road that crosses the Sierra, there is a region that they call las Minas where there is a mine with an
opening as if in a state of excellance and two that seem to follow the vein to the north of which there is a
report a certain Buitrón, who was a resident of the site of Santa Rosa, worked it up to that state and that
it has been about ten years, more or less, that the declarant, guided by an Indian who gave him part of it,
retreived two or three loads of ore from its production and, having taken them to Real de los Infantes to
assay their quality, with the result that from a quintal he took out seven and one-half reales of silver and
he recognized that, due to the bad disposition of the oven, he did not have better results and that afterwards
he has not returned to it nor has he known whether any other person has begun working it.
To the ninth question he said: that the Sierra Gorda and Sierra Madre they hold to be one and the
same due to the fact that it is united and he has never heard any other name other than la Sierra up until
a short time ago he has heard Sierra Gorda mentioned but that, where the declarant was reared, he has not
heard any other name than that of la Sierra Madre and that this one is the one that divides la Colonia from
these frontiers.
To the tenth question he said: that the frontier settlements of the colony on this side of the Sierra
are el Valle del Maíz of the province of Huasteca that is on the same skirt of the Sierra on the south side;
Tula which is also on the same skirt which today is included in the government of the honorable Colonel
Escandón, although before, it also used to be like this settlement of el Jaumave and Palmillas, belonging
to the jurisdiction of Guadalc�zar; el Río Blanco, jurisdiction of Reino de León which is also situated on
the skirts of the Sierra Madre; Pablillo, also the jurisdiction of Reino de León, situated at the said Sierra
followed by Labradores and el Saltillo, both of which are also of el Nuevo Reino and are situated at the
skirts of said sierra; and that in the populating of la Colonia, the benefit that they have occasioned is small
since, much before, the Indians lived in the immediacy without causing them grave harms.
To the eleventh question he said: that this settlement is governed and ruled by the lieutenant Don
Juan Antonio Rojo, named by the honorable Colonel Escandón, and that he does not have a salary of any
kind by the king nor are there registered soldiers who enjoy it nor does he know that his Majesty makes
any payment in the settlement nor that the Royal Treasury has any cost. And, it having been read again
to him all that he has said and declared, so that he say whether he needs to add or remove anything or that
it be ratified, he said: that what he has said is the same that he would say again if it were necessary without
needing to change or remove anything and that he affirms and ratifies it for it being the truth by the oath
that he has made and he did not sign because he said he did not know how and that he is of the age of fifty-four years; the said gentleman Don José Tienda de Cuervo signed it with the witnesses present. - José
Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) -Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
Following are the witnesses who stated the same as the preceeding one and they are the following:
Juan Antonio Rojo, lietuenant of the town of el Jaumave, of fifty-five years of age.
José Antonio de C�rdenas, superintendant of the Hacienda de Santa Rosa, of sixty years of age.
Fray Juan Llanos, preacher and missionary minister of la Misión de San Juan Bautista del Jaumave
and its jurisdiction, etc.
Information and certification regarding the above points having been requested by Don José
Tienda de Cuervo, Gentleman of the Order of Santiago, Captain of Dragoons of la Nueva Ciudad de
Veracruz and Inspecting Judge of the Gulf of Mexico by the Most Excellent honorable Viceroy Marquis
de las Amarillas.
On the first point, from the time that this settlement of Indians was begun to be founded, pacified,
and quieted, according to the report I have that is very old in determination of that regard, but about what
I do know, it is evident to me it was begun in the year of twenty-five and they built a church of a large
space in the region that today they call and the appellation that was given to said church was Santa Rosa,
in which the priest lived the space of four years, with all the Indians who were more than two hundred
warriors, four Spaniards lived in their company, the principal one called Francisco Huitrón, and I know
that it was well provided with livestock and the church with decent and necessary ornaments and silver
cups and, said settlers having gone, the R.F. left, for one due to loneliness and to not being able to
subjugate them and it became deserted although the church intact, many of the Inidans congregated since
that time until the year of forty-three, on the twenty-third of March, when the settlers, who were ten,
entered, who, I have known, found the church intact and the R.F. who came with said settlers joined
another chapel which remains today although built to a sufficient capacity for the populace to which they
placed the appellation of San Juan Bautista del Jaumave, which was the one the said small chapel had
before in which the Indians who are there at present were congregated and converted to the mode of life,
doing all of it at their cost and mention up to the present without anymore financial help in arms and horses
other than the ones belonging to each one.
The second regarding whether they are converted, quiet, and peaceful with reasons from religious
instruction, attending doctrine and mass: with fourteen Indian warriors and fifteen female Indians with
other small ones and the rest, who were as many as thirty-four warriors with seven Pames, having risen
up in the month of November on the twelfth of the year of fifty-six because of, having depopulated the
Misión de Santa Rosa and rejected the aforesaid church, ravaged by order of the honorable general Don
José de Escandón in order to turn over the lands to the Reverend Fathers of el Carmen, the Indians of la
Misión de Santa Rosa rose up and some went to el Sigué and other to Santa Clara and Monte Alverna,
although the settlers and the Indians did everything possible so that they would not give them the possession
and, it having been given to them, they were divided into the aforesaid parts which I have said congregated
Santa Rosa and today they live in a mission that was founded, one in Aguayo and another one in Llera;
and the rest, who are the thirty-four who resided in San Juan Bautista until last year and aforesaid month
with houses and attending the doctrine, the ones who requested, in times past, subsisting in [the hope] that
Santa Rosa would again be a mission or that the Carmelite R.R.P.P.s not have it because they had much
damage from their servants, and they have never been able to obtain it, because the damages of the Indians
reached to such an extent that during the said month, my having given permission to an Indian to go to
bring some watermelons that he had cultivated at a distance of one league from this mission and one-half
from Santa Rosa, the Indian did not appear nor has he appeared at present and they said, at that time with
their material words, that their brother and companion being missing for so long they had killed him, for
which reason they went out to look for him and they found the indications from some drops of blood, some
watermelon rinds, and some "lomillos" that they use of burned grass from which they assured themselves
that he had been killed by those of Santa Rosa, for which reason the father of the dead Indian incited the
Indians to rise up and kill the Spaniards since they had killed his son; they launched themselves to the sierra
on said day, month, and year and in Cerrito Prieto they killed four Spaniards and, a company of soldiers
of Palmillas and Tula and of eighty men here having come together to pursue those who had been [the
killers] and having reached them, they had their battle in which six Spaniards were killed; and then a month
later or a little more, my seeing that there was no way for them to come down peacefully to calm down,
by means of an Indian woman I was able to bring down the fourteen who, at present, are without arms,
which they themselves gave up to bring peace and by my advice and with the aim that they live with more
subjection in this mission of San Juan Bautista del Jaumave, the rest are as I have said in my oath which
I gave to said gentleman; the site of the mission is very pleasant at a distance of one league east of San
Lorenzo, which site is very fertile because there is an abundance of irrigation water, enough for thirty or
forty measures of planting and it is very bountiful, the weather helping a small amount, they harvest up
to three hundred to one although the common is to harvest two hundred.
With which, and work of mine, with the help of the settlers who obliged themselves from the
beginning to support the Indians, they are well maintained and, at present, they have their yokes of land
and fields in use with the houses, good shacks, converted in good form, introduced among twelve
Spaniards who are in the mission as my custodians and guards and that of the church, these are married
with children, and with the ones of the settlement of San Lorenzo, they are, of Spaniards of confession,
four hundred forty-eight and the whole valley is, as I have said, very fertile and abounds with livestock of
all types.
Regarding a synod, I have nothing nor the "obenciones" which, so the province determined, they
should pay me the "obenciones" according to the book of rates and, before don José Escandón entered,
he paid them and the synod was also maintained and, since then, the settlers obliged themselves each one
to give a measure of corn, which are the one of which he receives forty in order to support the church with
wine, bread, and wax and for my support and of the R.F.'s, my predecessors in order not to have questions
or disputes with said honorable general, because he was removing the synod and "obenciones" the Santa
Provincia de San Pedro y San Pablo de Michoac�n obliged themselves to support them and, in the same
manner, in case anything were lacking to the church, as they have done it and they have ornaments of all
colors, two silver chalices, an incense burner, wine vessals and platter, the church well adorned at the
dispensation of the settlers and no one else, and there is no other thing evident to me that might be other
than at the cost of the settlers and R.F.s and Santa Provincia.
The settlement is healthy, the winds very light, especially from the east which is the one that blows
continually, for which reason the region is made more favorable to nature and to fruits of all types that
grow, especially corn, as I have said, the ones which are not so abundant because of the environs,
especially to the east running the line to the north in a space of fifty leagues,, it costs at least a peso per
measure and from there according to the shortness of the year, and even after the settlement being so
abundant in water, it also has a river on the southern part that flows bathing the valley from the east to the
west that, with a little diligence a great part of valley that runs from the south to the north in a space of
eight leagues more or less can be irrigated and in it, after that, there are many other springs and, in the
settlement of San Lorenzo, there are two that irrigate more than forty measures about which I discuss that,
were it not for the many injuries that they get from the Indians of el Sigué, which are forty, more or less,
with four who have remained of those from here, because the remainder who are lacking that were up to
thirty-four [sic]; seven that were Pames, it is true that they went to their land which is la Palma and the
others have died in the company and others they have taken to the house of corrections as inciters and
rebels, all of which I certify as the law permits and, it being the truth, I swear it in verbo sacerdotis as it
is evident to me as an accredited person as well as having seen it and, so that it be evident, I signed it on
the tenth of August of this present year of seventeen hundred fifty-seven years. - Fray Juan Llanos. -
(rubric)
REVIEW - In San Lorenzo del Jaumave in ten days of the month of August of seventeen hundred
fifty-seven years, the honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo, in order to acquaint himself about the state
of this settlement as he desires, decreed they make a review, which he has ordered, of its settlers and
residents in respect to the list having been given to him that he had ordered for this purpose and, these
having presented themselves in the plaza, all with their arms, the said gentleman implored the minister
priest Fray Juan Llanos that he serve to assist in the formality of this act to give the reports that might be
suitable and, the said priest having consented to it, this review was begun calling each one by name,
registering the arms composed of a rifle, a sword, a shield, some pistols, and knives and, asking them the
questions that they found suitable, it was executed in the following manner:
SETTLERS AND RESIDENTS
Lieutenant Juan Antonio Rojo, married, has two married servants and nine persons, one orphaned
grandson and four female donkeys.
Juan Bermudez [sic], married, seven children, two grandchildren, one female donkey, all arms,
and six horses.
Bernardino Bermúdez, with his widowed mother and two siblings, arms, and without horses.
Antonio de los Ríos, married, has a daughter, a female orphan, arms, nine horses, and has his
mother and a sister with him.
Gregorio de Porras, married, two children, all arms, and two horses.
Antonio de Olvera, married, all arms, three horses.
Joaquín de Puga, married, five children, all arms, and two horses.
Juan de la Cruz, married, two children, arms, and five horses.
Domingo de la Cruz, married, three children, arms, and three horses.
Francisco de la Cruz, married, seven children, arms, and five horses.
Juana de Avalos, widow, two children, eleven horses, and two nieces.
Juan de Torres, married, three children, arms, and one horse.
Juan de Jauna, married, four children, all arms, and twelve horses.
Juan de Salas, married, two children, arms, and ten horses.
Gregorio de Ochoa, married, six children, arms, and two horses.
Antonio Ramos, married, six children.
Juana Teresa de Sosa, widow, one son, and eight horses.
Domingo Lucio, married, all arms, four horses, and one female donkey.
María Josefa Gonz�lez, widow, eight children, and four horses.
Antonio Pelestequín, married, three children, arms, and fifteen horses.
Manuel Sanchez, married, five children, arms, and three horses.
Francisco de la Fuente, married, three children, all arms, twenty-five horses, five married
servants, and one bachelor, they are twenty-two persons.
Francisco Camacho, absent with permission, married, one son, arms, and five horses.
Pedro Sanchez, married, ten children, arms, and eight horses.
Alejandro Zamora, married, five children, arms, and eight horses.
Mariana Maldonado, widow, two children, and thirty-three horses.
Vicente López, married, two children, arms, and six horses.
Cayetano de Estrada, absent with permission, married, three children, arms, and five horses.
Felipe Rodríguez, married, two children, arms, and five horses.
Felipe Lucio, married, four children, arms, and four horses.
José Gregorio, married, one son, arms, two horses, and his mother.
Joaquín de Olvera, married, two children, two horses, and arms.
Gregorio Saucedo, married, one daughter, all arms, and two horses.
Pedro Zamora, married, two children, arms, and five horses.
Gregorio de C�rdenas, married, three children, arms, and three horses.
Juan Obregón, married, seven children, arms, and five horses.
Angela, Spaniard, widow, four children, and two horses.
Francisco Zamora, married, seven children, arms, and three horses.
Lorenzo del Castillo, married, four children, arms, and three horses.
Ventura Alonso, married, five children, arms, and twelve horses.
Petra de Porras, widow.
Juana María, widow, three children.
Juan Antonio Herrera, married, four children, arms, and three horses.
Pedro Gallegos, married, five children, arms, and twelve horses.
Carlos de la Banda, ill, married, five children, arms, and twelve horses.
Juan Antonio Ortiz, married, six children, arms, and six horses.
Francisco Guevara, married, all arms, six horses.
Santiago Enríquez, bachelor, arms, and two horses.
Pedro Ramírez, married, four children, arms, and six horses.
Nicol�s de Ochoa, married, eight children, arms, and three horses.
Fernando Zamora, married, two children, arms, and five horses.
Domingo Martín, married, one son, arms, and three horses.
Pedro de B�rcena, married, one son, arms, and three horses.
José Ordoñez, absent with permission, married, one son, arms, and three horses.
Antonio Elías, married, one son, arms, and five horses.
Ignacio Guillén, married, all arms, and two horses.
Manuel Guillén, married, two children, arms, and five horses.
Manuel de León, bachelor, has with him his mother and two sisters, arms, and three horses.
Francisco Alonso, married, three children, arms, and one horse.
Tadeo Guerrero, absent with permission, married, five children, arms, and three horses.
Miguel de Castillo, married, four children, arms, and eight horses.
Juan Remigio, absent with permission, married, three children, arms, and four horses.
Francisco Almaraz, married, five children, arms, and four horses.
Nicol�s de Aguillón, married, two children, arms, and two horses.
Cayetano de Torres, married, six children, arms, and two horses.
Alejandro Gauna, married, arms, and three horses.
Francisco Ramos, married, one son, arms, and five horses.
Ascensio de Porras, married, three children, and three horses.
Carlos Camero, married, three children, and three horses
Marcelo Martín, married, four children, and two horses.
Isidro Quiroz, married, two children, arms, and three horses.
José Celedonio, married, three children, arms, and three horses.
Antonio Anastasio, married, arms, and two horses.
José Joaquín Rojo, married, three children, arms, and four horses.
Patricio Lucio, married, two daughters, arms, and three horses.
Feliciano Lucio, married, three children, arms, and three horses.
Manuel Zamora, married, one son, arms, and four horses.
José Celesteguín, married, one son, arms, and six horses.
Cristóbal Bermúdez, ill, married, four children, and two horses.
Eugenio de la Cruz, absent with permission, married.
Casimiro Fuentes, married, arms.
Joaquín S�nchez, married, two children, arms, and one horse.
Domingo S�nchez, married, two children, arms, and one horse.
Juan Antonio Molina, married, one son, arms, and two horses.
Lucas Zamora, married, two children, and arms.
Francisco Alonso, married, arms, and two horses.
José Gallegos, married, three children, arms, and five horses.
Don Antonio Llanos, bachelor, arms, twenty-four donkeys, five servant families with fourteen
persons, and three bachelors.
Rafael Gallegos, married, one son, and two horses.
Francisco Gallegos, married, three children, arms, and two horses.
Pedro Mendoza, married, arms, and two horses.
That as it appears from this review, the citizenry of this settlement is composed of eighty-eight
families with five hundred eighty persons who have, as goods, one thousand one hundred ninety heads of
breeding equine beasts, ninety-eight mules, ninety-four yokes of oxen, five thousand four hundred six head
of minor livestock, and four hundred sixty-three of bovine livestock, ten male and female donkeys with
an extra four hundred thirty-nine horses for their use as it is all evident in the sections of this review and
regarding that, for its justification, the R.F. Minister of this settlement has attended it giving the reports
that were found suitable, it is requested of him that he concur in signing this act in faith of having been
present at it and, this request having been given to him, he happily agreed to it and signed it with the said
honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo and the witnesses present. - José Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) -
Fray Juan Llanos- (rubric) -Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
DOCUMENT - In San Lorenzo del Jaumave in ten days of the month of August of seventeen
hundred fifty-seven years, the honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo, having seen the proceedings
practiced in this settlement regarding the recognition of its state, considering them as sufficient for his
report, desirous of not wasting time on those that he should continue to complete his comission with the
most brevity possible and avoid the costs that delays could cause the Royal Treasury, ordered that
everything acted upon and corresponding to this settlement be put in a separate folder for it better
information and thus he decreed and signed it with the witnesses present. - José Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) -Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
REPORT - On the seventeenth of February of seventeen hundred fifty-eight, testimony was taken
from this folder to give a report to his Majesty and it was placed in the Secretariet of His Excellency
___________________________________
TOWN OF SANTA BARBARA
DOCUMENT - In the town of Santa B�rbara on thirteen days of the month of August of seventeen
hundred fifty-seven years, the honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo, having arrived in this settlement
today, day of this date, in continuation of his charges, found it convenient to continue the proceedings that
they should do in it in order to acquaint himself with its recognition and state according to the instruction
with which he is commissioned which is found in the folder number one of the proceedings practiced in
this affair from folio four to eight and, in virtue of this, he ordered that, at the continuation of this
document, those follow which might be conducive and that the statements that shall be received be
according to the interrogatory which is also in the said folder number one, folio fifty-four, all to be acted
upon in the presence of the witnesses who are nominated in the said folder for this purpose since the first
proceedings of this commission and, so that all be done with the required justification, he thus decreed and
signed it. - José Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) -Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de
Haro. -(rubric).
DOCUMENT - In the said town of Santa B�rbara in thirteen days of the month of August of
seventeen hundred fifty-seven years, the said honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo, desirous of
instructing himself in the recognition and state of this settlement with the required justification,
notwithstanding his having present in mind that the apostolic missionary priest who is found here today,
Fray Francisco de Escandón, is the brother of the colonel Don José de Escandón in whom one could
expect some favorable disposition for that which could suit the rest of the points which they expect to report
on in this settlement, he said: that for whatever worth the reports of this priest might have in this affair,
any suplicatory entreaty be sent to him so that he serve to give certification regarding the chapters and
question that they find pertinent to ask him in order to have his answer at the end and that everything
original be placed in these documents for whatever is suitable and thus he decreed, ordered, and signed
it. - José Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) -Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
STATEMENT OF DON TOMAS DE SOTO - In the town of Santa B�rbara in thirteen days of
the month of August of seventeen hundred fifty-seven years, the honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo,
continuing his proceedings in order to inform himself in the best recognition and state of this settlement,
ordered the taking of the necessary statements for it in the terms that are prepared for him by his first
document, head of this folder and, for it, he had appear before him Don Tom�s de Soto, resident of this
settlement, reformed lieutenant in it, from whom he received an oath by God and a cross so that he tell the
truth of what would be asked of him and, his having done and offered it as is required, he was asked
according to what is contained in the interrogatory which is found in folio forty-four of folder number one
of these proceedings to which he responded the following:
To the first question he said: that the Sierra Gorda, before the conquest or entry of the honorable
General Escandón, had Tula, Palmillas, and el Jaumave already populated and, although in the site of
Tanguanchin there was a settlement of Indians and with them about five families of residents of Tula and
others from lands inside corresponding with el Reino de León, this was not reputed as a settlement but the
others were because in Tula there was already a mission and a Franciscan priest who lived there and had
enough congregated Indians in his charge, that he does not know the number of which they were
composed; and that, although he met and confered with some of the residents, he did not find out how
many there were that composed the number of their citizenry nor how many Indians they had baptised; and
that, regarding Palmillas, it was a small settlement that had no mission, that only the minister priest of Tula
would come on some occasions to minister to them and that el Jaumave, even being also a small settlement,
had a Franciscan missionary priest who attended to them and there were congregated Indians, that he
cannot report how many they might have been nor of those that might have been baptised and that these
settlements have always increased and, at present there are in much greater number than before, as far as
its citizenry is concerned, and they subsist aided by a Franciscan minister who ministers to them, Palmillas
also having this benefit as well as the others; and that he has heard that, concerning the Indians who were
situated in Tanguanchin, a region at a distance from where this settlement is today of about one league,
with the five families to whom he has referred, the missionary priest of the town of los Valles in la
Huasteca would come in seasons of the year, two and up to three, accompanied by soldiers and would enter
in this said site where he would stay two or three days baptizing the Indian children, ministering to the
civilized people and giving documents to the others and then he would leave; that those were the terms in
which they were found.
To the second question he said: that in the year of seventeen hundred forty-nine, the declarant and
another five families came to establish themselves in the said site of Tanguanchín from the jurisdiction of
Valle del Maíz, where they were residents, on the persuasion of the commanding captain Don Juan
Francisco Barberena who, for this end, aided them with the beasts that they needed for their transport and
he gave them several cows and yokes of oxen so they would have something with which to begin to work
and, in fact, with this financial aid they came to the said site and established themselves there at a time
when it had increased another six families coming from the jurisdiction of Río Verde and of Tula, that there
were already eleven families there when the declarant and the others joined them and they composed
seventeen and, at this time, the honorable Colonel Escandón was already in la Colonia of the Gulf of
Mexico but, up to this state, he had had no part in this settlement nor had he been there; and, all the said
seventeen families, having lived one year with many Janambre Indians of whom there were three hamlets
in the nearby, decided to leave that region due to the honorable Colonel Escandón having come there and
having manifested to them placing this settlement in regulation and, in fact, they left to a region they called
los Palos Altos more immediate to the port and entry of la Colonia where, having maintained themselves
about six years, the one [year] of fifty-six arrived and with a flood that came from a rivulet that begins in
the Sierra de San Lorenzo and runs toward the south, the whole settlement was inundated and some
furniture goods were lost for which reason it was necessary to move, that site having had the name with
the formality that the said honorable colonel made in his establishment in the year of seventeen hundred
fifty of Santa B�rbara, with which appellation they came to the site in which they are today; it being
understood that when Mr. Escandón came to the site of Tanguanchín, where only the seventeen families
were, although some others registered, they did not subsist because they immediately left and there were
only the said seventeen remaining and, the said honorable colonel, having left from that site, left an order
for their moving, this being in the month of May of the year of forty-nine, but they did not leave until a
few months had passed without any family increasing during that time because only the said seventeen
came to this second establishment of Palos Altos, the ones who always maintained themselves in continuous
sentinal with arms in hand due to the many Indians who lived in those regions and who caused continuous
damages to their livestock; and a year passing in that site, some families started coming and joined them
and they have subsisted in these same terms up to the present, that he is sure that they must be up to eighty
in number of residents that there are in this establishment without any of them having had any financial aid
for their coming except the declarant and Feliciano Rodríguez to whom the honorable Colonel Escandón
gave one hundred pesos each one; and that the means that have favored the subsistance of this citizenry
have been thirty young bulls that the said honorable colonel gave and put in the power of the declarant so
that he would distribute them, ten to the Indians of la Alaja who were some who from ancient times were
united and in peace three leagues distance from this settlement, another eight for the Misión de Palmillas,
and the rest so that he distribute them to this citizenry, which he did as he had been ordered; and he also
knows that they have given to the Indians of the mission of this town, on the order of said honorable
colonel and by order of the declarant and his father-in-law, first of all about forty measures of corn that
the commanding captain Don Juan Francisco Barberena sent to be distributed among the Indians and
residents and, afterwards, the declarant had an order to give to the missionary priest and to the Indians the
daily corn that they might need and he bears in mind that he continued aiding them about two years with
twenty measures each month; and that he also knows that the said Don Juan Francisco Barberena
personally distributed among the Indians of this mission some cloth, blankets, and flannel, that he cannot
know what the value of these goods could have been but that, regarding the cows, young bulls, and corn
distributed and given by the said Barberena, it must have amounted to about one hundred sixty-eight
pesos, figuring two pesos per each measure of corn of the forty that this one sent, and four pesos for each
head of the fourteen cows and eight young bulls that he gave when the declarant came, as he has expressed,
and that the thirty young bulls distributed on his order, counted at four pesos of value per each one,
amounts to another one hundred twenty, that all of one and another amount to seven hundred sixty-eight
pesos without including the two hundred pesos that the said colonel gave the declarant and the other
residents as he has said; and that this settlement is found with various Indian tribes congregated in its
mission at about a quarter league from it, that they are aided by the missionary apostolic priest Fray
Francisco de Escandón, that he does not know the number of them but that they are few because many
have died but those that are there are all christians; and this same said priest aids this settlement in all that
it needs in the administration of the sacraments; and that this method of having a minister of the mission
began since they moved to the site of Palos Altos in the month of September of the year of seventeen
hundred forty-nine since, after a short time of their being there, the priest Fray Francisco L�zaro
Martínez came and with him the President Priest who, having established the mission, left and the said
Father Martínez remained.
To the third question he said: that the Indians of this mission at the distance of one quarter league
from this settlement have shacks where they live with no introduction with the settlers.
To the fourth question he said: that in the name of the congregated Indians, there are lands
designated for their farming in the site where the mission is but that formal possession of them has not been
given to the missionary priest that attends to them and that this same method is followed with the residents
since it being the amount that is permitted for them to enjoy because this valley comprises, down the hill,
what should be about eight leagues in length and four in width, all of which is in common and each one
farms where he deems most suitable; and that of these lands, thus designated among the mission and the
citizenry, there must be about enough farmed and placed in cultivation to plant one hundred measures.
To the fifth question he said: that this settlement utilizes a spring that is immediate to it site and
easy to use it for their support, that it never dries and is generally permanent and, in the site of the mission
there is another spring for their use and, besides this, there are another four springs in the immediacy of
this settlement, and there are also pools of water produced by a rivulet that comes down from the Sierra
de Santa María and, although it stops with the rigor of the drought, with all of it, it maintains several pools
from year to year and that, from these springs and opportunities, no facility at all results in it having
irrigation on the lands of its farming.
To the sixth question he said: that he does not know in which settlements they might furnish
themselves with the removal of water from the rivers of which they make use and that only in Jaumave are
they able to get water from their springs for the irrigation and fertilization of their lands and that,
concerning this settlement, neither is there irrigation from a canal nor hope of being able to have it because
its springs or sources of water are not in regions that can facilitate it.
To the seventh question he said: that he does not know which settlements might have springs or
water sources with which to be able to irrigate, other than the one he has cited of el Jaumave.
To the eighth question he said: that the use made of the irrigation, in the settlements where there
is one, is for the planting of corn and other seeds and fruits but that the most accredited of the crops, with
the benefit, is the corn because of obtaining its early crops and liberating them from the contingencies of
the seasons.
To the ninth question he said: that in the previous years up to the present they have planted up to
seventy or eighty measures of corn in this settlement but that in the present year they have not been able
to plant as much because of there being the lack of seeds and, their experiencing that the corn that is
brought from outside does not "priva" or produce like the creole of this region and this one, as it has been
experienced with the benefit of the rains, the declarant has accredited, since he is one of the farmers who
puts all efforts into the cultivation of his lands, that in the year that the seasons do not offer storms they
harvest up to one hundred fifty measures for each one planted, a benefit the declarant experienced in the
year of fifty-six just past, with six measures that he planted, he harvested up to one thousand with no other
benefit than the rains and, with the crops of this type that this settlement has had every year, it has sufficed
to maintain itself without having to provide itself from any other area, instead they have sold great portions
to Guadalc�zar, la Colonia, and other parts.
To the tenth question he said: that in that which is called the true coast of the Gulf of Mexico, he
has only been in Escandón, Horcasitas, and Altamira, that he does not know their distances to the sea and
that, although he has heard there are other settlements, he has not been in them nor does he know what
ports, bays, or anchorages they might have.
To the eleventh question he said: that the land of this settlement and of what he has seen in la
Colonia is suitable for the raising and conservation of major and minor livestock and that there are several
residents established with their ranches of these species in the environs of this town and the declarant has
one at about a little more than a league in the site in which the old mission was and in some and others they
experience good progress and increases.
To the twelfth question he said: that he has heard that in the immediacies of his livestock ranch in
the said site of the old mission there are some mineral veins but that these have not been worked nor
opened for which reason they have no information about them.
To the thirteenth question he said: that at three leagues from this settlement there is the site called
el Chamal that has some salt springs that serve only as saltpetre for the livestock and that he does not know
of any other salt mines because the salt they use for their consumption they obtain from those who come
from la Colonia in exchange for their corn.
To the fourteenth question he said: that this settlement with those of its environs conserve
themselves in peace and good communication and the Indians of its congregation give them no trouble
whatsoever but, at present, these residents do not get along with the lietuenant who aids them in the justice
due to his treating them with some rigor, subjecting them to prison with whatever small reason, treating
them with little love and with somewhat indecorous words which has resulted in the dislike of all of them
for him; and, regarding the heathen Indians of the sierras, although at the beginning of the establishment
of this settlement they had great problems with their attacks and thefts, in the last three years they have
become quiet and there are no injuries from them and the most immediate ones are the Janambres, that he
does not know the number of which their hamlets might be composed and that, although in the site of la
Alaza there is a hamlet of Pizones, these are small in number and they always maintain themselves in peace
at present, since it has been three years that the Indians of this mission, having revolted and surprised
several residents taking their arms and cloths and wounding seven and killing two, left for the sierra, a
revolt in which they were accompanied by the Pizones and some of them remained some time in the woods
committing several thefts of the livestock of this settlement and, afterwards, those of the mission went to
Llera where they congregated and, upon various supplications they made them they were able to convert
them to return to this mission with the offer that they would not be punished or receive any harm with
which they managed their return and thus they have remained with no problem up to the present.
To the fifteenth question he said: that the Sierra Gorda, in which this settlements, that of Jaumave,
Palmillas, Real de Infantes, and Tula are contained, is the same as la Sierra Madre because all of it is one
and, as such, he has heard it always referred to with no difference and it is the one that divides la Colonia
from the other borders without their being a break or division in said sierra because it is all continuous
beginning with the part of la Huasteca and drawing in el Reino de León without knowing where it ends;
and that he has no knowledge of the Sierras Tamaulipas nor can he report of its size in order to place
settlements.
To the sixteenth question he said: that the settlements that it has as borders are la Huasteca, the
town of los Valles, and Valle del Maíz and on lands outside, Guadalc�zar and Charcas, and of el Reino
de León, Linares, that he does not know the distances and that he believes that these have had some benefit
with the settlement of la Colonia because of the peace it has brought with the Indians that before brought
so much to do to said borders that it was necessary to make continuous outings to contain them which is
not experienced now.
To the seventeenth question he said: that he does not know how many captains, corporals, and
soldiers, enlisted and with salary, there might be in all of la Colonia but that in this settlement there is no
squadron nor any salary paid by his Majesty nor has the Royal Treasury any more cost than the synod of
three hundred fifty pesos that are paid to the missionary priest because the residents serve at their own cost
in whatever is needed, they make excursions and assist in the campaigns and rescues that are afforded.
To the eighteenth question about the General Legal Data he said: that they do not concern him in
anyway; and, it having been read again to him ad verbum all that he has said and declared so that he say
whether he needs to add or remove anything or that it be ratified, he said: that what it says is the same as
what he stated and he will state it again if it would be necessary without needing to change or remove
anything, and that he affirms and approves it for it being the truth by the oath that he has made and he
signed it and stated being of the age of sixty years, the said gentleman Don José Tienda de Cuervo signed
it with the witnesses present. - José Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) - Tom�s de Soto - (rubric) -Roque
Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
Following are the witnesses who stated the same as the preceding one and they are the following:
José Jiménez, resident of the town of Santa B�rbara, of seventy-three years of age.
Don Juli�n Cayetano de Haro, Lieutenant of Justice of the town of Santa B�rbara of sixty-three
years of age.
REVIEW OF INDIANS - In the town of Santa B�rbara in fourteen days of the month of August
of seventeen hundred fifty-seven years, the said honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo, in order to
acquaint himself in the state and recognition of the mission of this settlement and its Indians that are found
situated at one-fourth league from this settlement, went to it and, having communicated with the missionary
priest Fray Francisco de Escandón regarding the making of a review of said Indians, he conceded to it
and, in fact, having called them, he had them all form themselves and, passing to divide them into tribes,
the said honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo recognized and counted twenty-eight warriors of the
Janambres tribe included among them a captain called Don Juan Antonio Barberena, married to a
civilized mestiza, a mayor, a ministerial officer, and a clerk and four males whom they said were sick,
eighteen women present and four females whom they said were sick and twenty-two young people, that
in all of this tribe they are composed of seventy-six persons; and, having continued this same proceeding
with the Pames tribe, they found forty-eight warriors among whom there is a governor, two mayors, one
captain, one ministerial mayor, two subaltern officers and four clerks and they said another seven Indians
were sick and ten watching the maiz fields and, of these, they counted forty-one women and three children
of both sexes which compose the number of one hundred thirty-nine and, besides these, the minister priest
informed them that in the site of la Laja there is a group of Pizon Indians living four leagues distance from
this mission who are also congregated there and they are composed of six warriors, that these have ten
women and eleven children, understanding that four more Indians of these, the captain says, are away; this
tribe being composed of thirty-one persons and the number of all the three tribes is two hundred forty-six,
all baptised and married according to the order of the Holy Mother Church, subject to bell and doctrine
and, having done this recognition in the said terms and having had the reports from the missionary priest
that he found useful to request of him, he ordered it be placed as a proceeding in this documents so that
it be evident according to how it is related and it was executed for which it is placed as it was ordered and
the said gentleman signed it with the witnesses present. - José Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) - Roque
Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
PROCEEDING - Being in the said site of the mission, the aforesaid honorable Don José Tienda
de Cuervo was informed of the presence of some civilized families who lived collected at that mission for
their protection and to accompany the missionary priest with which, the said gentleman wanting to become
acquainted with it, he had them appear and present themselves before him and he found they were
composed of seven families without including another three of servants that said mission has, all of which
are composed of fifty-one persons of both sexes, young and old, and in these terms, for whatever it might
be suitable, it is put in as a proceeding and the said gentleman signed it with the witnesses present. - José
Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) - Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
REVIEW - In the town of Santa B�rbara in fourteen days of the month of August of seventeen
hundred fifty-seven years, the said honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo, continuing the recognition of
this settlement, having had the list that he ordered be turned over to the captain, decreed they make the
review of its residents that he has ordered and, these having presented themselves with their arms in the
plaza for this reason, this proceeding was begun calling each one by name, registering their arms that are
composed of a rifle, a sword, a shield, some pistols and knives and asking them the questions that they
found suitable, it was executed in the following manner:
REGISTERED RESIDENTS
Lieutenant Don Juli�n Cayetano de Haro, married, three children, arms, ten horses, five
donkeys.
Don Tom�s de Soto, reformed lieutenant, married, five children, arms, sixteen horses, six female
donkeys.
Nicol�sa Barrón, widow.
Bernarda Gonz�lez, widow, two orphans, two horses.
Nicol�s Cayetano, married, six children, arms, five horses, and one female donkey.
Juan Antonio García, ill, married, has four children, arms, ten horses.
Margarita Ramírez, widow, one horse.
Jacinto Brito, married, two children, arms, and three horses.
Juan Antonio Medel, married, without arms or horses.
Santiago de los Reyes, married, one son, arms, and four horses.
María Hern�ndez, widow, one niece, and one horse.
Pedro Ruiz, married, five children, arms, three horses.
Juan Valentín Pizaña, widower, five children, arms, one horse.
Francisco Paredes, absent, married, two children, arms, three horses.
Salvador Galarza, married, two children, no arms or horses.
Francisco S�nchez, absent, married, six children, arms, two horses.
Juan Barrera, married, three children.
José Ubaldo, absent, married, two children, arms, three horses.
Marcos V�zquez, absent, married, four children, arms, seven horses.
Juan Pizaña, married, arms, four horses, one female donkey.
Alejandro López, married, one horse.
Pedro de los Reyes, ill, married, four children, arms, four horses.
Andrés Brito, absent, married, arms, two horses.
Pedro Guzm�n, married, four children, arms, five horses.
Marcelo García, married, four children, arms three horses.
María Cayetana, widow, four horses.
Juan Antonio Jiménez, bachelor, with one brother also bachelor, four horses, without arms.
José Jiménez, married, six children, arms, four horses, four female donkeys.
Juan Antonio del Castillo, married, six children, two horses, one female donkey.
Agustín del Castillo, absent, married, two children, arms, two horses.
José Antonio Gonz�lez, married, four children, two female donkeys.
María Efigenia, widow, three grandchildren, eleven horses.
Bartolomé Molina, absent, married, two children, arms, three horses.
Cristóbal Maldonado, ill, married, three children, arms, four horses.
Bernardo S�nchez, absent, married, three children, arms, and twelve horses.
Tom�s de Herrera, absent, married, three children, arms, five horses.
José de Arsía, married, all arms, and four horses.
Antonio Balderas, married, two children, arms, three horses.
José Pizaña, widower, three children, arms, and two horses.
Francisco de Ch�vez, married, three chirdren, arms, and three horses.
Salvador de Ch�vez, married, four children.
Bibiana Francisca, widow, three children, three horses.
Marcos de los Santos, ill, widower, two children, arms, one horse, and one female donkey.
Manuel Jiménez, absent, married, four step-children, two children, arms, thirty-seven horses,
three donkeys, and three female donkeys.
Nicol�s de la Cruz, absent, married, four children, arms, four horses.
Juan de Haro, absent, married, three children, arms, eight horses, two female donkeys.
Santiago Jiménez, married, six children, arms, three horses.
Bartolomé López, married.
Cornelio Olvera, absent, married, arms, twelve horses, one male donkey, and one female donkey.
Sebasti�n Camacho, married, has one sister-in-law, arms, one horse.
Lucas Antonio Flores, married, one daughter, arms, fifteen horses, one female donkey.
Agustín Gregorio, married, one orphan, arms, five horses, one female donkey.
Francisco Camacho, married, three children, arms, five horses, sixteen heads of swine livestock.
Jacinto Brito, married, two daughters, arms, three horses.
Augustín Molina, married, two children, arms, four horses.
Miguel Aparicio, married, three children, six step-children, arms, eight horses, one female
donkey, twelve heads of swine livestock.
Toribio de San Pedro, married, two children, arms, eleven horses, and one female donkey
Francisco Martín de Salas, married, three children, arms, and ten horses.
Bartolomé Gonz�lez, absent, married, three children, arms, and three horses.
José Ju�rez, absent, married, three children, arms.
Antonio Eleuterio Ju�rez, absent, married, two children, three horses.
Santiago Brito, married, three children, arms, five horses, and one donkey.
Lucas de León, married, five children, arms, five horses.
Juan José María, married, four children, arms, three horses, two female donkeys.
Vicente de León, married, one son, arms, seven horses, one female donkey.
Dionisio Montelongo, married, one son, arms, two horses.
José Salvador, ill, married.
Eusebio Carillo, married, three children, two horses.
Cristóbal García, married, two children, two horses.
José Galv�n, married.
Lorenzo V�zquez, married, one son, arms, three horses.
Francisco del Castillo, ill, married, one son.
Juan Bautista de los Santos, married, two children, arms, three horses.
Tom�s de Salas, married, two children, two horses.
José Pérez, absent, married, two children.
L�zaro Segovia, married, one son, arms, five horses.
Salvador Ju�rez, married, one son, arms, five horses, five female donkeys.
Domingo Hern�ndez, married, arms, one horse.
Pedro Paredes, married, one son, two horses.
Domingo de Nava, married, one son, one horse.
Victorino Martín, married, one son, and three siblings, arms, two horses.
Ascencio de la Cruz, absent , married, three children, arms, two horses.
Juli�n Díaz, married, arms, four horses, one female donkey.
Antonio Martín, married.
Nicol�s de Nava, married, has one son.
Pascual Bailón, absent, married, three horses.
Pablo de Haro, married, two children, arms, two horses.
José Gregorio de Haro, married.
Cristóbal Fern�ndez, married, one son, two horses.
Juan Filiberto, married, arms, four horses.
Juan Lorenzo, married, arms, three horses.
Jacinto de la Cruz, married, arms, and two horses.
Juan Antonio Ruiz, absent, married
Antonio Valentín, absent, married.
Manuel de los Santos, absent, married.
Pascual de los Santos, absent, married.
José Antonio de Salas, absent, married, two children, arms, twenty horses, one male donkey, and
eight female donkeys.
Raimundo García, absent, married, has one daughter, arms, two horses.
Basilio Molina, absent, married, one son, arms, four horses.
Antonio de los Santos, married and absent, all arms, two horses.
José de Lara, absent, married, arms, one horse.
Manuel de los Reyes, married, two children and his mother, arms, two horses.
Pedro Nolasco, married, three children, arms, three horses.
RESIDENTS
Pedro Marcos, widower, two children.
Juan Martín, married, two children.
Bartolo Jiménez, married, three children.
Carlos de los Santos, married, three children.
Teresa, widow, four children.
Francisco Rodríguez, married, three children.
Juan Antonio, bachelor.
María Resendi, widow, three children.
Domingo, married.
Andrés de Almaraz, bachelor.
Juan Lorenzo, married
Juan Antonio, bachelor. [repeated]
Vicente Hern�ndez, bachelor.
María Candelaria, widow, five children.
María de la Concepción, widow, four children.
Mateo Turruviarte, married, four children.
Felipa de Segovia, widow, three children.
José de Segovia, married, three children.
Juan Antonio de Segovia, married.
That so it appears from this review the citizenry of this settlement composes ninety-nine families
and, adding the residents that are in it without being registered, they number four hundred seventy-nine
persons and the said families and stable residents have as personal goods eight hundred forty-eight heads
of breeding horses, one hundred seventy yokes of oxen, four hundred eighty-eight heads of minor
livestock, eight hundred ninety-one heads of cattle, fifty-three male and female donkeys, twenty eight heads
of swine livestock and three hundred ninety-six service horses as it all is evident in the sections of this
review which, as it is stated, is put in these documents for the suitable use and the said honorable Don José
Tienda de Cuervo signed it with the witnesses present. - José Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) - Roque
Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
Fray Francisco de Escandón, Apostolic Preacher, Officer of the Inquisition, "ex-Definidor" of
la Santa Provincia de San Pedro y San Pablo de Michoac�n, Missionary Minister of this mission of Nuestra
Señora de la Soledad de Igollo, district of the town of Santa B�rbara, one of the boundries of la Colonia
and Gulf of Mexico in this mountain chain of the south.
In virtue of the request of Your Lordship which precedes, having taken charge of the points that
it contains, I certify the following in the best form that I can and should:
That as far as I understand, by the order of the colonel Don José de Escandón, being deputy
captain general of this Sierra Gorda, it was proceeded by the captain of the frontier Don Juan Francisco
de Barberena, to endeavour to obtain some families to come to populate this region with the aim of
hindering the frequent entries that were being made through it and the rest of the said Gulf of Mexico with
grave hostilities by the Pizon and Janambre Indians, injuring, as they practiced it many year in the frontiers
of la Huasteca which resulted in that, when the expedition of said coast was done, the inspection already
having been done, it encouraged the diligence in such a way that, at the same time, on the eighteenth of
May of seventeen hundred forty-nine, they one founded three of its settlements over said town with thirty-four families of civilized people which said Captain Barberena had recruited voluntarily without any cost
to the Royal Treasury.
That for their moving the said captain helped them, encouraging them with some cows, oxen, etc.,
which was their beginning since they were all destitute of goods and very poor and that said colonel,
outside of others, administered one hundred measures of corn so they could support themselves in the
interim that the land produced it and two hundred pesos to the two corporals.
That with the effort that has been put into it through said colonel and Captain Barberena, it is
found today with one hundred thirty-seven families of settler soldiers and five hundred seventy-two
persons, young and old. That said settlers have served from its foundation at their coast in the pacification
and the many rebellions they have had, the Indians of this mission as much as all those of the next coast
up to Tamaulipa, in which many of them have shed their blood and not a few have lost their lives.
That the mission was founded at the same time with fifty-five families of Pizon and Janambre
Indians, whom the aforesaid Captain Barberena had collected for the same aim by order of said colonel,
that these (although some said they were christians because the pastors or some priest who came as chaplain
had baptised them when the company of Guadalc�zar or town of Valles ran this frontier) had neither
instruction in the rudiments of our holy faith nor did they try to get it and I have no reports that ay any time
there might have been missions in this territory since, although some years before the aforesaid, I have a
report that in solicitude of the proper Captain Barberena they had built them a shack in the form of a
chapel in the region that we call la Misión Vieja and he placed in it Nuestra Señora de la Soledad, they
burned it immediately because, although they boasted they were at peace with the Spaniards, frequently
they concurred in hostilities to the frontiers with those of the said coast, uniting especially with the savage
Indians for los Potreros de Tamat�n and Mesas de Castejón (who were also of the Janambre tribe) where
today are founded the city of Horcasitas and town of el Dulce Nombre de Jusús de Escandón.
The tribes of Indians of which today this said mission is composed are three, Janambres, Pizones,
and Pames; that of the Janambres is composed of eighteen married families, seven widowers and five
widows who, with forty-three young men and women, boys and girls, they make up the number of ninety-one heads, all christians and married according to the order of Our Holy Mother the Church.
Those of the Pizon tribe, who reside in la Laja about 4 leagues distant, are seven families with
three widowers and 4 widows and seven young men and women who, in all, make twenty-eight heads with
regard to their possibly being more young men, etc., more information cannot be obtained due to malice
or ignorance of those who are asked and, in order not to frighten them more, we proceed very carefully,
they are married according to the order of Our Holy Mother Chruch and christians attending the mass and
doctrine of this mission now and again. These have always gotten along badly with the Janambres of this
mission and, although it is true that the R.F. Minister, my predecessor, congregated them in this mission
utilizing the help of the settlers, as I understand their having come forcibly, when I came which was the
year of fifty-two there were only a few remaining and, in the uprising that these Indians made in the month
of November of said year, as I shall tell further on, they broke up at the sierra and, to come down, they
asked as a party they be granted their old habitation which was la Laja because they did not want to live
with the Janambres, which was granted to them so that they not be offended and totally lost until they might
be more dominated.
Those of the Pama tribe are composed of seventy-seven families that make up one hundred fifty-four heads and one hundred forty-six widowers, widows, boys and girls, that in all they make up the
number of three hundred heads among young and old, more or less, due to the confusion that they always
notice when they make the census; these are all christians, married according to the order of Our Holy
Mother Church and this tribe, as well as the two preceding, is subject to bell and attends mass and doctrine
punctually with the exception of those of la Laja as I have said.
It is to be observed that this Pame tribe began to congregate in this mission at the end of the year
of fifty-three, their coming down voluntarily in groups or by families from the neighboring Sierra Madre
or Gorda where they lived dispersed, almost apostates since they only carried the name of christianity
without even knowing how to make the sign of the cross, although they assured me they were all baptized
in el Valle del Maíz and other missions of the custody of el Río Verde where they took their children to
baptize, with the exception of some of two to three years of age whom they brought without this benefit
and then they would return like the most who came married, as I ascertained through the minister priest
of el Valle and, those who were devout I tried to begin marrying according to our holy religion, their being
instructed in some way in it.
The method in which they have been maintained has been the highest work of the minister, trying
to provide fields and make corresponding plantings, as much so that they can eat of the fruits that the Lord
serves to give, as so that they can dress themselves and have that most needed with that remaining and,
until the Pame tribe came down, this mission maintained up to twenty-four men on salary so that they teach
the work to these two Janambre and Pizon tribes who were totally repugnant to it and there was no other
means to support them which today does not occur since, with the doctrine and example, as much from
those civilized ones as from the Pames, the covetousness begins to enter into them, stimulating them to
imitate them in the work; the lands that the mission has cultivated that can be planted must be capable of
seventy measures, the many pieces that the Indians have entering into them, in the ones which it might to
come to twenty measures of planting this year and the mission will not miss in arriving at thirty, not putting
in another seed like cane, beans, peanuts, etc.
They are divided from the town and civilized people at a distance of one-half league, all living
congregated with their straw shacks without having intervention with the settlers except in social
commerce, etc.
The twenty-third day of November, I believe, of the year of fifty-two, with no other reason than
their inconstancy and bad nature, the two tribes of Janambres and Pizones, that the mission had then, rose
up at midnight, their remaining only the captain Juan Antonio de Barberena and his old priest and,
causing no damage, they went up to the craggy and neighboring Sierra de San Lorenzo through its canyon
and, after several altercations in which they purported themselves with the impudence that they accustom
when they find themselves where they cannot be offended, having wounded several soldiers in the second
succession, in the third they killed two settlers, seriously wounding others in which function not a few
horses, arms, saddles, etc. were lost.
Due to the very weakened condition in which they took them like the thief, and it was a special
providence of the Lord they did not completely destroy the company on that occasion.
After they had caused this fatal disaster, fearful of the punishment, they went all along the sierra
up to the sources and edges of the Sabino and Frío rivers in which pilgrimage they assured me they had
encountered the highest problems, thirst and hunger, which reminded them of the quiet, gift, and
abundance of their mission; and, to return to it and not expose themselves to the punishment that they
deserved, they gave themselves up in peace to the presidio of Santa María de Llera, asking as a favor, after
their intercession, that they remove its said Captain Barberena who was the one for whom they had ill-will
because he subjected them to civilization and, so that they not be lost, it was agreed to by the superior in
his visit and we remitted, through them, those that came with the exception of three families who left with
the Janambres of Tamaulipa and Tamat�n and one of these Indians was the one who set the priest's house
on fire in the uprising that they had in the town of Escandón to kill Captain Escajadillo; and, having come
to this mission to perform the deceit, the case being known, the commanding captain Don Juan Francisco
de Barberena sent them in anger to the house of corrections of Querétaro informing the superior.
They have repeated some movements after wanting to rise up in which they have not cultivated my
patience much, along with it and the providence of the most high, who has taken some of those who were
the most perverse, there are days that they are quiet.
The goods that this mission has at the present without hardship of any dependency are the
following:
First of all, 65 yokes of oxen, 450 cows, 2 herds of male donkeys with 70 heads, 17 tame horses,
30 mules, 10 female donkeys, 100 heads of swine livestock, a "chinchorro" with 200 heads; the planting
should come to 30 measures of corn; that of the children perhaps to 20; there are 12 measures of beans to
plant; what will be harvested only God knows but the normal is 150 to 200 measures per measure.
The synod that is assigned to this mission by His Majesty is that of 350 pesos which is sent every
year by the prelate priest of the holy college in those things that are requested of him by the minister for
their sustenance, assisted by the help of some alms from masses and benefactors.
The ornaments, which the mission has, belong to it since His Majestey gave them to it in its
foundation, and they are composed of 5 accoutered bowls, white, black, flesh colored, purple, and green:
white and black cape with a white sash and a bishop's garment for the sacrement, all of damask with its
false gold [or silver] thread; frontals of the same colors, alter cloths and chalice cloths, all of which has
been only slightly worn due to the care of the minister in whose charge it is without his trusting no one,
as well as two tablecloths a chalice, a large cup, a silver reliquary to minister to the sick, a missal, an
incense burner, a cross, a lamp, and other necessities pertaining to the temple, the costs they might have
I do not know since I am assured from other memories that I have seen for other missions and they have
passed here through my hand, that the workmen do not place on them the price of the costs; there are
several other things, as well, that the mission has been acquiring, like a white priest's gown, besides the
two that the king gave, three amices besides those that His Majesty gave, four priest's bands, some
tablecloths, three altar linens other than two which the king gave; purificators, "cornualtares", which above
all there is an abundance of, a surplice, two rugs, the linen of my Señora de la Soledad which the king
gave, and two lovely pieces of the Crucified Lord, one of "pulpito" and the other of "descendimiento",
which they brought me from Mexico last year at the mission's cost, as well as a statue of the very devote
sorrowful Mary of one and one-quater rod, and a San Francisco, my great father, of three-fourths,
everything is well adorned with crowns, splendor, and silver diadem, etc.
All that has been serving the town of Santa B�rbara to administer it in whatever has been necessary
up to the day of the honorable San José of this year in which, at my solicitude, the general Don José de
Escandón sent me two lovely ornaments with its capes and frontlets, one of Persia, flesh colored and
white, and the other of black "melendra" embroidered with silver flowers and all the necessities with their
chalice whose cost came to three hundred pesos which are being paid little by little with the small work
of planting a small community maize field and selling its products for this end, after encouraging them,
I gave them a piece of good land of those which belong to the mission.
The land is very fertile and, although it does not enjoy permanent water for irrigation, they are
maintained, especially most of the lands that belong to the mission which are eight sites, even in the most
rigorous droughts, with fresh pastures which causes their obtaining the benefit of cheese and milk and fat
cows all year for which the region is most favorable due to the better endurance than the horses and the
minor livestock because the waters tend to be frightening from the month of June until October due to this
valley being between two rather high hills which are la Gorda and a branch coming out of it, a reason also
for it seeming to be hot and humid and it cannot be other than noxious to the health, according to the rule
of the doctors, which we have already experienced and very well; this year the hurricane of the twentieth
of September and the eclipse of this same year and, the most certain, the will of the Highest could have
had a great part.
It is land that produces and can produce great crops of seeds in the above, as we have experienced
in these first years, even with the small benefit which has been given to them due to the little abilities which
its settlers have had up to now. And although, at present, we are experiencing some necessity, it was
originated from the destruction that the storm caused in the plantings the said month of September.
At a distance of about two and one-half leagues to the west of this town, runs the Sierra Madre at
which skirt there are many lovely springs, comparatively elevated, which flow bringing humidity to all its
skirts where the Indians had some orchards of bananas, avocados, lemons, oranges, etc., that everything
grows beautifully and with abundance and, this year, the necessity caused us to extend ourselves to plant
some irrigated maize fields in said skirts that produced well and have supplied the needs somewhat,
something that had not been done until now due as much to the very continuous movements that, up to last
year, the barbarian Indians of Tamaulipa have had with their injuries that they did not allow the settlers
to extend themselves nor would it be useful to be separated, as to the fact that the abundance of the storms
in those first years has been very favorable such that He has provided many great necessities from within
and without.
Those first few orchards and cane plantings having already been put in and increased and it is being
populated such that we expect that, although in the future there might be the contingency of storms, there
will not be a lack sustenance from what they can plant with irrigation in said sierra and some parts in the
plain between the bad-country and its skirts whose land runs favorably through the post they call la Laja
to that of el Platanito which is not a very short distance. And, finally, the country is so fertile and
amenable that it would take a long time to refer to its good qualities, which the necessity of not detaining
Your Lordship will not permit, which has caused so many families to come here, outside of many others
that have been sent to the inside.
The settlers live united and in good communication without there being any especially bad
disturbances nor do they have them with the Indians of the mission nor do they cause them anything special
nor are they bothered today by the barbarians of la Sierra de Tamaulipa due to the doors for this settlement
with the settlements of the town of Escandón and city of Horcasitas being found closed. And, in
conclusion, I must say from in the six years that I have resided in this mission, I have conceived of this
land that it promises great increases and comforts in the course of time, so much in the seeds as in dyes
of anile, which has and is is increasing in the valley without any benefit and very lovely such as dyes and
others that, for there not yet being anyone to improve them, beautiful woods of all qualities for building
are lost, very good evergreens at its skirts and niches although they are plains, demonstrations that make
this climate mild in spite of having said that it stung in heat and humidity, its colds being such that in the
months of November until February it has been necessary, in some years, to have a wood burning stove
to be able to soften it in the abode, and the year of '53 and '54 it snowed in the hills twice with the
particularity that in all the valley, not withstanding the aforesaid, on rare occasions there is a light frost for
which reason the plantings of August are not generally the best ones and still on the part of "desprefíjolas"
and other other seeds which I planted in October about one year ago yielded with abundance.
Concerning the Indians, my idea is that they can increase a lot, especially the Pames who have
remained in the hills, from where the others have come to me, with the supplies that the general has given,
that those who live thus, without recognizing a pastor, be conducted towards the inside and these will start
coming in as they are doing in all the christian customs and work, serving as an example for them and a
brake to the other tribes from the inside so that, their comforts being seen, they may want to crave peace
and quiet and would enter with greater ease into the society of our holy mother church as I hope.
It is such that for now it gives me time to certify, adding that all these hills do not lack in the
precious treasure of mineral dyes that are being seen in all parts above ground.
Mission of Nuestra Señora de la Soledad de Igollo and August 15 of 1757 years. - Fray Francisco
de Escandón. - (rubric)
Further: that I had forgotten, the children of the Pame tribe have 25 yokes of oxen, all the rest their
horses, a few herds of mares, and their "punta" of cows and minor livestock that I have not been able to
regulate; with the practice of the Indian women of making clay pots which they furnish to all parts.
Those of the Janambre tribe, most of them have their horses and some mares and their captain
Juan Antonio de Barberena three yokes of oxen, a "chinchorro" of more than 25 cows and one maize
field planted with two measures already yielding corn and the best one they have had since there has been
no lack of the benefit of water; dressed like a fleet of freighters.
The Indians of la Laja, who are of the Pison tribe, have about 30 cows and 5 equipped oxen with
the footing, that the general gave them when he entered, of some cows and young oxen, plowshares etc.
Fray Francisco Escandón. - (rubric)
DOCUMENT: In the town of Santa B�rbara in fifteen days of the month of August of seventeen
hundred fifty-seven years, the honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo, having seen the proceedings
practiced in this settlement regarding the recognition of its state, considering them sufficient for his report,
desirous of not wasting time in those he should continue to complete his commission with the most possible
speed and avoid those costs that the delay would cause the Royal Treasury, ordered that all acted upon and
corresponding to this settlement be put in a separate folder for its best information and thus he decreed and
signed it with the witnesses present. - José Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) - Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
REPORT. - On the 20th of February of 1758, testimony was taken from this folder to inform His
Majesty and was placed in the secretariat of His Excellancy.
--------------------------------
SETTLEMENT OF PALMILLAS
DOCUMENT - In the settlement of Palmillas in 17 days of August of 1757 years, the honorable
Don José Tienda de Cuervo, Gentleman of the Order of Santiago, Captain of Dragoons of la Nueva
Ciudad de Veracruz and Inspecting Judge of the Gulf of Mexico by the Most Excellent honorable Viceroy
Marquis de las Amarillas. Having arrived in this settlement for its recognation and state, he ordered a
letter of entreaty and charge be sent to the M.R.F. Fray Juan de Dios Ponce de León, Franciscan minister
of the province of Michoac�n, in this settlement and his mission, so that he serve to give his certification
regarding the questions that are found useful to ask him in order to have his response at its continuation;
and at the same time he also ordered that the lieutenant of this settlement be notified and it be made known
to him that for tomorrow, which shall be counted as the 18th of this current [month], at nine o'clock, that
he have ready and present its citizenry and settlers with their arms in the plaza of this settlement to make
a review and that, for it with anticipation of a list with expression of their names, that of their wives and
number of children and families, with information of the goods they might have and that the statements that
might be taken in this settlement be according to the interrogatory that is found in the folder number 21
from folio one verso to 3, in respect to this said settlement not being included in those of the Gulf of
Mexico and only in that which concerns the discussion of the state in which the Sierra Gorda was before
the conquest, to be able to have all those illuminations that might be necessary to complete the charges of
the instruction, all being done with the witnesses present who are appointed for this commission in the
folder number one of the rest of the proceedings; and so that all be done as it is ordered, thus he decreed
and signed it with the appointed witnesses present.
REVIEW OF INDIANS. - In this said settlement of Palmillas in 17 days of the month of August
of 1757 years, the said honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo, desirous of informing himself about the
state in which the mission of this settlement finds itself, treated with the M.R.F., minister of it, whether
there was any reason that would hinder a review, count, and recognition of the Indians congregated in it,
to which it was responded that there was no obstacle whatsoever due to the satisfaction that he has in their
obedience and, in this virtue, having ordered them collected, divided into their tribes and putting the
women and children in one place and the men in another, they made a review and they were recognized
in this form: of the Pison tribe, 25 Indian warriors, within which there are two married by the holy church,
one governor, one captain, and one minister, 17 adult women and 19 children of both sexes, that all
compose 61 persons; and having recognized those of the Pame tribe, who lately four months ago have
collected in this mission, they found 11 warriors, 11 adult women, and 16 children of both sexes which
make 38 persons and within both tribes the number of 99, all baptised and subject to bell and doctrine, so
the said minister priest who ministers to them has affirmed it and the experience which accredited the short
time they have been in this settlement in which they were seen to attend church and at the dedicated hours
for prayer and doctrine. And this review having been concluded in these terms, for its best justification,
the said honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo asked the said minister priest to serve to concur to sign
this review for it major validation, which he executed. And so that it be evident it is put in as a proceeding
and said gentleman signed it with the witnesses present. - José Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) - Fray Juan
de Dios Ponce de León (rubric)- Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
STATEMENT OF ANTONIO RAMOS - In the said town of Palmillas in 17 days of the month
of August of 1757 years, the said honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo, continuing the recognition and
state of this settlement, attempted to take the necessary statements for its justification and, for it, he had
appear before him Antonio Ramos, resident of this settlement, from whom he received an oath by God
and a cross so that he tell the truth in what would be asked and, his having done and offered it as is
required and equally to keep secret in it and his answer, he was questioned according to that contained in
the interrogatory that is found in the folder number 21 from the folio one, verso, to three and he responded
the following:
To the first question he said: that in the year of 1714, at the persuasion of one of his sons-in-law
who was captain of Tula called Antonio Fern�ndez de Acuña, the declarant came to the site in which San
Lorenzo del Jaumave is today, not personally but sending a 7 Indian committee "aviados" with 6 yoke of
equipped oxen to begin working and cultivating a place to plant and, in fact, they planted 3 measures of
corn with the benefit of irrigation that that site offered having placed a mestizo called Cristóbal de Olvera
as a steward of this work without encountering any repugnance or opposition from the barbarian Indians
who lived in the surrounding areas and in all that valley; and, the corn having become mature, they
experienced the Indians beginning to take advantage of this fruit such that, when it was time to harvest it,
they barely harvested 50 measures and the declarant, seeing that it was not worth it, ordered his son-in-law
to remove the said cultivation and provisions from that site and, in fact, thus he did it and he took them
again to Tula, abandoning that region; and at this time the priest of Tula was already entering, escorted
by soldiers, through the said region of el Jaumave and was crossing, farther up, at las Adjuntas where there
were many Indian hamlets of thos who lived in la Sierra Gorda, he would baptize large portions of the
children and he educated and gave documents to the others and he would leave again, which priest was a
Franciscan; and that the formation and formal establishment of the said Jaumave began in the year of 1743
by some servants of the declarant, that these, with permission of the chief mayor of Guadalc�zar, began
to form that site and from that time this citizenry began to grow; and that this settlement of Palmillas from
the year of 1745 began to be formed into a settlement and citizenry with 6 families who established
themselves in the region called Palmillas, immediate to the Cerro in which others began to collect little by
little, that afterwards all of them together went down and moved farther down towards the river where they
are today and they recognized, as domicile, the jurisdiction of Guadalc�zar which had named an Overseer
of Justice for their government and, at that time, there was no mission or missionary priest in this
settlement but there were always Indians of those of the valley and the same region who entered and exited
in good communication and everyting was in this state before the honorable Colonel Escandón entered in
the said Sierra Gorda or crossed the colony. And that about two years later, more or less, the said
honorable colonel entered with the people he brought with him and, without stopping in this settlement of
Palmillas, he passed to that of el Jaumave where, having been there a few days, he again left for Querétaro
and some time later he came again at the time that the declarant was living outside of this settlement of
Palmillas and he knows nothing else nor has he heard that he might have given any supplies or done
anything else other than having penetrated toward la Colonia of the Gulf of Mexico to take notice of its
settlements. And that afterwards the jurisdiction of this settlement has relapsed without his knowing how
or why and that now this settlement must have about 60 residents, more or less, that it is commanded by
a lieutanant appointed by Mr. Escandón, that it has a mission of congregated Indians of the Pame and
Pizon tribes attended by a Franciscan missionary priest; that said Indians, it seems to him, that between
young and old, there must be about 100 of both sexes, all baptized.
To the second question he said: that the residents of this settlement proceed from several parts of
land outside, that they began to establish themselves at the time to which he has referred in his previous
answer and they have continued until the present and that these came voluntarily with no financial aid for
their move and that he does not know that anyone was given help that would serve as encouragement for
his subsistence and that he equally does not know about the congregated Indians.
To the third question he said: that the Indians of this settlement have shacks for their habitation
immediate to its mission, separated a very short distance from the settlers.
To the fourth question he said: that, in the name of the Indians, there are designated lands in which
they plant; but that the minister priest who attends them has not been given possession of them and that he
does not know whether the mission might have other goods with which to support these Indians besides
three yokes of oxen with which they farm; and that, regarding the residents, they have the lands designated
in which they are to cultivate and plant, but not with property of any kind, in the district of four to five
leagues that the lake and its valley comprise and one [league] in width and that up to now they have not
experienced any injuries from the hostile Indians and some small damages that they experience in their
livestock they attribute to the necessities of the Indians of the mission.
To the fifth question he said: that the river that passes by the immediacy of this town is called
Palmillas due to beginning in these contiguities in the skirts of its valley, proceeded from the center of the
Sierra Gorda, the one which continues through el Jaumave where, incorporated with the springs and other
water sources, enlarged in a major abundance with the said name of Jaumave, it crosses the Sierra Gorda
and comes out at the colony until ending at the sea; and that in this settlement there is no irrigation canal
nor hopes of having one although there are some springs which could serve, due to their situation, to
irrigate some pieces of land, they have so little water that they do not favor it and thus everything is planted
seasonally except for three or four measures of planting that they have been able to place in the lows of
the rivers with their benefit and irrigation and that the measures of corn that they have planted in this year
in this settlement must be greater than 25 measures and that these can be regulated in the harvests at about
120 measures for each one of planting, well understood that this prudent concept is according to the justice
and truth, since although there are many who easily manage to harvest the production of two hundred and
even more per measure, there are also others, and even the most, who cannot get more than 50 to 60, for
which reason it causes this adjusted consideration.
To the sixth question he said: that the settlements, known for their situation in the Sierra Gorda,
subject to the jurisdiction of the honorable Colonel Escandón, are el Jaumave, this one of Palmillas, and
what is called Pantano which is called today Real de Infantes; and that although the said jurisdiction of Mr.
Escandón includes Tule, the declarant does not know it as situated in the Sierra Gorda due to it being
outside of it already.
To the seventh question he said: that the land of this settlement is healthy and good for the public
health and very suitable for the breeding and raising of livestock in which benefit they see many increases.
To the eighth question he said: that he does not know that there might be other mines in these
environs other than those of el Pantano called el Real de Infantes that are being worked in the name of
some subjects that are called Infantes, that he does not know what quality or quantity those of their benefit
might be.
To the ninth question he said: that the Sierra Gorda or Sierra Madre is all one with no distinction,
known by both names and that only in the part of la Huasteca forward towards the south do they call it
Sierra Gorda since all the rest that continues without break is known and called Sierra Madre, that he does
not know where it ends and that this is the one that divides the colony from the other frontiers.
To the tenth question he said: that the frontier provinces to the colony of the Gulf of Mexico are
La Huasteca and, from it, the town of los Valles, Valle del Maíz, and Río Verde and continuing through
the land outside Guadalc�zar, Charcas, and Matehuala and on the part of Reino de León, el Saltillo,
Monterrey, and Linares and that he does not know where any benefits might have resulted to these
settlements with the populating of the colony.
To the eleventh question he said: that the lieutenant who governs this settlement is named
Francisco de Gaona, the he does not have any salary whatsoever from the king nor are there any enlisted
corporals or soldiers who might have it nor does he believe there might be any other expense whatsoever
on the account of the Royal Treasury.
And it having been read again to him ad verbum, all that he has said and declared, so that he say
whether he needs to add or remove anything or that it be ratified, he said: that what it says is the same as
what he will state again if it were necessary without needing to change or remove anything, and that he
affirms and approves it for it being the truth by the oath that he has made and he signed it and stated being
of the age of 85 years, the said gentleman signed it with the witnesses present. -José Tienda de Cuervo.
-(rubric) - Antonio Ramos - (rubric) -Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
REVIEW - In the said settlement of Palmillas in 18 days of the month of August of 1757 years,
the honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo, in continuation of that which has been ordered to instruct
himself in the state and recognition of this said settlement, made a review of the residents to inform himself
of their number and to take information of their goods and, for its best justification he asked the missionary
minister priest of it that he serve to attend it to give the information that could be useful and, having
conceded to it, the said priest, the entire said citizenry being formed with their arms in the cemetary of the
church, this review was begun calling each one by name, registering their arms that are composed of a
rifle, a sword, a shield, some pistols and knives and, asking them the questions that they found appropriate,
it was executed in the following manner:
SETTLERS AND RESIDENTS
Lietuenand Francisco Gaona, married, three children, arms, four horses, and three female
donkeys.
Francisco de Aguilar, absent with permission, married, two children, arms, and two horses.
Tom�s de la Cruz, married, five children, arms, and twelve horses.
Elías Ramos, ill, married, three children, arms, eight horses, one male donkey, two female
donkeys, forty heads of swine.
Felipe Martín, married, one son, arms, and ten horses.
Domingo Antonio, married, one son, without arms, and two horses.
Fernando Vargas, married, three children, six horses, one donkey, and ten heads of swine.
Antonio de Vargas, married, has two children, all arms, and has no horses.
Juan Ramos, widower, three children, all arms, and four horses.
Pedro Alvarez, married, arms, only one knife.
Antonio Medina, married, arms, and two horses.
Andrés Picazo, married, one step-son, without arms, and twelve horses.
Dionisio de la Cruz, married, six children, arms, and three horses.
Pedro Gonz�lez, married, arms, and three horses.
Francisco de Acuña, absent with permission, married, nine children, arms, and thirteen horses.
Juan Martín, ill, married, two children, arms, and five horses.
Martín Santana, married, three children, arms, and two horses.
José de Medina, married, one son, arms, and six horses.
Félix de Medina, married, two children, arms, and four horses.
Diego Peralta, absent, married, eight children, twelve horses, and all arms.
Lorenzo de la Cruz, married, three children, arms, and two horses.
Manuel Rentería, absent with permission, married, one daughter, arms, and four horses.
Francisco Ramos, married, two children, arms, and six horses.
Pedro de Ortega, married, four children, arms, and three horses.
Salvador Zapata, absent with permission, married, two children, without arms, and two horses.
Manuel Blas, married, four children, arms, and he has no horses.
Manuel Dolores, ill, married, six children, arms, and two horses.
Juan Manuel Alvarez Baeza, bachelor, all arms, four horses, and two heads of swine.
José Leonardo, married, five children, arms, three horses, and thirteen heads of swine.
Vicente Jaso, ill, married, three children, arms, and five horses.
Diego de Silva, married, three children, arms, two horses, and forteen heads of swine.
Cristóbal V�zquez, married, three children, without arms or horses.
Juan de Tapia, married, one daughter, all arms, and one horse.
José Nazario, married, two children, arms, and two horses.
Cristóbal Gutiérrez, married, six children, arms, three horses, and two female donkeys.
Juan Antonio Alvarez, married, two children, and three horses.
Nicol�s Gómez, married, two children, all arms, two horses, and three female donkeys.
Antonio Gallegos, married, three children, arms, and eight horses.
Isidro López, married, eight children, arms, six horses, and three female donkeys
Ascencio Jaso, married, arms, eight horses, and one female donkey.
Juan Dionisio, bachelor, all arms, and six horses.
Juan López, married.
Tom�s Quinteros, married, seven children, arms, three horses, and two female donkeys.
Felipe de Torres, married, three children, arms, and three horses.
Toribio de la Cruz, absent with permission, married, two children, arms, and three horses.
Melchor de los Reyes, absent with permission, married, two children, arms, and five horses.
Juan Antonio Martín, married, six children, without arms, six horses and two female donkeys.
Juan de Gaona, married, arms, and four horses.
Juli�n Rangel, widower, one son, arms, and five horses.
Santiago Banda, bachelor, all arms, and four horses.
Marcos Rodríguez, married, one son.
Lorenzo Hern�ndez, married, three children, arms, and four horses.
Juana del Toro, widow, one granddaughter, two sons, the older one all arms and fifteen horses.
Manuel Alvarez, married, two children, arms, and nine horses.
José Antonio Bonifacio, absent with permission, married, two children.
Francisco Izaguirre, married, all arms, fifteen horses, two female donkeys and one male donkey.
Francisco Izaguirre, brother of the one above, married, two children, arms, and twenty horses.
José Izaguirre, married, four children, arms, and eleven horses.
Miguel Rendón, married, seven children, arms, and six horses.
José de los Ríos, married, five children, without arms, and five horses.
Francisco de la Cruz, married, two children.
José Quintero, married, has no arms and one horse.
Cristóbal Silguero, married, three children, two horses, and arms.
Mateo de Ibarra, sergeant, married, ten children, arms, five horses and one donkey.
Carlos Domínguez, absent with permission, married, five children, arms, and four horses.
Antonio Ramos, married, five children, arms, and three horses.
Felipe Gallegos, married, one son, without arms, and two horses.
That so it seems from this review its citizenry is composed of 64 families with 408 persons who
have in goods 798 heads of breeding horses, 68 mules, 86 yokes of oxen, 1,836 heads of minor livestock,
538 heads of cattle, 24 male and female donkeys, 79 heads of swine, and 317 horses for their use and
service; and in respect to the R.F missionary having given, for the best justification, the reports that were
requested of him about the persons that were with permission [possibly absent with permission] and those
that did not attend due to being ill, the said honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo asked him to serve to
concur in signing this proceeding in faith of it to which he consented and, completed in these terms, he
ordered ti be placed in these documents for the necessary purposes and the said gentleman also signed it
with the witnesses present. - José Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) - Fray Juan de Dios Ponce de León-
(rubric) -Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
Fray Juan de Dios Ponce de León, of la Regular Observancia de N.S.P. San Francisco, preacher
and missionary minister of this mission of Santa María de las Nieves de Palmissas, etc., to the honorable
Don José Tienda de Cuervo, Gentleman of the Order of Santiago, Captain of Dragoons of la Nueva
Ciudad de Veracruz and Inspecting Judge of the Gulf of Mexico by the Most Excellent honorable Viceroy
Marquis de las Amarillas, etc.
Responding to the entreaty made to me, I say: that the beginning of this settlement of Palmillas,
I do not know with certainty what in the past was its beginning due to the old books not being here and
being in the Archivo de la Custodia de Río Verde and there being no creditable persons from whom to get
an extensive report.
What I know is that on the fourth day of November of the year of 1744, the priest Fray Antonio
Aguiar turned the mission of Jaumave over to me and said priest went to administer this mission of
Palmillas on the fifth day of the said month and year; I lasted in the mission about one year, more or less,
at this time the priest Fray Antonio Aguiar attented to this mission of Palmillas, the Santa observancia
placed me in el Valle del Maíz and I do not know the other priests who followed to administer this mission,
what the residents say is that Fray Antonio Aguiar was succeeded by the priest Fray José Ol�ez, the priest
Fray José Vicente Ruiz, the priest Fray Miguel Mariano de Rivera, that, the Observancia placing me for
the second time in the mission of Jaumave the 5th day of June of the year of '49, I found in this mission
of Palmillas the priest Fray Miguel Mariano de Rivera; in this time that I remained in Jaumave, the
following priests followed: it is, to be known, the priest Fray José Nuñez, the priest Fray Antonio
Torreblanca, the priest Fray Francisco Javier de Mor�n, the priest Fray Nicol�s de Salazar who was
the one who turned over this mission of Palmillas to me the 7th day of September of the year of fifty-one,
into which I entered administering it in the old site where I remained five months until the second of
February when the Holy Virgin was brought down in procession to this new settlement.
The number of the residents that I found in the old mission in the year of fifty-one were twenty
families; from where they proceeded I do not know due to having [found] them settled in it.
The basis in which they placed and founded themselves in this new site was on a plain which on
the east side is close to a mountain, on the west side it must be about one league and, going towards el
Puerto de la Piedra Rodada which is commonly called el Puerto del Ahorcado on the south part, it should
be four leagues, on the north, which they call el Puerto de Valdez, it should be a little less than one-half
of a quarter league; here it crosses a dry creek that comes from la Piedra Rodada and comes to meet with
the river that has water that comes from el Puerto de San Jos;e and this dry creed of la Piedra Rodada, the
residents say, is what divides the mission from the lands of the Carmelite R.F.s of el Pozo
The one who gave permission so that this mission be transported to this site was the "R.M.F
Provisor", the one who, on my entreaty and that of the residents, made a representation to "S.P.R." of the
very high disconsolateness that they had due to the old settlement having no water and the the pool that the
spring had was at a distance of about one-half league. In the agreement and reason that they came to this
site was in obliging themselves to build a church with the help of its people.
Regarding the manner that this establishment has been increasing, it has been in the year of fifty-two when five families came and in this manner it has increased until the third of October of the year of
fifty-five that the honorable colonel Don José de Escandón left and they remained registered. An on the
day of the 16th of August of the year of 1757, 69 remained which compose 327 residents in all.
In the mutation of this church, the honorable colonel had no incumbency due to his not having
informed the corporal, being his superior. I have not found out whether the residents have been aided or
encouraged with any amount on the account of the Royal Treasury.
In olden days they say there was a farm in this new site and, according to its vestiges, it is very
plausible that one would have been here; the origin of this mission or settlement I do not know; the
beginning that this settlement had was after the old mission that was found near a hill in the west and today
is found near another hill that faces to the east on a plain that has enough extension to the south and, on
the north, it should be one-half quarter of a league.
The tribes of Indians congregated in this mission are: Pisones, the ones who were present in it in
the olden days; the other tribe is of Pame Indians, the ones who have joined in this mission since about four
months ago of this present year of fifty-seven.
The number of Pison Indians is 61 including young and old; the number of the Pame Indians joined
in this mission is 38 including young and old, they are all found baptised of one or the other sex, converted
to bell and doctrine; those married by the church are two that the priest Fray Miguel de Rivera married
in the year of '48 and another that I married in the year of '55, this one receives the sacrament and
confesses every year and serves as clerk. All are found subjugated and subordinate to the observance,
practiced in all means of work as their little strength allows them; they do not go around dispersed or
wander and, although sometimes they are granted permission to go hunt deer and they go beyond the limits
of the permit, it has not been necessary to make use of the justice to return them to the mission, since with
a message sent to them by one of them, they are very ready and obedient.
The means that have favored the subsistance of these it the maguey, since they support themselves
with its honey. In the borders where they maintain and conserve themselves it is very close to the church;
they have no assigned lands, they are united with the residents, there are about two measures of planting
that are within the same settlement, these are not planted this year, although it is true that in this field the
miserable ones have not been able to raise a crop in three continuous years due to the gave injuries they
have from the livestock of the residents; this same field can be irrigated but they lack that necessary for
its cultivation. They have another field planted in el Puerto de San José where two measures and five
"almudes" fit, this one is doing well, they expect to raise about four hundred measures in it, that in each
Indian tribe each one of them should enclose two hundred; this corn that they expect to harvest is the
supplies for their maintanence; the Pison Indians have a new granary in which to enclose the corn; the
Pames are building one in the same manner. They all have their houses of shacks to live in, these are
divided from the residents by the church and convent and they do not live or dwell together.
I have not heard, in the six years that the Observancia has had me placed in this mission, that these
Indians might have committed any excesses of disobedience absenting themselves in the woods nor having
abandoned christianity, nor caused any injuries, deaths, or thefts nor have they been away from their
mission from the year of '51 to that of '57.
It is not evident to me that when this mission was formed there were Indians in these regions who
had formed a town or even less whether they observed any christian customs, nor do I know the
introduction of the predecessors of this ministry due to the books not being here as I have expressed in the
first point that was presented to me.
The goods that I have in my possession as belonging to the mission pertaining to the conservation
and support of the Indians are seven oxen, from eight bulls that the honorable colonel Don José Escandón
gave, and two plowshares and twenty blankets that he gave to the Indians as alms in the year of '56; the
province placed a yoke of oxen with its plow; they turned over to me four heads of major livestock from
the province and they increased into ten heads; one horse. The work that is practiced in el Puerto de San
José has two measures and five "almudes" planted, that they expect from them about four hundred
measures.
The synod that is designated for me for my maintanence es only the profits that the King Our Lord,
may God keep him, grants us, with which I support myself very meagerly, the year of '52 and that of '53
the M.R.F. Fray Francisco Antonio Rivera assigned to me six pesos for our chocolate that was given me
in el Valle del Maíz. I have no other means that favor my support.
The ornaments are four, new white of French figured silk, new black of French figured silk with
its capes, flesh colored and purple, all of these with their appendages the chalice, silver wine vessals, some
large silver cruets in which one keeps the holy oils and another silver one to administer to the parishioners,
the three yard linen of the Holy Virgin, and the large bell that weighs five "arrobas" and the small one to
play at Sanctus; all this the Santa Provincia put in. Another two bells, one of two "arrobas" that was
renovated that was there in former times; alms was requested for its renovation. Another little one of thirty
pounds I put in. The silver incensory, incense vessel, spoon, shell and wafer box were made with the
renting of land to the Carmalite R.F.s of el Pozo in the year of '52 for sixty pesos which is what all the
silver expressed above cost. The year of '53 they were rented again and they made some flesh colored
damask curtains and a white cup of a very splendid plain white with fine Mexican gold thread which cost
one hundred pesos, the same amount as was given for rent. The year of '54 the lands were rented again
for one hundred pesos and it was distributed in cottons, blankets, and cloth for the Indians and a habit for
me and at the one of '56 they gave one hundred twenty-five pesos which, by the hand of the honorable
Colonel the order was made of a reliquary, a frontal, a chasuble with its ornamentation, and a misal, all
this was done of a very spendid plain white embroidered with fine gold; in the church, the few residents
there cooperated with their personal work for a short time and the Indians, from the time the church was
started until it was finished, did not stop working.
The land of the settlement is very healthy, it is not noxious to the health, good regions, good for
the planting of corn and the rest of the seeds and for the raising of major and minor livestock; the residents
have their irrigation canals and their irrigation to benefit their corn fields; the corn field of the mission has
no irrigation but they have hopes of getting the water to irrigate their corn field.
The settlement is found quiet, peaceful, and calm and their settlers in good correspondence, they
do not get or fear any damage or injury from the Indians of this mission nor of the heathens that live in the
sierra.
Finally, I respond that the concept that I have formed of the Indians is that I find them very docile,
they apply themselves to prayer, they are not boisterous, they are very obedient, and, with the continuous
teachings of the christian doctrine as is being practiced today with them and if their crop is good, their
conversion is more assured.
This is my opinion unless, etc.
Given in this mission of Palmillas in 17 days of the month of August of 1757 years. - Fray Juan
de Dios Ponce de León. (rubric).
DOCUMENT - In the settlement of Palmillas in 18 days of the month of August of 1757 years,
the honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo, having seen the proceedings practiced in this settlement
regarding its recognition and state, considering them as sufficient for his report, desirous of not wasting
time on those he should continue in order to complete his commission with the most brevity possible and
avoid the costs that the delays could cause the Royal Treasury, ordered that all acted upon and
corresponding to this settlement be put into a separate folder for its better information and thus he decreed
and signed it with the witnesses present. - José Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) - Roque Fern�ndez Marcial.
-(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
REPORT: On the 16th of Febreary of 1758, testimony was taken from this folder to inform his
Majesty and it was placed in the Secretariat of His Excellency.
--------------------------------------
REAL DE INFANTES
DOCUMENT - In Real de los Infantes in 18 days of the month of August of 1757 years, the
honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo Gentleman of the Order of Santiago, Captain of Dragoons of la
Nueva Ciudad de Veracruz and Inspecting Judge of the Gulf of Mexico by the Most Excellent honorable
Viceroy Marquis de las Amarillas; having arrived in this settlement to inform himself in its recognition and
state, arranged to perform the proceedings that are conducive to this end and, for it, he ordered, before
everything, that his suplicatory entreaty of request and charge be sent to the M.R.F Franciscan minister,
who ministers in this settlement an its mission, Fray Domingo Villena from the province of Michoac�n,
so that he serve to give his certification regarding the questions that be held as suitable to ask him in order
to have his answer at its continuation; and he also ordered, at the same time, that notification to make it
known be sent to the captain of this settlement, Don Nicol�s Antonio Santiago del Castillo, so that
tomorrow, that shall be counted as the 19th of the current [month] at nine o'clock, he have ready and
present in the plaza of this settlement its settlers and citizenry with their arms in order to make a review
and that for it, with anticipation, he give a list with expression of their names, those of the wives, and the
number of children and families, with a report of the goods and livestock they have, and that the statements
that shall be taken in this settlement be according to the interrogatory that is found in the folder number
21 from the verso of folio one to three in respect to this settlement not being part of those of the Gulf of
Mexico and only that which has to do with the Sierra Gorda, everything being done in the presence of the
witnesses that are appointed for these proceedings in the folder number one; and so that all be done as it
is ordered he thus decreed and signed it with the witnesses present. - José Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) -
Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
STATEMENT OF PATRICIO PEREZ - In Real de Infantes in 19 days of the month of August
of 1757 years, the said honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo, continuing these proceedings to acquaint
himself in the recognition of this settlement and its state, had appear before him Patricio Pérez, resident
and one of the first settlers of it, from whom he received an oath by God and a cross so that he tell the truth
in that which would be asked and, his having done it and offered to keep it secret as it is required, he was
questioned by that which is contained in the interrogatory which is cited in the first document that is head
of these proceedings and he responded the following:
To the first question he said: that before the honorable Colonel Escandón entered through this part
of the Sierra Gorda, Don Antonio Garay, resident of Charcas, man of consistence in that real, had already
sent to this site Don Nicol�s Jacinto de Salazar, its administrator, so that, with some people he gave him
for it, he dig and open the mines that are in this site which would have been around the year of '46, more
or less, and, the said administrator having come, he began the task of opening said mines and working in
them, which were the so called Santa Ana, Las Animas, and La Asunción, whose three openings exist
today, and they placed the one called Asunción in about three states of depth and the other two about a little
more than one state and from them they obtained some metals that they took to Charcas where they were
assayed and found to have some silver, that the declarant does not know their production; and the principal
overseer of the said administrator having several reasons for having left Charcas, the said administrator
left with the people that he had in said mines and this was again left abandoned; and two years later, which
should be about that of forty-eight, the declarant came to this site accompanied by the said administrator
Don Nicol�s Jacinto and Don Nicol�s Antonio del Castillo and another five peons and they began the task
of taking six loads of ores of the said mines, after which having done it, they all returned again to Charcas;
and at that time this region was inhabited by the Pison Indians who live in this mission today, that they
were few in number and, the said six loads having been assayed, they found that it produced silver, and
thus motivated, the said Don Nicol�s Jacinto de Salazar decided to avail himself of the honorable Colonel
Escandón to have the authority to establish a settlement in this site and, for it, he wrote a letter so that Don
José de Escajadillo, who was in Guadalc�zar at that time, would facilitate it regarding the introduction he
had with the said honorable Colonel Escandón, which letter the declarant took up to the Sitio de los Pozos
and from there a post office of the Carmelite priests took it, the one who declares returning to Guadalc�zar
where his overseer was already negotiating in this affair with the said Escajadillo and, a few days later,
they returned to Matehuala from where the said Don Nicol�s Jacinto came; and having had a response
from the said honorable Colonel Escancón, that he does not know on what terms it might have been, Don
Nicol�s Antonio del Castillo decided immediately to come to this site with his wife, children, and family
and in his company his brothers Don Ignacio and Don José Manuel also came with their families and other
various servants whom they brought with them and they situated themselves in el Rincón where the spring,
from which this settlement serves itself, erupts and a short time later the declarant also came with his
family and he united himself in the region where the others were, having been sent there to establish
himself there by the said Don Nicol�s Jacinto de Salazar who had delayed his coming due to there being
an hacienda that he had to transfer in his charge; and about three or four months later the said Don Nicol�s
Jacinto de Salazar also came to the said site with all his family, establishing himself in the region in which
this settlement is today where all were already situated because of it being the best site for a settlement,
the one which a son of the said Don Nicol�s Jacinto entered commanding as captain, to whom the
honorable Colonel Escandón had given his appointment and, in those terms, this settlement began to
foment and, little by little, they began to increase to the number of residents that it has today; and that, at
that time, the Pison Indians also lived in this site and that sometime after a Franciscan missionary priest
came who stayed here only a short time and left again, the Indians who were in this site having applied
themselves to serve the families who were established there; and it has been a year, more or less, that the
said honorable colonel came to this site and regulated its establishment in the terms in which it subsists
today and, at present, he believes there might be about thirty families in its citizenry and about six of
Indians collected in its service, that all are baptized and are attended by a Franciscan minister priest of the
province of Michoac�n.
To the second quesion he said: that these settlers are and proceed from Matehuala and its circuits,
jurisdiction of Charcas, who have financed their own costs for their transport and coming without having
had any financial help nor means that have favored their subsistance and that he does not know whether
the Indians have been given anything either.
To the third question he said: that the Indians had their shacks here where they lived immediate
to the residents because, since they are few and are applied to the service, they have found it convenient
to have them near.
To the fourth question he said: that, in name of the indians, there are no designated lands in this
settlement nor any dedicated to the mission, nor in the power of the missionary priest does he know
whether any goods have been given to maintain and conserve them and that, regarding the residents, they
also have no possession of lands because each one is cultivating and planting wherever he best can and that
he does not know the district that might be named for its limits; and that, up to now, from the Pison Indians
that are united to this settlement, they have had no injuries but they have experienced some thefts that the
heathen Indians from el Sigué, who come in through the sierra, have made to their livestock.
To the fifth question he said: that this settlement has a spring for its use that is sufficient for its
supply, from which they cannot have irrigation for their lands and fields due to its not being sufficient for
it but that, regarding the gardens, they sometimes are able to make use of irrigation since the rest of the
plantings of corn is dependant on the rains and in this manner they must have planted about fifty measures
of corn in this present year which, at present, are in a fatal state due to the lank of rain and their having
a great draught and, although the declarant is a farmer and has continued his plantings for three years, he
has not reaped any crop in which he can say with experience how many measures each one can produce.
To the sixth question he said: that the settlements that he estimates being situated in la Sierra Gorda
subject to the honorable Colonel Escandón are el Jaumave, Palmillas, and this one of Real de Infantes and
that, although Tula is also under said command, he knows that it is at the skirts and exit of said sierra.
To the seventh question he said: that the land of this settlement is healthy and good for the common
health and suitable for the raising of minor livestock and horses but not for cows since he has experienced
that it is not suitable for this species and in the others they experience good increases.
To the eighth question he said: that in this site, immediate to it at one league, more or less, there
are the three mine openings that he mentioned in his first question which have no use at present nor are
they working in the name of any person, but that six leagues from this settlement, in the site they call el
Estiladero, there are two entries of open mines next to each other which are working at the moment that
are in the name of the captain of this settlement Don Nicol�s Antonio del Castillo and of his brother Don
Ignacio of which he has heard that the silver they take out is very little but the alloy it yields is much and
that they take this to Guadalc�zar where it is craved and they sell each load for ten pesos when it is
delivered; and that he has also heard that the honorable Colonel Escandón knows about this benefit, with
whose consent, he believes, the work is done but that he does not know what formality there might be in
its register and that which is observed in its 20% duty.
To the ninth question he said: that he has heard the Sierra Gorda and the Sierra Madre is all one
but that he does not know why they call it one name and the other.
To the tenth question he said: that the settlements that he knows are borders to this sierra are
Guadalc�zar, Charcas, and Matehuala and that he does not know what benefits might have resulted for
them with the population of the colony.
To the eleventh question he said: that this settlement is under the command of the captain Don
Nicol�s Antonio del Castillo who has no salary by the king nor are there enlisted soldiers who enjoy it,
nor has the Royal Treasury had, nor has it up to the present, any costs.
And it having been read again to him ad verbum, all that he has said and declared, so that he say
whether he needs to add or remove anything or that it be ratified, he said: that what it says is the same as
what he will state again if it were necessary without needing to change or remove anything, and that he
affirms and approves it for it being the truth by the oath that he has made and he did not sign because he
stated not knowing how, he said being of the age of fifty years, the said gentleman signed it with the
witnesses present. - José Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) - Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco
José de Haro. -(rubric).
STATEMENT OF THE CAPTAIN OF THIS SETTLEMENT DON NICOLAS ANTONIO
SANTIAGO DEL CASTILLO.- In Real de Infantes in 19 days of the month of august of 1757 years, the
said honorable José Tienda de Cuervo, continuing the justification of these proceedings, had appear before
him the captain of this settlement, Don Nicol�s Antonio Santiago del Castillo from whom he received an
oath by God and a cross so that he tell the truth in what would be asked of him and, having done and
offered it as is required, he was questioned according to what the interrogatory contains, which is in the
folder number 21 from the verso of the first folio to the third and he responded the following:
To the first question he said: that this site and the rest of this part of the Sierra Gorda was only
inhabited by the Pison Indians, who exist today, and it was composed of uncultivated land and blocked
springs, which is the same as unserviceable, before the honorable colonel entered in this sierra and in the
population of the colony and that also already populated were el Jaumave and Palmillas, although with few
families, and they had congregated Indians, el Jaumave about 25 and Palmillas 50, and that they were
ministered by a Franciscan minister of the province of Michoac�n, that he cannot be sure if all those
Indians were christians but he was sure that the major part were; and that, regarding this settlement of
Infantes, it was established the 19th day of February of the year of 1749, with the intervention and order
of the honorable Colonel Escandón with whom Don Nicol�s Jacinto de Salazar had treated for this end
and, this one not having come right away to effectuate said establishment, the declarant and his brothers
started it, coming to this site in the number of 24 families of which they were composed with all the
servants that they brought with them, by which motive the interest of improving the mines that are found
in the environs stimulated them and, afterwards, other families began collecting and among them, after
having been founded eight months, came the said Don Nicol�s de Salazar with his family, and one of his
sons had the title of captain of this settlement given by the said honorable colonel and, at this time, the
missionary priest of Tula ministered to this settlement in whatever was needed until afterwards, the
honorable colonel having perfected [sic] and come to this settlement, he arranged that the missionary priest
of Palmillas, since it was closer, administer in the interim since he represented the Provincial R.F. and,
in fact, a short time later the missionary priest came permanently in the terms in which he exists today and
the one now is called Fray Domingo Guillén who is from the province of Michoac�n, and that the Indians,
who are presently congregated in this settlement, should be about six or seven families of Pisones who
compose about 25 persons, all baptized and married by the church, whom the declarant has working in his
service and gathered, having supported and conserved them since the beginning in respect to there not
being any formal established mission.
To the second question he said: that the residents and settlers that there are in this site proceed from
the jurisdiction of Charcas and that they have been established since the year of 1749, that these have been
brought and established solicited by the declarant, having given them, at his cost, that which they needed
in provisions for their transport and supplies to plant and place themselves in the state of being able to
support and maintain themselves, without anyone else having contributed with the means for this end nor
for the Indians either, because only the declarant has made these efforts, at the cost of his property, with
the aim of seeing this region settled and established in the holy evangelism.
To the third question he said: that in this settlement the Indians have their shacks in which they live
separate from the settlers but immediate to them since they find it convenient that they be this way for their
better education.
To the fourth question he said: that the no lands have been designated to the missionary priest nor
possession of any lands given in the name of the Indians, nor does this one have any goods in his
possession pertaining to these; and that, regarding this citizenry, no one has possession of lands either
because they only have their lots and those lands for farming designated which each one, according to his
ability can farm, in the boundary that this jurisdiction comprises which is composed of seventy
"caballerías" of farming land and six sites of land for major livestock without including the territory that
this valley occupies which should be one league round about; and that from the Indians of this congregation
he has received no injuries, but that from the heathens of el Sigué they have had some mischief in thefts
that they have done to their livestock.
To the fifth question he said: that in this settlement they have two springs which they utilize for
their service, that one of them allows irrigation for the gardens and the orchards in which they benefit some
vegetables, fruits, and herbs and the other one serves for their livestock, but that they do not have an
irrigation ditch nor irrigation for the plantings of corn because these are all dependant on the rains and,
in this present year, they have planted about 50 measures and one of beans and 50 "cajetes" of chili, that
each measure of corn produces up to two hundred measures for each one in crops in the regular years when
the seasons are favorable.
To the sixth question he said: that the settlements, known to be situated in the Sierra Gorda, subject
to the jurisdiction of the honorable Colonel Escandón, are el Jaumave, Palmillas, this one of los Infantes,
and, although Tula is also comprehended in the said command, it is found situated on the other side of the
said sierra at its skirts and that he knows that all these jurisdictions were earlier of that of Guadalc�zar, that
he does not know in what terms it has fallen on the said honorable colonel.
To the seventh question he said: that the land of this settlement is healthy and good for the health
and very suitable for the raising and conservation of major and minor livestock in which benefit they have
made many increases.
To the eighth question he said: that at one half league from this settlement there are three open
mines called la Asunción, Santa Ana, and las Animas, that at present these are being worked and they are
removing the ores from them that the little strength allows them to do and these afford two "arrobas" of
"grieta" per mixture and, from them, they produce one and one-half reales of silver, remaining afterwards
as proceeds of the slags; and at six leagues of this said settlement there is a sierra that runs from north to
south on the west side called San José, known as Matacapulín, where there are four open mines called la
Asunción, Santa María de Gracia, Jesús Nazareno, by another name el Pozo, and Santa Anita, and other
several mineral veins with another opening that they also have and is worked by Domingo Argüello,
resident of this settlement, that all of them are of one same leaden quality and they produce the same in
quantity as what he has already said in the first ones and that all these are being improved by the declarant
and his brother Don Ignacio, working in them, not with the required strength but what his small wealth
allows, reaping in this benefit of having one and one-half reales per "revoltura" and two "arrobas" of
white alloy which he utilizes by sending it to Guadalc�zar to sell where, for each twelve "arrobas," which
is one load, they pay him fifteen pesos and that, of these, the said brother of the declarant Don Ignacio is
made head of this benefit and that he has made a register of them before the declarant, as captain and
justice that he is of this settlement, the one who carries the account and report of the silver and alloys,
which they are producing and they sell for their support, in a folder which he has formed for this purpose
but he has not reported this to any justice or tribunal of the Royal Treasury, he has only given part of it
to his colonel Don José de Escandón without having contributed, up to the present, any fifths nor other
rights of the Royal Treasury because everything it has produced has been dedicated to the work and
improvement of said mines.
To the ninth question he said: that the Sierra Gorda and Sierra Madre he believes is all one, that
he does not know why they call it by one name or the other.
To the tenth question he said: that the settlements, frontiers to these sierras, entries to the colony,
are Santa María del Río Blanco, Matehuala, Charcas, and Guadalc�zar, and that the benefit that might have
resulted to these in the populating of the colony are making the transit of their roads secure from the
injuries that they experienced of the Indians earlier.
To the eleventh question he said: that the declarant finds himself today commanding this settlement
as captain and justice of it with a legal right that the honorable Colonel Escandón has for it, that he has
no salary whatsoever from the king nor are there soldiers enlisted or paid by the Royal Treasury, nor does
the missionary priest have a synod, but instead, the declarant is supporting the one they have at present as
well as his predecessors and he has aided with his wealth in the improvement and foundation of its church,
cleaning of springs, establishment of fields, part of the ornaments, and everything else that has been needed
in the aid of the settlers.
And, because he must add to his declaration of mines, he said that, other than the aforesaid ones,
there are, on the east side at about a shot of a rifle from this settlement, four open mines, with an
abundance of veins from which they have taken some ores which, checked under fire, produced no quality
and, afterwards, they have found out that they are mercury. And that in the site of el Gavil�n at one-half
league from this said settlement to the south there is another open mine with a depth of about seven states
that produces the same quality of mercury from which they also utilize its ores to mix with the leaden ones,
which he mentioned earlier, from which mixture under fire they get the same real and one-half and
usefulness in alloys as the preceeding ones.
And it having been read again to him ad verbum, all that he has said and declared, so that he say
whether he needs to add or remove anything or that it be ratified, he said: that what it says is the same as
what he will state again if it were necessary without needing to change or remove anything, and that he
affirms and approves it for it being the truth by the oath that he has made and he signed it, and he is of the
age of forty-five years, the said gentleman signed it with the witnesses present. - José Tienda de Cuervo.
-(rubric) - Nicol�s Antonio Santiago del Castillo -(rubric) - Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
REVIEW OF INDIANS - In the said Real de Infantes on the said day the 19th of August of 1757
years, the Honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo, in order to inform himself in the state and recognition
in which the congregated Indians in this mission are found, treated with the missionary priest in this affair
to make a review and, in fact, having presented them to said gentleman, he found that they are composed
of eight Indians warriors and one they said had fled and, of these, six of them being married, recognizing
seven women and eight children in the same manner, which in all makes 23 persons of the Pison tribe, all
baptized and the married ones by the holy church, subject to bell and doctrine who maintain themselves
applied to the service of this citizenry, especially to the captain of this settlement, with which they manage
to be supported and furnished of their necessities, of which they could not subsist in any other manner in
respect to this mission not having any goods whatever with which to support them; and, in these terms,
having concluded this proceeding, the said honorable Don José asked the said R.F. that he serve to concur
and sign it for its best justification, which he executed and the said gentleman also signed it with the
witnesses present. - José Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) - Fray Domingo Guillén -(rubric) -Roque
Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
REVIEW - In the Real de Infantes in 19 days of the month of August of 1757 years, the said
honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo to acquaint himself in the recognition of this settlement and its
state, decided to make the review of its settlers and citizenry which is ordered of him and, after having
received the list of the number and their circumstances which the captain was ordered to give, all of them
being formed with their arms in the plaza, the said gentleman beseeched the R.F. Franciscan missionary
Fray Domingo Guillén to serve to aid in this act to give the relevant reports, to which he conceded and
this review was begun calling each one by his name, registering the arms which are composed of a rifle,
a sword and a shield, some pistols and knives and, asking them the other questions they found relevant,
it was executed in the following form:
SETTLERS AND REGISTERED RESIDENTS
Captain Don Nicol�s Antonio Santiago y Castillo, married, two children, one girl he has brought
up; all arms and his goods are incorporated with those of his brother with a compromise they have made.
Don Ignacio Félix del Castillo, lieutenant in this settlement, brother of the captain of it, married,
two children, one girl he has brought up, all arms, and his goods incorporated with those of his brother
are the ones that are removed to the margin, with yet forty horses of their use, four male donkeys, and
thirteen female donkeys.
Antonio Casiano del Castillo, married, all arms, without horses, and he has two children.
Bernardo Alem�n, married, five children, a rifle, and a sword, and one horse.
Domingo Argüello, married, has with him a niece, arms, and four horses.
Petra Olguín, widow, four children, and two horses.
José Rangel, married, three children, two horses, and without arms.
Don José de Aguilar, absent with permission, married, nine children, arms, 25 horses, and three
female donkeys.
Patricio Pérez, married, nine children, a rifle, and six horses.
Tom�s Alem�n, married, two horses, and without arms.
Pedro de Olvera, married, one son, arms, and five horses.
Juan Manuel de Olvera, married, two children, arms, and two horses.
Juan José Olvera, who intends to leave, married, two children, all arms, and one horse.
Agustín Rodríguez, married, four children, without arms or horses, has with him two nieces and
one nephew.
Antonio Enríquez, married, two children, without arms or horses.
Francisco Gómez, married, one son, without arms or horses.
María Regina, widow, five children, two nephews, four female donkeys.
Lorenzo de la Cruz, married, two children, without arms or horses.
Sebasti�n de los Santos, intends to leave because he came as a servant and he has been registered
by force, he is married, three children, without arms or horses.
Juan Paulín, married, one son, one horse, and without arms.
Salvador de la Cruz, married, three children, without arms or horses, and one female donkey.
Francisco Antonio Pulido, married, four children, without arms or horses, and one female
donkey.
María Gertrudis, widow, three children.
José Flores, married, one son, without arms or horses.
Manuela Guadalupe, widow, three children.
José Juli�n, married, without arms or horses.
Jorge de Rosas, married, one son, one horse, and without arms.
Francisco Aguayo, married, without arms or horses.
Juan Agustín, married, one son and two siblings, without arms or horses.
Juan Alvarado, married, five children, without arms or horses.
UNREGISTERES INHABITANTS
Sebasti�n López, married
Juan Casimiro, married, seven children, and four horses.
Anselmo de Torres, married, one son, and one horse.
Jerónima Micaela, widow, five children.
Marcelino Saldaña, married, one son, and five horses.
José Saldaña, married, one son, and three horses.
Francisco Cuello, two children, rifle, and ten horses.
José Sepúlveda, married, three children, one nephew, two horses, and without arms.
Juan José Pérez, married, three children, four horses, and a rifle.
Leonardo Muñoz, married, four children, two horses, and without arms.
Francisco Espinosa, three children, married, two horses, and without arms.
Antonio Espinosa, married, one son, without arms or horses.
Dionisio, civilized Indian, married, one son, without arms or horses.
José Manuel, married, without arms or horses.
Antonio Eusebio, bachelor, two horses.
That, so it seems from this review, its settlers and citizenry are composed of 30 families with 201
persons which have as goods 519 horses, 81 mules, 52 yokes of oxen, 3,799 head of minor livestock and
256 cattle, with another 26 female and male donkeys and 92 horses for their service and use, as it is evident
in the sections of this review. And regarding that, for its better justification the R.F., minister of this
settlement was present in it, giving the reports that were relevant, he was asked to concur and sign this
document in faith of having attended it, to which he happily consented and he signed it with the said
honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo with the witnesses present. - José Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) -
Fray Domingo Guillén -(rubric) -Roque Fern�ndez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
Fray Domingo Guillén of la Regular Observancia de N.S.P.S. Francisco, preacher and present
missionary minister of the Misión de San Miguel de los Infantes, to the honorable Don José Tienda de
Cuervo, Gentleman of the Order of Santiago, Captain of Dragoons of la Nueva Ciudad de Veracruz and
Inspecting Judge of the Gulf of Mexico by the Most Excellent honorable Viceroy Marquis de las Amarillas,
health and peace in Our Lord Jesus Christ.
My Lord, having taken charge of the entreaty of Y. L., whom I obey with ready willingness and
subjected obedience, I certify in just form and I promise to respond with all truth to your questions in all
I know or is evident to me and, due to a lack of knowledge, inquiring that I might know of those that it is
evident to me are worthy and truthful accomodating myself to the text of the Gospel Vox Populi Vox Dei,
due to the complete knowledge of these lands lacking to me as I find myself a novice in them, since it is
not yet three months that I inhabit them, the greatest time occupied in the service of the Holy Tribunal,
notwithstanding, I protest the aforesaid sacrificing myself completely in service of His Majesty and Your
Lordship in this and anything else that would be your pleasure and goodwill.
And beginning the one of this mission, he began: I say that in the month of February of '49, the
honorable Don Ignacio Félix del Castillo, present captain's lieutenant, and his brother Don Nicol�s del
Castillo, present captain, arrived in this mission with 24 families of all types to the opportunity of the
mines due to a report they had and experiments they had made earlier of the ores of said mines, Nicol�s
Jacinto de Salazar, creole of el Valle de Matehuala, the one who, having entered several times to remove
ores, recognized knowing it and proclaiming before the honorable colonel Don José Escandón the
aforesaid mines and lands, he took charge of founding, maintaining, and establishing this settlement at his
cost without any other help, for which he was given permission to populate, cultivate the lands, and work
the mines by the said honorable colonel, his giving the favor in the name of His Majesty to the settlers of
six sites for major livestock and sixty "caballerias" of land independent of the valley called el Gavil�n
which he reserved for public lands, before conceding this, having sent an inspector to look at it and register
it, appointing for this end Don José Ambrosio de Avila, who informed said gentleman of everything in
the same manner as the informant, naming as captain Francisco L�zaro de Salazar, son of the aforesaid
Nicol�s Jacinto who, having recognized not being able to manage the improvement of the ores due to
having no experience and that he would have to spend his wealth, he presented himself before the
honorable colonel saying he was ill and without being able to heal himself due to being so far from a
settlement, for which he implored that His Lordship give him permission to go to Matehuala, where he is
found at present, leaving in his place the aforesaid Don Nicol�s del Castillo and Don Ignacio Félix his
brother who, up to the present, conserve and maintain the settlement at their own cost although, due to the
mines having lowered in quality and his having little experience, they have have lost time, losing their
wealth and other's reales, finding themselves, at present, maintaining themselves and continuing with hope
in God.
Regarding the rest that is asked of me, I say that, although with the failing of the mines and the
lack of strength of the aforesaid who administer on their own without the honorable colonel having
cooperated or cooperating at present nor any other, nor even less said gentlemen or the settlers and
residents having been aided in what is important from the account of the Royal Treasury, since even the
soldiers are at their own cost without any salary serving His Majesty, notwithstanding the increment has
been something since the families in my charge are found to be forty-four of all qualities (according to the
census that is inserted in this proceeding) not including the Indians of the Pisón tribe which are 24 in all
of both sexes, young and old, nine adults, seven women, and eight children, all baptized, subject to me
and to the bell, ready to work with no other diversion other than going to their orchards at determined
times, on feast days to hunt deer, and seek beehives, their return being prompt from the most, except two,
which it has been necessary to go out for them on some occasions, like one is found absent at present after
having been found and returned some days back, he asked permission to seek his horse and it was given
to him, noting not having recognized or noticed any ill will, death, or theft in all these defects or outings,
their maintaining themsleves with the ration and salary that they collect for their work by the hand of the
honorable captain and of Don José Castor de Aguilar to whom I turned them over because of not having
the wherewithall to support them; in the interim I strive for their support and mine since, for now, the
aforesaid captain is supporting me since the little money is not enough for the support.
I also say that the mission and settlement occurred almost at one time since, although they knew
earlier about the lands, it is evident to me there having been a mission, what is certainly evident is that
there were said Indians and these lived and have their shacks at present at the edge of it, my gaining
information that their conversing with the others they will not persist in their errors and, with the example
of the others, they will serve God and together that they be close, in order to watch them when convenient.
Regarding lands, they have no personal ones assigned nor any more hope than two measures that they have
planted for my "bistuario" and theirs, it being the only provision that has been given to me to support them
in quietude and tranquillity for, since they came charished by the captain and lieutenant, they have
remained in said way since, the said gentlemen having been correct that they lived in a contiguous sierra,
they went several times to see them and to take goods and tobacco to them for which, although at first they
fled thinking they were going to kill them, afterwards, seeing they were bringing something to eat for
them, they began communicating waiting for them without fleeing from their hamlets as before until they
were converted to come down, God pemitting, as flesh eating wolves, to be tamed lambs since it is evident
that their parents were many and of barbaric customs from the thefts and deaths that they caused at each
step in various parts (although their habitat or hamlet, as I said, was close to this post.) In punishment of
said injuries, the Divine Majesty being irritated, He destroyed them with the flagellation of a plague, these
remaining alone as harmless, since they were innocents, and in this state some were baptized as is evident
from the book of the mission of Palmillas by divine permission and partnership with the sons of said
mission; and, the honorable colonel having informed and requested a priest for my holy province, Father
Salazar and my predecessors were sent and appointed to it.
Regarding the church, I say and it is evident to me that the honorable captain built it at his cost
along with an altar, chalice, paten, purifiers, and wine vessels since the rest is loaned by the companion
priest of Tula. Regarding goods of the mission or of my use, I refer to that stated above, that to my
knowledge there are two measures of corn planted, that I trust in God that I will see the fruit with no other
hope or income from His Royal Majesty or of any other person, eating, as I say, from alms.
The land is evident and certain to be healthy, good waters, arrogant lands, eminently good fields
to raise all livestock, planting seasonally since the water is not enough to irrigate, the residents
notwhithstanding, although with shortcomings, live happily in union and peace with some care because they
have experienced, particularly the captain, some thefts of horses made by some Indians whom they call or
they live in el Sigué of the Pison tribe and still infidels who, accompanied by those of the mission of el
Jaumave, have caused various deaths and robberies as much to this place as to others and also to some
shephards who tend their livestock in these woods, since even my children have not escaped because they
have taken the livestock of the poor Indians. I trust the Divine Mercy that, with some measure that I shall
use, He shall hold these in His hand and bring them into true understanding since I will sacrifice myself
completely to convert and instruct them in the christian faith.
And giving a final and ultimate response with the mines that were the beginning, I respond that
they are eleven; the most distant are six leagues, others one-half league, and others a shot of a rifle, several
are of ores [possibly for smelting] and others of mercury, although not all of them are worked but only
three and these at times due to the poverty of those that own them, as I have been told, those of ores
offering enough alloy although little silver. In those of mercury, according to some assays, they promise
much; their names are: two of la Asunción, two Santa Ana, two Santa María de Gracia, las Animas, Santa
Gertrudis, Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe, Señor San José, and Jesús Nazareno.
And not having acquired any more reports than what I have said, I have only to sacrifice myself
at the feet of Both Majesties and of Your Lordship in whatever his wishes might be.
San Miguel de los Infantes and August 19 of 1757 years. - Fray Domingo Guillén
DOCUMENT - In the town of Real de Infantes in 19 days of the month of August of 1757 years,
the honorable Don José Tienda de Cuervo, having seen the proceedings practiced regarding its recognition
and state, considering them as sufficient and having concluded with them all the ones deemed suitable to
complete his commission, ordered that, for those suitable documents, all the works in this settlement be
put in a separate folder for their major information following the method that has been observed up to now
in all the others and, so that it be evident, he thus decreed and signed it with the witnesses present. - José
Tienda de Cuervo. -(rubric) -Roque Fernandez Marcial. -(rubric) -Francisco José de Haro. -(rubric).
REPORT - On the 13th of February of 1758, testimony was taken from this folder to report to his
Majesty and it was placed in the Secretariat of His Excellancy.
Names Index Volume 1 GENERAL STATE of the SETTLEMENTS MADE by D. JOSE DE ESCANDON in the COLONY of NUEVO SANTANDER COAST of the GULF of MEXICO