¹ “The matter which required most attention in this land [when I arrived] was the war against the Chichimecas,” Viceroy Marqués de Villamanrique to his successor, Texcoco, February 14, 1590, AGI, 58-3-15, Ayer Collection (Transcripts from AGI), Newberry Library. For a much fuller review of the Chichimeca War, see my Soldiers, Indians and Silver: The Northward Advance of New Spain, 1550–1600 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1952).

² My favorite illustration of this frontier type is a certain Costanza de Andrade, active in “renting” military equipment to soldiers operating out of Mazapil, in return for which she shared their profits on Chichimeca slaves. She was residing in the Mazapil mining camp within a year of the original silver strike there and at a time (1569) when the danger from Chichimeca attack was at its height. The soldiers with whom she had such contractual relations apparently held her in some awe as a vengeful litigant whenever they were remiss in fulfilling such contracts. “Investigaciones hechas acerca de la muerte y los bienes de Gaspar de Ribera en un encuentro con indios chichimcas …” 1569–1574 (private library of José Cornejo Franco, Guadalajara, Mexico). The normality of the presence of white women on most any part of this frontier is clearly shown in, for example Robles, Vito Alessio, Francisco de Urdiñola y el Norte de la Nueva España (México, 1931).Google Scholar

³ Cuaderno, 280-281; Morlete, 22; Beltrán, 1. (For my method of citing materials in the Infante-Vergara visita, see the Bibliographical Note at the conclusion of this article.)

⁴ For brief descriptions of this visita see my Soldiers, Indians and Silver, pp. 220–221, and the Bibliographical Note appended to this article.

⁵ Diego Fernández de Velasco, 3–7.

⁶ Some twenty years earlier, Saldívar had occupied this post briefly during the attempt to carry on full war against the Chichimecas ( Powell, , Soldiers, pp. 117–118).Google Scholar For Saldívar’s family connections and prestige, see Garibi, José Ignacio Dávila, La sociedad de Zacatecas en los albores del régimen colonial: Actuación de los principales fundadores y primeros funcionarios públicos de la ciudad (México, 1939).Google Scholar

⁷ Cuaderno, 325–332.

⁸ Cuaderno, 284–285, 288–289, 334, 335, 337, 355–361, 364–366, 372–374; Beltrán, 122.

⁹ Throughout the accounts of the proveedores generales there are listings of disbursements in Zacatecas for food and other gifts to visiting Chichimecas. Sometimes these Indian “guests” arrived in the care of Spanish captains. Thus, Captain Francisco de Urdiñola, traveling through Zacatecas on his way to treat with Viceroy Velasco on leadership of the New Mexico conquest, had in his company six Guachichil chiefs, and at Urdiñola’s request they were each given a blanket, a butcher knife, and a pair of zapatos de vaqueta. When Captain Caldera brought eight naked chiefs from the San Andrés area into Zacatecas, they were given similar gifts (Monroy, 339). On one occasion, General Saldívar ordered gifts for twenty visiting Indians from the Tepic sierras “because they had apprehended some Indians who had run away from their masters” (Cuaderno, 335). These are but a few of many such instances.

¹⁰ Murga, 39–41.

¹¹ Cuaderno, 340. Similarly, at direct request of a Chichimeca chief in Saltillo, Saldívar sent oxen and plows so that the agricultural process would not be delayed (Ortiz de Fuenmayor, 115–117).

¹² The San Andrés expedition, 1592, was led by Captain Miguel Caldera and its object was diplomacy as well as reprisal; factual data concerning this epísode is scattered through the Infante-Vergara visita. In 1594, and again in 1595, the Tlaxcalans of San Miguel Mesquitic sought aid of the general in the form of temporary food supplies due to crop damage, and Saldívar readily complied (Ortiz de Fuenmayor, 118, 122, 123).

¹³ Up to the time that Saldívar assumed the generalship, it appears that Viceroy Velasco issued most or all of the commissions, even for the labradores. Pedro de Murga, captain-protector at Saltillo, was removed from office by General Saldívar but, when it turned out that he had been accused by “enemigos capitales,” Saldívar reinstated him (Murga, 21).

¹⁴ Cuaderno, 334, 355–361, 364–366.

¹⁵ His predecessor, Fernández de Velasco, was held to an accounting in the visita, but this was on the basis that he exercised the office of proveedor general as well.

¹⁶ Diego Fernández de Velasco, 3–7.

^* Unless otherwise indicated, pesos are in terms of common gold (oro común), 300 maravedís.

¹⁷ Cuaderno, 14–15.

¹⁸ Cuaderno, 283, 285.

¹⁹ Juan de Montalvo, 1–22.

²⁰ The detailed accounting begins in Juan de Montalvo, 23.

²¹ The detailed accounting begins in Juan de Monroy, 133.

²² Juan de Monroy, 199–200.

²³ Beltrán, 24.

²⁴ The papers relating to this settlement are scattered through Diego Fernández de Velasco and the Cuaderno.

²⁵ See especially, Velázquez, Primo Feliciano, Historia de San Luis Potosí, 1, 426–428,Google Scholar and Caldera’s testament, published in Velázquez, , Colección de documentos para la historia de San Luis Potosí, 1, 273–295.Google Scholar

²⁶ Note these phrases from Viceroy Velasco’s commission and instructions to General Saldívar: “… llevando consigo al capitán Miguel Caldera, como persona tan importante a la conservación de [la paz] …” and “… ayudando y favoreciendo al capitán Miguel Caldera … haciéndole la honra, trato, y amistad que por lo mucho y bien que ha servido a Su Magestad en esa tierra merece y es justo se le haga, para que lo prosiga de suerte que con la voluntad que hasta aquí lo contiene aprovechando a la paz y continuación de ella” (Cuaderno, 327, 330). And in the commission of Diego Fernández de Velasco, the viceroy points out that he has sent Caldera to castigate and pacify the rebellious Chichimecas of San Andrés “como persona que tanta mano tiene con los dichos indios chichimecos por haberlos tratado y comunicado mucho tiempo y haber sido medio para traerlos de paz y asentarlos en las dichas poblaciones. …” (Diego Fernández de Velasco, 4).

²⁷ Ortiz de Fuenmayor, 281-282, 284. Also, AGI, Patronato 83, Número 4, Ramo 2 (“Información de los buenos servicios del capitán Gabriel Ortiz de Fuenmayor que hizo la paz de los Chichimecas”–1604). Caldera was referred to as “justicia mayor de todos los indios Tlaxcaltecos y Guachichiles reducidos” (Duarte, 30). Beginning in 1590, Caldera’s aides were Martín Jiménez and Antonio de Mojica, both commissioned by Viceroy Velasco (Cuaderno, 281).

²⁸ Ortiz de Fuenmayor, 85–86, 89–90, 138; Diego Fernández de Velasco, 215–219, 228–230, 231–233, 240, 247, etc.; Morlete, 81; Cuaderno, 153, 181, 183, 194, 322, 341.

²⁹ Testimony of Bachiller Alonso Hernández, July 18, 1603, in connection with the visita examination of Caldera’s accounts (Cuaderno, 59–69).

³⁰ There is a noticeable and perhaps understandable irritation among the frontier captains with regard to strict adherence to the paper work of official matters. This feeling was evident in the period of warfare, when some complained of the handicaps placed upon them in having to account minutely for their actions, and it seems quite believable that a leader of such renown as Caldera might tend to disdain, or be careless about, some of the “bureaucratic” exactions of his duties as captain and justicia mayor. It is also possible that his papers were lost after his death, in the interval of some four or five years before the visitadores examined his record. One of the frontier captains, Pedro de Anda, indicated that his own instructions had not been entirely clear on accounting, and he was therefore much inconvenienced and irritated when his salary (which he maintained was his sole support) was embargoed for lack of an accounting and he had to leave his Indians unprotected at Santa Maria del Rio while he traveled to Zacatecas to straighten out the matter (Anda, 53–58).

The obviously key rôle of Caldera in the pacification of this frontier has yet to be clarified in detail and written; much of the material for such study is to be found in the Infante-Vergara visita.

³¹ “ No consintiendo que los vecinos y otras personas les hagan molestias ni vejaciones ni se sirvan de ellos contra su voluntad porque la paz se conserve pues tanto importa esto al servicio de Su Magestad, bien y quietud de este reino …” (Morlete, 20).

³² Powell, , Soldiers, especially pp. 112, 115, 176, 258.Google Scholar This is clearly implied, when not actually stated, in the complaints which urged “guerra a fuego y a sangre” as the basic solution for the Chichimeca problem. Some of the frontier captains felt the viceregal government was definitely handicapping them and asking too much by insisting that each Chichimeca raider be given a complete trial to determine guilt; and that full reports on such guilt and punishment be sent the viceroy.

³³ Some examples: the withholding of Captain Pedro de Anda’s salary due to delay in accounting (Anda, 24–26); the official difficulties of Captain Francisco Beltrán growing out of complaints that he had allowed the Chichimecas to seize the hides of slaughtered stock, thus making it impossible for Spanish purchasers to acquire them (Beltrán, 68–70) ; the visitadores’ order to apprehend and imprison Captain Diego de Mesa in connection with the Diego Fernández de Velasco accounting (Cuaderno, 14–31 ) ; the order to take prisoner Diego de Adame Parreño, protector at Las Bocas, for failure to render accounts (Cuaderno, 99–100) ; Saldívar’s removal of Captain Pedro de Murga from his position as protector due to complains against him (Murga, 21); the embargo on resale of properties sold by the estate of Caldera until his accounts should be settled (Cuaderno, 59–69).

³⁴ Thus, Morlete gave cloth, blankets, thread and needles to five Chichimecas “que eran de Matías de Lizaldi, para ponerlos en libertad …” (Morlete, 48–49).

³⁵ Beltrán, 68–70. A picturesque and probably fairly typical example of the captainprotector’s disciplinary rôle is the following episode described in the testimony of Fr. Marcos Rodríguez, guardián of the San Luis Potosí convento, on behalf of Captain Gabriel Ortiz de Fuenmayor: “… Por ser los indios recién venidos de paz se querían atrever a algunas cosas en agravio de españoles e indios naboríos y que entonces vió este testigo al dicho capitán Gabriel Ortiz castigarles con grande brío y severidad y después atraerlos con mansedumbre, usando en esto de rigor cuando era menester y de benignidad cuando se requiería usando en todo con mucha prudencia y que en una rebelión que hubo en este pueblo, no siendo éste guardián de él, oyó decir que habiendo juntado una india hechicera más de 300 indios para destruír este pueblo y los circunvecinos a él y estando todos los dichos indios en la población de Tlaxcalilla, que no está un cuarto de legua de esta dicha población, entró la dicha india en dos iglesias que tienen los dichos indios y Tarascos y arrancó las imágenes y las arrastró por el suelo poniendo con esto ánimo a los Chichimecos para que no temiesen a los españoles ni al dios que ellos adoraban por lo cual todos los indios Tarascos, Mexicanos, y Tlaxcaltecos, desamparando sus casas y dejándolas, se vinieron a este dicho convento a retraer llorando y estando todo este pueblo en gran confusión, así hombres como mujeres, entendiendo ya toda la tierra estaba alzada y no tener seguras las vidas, solo, el dicho capitán se determinó, sin querer más de tan solamente que fuese en su compañía un criado suyo mulato, de ir a la dicha población de Tlaxcalilla a prender la dicha india chichimeca hechicera y demás de 300 indios chichimecos, los quales la tenían y obedecían como oráculo, la sacó arrastrando por los cabellos y la trajo presa a este pueblo y luego la sacó a ahorcar con lo cual quedó la tierra quieta y sosegada. …” (Ortiz de Fuenmayor, 23–24).

³⁶ Ortiz de Fuenmayor, 62–170, passim (supplies from his own haciendas), 59, 65 (purchases from local merchants), 119-120 (commandeers maize).

³⁷ A few examples: Morlete, 46, 53, 90, 91, 93; Ortiz de Fuenmayor, 85; Beltrán, 105-108. Practically every listing of goods distributed by the captains shows clearly the difference in value and kind of gifts as between ordinary Chichimecas and the chiefs and principales, and gifts for special occasions are frequently noted.

³⁸ “Dí a Juan y Antón del Saltillo, que estuvieron aquí presos por dicho de Ana que querían matar a un español, y los solté y envié a su tierra, a cada uno una frazada y un sombrero y un cuchillo y unos zapatos y un huipil sumistle y medias naguas de telar,” June 6, 1593 (Morlete, 97).

³⁹ Morlete, 67–68.

⁴⁰ Cuaderno, 340.

⁴¹ Cuaderno, 229.

⁴² Testimony of Antonio Velázquez, vecino of Mazapil; “… sustentando a los dichos indios de este presidio dándoles pan y carne, vino y piciete y otras cosas de su hacienda todo con mucho amor y voluntad, por conservar la paz y concordia de los indios y bien de estas minas y su comarca … dió … de la suya, porque le tuvo por buen cristiano y temeroso de Dios y de su conciencia …” (Morlete, 215). Another witness, Lic. Diego Ramírez Zamorano, vicario at Mazapil, lauded Morlete for serving without salary, helping Indians when they were ill, and giving freely of his own goods (Morlete, 207–209). The Indian testimony is in Morlete, 234.

⁴³ Beltrán, 72.

⁴⁴ Ortiz de Fuenmayor, 8, 18, 20, 30; Hija, 4; Anda, 63-73.

⁴⁵ Anda, 4; Beltrán, 98; “no hay comisión para tomar cuentas a religiosos” (Cuaderno, 197) ; Cuaderno, 146–149 (typical example of distribution of funds from the Zacatecas caja to González, at Colotlán, for Indians working on the convento there); Diego Fernández de Velasco, 51. Briefly descriptive of the whole process is this excerpt from viceregal instructions to the treasury officials in Zacatecas; “… sabed que … considerando lo mucho que importa al servicio de Dios y de Su Magestad que los conventos que se están fundando allí se prosigan, pagando a los que sirven y trabajan en ellos y así os mando que de la dicha real hacienda que fuere a vuestro cargo enviéis a cuenta de gastos de guerra a la población de Colotlán 400 pesos en reales a Hernán González para que, con asistencia del guardián que allí lo fuere, pague a los indios que hubieren trabajado y trabajaren en el convento de San Francisco, que allí se hace, su trabajo y otros 400 pesos a la población de las Charcas a Francisco Beltrán y otros 400 pesos a la de San Miguel a Gabriel Ortiz para el mismo efecto de pagar a los indios, con intervención de los guardianes, su trabajo y constando, por relación que cada uno diere con el guardián de la población que tiene a cargo, haber gastado la dicha cantidad los enviéis otros 400 pesos y, éstos gastados, por el mismo orden les iréis enviando otros 400 pesos, siempre que os conste haberse gastado los últimose, hasta que los conventos de las dichas tres partes estén acabados …” March 18, 1593 (Ortiz de Fuen-mayor, 98–99).

⁴⁶ Cuaderno, 193–194, 204, 222–223 (Tolimán); Cuaderno, 181–183 (San Luis de la Paz); Cuaderno, 236–237 (Acaponeta).

⁴⁷ Morlete, 23. Morlete, however, always called upon the vicario to be present and certify the distribution; and, in the case of one shipment, he was specifically enjoined to do this—probably a routine wording of instructions in ignorance of the viceroy’s stated exemption (Cuaderno, 186, 188).

⁴⁸ Beltrán, 138.

⁴⁹ Anda, 71.

⁵⁰ Anda, 99–100.

⁵¹ Beltrán, 204. Fr. Cristóbal de Espinosa was specifically assigned to accompany Captain Ortiz de Fuenmayor on a diplomatic expedition to Río Verde where, in one pueblo alone (San Buenaventura), 500 Chichimecas were brought to peace (Ortiz de Fuenmayor, 104-105). When Captain Pedro de Murga died, the almacén real of Saltillo “se entregó a Juan de Taranco, persona en quien por pedimiento y requerimientos que hizo el padre fray Cristóbal de Espinosa, guardián de este convento, a la justicia ordinaria de esta villa, le nombraron por protector hasta que el señor general otra cosa provea …” (Taranco, 5).

⁵² Reading primers (cartillas) in Mexican, Castillan, and Latin “para enseñar muchachos indios a leer” were sent in quantities varying from 150 to 300 to such points as Saltillo (Murga, 83); Sichú (Cuaderno, 197); and Zacatecas (Diego Fernández de Velasco, 165; Cuaderno, 195–196). There is frequent reference to the purchase of beams and other lumber for construction of houses for the Chichimecas (e. g., Morlete, 44, 191–192). The same is true of such things as games and musical instruments (e.g., Cuaderno, 191–193).

⁵³ These first two were Francisco Hernández, “labrador en el Arroyo de los Frailes,” and Mejía, Juan, “labrador de la sementera de San Sebastián del Venado” (Cuaderno, 280–281).Google Scholar

⁵⁴ Cuaderno, 138-139, 140, 141, 142, 299, 301. Captain Caldera certifies a mission undertaken by Pedro de Anda and Diego de Huelva (December, 1590) to take twelve oxen and four mares to San Luis Potosí for the purpose of preparing sementeras for the Chichimecas; the said stock was provided by the royal treasury (Huelva, 10–11). A Diego de Adame Parreño was referred to as “protector de la población de labor ” at Bocas (Cuaderno, 99). There was still an official labrador for the Chichimeca crops at Venado in 1602 (Beltrán, 75). By 1600, the Guachichiles at Saltillo were apparently doing their own cultivating, but were still receiving gifts of oxen, at royal expense, for the purpose (Ortiz de Fuenmayor, 44–45). There are numerous references in the visita to funds disbursed for salaries of Indian gañanes (free, paid laborers) on these sementeras during the 1590’s.

⁵⁵ Beltrán, 75. Captain Beltrán comments here on his own rôle in supervision of the sementeras at Las Charcas.

⁵⁶ Viceroy Velasco to the king, June 5, October 8, and December 22, 1590, AGI, Aud. Mex., 58-3-11 (transcripts in Ayer Collection, Newberry Library, Chicago). Also, Velasco to the king, February 25, 1593, and his “… Advertimientos que … dejó al Conde de Monterrey para el gobierno de la Nueva España,” AGI 58-3-11 and 58-3-13 (transcripts cited above). Conde de Monterrey, “Copia de los advertimientos generales tocantes al gobierno de la Nueva España que se le dejaron al virrey Marqués de Montesclaros,” Acapulco, March 28, 1604, AGI, Aud. Mex., 58-3-15 (in transcripts cited above).

⁵⁷ Velasco to the king, February 25, 1593, ut supra; Velázquez, , Historia de San Luis Potosí, especially Vol. 1, chapters 24–25.Google Scholar

⁵⁸ See especially the viceregal correspondence already cited.

⁵⁹ “… Advertimientos generales …,” cited above. See also Chevallier, François, La formación de los grandes latifundios en México (México, 1956), especially Chapter V. Google Scholar

⁶⁰ Thus, as one example of many that could be cited, Diego de Mesa, important miner and resident of Fresnillo and owner of large stockranches, especially in the Valparaíso area, supplied, through the 1590’s, many thousands of head of stock for slaughter to feed the Chichimeca settlements in widely scattered parts of the frontier. The income he received from these many contracts undoubtedly aided expansion of his landholdings and contributed to his status as one of the “hombres poderosos” of the north. He was for a time “protector” at Valparaíso, and the Infante-Vergara visita abounds in references to his stock contracts and financial relationships with the supervisors of frontier pacification in Zacatecas.

⁶¹ Powell, , Soldiers, pp. 192–193, 208–211.Google Scholar

⁶² de Monterrey, Viceroy Conde, “Advertimientos generales,” ut supra.Google Scholar

⁶³ This is an especially strong theme in Viceroy Velasco to the king, October 8, 1590; he points out that it would not be difficult to castigate those Chichimecas still hostile, but the viceroy fears that to do so would cause warfare to be resumed on the whole frontier (see note 56, above).

⁶⁴ de Monterrey, Viceroy Conde, “Advertimientos generales,” 1604, ut supra.Google Scholar