Diego de Guadalajara expedition

Last updated

The Diego de Guadalajara expedition of 1654 was a Spanish expedition dispatched to follow up on the finding of freshwater pearls from pearl mussels in the Concho River in what is now Texas. Although results were disappointing, the expedition led to continued contact with the people of the area and then to Spanish settlement in and around San Angelo, Texas.

Contents

Castillo-Martin expedition

In 1650 Hernando de Ugarte y la Concha, Governor of New Mexico, dispatched an expedition from Santa Fe, led by Captains Diego del Castillo and Hernan Martin, to explore what is now north central Texas. [1] The Castillo-Martin expedition travelled about 520 miles (840 km) southeast from Santa Fe along the route that had been taken by the Dominican friar Juan de Salas when he visited the Jumano Indians in 1632. They reached the Concho River, and then what they called the Río de las Perlas ("Pearl River"). [2] They named the Concho River ("river of shells") after the Tampico pearly mussel (Cyrtonaias tampicoensis) which they found there. [3]

Some members of the expedition went another 130 miles (210 km) southeast until they came to the boundary of the large and populous territory of the Tejas Indians, but did not continue further because they were unsure of how they would be received. The Tejas chief heard of the Spanish presence and sent an envoy to meet with them. The expedition remained in the region for six months, and collected samples of the freshwater pearls. These were sent to Luis Enríquez de Guzmán, 9th Count of Alba de Liste and Viceroy of New Spain, and were part of the reason for the subsequent Guadalajara expedition. [2]

Guadalajara expedition

The Diego de Guadalajara entrada (expedition) was launched in 1654 to follow up on Castillo's findings. [1] The expedition probably set out before Easter of 1654, led by Sergeant Major Diego de Gaulalajara and including thirty soldiers and 200 Christian Indians, and travelled to the Concho River in Jumano country as had the previous expedition. According to Christoval de Anaya, speaking in 1663 when on trial for heresy, the expedition traveled 300 leagues east for nine months through country inhabited by friendly but non-Christian Indians. [2]

The main body of the expedition remained on the Concho, encamping among the Jumanos. The Jumanos were recruited to harvest mussels in the hope that they would contain gem-quality pearls. [4] Meanwhile, Captain Andrés López travelled with a party of twelve soldiers about 80 miles (130 km) east, where they found a ranchería of "Cuitao" [lower-alpha 1] people. They fought these people and took two hundred prisoners, with two hundred bundles of animal skins. [2] When the López party rejoined the main expedition, the combined force returned to Santa Fe with their rich haul of pelts and slaves. [6]

Results

The expedition had found far fewer pearls than they had expected, but the Spanish had become interested in the region. [3] There are no records of specific expeditions during the next thirty years, but the Mexican archives hold evidence that many trading journeys were undertaken. [7] The Spanish probably exchanged iron tools and horses for pelts and buffalo meat. [6] Juan Domínguez de Mendoza, who had been a member of the 1654 Guadalajara expedition, led another expedition into the area in 1683-1684. [8] The Spanish built missions, and eventually built the town of San Angelo. In modern times there is still a fishery for the mussels and their pearls. [3]

Related Research Articles

Coleman County, Texas U.S. county in Texas

Coleman County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2010 census, its population was 8,895. The county seat is Coleman. The county was founded in 1858 and organized in 1864. It is named for Robert M. Coleman, a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence and soldier at the Battle of San Jacinto.

Concho River

The Concho River is a river in the U.S. state of Texas. Concho is Spanish for "shell"; the river was so named due to its abundance of freshwater mussels, such as the Tampico pearly mussel.

The Suma were an indigenous people who lived in northern part of the Mexican state of Chihuahua and western part of the U.S. state of Texas. They were nomadic hunter gatherers who practiced little or no agriculture. The Suma merged with Apache groups and the Mestizo population of northern Mexico, and are extinct as a distinct people.

Antonio de Espejo (1540–1585) was a Spanish explorer who led an expedition into New Mexico and Arizona in 1582–83. The expedition created interest in establishing a Spanish colony among the Pueblo Indians of the Rio Grande valley.

The Chamuscado and Rodríguez Expedition visited the land on what became present day New Mexico in 1581-1582. The expedition was led by Francisco Sánchez, called "El Chamuscado," and Fray Agustín Rodríguez, the first Spaniards known to have visited the Pueblo Indians since Francisco Vásquez de Coronado 40 years earlier.

Jumanos were a tribe or several tribes, who inhabited a large area of western Texas, New Mexico, and northern Mexico, especially near the Junta de los Rios region with its large settled Indian population. Spanish explorers first recorded encounters with the Jumano in 1581; later expeditions noted them in a broad area of the Southwest and the Great Plains. The last historic reference was in a 19th-century oral history, but their population had declined by the early 18th century.

Juan Sabeata was a Jumano Indian leader in present day Texas who tried to forge an alliance with the Spanish or French to help his people fend off the encroachments of the Apaches on their territory.

Gaspar Castaño de Sosa was a Portuguese settler, colonist, explorer, and reputed slaver who was among the founders of the towns of Saltillo and Monclova, in Coahuila, Mexico. He led an expedition, deemed illegal by Spanish authorities, and attempted unsuccessfully to establish a colony in New Mexico in 1590 and 1591.

La Junta Indians is a collective name for the various Indians living in the area known as La Junta de los Rios on the borders of present-day West Texas and Mexico. In 1535 Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca recorded visiting these peoples while making his way to a Spanish settlement. They cultivated crops in the river floodplains, as well as gathering indigenous plants and catching fish from the rivers. They were part of an extensive trading network in the region. As a crossroads, the area attracted people of different tribes.

Toboso people

The Toboso people were an indigenous group of what is today northern Mexico, living in the modern states of Chihuahua and Coahuila and along the middle reaches of the Conchos River as well as in the Bolsón de Mapimí region. They were associated with the Jumano and are sometimes identified as having been part of the Jumano people.

Ramón Ortiz y Miera

Ramón Ortiz y Miera was a Mexican priest who helped organize armed resistance during the Mexican–American War of 1846 to 1848, and who was frustrated by the U.S. authorities in his efforts to repatriate Hispanic residents from New Mexico to the republic of Mexico after the war.

Hernando de Ugarte y la Concha was Governor of New Mexico from 1649 to 1653.

Fray Juan de Salas was a Spanish Franciscan friar who provided religious instruction to the people of New Mexico and what is now Texas in the first half of the seventeenth century.

Juan Domínguez de Mendoza 17th century Spanish soldier from New Mexico

Juan Domínguez de Mendoza was a Spanish soldier who played an important role in suppressing the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 and who made two major expeditions from New Mexico into Texas.

Domingo Jironza Pétriz de Cruzate was a Spanish soldier who was Governor of New Mexico from 1683 to 1686, and again from 1689 to 1691. He came to office at a time a large part of the province of Santa Fe de Nuevo México was independent of Spanish rule due to the Pueblo Revolt. With limited resources, he was unable to reconquer the province.

Estéban de Perea was a Spanish Franciscan friar who undertook missionary work in New Mexico, a province of New Spain, between 1610 and 1638. At times he was in conflict with the governors of the province. He has been called the "Father of the New Mexican Church".

Pedro de Peralta was Governor of New Mexico between 1610 and 1613 at a time when it was a province of New Spain. He formally founded the city of Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1610. In August 1613 he was arrested and jailed for almost a year by the Franciscan friar Isidro Ordóñez. Later, he was vindicated by the Mexican Inquisition and held a number of other senior posts in the Spanish imperial administration.

Juan de Eulate was a Spanish soldier who served with distinction in the Netherlands, and later was appointed Governor of New Mexico between 1618 and 1625 at a time when it was a province of New Spain. He then became Governor of the Margarita Province, based on Isla Margarita off the coast of what today is Venezuela, from 1630 to 1638 before retiring to Spain.

Juan de Samaniego y Díez de Ulzurrun Xaca ("Jaca") y Roncal, better known just as Juan Samaniego y Jaca, was a prominent Spanish military officer who served as Governor of New Mexico between 1653 and 1656. He realized several expeditions against Amerindian people who attacked, kidnapped and took as prisoners other native people, in order of liberate those people.

Comanche Springs (Texas)

Comanche Springs was an aquifer of six artesian springs geographically located between the Edwards Plateau and the Trans-Pecos regions of West Texas. The groundwater source originated from a Comanchean limestone fault combined within the bountiful Edwards Aquifer and the Glass Mountains.

References

Notes
  1. ↑ The Cuitao are only mentioned in 17th century records. They may well have been Wichita people. [5]
Citations
  1. 1 2 Castillo, Diego Del.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Wade 2003, p. 74.
  3. 1 2 3 Howells 2012.
  4. ↑ Janin & Carlson 2009, p. 46.
  5. Campbell 2012.
  6. 1 2 Wade 2003, p. 75.
  7. ↑ Bolton 1974, p. 106–107.
  8. ↑ Sturtevant 2001, p. 966.
Sources
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.