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EARLY EXPEDITIONS.

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be altogether optional. The friars, however, had other views.

In the sixteenth century there is no record of any definite communication with Nayarit; but we are told that in the first years of the seventeenth, Captain Gerónimo de Arciniega penetrated to Guainamota, took thence two thousand Indians, and with them founded four settlements. Then we have a vague narrative of the expedition in 1616 to 1618 of Captain Miguel Cadera with several companions. They are said to have set forth from Compostela and to have spent some time about the entrance to the forbidden realms, meeting the king and his attendants, receiving four children as a gift, and making so favorable an impression that some of the Nayarits came to Tepic and even submitted to baptism. About the same time a band of rebellious Tepehuanes from Durango sought refuge in the southern sierra, and Captain Bartolomé Arisbaba, pursuing them, met Caldera and the Indians at Guazamota. Here was

a chance for the great chief to give a practical demonstration of his new friendship, as in fact he is said to have done, by offering to join in the pursuit. Of the result we only know that Arisbaba left on a stone preserved in the church at Guazamota as late as the iniddle of the eighteenth century, an inscription reciting that in 1618 he conquered the province of San José del Gran Nayar. His conquest however cannot have been a very effectual one, probably consisting of certain ceremonies of formal submission, of which the wily natives were ever prodigal outside of their own territory; and Guazamota was on the frontier and

Mota-Padilla, Cong. N. Gal., 458-9. Other Indians were added in 1603, and in 1605 the king thanked Arciniega for his services. The same author ⚫ relates that in 1613 father Miguel de Aranzú walked barefoot up the Sierra de los Coras, meeting many natives under a one-eyed chieftain who said his name was Nayarit, thus originating a name for the province and for the people. It is probable that the name did come from a native ruler. According to Apostólicos Afanes, 2, 9, it was from El Naye, the first who attained to regal power. El Gran Nayar is another and, according to this author, more vulgar form. He however calls the chief ruler in 1616 El Gran Nayarit.

not within the pass. From this time, the Franciscans seem to have had a station there."

It was also in 1617 that Acaponeta was attacked and destroyed by a force said to have come from Durango, and which seems to have incited a revolt of the natives in this region. Aid soon came from Guadalajara and Guadiana however, and peace was restored. It is not unlikely that Arisbaba was in command of the reënforcement sent on this occasion, and that it was against the destroyers of Acaponeta that the alliance of the Gran Nayarit was utilized. In 1667, and again a few years later, the Franciscans drew from Nayarit some converts for their outside missions. According to a royal decree of 1673 the friars were to be aided in their efforts, but nothing more was done during the century.

In 1701 Captain Francisco Bracamonte, who seems to have been military commander on the frontier, had gained the friendship of the Nayarits, and was even known as protector of the Gran Nayar. Governor Gutierre of Nueva Galicia now proposed to use his influence in the subjugation of their territory. Bracamonte, not without misgivings, accepted the offer, and with several priests, escorted by a dozen soldiers, set about his task. The Nayarits were indignant at this action of their friend, and forbade all further advances. Foolishly Bracamonte was induced by his companions to go on and enter the pass known as El Simon. The result was that only one of the ill-fated band escaped, badly wounded, the rest being slain with their commander."

The natives now became more aggressive in their policy. In 1702 there were tumults on the frontier, during which the Nayarits not only sheltered fugitives,

5 Apostólicos Afanes, 28-34; Alegre, Hist. Comp., iii. 197-8. Arlegui, Cron. Zac., 172, tells us that his order first entered Nayarit in 1635. See Mota-Padilla, Conq. N. Gal., 459.

7 The account of this occurrence in Apostólicos Afanes, 34-5, is made up from a written statement by the survivor, and from the testimony of some Indians who were present at the massacre.

A PLACE OF EVIL OCCUPATION.

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but sent a force under the chief Tzomon to aid the malecontents. Depredations were committed from time to time; and though open rebellion was finally prevented on the west, the dissatisfaction spread eastward, and in 1703-4 as we are told by Arlegui, the Indians of the Tololotlan sierra rose, killed Captain Silva, their protector, threatened their curate, and stole everything within their reach. They were four thousand in number, held meetings at Nostic, and surrounded Tlaltenango; but Count Santa Rosa marched against them with three hundred men from Zacatecas, and defeated them with considerable slaughter. Whether the Nayarits took any active part in this revolt we are not informed.8

The Nayarits, though often professing friendship or even submission on the border, allowed no white man to enter their province; and thus, by the weakness of Spanish effort rather than by any achievement of their own, became day by day more firmly convinced that they could not be conquered. Various attempts were made to reduce them, but with insufficient forces. Then a party of devoted Franciscans from Nueva Galicia started barefooted from Guadalajara for the dominions of the devil and Gran Nayar. But not even bare and saintly feet were permitted to enter there, and the sorrowing friars turned back from Guazamota. All this occurred before 1709. The Nayarits, however, as proved later, were by no means invincible; all that was required for their reduction was a determined effort by a few hundred armed men.9

The time for decisive action had not yet arrived.

8 Arlegui, Cron. Zac., 89-90, 201. Mota-Padilla, Conq. N. Gal., 459, gives the date of the defeat of Bracamonte-whom he calls Juan-in 1709.

9

The Jesuit chroniclers, like the author of the Society's Apostólicos Afanes, or Apostolic Labors, though doubtless conversant with the facts, delight in exaggerating here as elsewhere the fruitless efforts of state and church to bring gentiles to law and faith before the task was undertaken by the company of Jesus. The Jesuits were, like other orders, zealous and able workers; but they also had the good fortune in several notable instances to undertake a difficult task, just when the government was ready to learn by past experience and adopt an effective policy.

Pursuant to the recommendation of oidor Pacheco of Guadalajara, a royal decree of 1709 ordered both the viceroy and the audiencia to intrust the spiritual conquest of the savage district to the famous Franciscan friar Margil de Jesus. Delays occurred, and the plan of Padre Margil was not matured till 1711. His suggestions were adopted and all needed aid promised, but he was instructed in case of failure to make careful observations which might be useful in the future. The good friar, with his companion, Fray Luis Delgado Cervantes, and six frontier caciques, set out for Guazamota. The Nayarit chief was notified of their intention, and permission to advance was denied. The Nayarits would sooner die than become Christians. Still, Father Margil pressed forward until stopped by hostile demonstrations. No miracle took place to soften the barbarian's heart. The chief insultingly gave the friars for supper a fox-skin stuffed with straw, and retired with his men to the mountains. This was too much for Christian digestion; and sadly the would-be apostles again turned back. By force alone could the gospel of peace be given to these obstinate heathen, and Father Margil now came to the sensible conclusion that the next attempt at conversion should be made with the assistance of at least a hundred well armed soldiers. But this was expensive, and Nayarit must wait.10

The next expedition was accompanied by a member of the company of Jesus. Obstacles now began to disappear, and compared with preceding attempts this one was almost a success. General Gregorio Matias de Mendiola, with thirty Spaniards, a hundred Indians, and some friars, arrived at Guazamota in 1715, early in December. In January 1716 the Nayarit

10 Father Pablo Felipe wrote a report of this embassy from which comes the information in Apostolicos Ajanes, 55-61. The date is made 1710 in Nayaritas, Rel., 6, and Pedro Álvarez de Roa is named as protector in that year. In the saint's life, Margil, Notizie, 67-72, it is stated that he was on the point of being killed during this journey, but that God struck terror into the hearts of the savages, thus saving his life.

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chiefs allowed them to enter the pass, and the country was named, after the day, Provincia del Santo Nombre de Jesus. Passing across the San Pedro up a steep grade to a plateau, they were ceremoniously received by four hundred young warriors; further on they met the priests of the sun and Nayarit nobility. They were greeted with the barbarous etiquette of the sierra tribes. The savages readily went through the forms of submission to the authority of Felipe V., but refused to change their religion.

Argument was in vain, and after several days of festivity the Spaniards noted some peculiarities of conduct on the part of their hosts, which prompted them to retire with more alacrity than they had entered.11

The mountaineers now became more haughty and daring than ever, until the tribes of the coast, tired of their continued outrages, assumed about 1718 a hostile attitude, attacked small parties which ventured out of the stronghold, and finally were able to cut off Nayarit communication with the coast. Then came a new cédula urging as usual active measures for the breaking up of this last refuge of idolatry in Nueva Galicia. The viceroy put the matter into the hands of Martin Verdugo de Haro, corregidor of Zacatecas, and the latter intrusted it to Juan de la Torre Valdés y Gamboa, a rich and popular citizen of Jerez, with the suggestion that a Nayarit representative be induced to visit Mexico. Circumstances were favorable, since the Nayarits were in great trouble about the cutting-off of their salt supply for consumption and trade. Pablo Felipe, native chief and governor at San Nicolás, exerted his diplomatic powers in favor of Spanish interests, and, particularly in the interests of his friend Torre, easily persuaded the Indians that the viceroy alone could effectually redress their wrongs, that a personal application to that official was essential,

11 A letter to the bishop, February 25, 1716, by Father Solchaga, who ac companied this expedition as chaplain, is the authority given in Apostólicos Afanes, 63-73; it is followed in Alegre, Hist. Comp., iii. 199-201. Other writers do not mention Mendiola's expedition.

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