ber, and in it we find the first mention of
the Spanish names by which some of the Pueblos have since become known.
From this report it is easy to follow the route taken by Castano and his
followers, but the account is incomplete, terminating abruptly at Santo
Domingo, whither Castano had been followed by Captain Juan de Morlete,
who was sent after him by the governor of what is now Coahuila, without
whose permission Castano had undertaken the journey. I have no knowledge
as yet of any document giving an account of the return of the
expedition.

Seven years more elapsed ere the permanent occupancy of New Mexico was
effected under the leadership of Juan de Onate. Thenceforward events in
that province became the subject of uninterrupted documentary record.

The very wise and detailed ordinances regulating the discovery and
annexation to Spain of new territory, promulgated by Philip II, declared
that every exploration or conquest (the term "conquest" was subsequently
eliminated from Spanish official terminology and that of "pacification"
substituted) should be recorded as a journal or diary. Royal decrees
operated very slowly in distant colonies. Neither Chamuscado nor Espejo
kept journals, but Castano de Sosa, and especially Onate, did. His
_diario_ (which is accessible through its publication in the _Documentos
del Archivo de Indias_, although there are traces of an earlier
publication) was copied for printing by someone manifestly unacquainted
with New Mexico or with its Indian nomenclature, hence its numerous
names for sites and tribes are often very difficult to identify. But the
document itself is a sober, matter-of-fact record of occurrences and
geographical details, interspersed with observations of more or less
ethnological value. As Onate followed the course of the Rio Grande
upward from below El Paso del Norte, and afterward branched off to
almost every sedentary settlement in New Mexico and Arizona, the
comparison of his diary with previous reports (those of the Coronado
expedition included) is highly valuable, indeed indispensable. The
_diario_ forms the beginning of accurate knowledge of the region under
consideration. Perhaps more important still are the Acts of Obedience
and Homage (_Obediencia y Vasallaje_) executed at various villages
during the course of the years 1598 and 1599. At first sight, and to one
unacquainted with Pueblo idioms, they present an unintelligible list of
partly recognizable names.