But the confusion becomes somewhat reduced
through closer scrutiny and by taking into consideration the
circumstances under which each official document was framed. Onate
already enjoyed the advantage of interpreters in at least one New
Mexican Indian tongue, but the meetings or councils during which the
"acts of obedience" were written were not always at places where his
interpreters understood the language of the people they were among.
These scribes faithfully recorded the names of pueblos as they heard
them, and sometimes several names, each in a different language for the
same village, hence the number of pueblos recorded is considerably
larger than it actually was. Again the inevitable misunderstanding of
Indian pronunciation by the Spaniards caused them to write the same word
in different forms according as the sounds were uttered and caught by
the ear. An accurate copy of these documents of Onate's time made by one
versed in Pueblo nomenclature and somewhat acquainted with Pueblo
languages would be highly desirable. Onate is not given to fulness in
ethnological details. His journal is a dry record of what happened
during his march and occupancy of the country. Customs are only
incidentally and briefly alluded to.

One of Onate's officers, however, Captain Gaspar Perez de Villagra, or
Villagran, published in 1610 a _Historia de la Nueva Mexico_ in verse.
As an eye-witness of the events he describes, Villagran has the merits
and defects of all such authors, and the fact that he wrote in rhyme
called poetry does not enhance the historical merit of his book.
Nevertheless we find in it many data regarding the Pueblos not elsewhere
recorded, and study of the book is very necessary. We must allow for the
temptation to indulge in so-called poetical license, although Villagran
employs less of it than most Spanish chroniclers of the period that
wrote in verse. The use of such form and style of writing was regarded
in Spain as an accomplishment at the time, and not many attempted it,
which is just as well. Some of the details and descriptions of actions
and events by Villagran have been impeached as improbable; but even if
such were the case, they would not detract from the merits of his book
as an attempt at an honest and sincere narration and a reasonably
faithful description.

The minor documents connected with Onate's enterprise and subsequent
administration of the New Mexican colony, so far as known, are of
comparat