ggerations as
gross and as glaring as those of Espejo. The number of villages of some
of the Pueblo groups is also somewhat suspicious. It is not difficult to
explain these probably intentional deviations from the truth in an
otherwise sincere and highly valuable work. As already indicated, the
publications emanating from the Franciscan Order, which exclusively
controlled the New Mexican missions, had a special purpose distinct from
that of mere information: they were designed to promote a propaganda not
simply for the conversion of the Indians in general, but especially for
the conversions made or to be made by the Order. New Mexico was in a
state of neglect, spiritually and politically; the political authorities
had been denouncing the Franciscans in every possible way, and there was
danger, if this critical condition continued, that the Order might lose
its hold upon the northern territories and its mission be turned over to
the Jesuits, who were then successfully at work in the Mexican northwest
and approaching New Mexico from that direction. To prevent such a loss
it was deemed necessary to present to the faithful as alluring a picture
of the field as possible, exploiting the large number of neophytes as a
result already accomplished and hinting at many more as subjects for
conversion. Hence the exaggerated number of Indians in general
attributed by Benavides to what then comprised the religious province of
New Mexico. In this respect, and in this alone, the _Memorial_ of
Benavides may be regarded as a "campaign document," but this does not
impair its general value and degree of reliability.

For the period between 1630 and the uprising of 1680 there is a lack of
printed documents concerning New Mexico that is poorly compensated by
the known manuscripts which I have already mentioned as existing in New
Mexico and Mexico. Still there appeared in 1654 a little book by Juan
Diez de la Calle, entitled _Memorial y Resumen breve de Noticias de las
Indias Occidentales_, in which the disturbances that culminated in the
assassination of Governor Luis de Rosas in 1642 are alluded to. The
national archives at the City of Mexico contain a still fuller report of
that event, in a royal decree of 1643 and other papers concerning the
deed, all of which are yet unpublished. The archives of Spain have as
yet been only meagerly investigated. The publication of the report of
Father Nicolas de Freytas, Portuguese, on the expedition attr