ibuted to
Diego de Penalosa Brizeno into what is now Kansas or Nebraska, is of no
importance in the study of the Rio Grande Pueblos. The authenticity of
the document has been strongly doubted, though probably without just
cause. Equally unimportant to the subject of the Documentary History to
follow is the letter of Captain Juan Dominguez de Mendoza, published in
the appendix to the criticism of Cesareo Fernandez Duro on the report of
Father Freytas. The otherwise very interesting letter on New Mexico,
written by Fray Alonso de Posadas, also printed in the work of Duro, is
meager in its allusions to the Rio Grande.

Sixty-eight years after Benavides' time the _Teatro Mexicano_ of the
Franciscan Fray Agustin de Vetancurt was published. The third and fourth
parts of this important work, namely, the _Cronica de la Provincia del
Santo Evangelio de Mexico_ and the _Menologio Franciscano_, are of the
highest value to the history of the Rio Grande Pueblos and of New Mexico
generally. Although printed eighteen years after the New Mexican
missions had been destroyed by the Pueblo Indians, the _Cronica_
contains a terse description of the missions and Indian villages as they
had been previous to 1680, and gives data in regard to the population
that are commendable in their sobriety and probability. The work of
Vetancurt is in this respect a great improvement upon Benavides, and it
is interesting to note how his approximate census approaches the figures
given by Zarate Salmeron seventy years before. Vetancurt had at his
disposal much more precise data than Benavides. During the seven
decades separating the three authors much information had been
accumulated, and with greater chances of accuracy than before. Vetancurt
made good use of this accumulation of material, and his books are in
fact the most reliable sources from which to ascertain the status of the
Pueblos at the time the insurrection commenced. The historical data
given by Vetancurt in regard to New Mexico during earlier times are not
of great value, but the _Menologio_, as well as the _Cronica_, contains
a number of details on the missions and on the lives and achievements of
the missionaries that become important to an understanding of the Indian
himself. That such references are overburdened with details of a purely
religious character does not at all impair their ethnologic value: they
are pictures of the times according to the nature of which circumstances
and events