All the Pueblos were at last subdued, even to the Moquis, far to the northward, who, by the zeal of the Franciscans, had been "wholly converted and reduced" before the middle of the 17th century.

Until 1680 the Spaniards appear to have held undisputed sway everywhere; and they adapted their usual course of enslaving the entire population. They colonized the country in considerable numbers, explored the mountains for precious metals, and did a great deal of mining in. many places.

If slavery when applied to field labour is destructive to life, what must it be when directed to mining? By means of manual labour alone (that is, by carrying the ore in hand-baskets from the "labores" and the water of the deeper workings in buckets, and by grinding the quartz in the rude "arastras" to which men were yoked) large fortunes were made by the conquerors. The ruins of a large prison at the copper-mines in the Miembres Mountains, old mines discovered in greater numbers year by year, which have been carefully stopped up, as well as the traditions of the Indians, all show clearly how the Spaniards used their power.

At last the miserable Pueblos could bear their degradation no longer, and rose throughout the entire country upon their taskmasters. Thoroughly detesting the Spaniards, they gave no quarter, and swept them completely from the land. The inhabitants of Santa Fe escaped with their lives down the Rio Grande and founded El Paso, which was the most northern point retained by the whites.

The people of Moqui joined with all their other neighbours in the insurrection, and renounced the Catholic faith. They were never afterwards brought under subjection, nor was the Cross again planted either there or at Zuni. As regards the other "kingdoms" they were gradually retaken, but not until seven years of hard fighting had thoroughly crushed the inhabitants. We may be tolerably certain that, after massacring their kinsfolk and renouncing Christianity, the Pueblo Indians received no mercy from the Spaniards.

When peace and Christianity were again restored, a more humane policy seems to have been inculcated from the home government and strongly demanded by the clergy on behalf of their poor brethren. As early as the year 1551 we find statutes amongst the laws of Spain laying down, "in the first place, what means are most suitable for the instruction of the Indians in the the Holy Catholic Faith, &c." and, in the second place, providing that "the Indians should be brought to settle" and that such lands be chosen for them as are "healthy, ascertaining if there may live in them men of great age, and youths of good condition .... whether animals and flocks are healthy and of ample size .... fruits and articles of food good .... the land suitable for sowing . . . ." (Charles V., 21st March, 1551. Decrees dated June 26th, 1523, and Dec. 1st, 1543.) Also decrees of Philip II., 1638, are to a similar effect. But one dated Madrid, June 4th, 1687, is of especial importance; for it no longer talks of placing the Indians upon reservations; but it extends the system of giving Spanish grants to the Pueblo Indians, and it presents them with those very letters patent which they now hold, and which the United States government has promised to respect.

The following are a few abridged quotations from it: --

"Whereas, as in my Royal Council of the Indos, the Marquis Folces, Viceroy of New Spain, ordered that each Pueblo as might need land to sow, &c. .... should be given 500 " varas, and more if necessary, and that no land should be granted to any one nearer than 1000 varas, cloth or silk measure, to the houses and lands of the Indians And whereas these In dian lands have been encroached upon by owners of estates and lands, thereby depriving the Indians of them, and seizing upon them, sometimes violently, sometimes fraudulently, for which cause the miserable Indians have lost houses and towns, which is what the Spaniards seek for and desire I have thought it wise to order and command that there be given and assigned generally to all the Indian Pueblos of New Spain for their farming lands not only 500 varas around the place of settlement, measured from the furthest house in the place north, south, east, and west, and not from the church (generally placed in the centre of the village), but also 1000 varas more, and shall be authorized to mark off as many more varas of land as shall appear necessary without limitation."

The size of these grants differs considerably amongst the pueblos. In eight pueblos each grant covers between 17,000 and 18,000 acres; Isleta contains 110,000 acres; Santa Domingo 74,000 acres; the smallest is 13,000 acres. Most of them date back to 1689, two years after the passing of the above Act. The date of the patent of Sandia is 1748. Thus, then, we have a distinct acknowledgment by the Spanish government of the necessity for granting special licenses to this industrious and semicivilized people.

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adapted from A. W. Bell
"On the Native Races of New Mexico"
1869 (Journal of the Ethnological Society of London)