Documentary History of the Rio Grande Pueblos of New Mexico; I. Bibliographic Introduction | Page 9

Colorado river of the West, followed by
an extended report on De Soto's expedition to the Mississippi river,
contains data on the Rio Grande Pueblos and on those of Jemez that are
of permanent value. The author gives the numbers of Pueblo Indians
officially converted during his time.
We come now to a book which, though small in compass, has had
perhaps greater circulation in languages other than Spanish, with the
exception of the Destruycion de las Indias by the notorious Las Casas,
than any other. This is the work of Fray Alonso de Benavides, on New
Mexico, first published in 1630 under the misleading title of Memorial
que Fray Juan de Santander de la Orden de San Francisco, Comisario
General de Indias, presenta a la Magestad Catolica del Rey don Felipe
cuarto nuestro Señor, etc., Madrid, 1630. Benavides was custodian of
the Franciscan province of New Mexico for some time, and therefore
had good opportunity of knowing both the country and its natives. He
gives a very precise and clear enumeration of the groups of Pueblo
Indians, locating them where they had been found by Coronado ninety
years before and adding those which the latter had not visited, as well
as giving the number of villages of each group and the approximate
number of people therein contained. No writer on New Mexico up to
this time had given such a clear idea of its ethnography, so far as the
location and the distribution of the stocks are concerned. While
somewhat brief on manners and customs, Benavides is fuller and more
explicit than any of his predecessors, and informs us of features of
importance which no other author in earlier times mentioned. In short,
his book is more valuable for New Mexican ethnography than any other
thus far known, and it is not a matter of surprise, therefore, that it was
translated into several European languages. That the Rio Grande
Pueblos receive an abundant share of attention from Benavides is
natural. We also obtain from him some data, not elsewhere found,
concerning the establishment and fate of the missions, and the true
relations of the Spaniards and the natives are particularly well
portrayed. Both the Apaches and the Navajos also receive some
attention, Benavides giving, among others, the true reason for the
hostility which the Apaches displayed since that time against the

Spanish settlements. It is a book without which the study of the Pueblo
Indians could not be satisfactory.
Where there is strong light there must of necessity be some shadow. In
the case of Benavides the shadow is found in the exaggerated number
of inhabitants attributed to the New Mexican Pueblos, exaggerations 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 Resúmen 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