JUAN DE ONATE'S COLONY IN THE WILDERNESS
An Early History of the American Southwest

      “A very nice, concise history of New Mexico during the Spanish period, beginning with Cabeza de Vaca and concluding in 1704 with the death of Vargas. Prepared to commemorate the Columbus Quincentennial, the text is an effort to give more credit to Ońate’s role in colonization. The heroic effort of these early pioneers is marred by the horrifying cruelty of the conquerors, and policies of the Catholic Church that are impossible to admire from our current vantage point. McGeagh tells the tale honestly and well.”
      —Books of the Southwest
     
     
            “Subtitled ‘An Early History of the American Southwest,’ this is a short but succinct account of Spain’s first colony in the Southwest. In 1598, Juan de Ońate established the first permanent settlement, some 22 years before Plymouth Colony was founded on the East Coast. This is the story of the explorations, the difficulties, the triumphs, and the problems of those first settlers. The book also covers the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 and the subsequent reconquest by the Spanish in 1692. This concise and accurate account has an index and several illustrations. Dr. McGeagh teaches history and philosophy at Northern New Mexico Community College.”
      —Marcia Muth, Book Chat, Enchantment
     
     
            “This is the third small paperback we’ve seen in recent years on San Gabriel, Ońate’s first permanent settlement and center of government in New Mexico. The author lives and teaches near this site and has an obvious personal interest. The style is easy and the coverage quite adequate. The book covers the entire Ońate period, not just San Gabriel—an informative read!”
      —Book Talk, January 1991
     
     
            “New Mexicans have to put up with being mistaken for residents of a foreign country with some regularity by citizens of her own forty-nine sister states. Even American history textbooks ignore the story of our past as it if were not part of the American experience. As every New Mexican surely knows, the Spanish had a head start of more than half a century over the English in the conquest and colonization of North America. Yet to read a standard American history, one would think the story of European involvement on the continent began when the British arrived. Every school child knows about Captain John Smith and Sir Walter Raleigh. How many outside our borders have ever heard of Juan de Ońate, founder of a much earlier European colony in what is now part of the United States.
            “Robert McGeagh set out to right this glaring oversight in his book. The long title of this short book (roughly sixty pages) is somewhat misleading, however. In this slim volume McGeagh manages to cover the entire first 150 years of New Mexico’s history after the Spanish arrived. He begins with the odyssey of Cabeza de Vaca and the Arabian slave Esteban wandering through Texas and New Mexico in the 1530s and ends with the establishment of a permanent settlement in Santa Fe by Diego de Vargas in 1692. Despite its small size, this masterfully written history is no perfunctory listing of names, dates and events. A model of succinct prose, McGeagh has created a concise, yet colorful history packed with solid information. At the same time, he brings to life the rich parade of conquistadors, Indian chiefs, friars, settlers, fortune hunters and slaves who played out the epic drama of conquest and colonization.
            “Juan de Ońate led the entrada north from Mexico in 1598 that founded New Mexico’s first European colony on the banks of the Rio Grande above present day Espańola twenty-two years before the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock. Ońate, a true child of the New World, was born in Mexico to a wealthy mine-owning family and married a descendant of both Cortez and Montezuma. The expedition he headed was enormous: one hundred and seventy families, 230 single men, 7000 head of stock and numerous Indian laborers (who no one bothered to count) made the long, perilous journey north from Mexico in a caravan stretching four miles. The goal was gold and the glory of God, and “…the tenacity with which the Spanish pursued their spiritual goals was duplicated in their zeal to obtain their material objectives.”
            “McGeagh succeeds in conveying a sense of the stunning achievements and genuine heroism of the Spaniards in establishing a permanent presence in a remote and hostile land. At the same time he does not shrink from portraying the savagery and brutality with which they treated the native peoples they encountered in New Mexico. From Coronado in 1540 to de Vargas in 1692, the Spanish left a trail of destruction and blood in their trek throughout the Southwest surpassed only by the Americans in their westward advance some 150 years later.
            “By 1700 the Spanish and the Pueblo Indian had begun to live peaceably side by side, establishing an early multi-cultural society that still leaves its distinctive imprint on New Mexico today. The Spanish learned a few lessons in the century it took them to gain a permanent foothold in New Mexico. The early effort to stamp out traditional Indian religion led directly to the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. In addition, as McGeagh states, “The preachment of Christian love and compassion naturally seemed completely paradoxical in the face of the atrocities committed in the name of the Catholic king. Consequently, Spanish Catholicism was hard-pressed to maintain its credibility for most of the 17th century.”
            “Ruthlessly oppressed and exploited, the simmering resentment of the Pueblos finally exploded in a well-planned revolt that ousted the Europeans from New Mexico for thirteen years in “…one of the grandest gestures of the American Indian to halt the inexorable European encroachment into his lands.”
            “McGeagh makes clear that from the earliest days of exploration, deep divisions existed within both the Church and the State and between the two entities about the treatment of the Pueblo Indians. Coronado, Ońate and de Vargas were all accused and tried by the Audiencia in Mexico City for mistreatment of Indians. Many friars worked diligently to improve the lot of the Pueblos, even as they labored equally untiringly to suppress their religion and force Christianity down their throats. Mostly though, both the Church and the State “…exploited the Indians in 17th century New Mexico and fought bitterly over the spoils.”
            “De Vargas led the Reconquest back up the long, hard trail to Santa Fe in 1692. Professor McGeagh dispels the myth of the ‘bloodless’ reconquest, perpetuated for years in New Mexico Folk Pageants. Nevertheless, after some bloody battles, by 1696 peace was restored, and de Vargas set to work to rebuild the ruined colony in a new climate of accord and harmony.
            “Why the Spaniards put so much effort into exploring and settling remote and arid New Mexico can only be understood in the larger context of Spain’s history and world view in the 16th century. Victory and liberation after 800 years fighting foreign domination by the Moors left Spain with a crusading faith and national pride bursting for new worlds to conquer and new souls to save. The passionate religious fervor led brave men into unknown territory and frequent martyrdom. It also ushered in the Inquisition.
            “Next to God, the passion of 16th century Spain was for treasure. Super-Conquistador Hernan Cortez said, “The Spanish suffer from a disease of the heart that can only be cured by gold.”
            “As McGeagh points out, Spain in the 16th century was still a medieval country. “In Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, Cervantes portrayed the Spanish character at once practical, yet profoundly mystical. It was this schizophrenic trait which sent hard-headed conquistadors chasing after chimerical legends: the Fountain of Youth, El Dorado, the Seven Cities of Cibola, Quivira.” Adding fuel to the fire was the reality of the fabulous Aztec and Inca Empires discovered and conquered by contemporaries Cortez and Pizarro. What other untold riches might this mysterious land contain just over the next horizon?
            “Although the dreams of fabulous riches and cities of gold never materialized, “the conquistadors of New Mexico left a legacy of prodigious achievements and sired a thriving population which today shares the bloodlines of both Spanish and Indian forbears.”
            “McGeagh’s fine book leaves one with a renewed sense of the richness, complexity, epic tragedy, excitement, high drama, the shame and the pride in this first clash of cultures in settling the American frontier.”
      —Ann Buffington, Mountain Passages, Winter/Spring 1992