Antonio Valverde y Cosío (1670–February 1737) was the architect behind the disastrous Villasur expedition wherein the famous Spanish colonial scout José Naranjo perished.
In 1693, Diego de Vargas, governor of New Mexico, recruited settlers and soldiers from Sombrerete, and Valverde decided to join them.
Over the next two years (1694–96), he and Vargas participated in the war against the Puebloan peoples, who had rebelled against Spanish sovereignty because of the maladministration of Juan Francisco Treviño.
That same year, Valverde suffered a serious illness, and Vargas gave him permission to travel for treatment in Mexico City.
[1][3] The viceroy Baltasar de Zúñiga entrusted Valverde with the foundation of a mission in the Jicarilla land, in the modern Cimarron, Kansas, to evangelize this band, as well as a presidio in the Apache settlement of El Cuartelejo (located also in present-day western Kansas).
However, Valverde temporarily dismissed this proposal and decided organize a military expedition to search for the Comanches, who were attacking Spanish and Pueblo settlements in New Mexico, to capture them.
On his return to Santa Fe, he sent a report to the viceroy explaining that the French were preparing to enter New Mexico and that they were bribing the native tribes with gifts, including firearms.
However, Valverde suggested to the viceroy that the Jicarilla land, just 40 miles from Santa Fe and with cultivated fields, would be a better choice.
In New Mexico, several hundred of Amerindians, particularly of the Pawnee and Otoe tribes, attacked with firearms, killing many of the explorers.
[1] Valverde finished his term in New Mexico in 1721, when the viceroy of New Spain appointed Juan Estrada de Austria as the new governor of the province.
He was one of the wealthiest men in New Mexico, with a hacienda that included large wheat fields, a flour mill, a vineyard, and a farm with sheep, cattle, horses, mules, hogs, and goats.