Antonio de Espejo
[1][2] The expedition created interest in establishing a Spanish colony among the Pueblo Indians of the Rio Grande valley.
[3] Espejo, a wealthy man, assembled and financed an expedition for the ostensible purpose of ascertaining the fate of two priests who had remained behind with the Pueblos when Chamuscado led his soldiers back to the heartland of New Spain.
Along with fourteen soldiers, a priest, about 30 indigenous servants and assistants, and 115 horses he departed from San Bartolome, near Santa Barbara, on November 10, 1582.
"[5] Near the junction (La Junta) of the Conchos and the Rio Grande, Espejo entered the territory of the Patarabueyes who attacked his horses, killing three.
They lived in low, flat-roofed houses and grew corn, squash, and beans and hunted and fished along the river.
"They make very fine tortillas," Espejo commented, and the Pueblos also served the Spanish turkeys, beans, corns, and pumpkins.
With four men and Hopi guides he went in search of the mines, reaching the Verde River in Arizona, probably in the area of Montezuma Castle National Monument.
[8] Among the Hopi and the Zuni, Espejo met several Spanish-speaking Mexican Indians who had been left behind by, or escaped from, the Coronado expedition more than 40 years earlier.
The little force had a skirmish with the Indians of Acoma Pueblo, apparently because two women slaves or prisoners of the Spanish escaped.
In aiding the escape of the women, the Acomans and the Spanish exchanged volleys of harquebus fire, stones, and arrows.
The Spanish then returned to the Rio Grande Valley where at a village they executed 16 Indians who mocked them and refused them food.
[10] The Spanish quickly departed the Rio Grande and explored eastward, journeying through the Galisteo Basin near the future city of Santa Fe and reaching the large pueblo at Pecos, called Ciquique.
When Antonio de Espejo set out to New Mexico as a relief for Chamuscado-Rodriguez, he left with many men including one man that would be vital in documenting the events that took place on the expedition.
This man was Diego Perez de Luxan, he wrote journals about Espejo's findings in New Mexico and proved to be very important years later because of the rarity of documentation from the expedition.
[17] Rather than return to the now unfriendly Rio Grande Valley, Espejo decided to return to Mexico via the Pecos River which he called "Rio de Las Vacas" because of the large number of bison the Spaniards encountered during the first six days they followed the river downstream.
