Francisco Manuel de Silva Nieto

He may have travelled with the Franciscan father Estevan de Perea, who brought about thirty friars and several lay brothers to undertake missionary work in New Mexico around that time.

[1] On 23 June 1629 Silva left on an expedition to Zuni with thirty soldiers, ten wagons, four hundred cavalry horses and a group of priests.

On his journey back to Santa Fe, Silva's party stopped at Inscription Rock, a large sandstone butte that is now El Morro National Monument, where someone carved the poem:[1] Here arrived the Senor and Governor Don Francisco Manuel de Silva Nieto Whose indubitable arm and valour Have overcome the impossible With the wagons of the King our Lord A thing which he alone put into this effect August 5, 1629 that one may well to Zuni pass and carry the faith.

Another inscription on the rock dated 23 March 1632 was left by a party of soldiers en route to Zuni to avenge the father's death.

[4] Father Estevan de Perea, who was the agent of the Inquisition in New Mexico, painted conditions during Silva's governorship in a poor light.