El Morro, Cibola County, NM. Photograph: Russ Finley.
One site that has seen much history is El Morro rock in Cibola
County, in western New Mexico. This large rock outcrop has a permanent pool of
water in an arid environment, and pre-historically had a pueblo built on top of
the rock. Ancestral Puebloan rock art can be found on the cliffs and spires of
El Morro, as can the inscriptions and names of later comers.
Onate inscription over prehistoric figure, dated 1605,
El Morro, Cibola County, NM. Photograph: Russ Finley.
The earliest historic
inscription on El Morro is that of Don Juan de Oñate who annexed New Mexico to
the Spanish empire. “In 1595 he was
ordered by King Phillip II to colonize the northern
frontier of the Viceroyalty of New Spain. His stated objective
was to spread Roman Catholicism by establishing new missions in Nuevo México.
He began the expedition in 1598, fording the Rio Grande (Río del Norte) near present day El Paso in
late April.” (Wikipedia)
“In January, 1598 a
colonizing expedition moved north out of San Geronimo (located in what is now
the state of Chihuahua in northern Mexico). It was under the leadership of Juan
de Oñate, a resident of Zacatecas who was fifty years old at the time. It
included 121 Spanish soldier-colonists, some with their families, several
missionaries, and a number of persons of mixed Spanish and Indian descent –
about 400 persons in all. The colonists took wagons, tools, livestock and
everything else needed for conquest and settlement.” (Slater 1961:4)
“Late in April, 1598 the expedition crossed the Rio Grande,
in the vicinity of modern El Paso, Texas, and proceeded north. Headquarters
were made at the pueblo of Caypa, renamed San Juan, on the Rio Grande north of
modern Santa Fe.” (Slater 1961:5)
"On April 30, 1598, he claimed all of the territory across
the river crossing to the north for the Spanish Empire. That summer his party continued up the middle Rio Grande
Valley to present day northern New Mexico, where he encamped among
the Pueblo Indians. He founded the Province of Santa Fe de Nuevo México, and was its
first colonial governor.” (Wikipedia)
El Morro, Cibola County, NM. Photograph: Russ Finley.
The first known historic inscription to be placed on El Morro "is that of Don Juan de Oñate, governor and colonizer of
New Mexico, and founder of the city of Santa Fe, who in 1605, on his return
from a trip to the head of the Gulf of California, passed by El Morro and
carved a record of his visit.” (http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/glimpses2/glimpses10.htm)
“Although his contract
authorized Oñate to bring two ships a year “free of taxes and import duty” to
New Mexico, the adelantado still had not traveled to the coast and identified a
harbor. That challenge he met at last between October 1604 and April 1605, while
the fifty or so colonists left all winter at San Gabriel told stories by the
fire, made love, and wondered if the ocean had swallowed him up. To prove that
it had not, a member of the party inscribed deeply in the sheer sandstone wall
behind the pool at El Morro: “Adelantado don Juan de Oñate passed this way on
the 16th of April 1605 returning from the discovery of the South Sea.” “I
discovered a great harbor,” he wrote apprehensively to a new viceroy, “and
clarified the reports of extraordinary riches and monstrosities never heard of
before.” (Kessell 2002:86)
The translation of this inscription, the earliest known
historic inscription at El Morro, and quite probably the earliest historic
inscription in North America reads as follows:
There passed this way the Adelantado Don Juan
De Oñate, from the discovering of the South
Sea, on the 16th of April, 1605.” (Slater 1961:7)
It is not my intention here to present the whole story of Don
Juan de Oñate (you can look that up at your local library, or online), just to present what might be the single earliest authentic
historic inscription in North America. Why historic inscriptions instead of
older Native American rock art? In many instances a historic inscription can
actually tell a story, we can research the details behind its history and know
much more of its meaning and content. That, in itself, can bring us an exciting
involvement that is harder to find with the more ambiguous Native American rock
art. In past postings I have presented inscriptions about Antoine Robidoux, the
11th Ohio Volunteer Cavalry, the 5th Cavalry, General Crook, the 2nd Colorado
Cavalry, and others. While the primary focus of RockArtBlog will remain prehistoric rock
art, I will continue periodically present historic material that I feel to be of interest.
REFERENCES:
Kessell, John L.
2002 Spain in the
Southwest, A Narrative History of Colonial New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, and
California, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.
Slater, John M.
1961 El Morro,
Inscription Rock, New Mexico, Plantin Press, Los Angeles.
Wikipedia
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