1692, led by Diego de Vargas Zapata
Luján y Ponce de León, recapturing
Santa Fe that year and reconquering the
whole region by 1696.
After their return in the 1690s, the
Spanish were marginally more respectful
of the Pueblo, permitting them to hold
their ancient religious ceremonies. The
antagonists also became allies against the
Apache—nomadic, buffalo-hunting peo-
ple who raided them both. While his
people had occupied Santa Fe, Popé had
made the mistake of trading horses
aquired from the Spanish to the Apache,
who, like Native Americans throughout
the Great Plains, began using the horse
not only in hunting but also in raids on
Spanish and Pueblo Indians.
Despite the dangers and hardships of
New Mexico, colonization increased
there during the 18th century. In 1692
the Italian Jesuit missionary Eusebio Kino
(1645–1711), working with New Spain,
came to what is now Arizona and was
then part of the province of New Mexico.
There he began founding missions
among the Yaqui, Yuma, and Akimil
O’odham (Pima). In 1752 the Spanish
built a presidio, or fort, at Tubac, the first
permanent European settlement in
Arizona. By then the Spanish had learned
the value both of sending missionaries
into frontier areas as vanguards of colo-
nization and of establishing a paid, stand-
ing garrison in a presidio to guard the
missionaries. The presidio guarding the
mission church became a central feature
of many far northern colonies, from
California to New Mexico to Texas.
By 1800 the Hispanic population of
New Mexico was about 20,000. Many of
these inhabitants were not Spanish but
poor, Spanish-speaking mestizos from
New Spain, induced to move north by
offers of land—a technique used in colo-
nizing Texas and California as well. Trade
grew throughout New Mexico in the
18th century, with Native Americans
exchanging skins and buffalo meat for
Spanish manufactured goods at annual
trade fairs such as those at Taos and
Pecos. These fairs were an extension of a
complex system of internal trade in New
Spain that included El Camino Real,
“The Royal Road,” the name for the
overland trade routes in New Mexico,
Florida, California, and Texas connecting
the northern frontier with Mexico City.
Other important land routes connected
Mexico City to the east coast port of
Veracruz, center for transatlantic trade
with Europe; and to the west coast port of
Acapulco, center for transpacific trade
with the Philippines.
Illicit trade with the French also took
place, as the French, pressing theirSPAIN IN THE AMERICAS 55Coronado searches for the famed Seven Cities of Cíbola.(Library of Congress)