December 7 (November 27, o.s.)

New Mexico: Governor Vargas is unable to sleep all night, due to both a harsh storm with its cold winds and his concern over the fact that his expedition’s animals haven’t had any water in two days.  Well before dawn Captain Roque Madrid tells him that he heard from a Piro Indian accompanying the party that there is a brackish water hole in the direction of El Alamillo on the Rio Grande.  Vargas, upset at the fact that the shortcut the group is currently on is much drier and harder on the horses than his Zuni guide, Agustín, led him to believe, thinks over this proposed alternative.  He attends a mass at 5:00 am, then assembles his officers at the entrance to his tent and informs them of the alternative route.  He says, however, that following it would take the expedition too far out of its way to make it worth the time and effort, especially given the poor quality of the water at the reported waterhole.  He proposes instead that they head toward the Magdalena Mountains, which have now become visible off in the distance, following a route reconnoitered by Agustín, who has said that he surely couldn’t be so unlucky as to have there be no water at all along that route.  Despite the fact that Agustín’s luck hasn’t seemed very impressive so far, Vargas decides to trust him this time.  He orders that if a water hole is found, the camp should stop at it, and if it turns out to be too shallow for all the animals, the camp should stay for the night and the animals should continue to the Rio Grande, even if it takes them all night to get there.

Having received their orders, the men are already on the march at sunrise.  After a short distance, they find a small spring with a curbstone around it.  Agustín points it out and continues on his way past it, and most of the men follow him, with only a few stopping to water their horses at the spring.

The group goes up and down hills for a considerable distance until they find another small spring, where some more of the horses drink.  There is also some snow nearby, which is hard-packed but about to melt, and some of the horses manage to bite some off.

After continuing through a flatter plain for a while, the expedition sees the Magdalena and Gila Mountains in the distance.  Agustín leads the group along the crest of the nearby mountains, figuring that the Rio Grande is in that direction.  Atop a ridge at the foot of the mountains, Vargas finds a very old abandoned pueblo made of masonry, with two kivas.  A short distance to the south of it, toward the Gila Mountains, there is a water hole surrounded by tall reeds, apparently the source used by the people who built the pueblo.  Vargas immediately orders half of the expedition to camp there for the night and water their animals.

Having made some progress in watering the animals, Vargas presses Agustín about the location of a larger water hole nearby where the rest could get water.  Agustín points in the direction he believes it to be, but says it is pretty far and he is too tired to go there.  Vargas, frustrated with Agustín’s misleading description of the shortcut and general unhelpfulness, gets very angry at this and orders his officers to take Agustín and have him show them the water hole whether he wants to or not.  They leave around 4:00 pm.

A short time later Vargas orders four squads of soldiers to prepare to take the horses to be watered.  He orders them to go all the way to the Rio Grande if they don’t find a waterhole closer, and they take a Piro guide to show them the way at night.  If they do find a closer waterhole, they are to camp their overnight and Vargas and the rest of the camp will follow their trail in the morning and meet up with them.  They leave immediately.

Not long after, the officers and Agustín return.  They report that they found the water hole.  Vargas orders one of the officers to assemble a small group of soldiers and to take the remaining animals there to be watered, but to be sure to leave and return to the main camp at midnight, since the camp would have no horses in this dangerous land until they returned.  They do so and return with the refreshed animals late at night.

December 6 (November 26, o.s.)

New Mexico: At dawn Governor Vargas, frustrated at having to camp without water yet again, orders his men to break camp and prepare to leave in search of a water hole.  He orders the expedition’s Zuni guide, Agustín, to go ahead to reconnoiter the area and find the best route.  Shortly after dawn, when the rest of the men are ready, they and Vargas depart, following Agustín to the southeast.  The route goes generally downhill through an area of mesas and plains dotted with hills.

After a while the group finds a path that has clearly been used much more than the others in the area, which Agustín says must be the way to the water hole.  The expedition therefore follows it down to a wide plain.  After a considerable time traveling across the plain they find a very small spring, with enough water for the men to drink, which they do, but not nearly enough to water the horses.  From a mesa above the water hole the men can see the Ladron and Magdalena mountains off in the distance.

After the men have satisfied their thirst, they continue on their way.  They reach an arroyo with a lot of cottonwood trees in it, but it is dry.  It is getting pretty late by this point, however, and Vargas orders a halt for the night.

December 5 (November 25, o.s.)

Massachusetts: The assembly, after a long period of debate and disagreement, finally approves a bill setting up a new judicial system for the colony.  At the top of the system is the Superior Court of Judicature, which now assumes responsibility for the witchcraft cases formerly handled by the Court of Oyer and Terminer which was dissolved on October 29.

New Mexico: Governor Vargas and his troops awake at their campsite after a harsh, stormy night to find that, while the snow has stopped, the cold winds continue.  Vargas nevertheless orders his men to break camp and continue their march.  Their route takes them further down the canyon they are in and over some hills and mesas.  When they get to the top of one mesa they can see the Sandia and Manzano mountains off in the distance ahead of them.  The way down from that mesa is very steep and rocky, but they make it and reach a broad plain at the bottom.  At this point it is becoming late and Vargas orders a halt to camp for the night at a place where there is no water.  He is a little irritated at the promises made by his Zuni guide, Agustín, about the number and quality of water holes along the shortcut he is taking them through, and figures he should have brought some water along.  There’s nothing he can do about it now, though.

December 4 (November 24, o.s.)

New Mexico: Governor Vargas and his expedition leave their campsite and continue their march down the canyon they are in.  After a fairly short distance they find a swampy area in the canyon called La Cebolleta, and Vargas calls a halt to water the horses, since the harsh weather of the past few days has slowed the group’s journey and forced them to camp without water two nights in a row.  The group camps there for the night.

December 3 (November 23, o.s.)

New Mexico: In the morning Governor Vargas’s troops awake at their campsite on the side of a mountain and discover that the Apaches surrounded the camp the previous night and, hidden by the harsh snowstorm, stole 14 horses.  One additional horse is found with a sword wound so severe that it soon dies.  The Apaches apparently decided not to attack the camp itself after seeing how well-defended it was, so they settled for taking the horses.

Around 9:00 am, after taking stock of the damage, Vargas orders the expedition to break camp and proceed.  Their guide, Agustín, leads them southeast down the mountain, across a plain, and through a vast lava flow.  After the lava flow they reach an area of deep canyons.  Agustín says that they are still some distance from the next water hole, but it is getting late so Vargas calls a halt for the night anyway.

December 2 (November 22, o.s.)

New Mexico: Governor Vargas, noting that the fierce storm that began overnight abates around 8:00 am, orders his men to prepare to leave their campsite at El Morro, taking great care because of the risk of attack by Apaches.  Agustín, the Zuni man who is guiding the group on a more direct route, leads the way as they depart.  He heads to the south, rather than to the east, as the group would go if they were to retrace their outbound route.  From a hill shortly after they set out, Agustín points out several visible mountain ranges, one of which he calls the Sierra Prieta and another the Peña Larga.  He says that there is a settlement of the Colorado Apaches near the latter and that they plant cornfields there.

The expedition proceeds southeast from this hill.  They go through an area of lava flow with many hilly parts until it gets late and Vargas calls a halt for the night on a mountain near the lava flow.  There is no water there, but thanks to the storm there is some snow which helps quench the thirst of both men and horses.

December 1 (November 21, o.s.)

New Mexico: Governor Vargas and his expedition depart from their campsite at the Ojito de Zuni and march through rough, stormy weather as far as the water hole of El Morro, where they make camp.  During the night a major storm hits the camp, causing much discomfort for the men.

November 30 (November 20, o.s.)

New Mexico: In the morning Governor Vargas assembles his men at their campsite and prepares them to depart for El Paso.  Agustín, the Zuni man who agreed the previous day to guide the expedition along a shortcut from El Morro to Senecú, shows up as promised with his two Spanish-speaking companions and they mount the three horses Vargas agreed to give them.

Two of the Spanish soldiers, José Madrid and Martín Hurtado, ask to be allowed to go to the pueblo up on the mesa near the camp to reclaim their sisters, who they recently discovered there.  They had been captured during the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 and ended up at Zuni after a long series of events over the following twelve years.  When their brothers chanced upon them they asked to be taken back to El Paso.  Madrid and Hurtado therefore ask Vargas for permission to go to the pueblo to arrange to take their sisters back with them.  They say they will catch up with the main group as soon as possible.  Vargas grants them permission and they go.

The rest of the expedition then sets off.  They march as far as the first waterhole, Ojito de Zuni, where they camp for the night.  In the evening, after the men have set up their campsite, a messenger arrives from Zuni and tells Vargas that some Zuni scouts have seen tracks of Apaches following the expedition and that the people of the pueblo want to warn him to be prepared for a possible nighttime attack.  Vargas therefore assembles his officers and tells them about the reports.  He orders them to have their men be prepared and alert all night.

Shortly after this, Madrid and Hurtado arrive from Zuni with their sisters and their children.  They rejoin the camp and Vargas records the names of the women and the names and ages of their children.  The whole camp then settles down for the night, wary and prepared for a possible attack by the Apaches.  The Apaches, however, do not attack, and the camp remains undisturbed all night.

November 29 (November 19, o.s.)

New Mexico: Governor Vargas, camped with his men at the abandoned Zuni Pueblo of Halona, decides to move his camp to a location closer to the mesa atop which the people of Halona have relocated.  The expedition will spend the night there and depart for El Paso in the morning.  He therefore orders his commanders to assemble their men and have them pack up their supplies to move them to the new campsite.  They do so.

After the new camp is set up, Antonio Jorge, one of the officers, approaches the governor and tells him that he has met a man from Halona who knows a more direct route from the water hole at El Morro, two days’ travel from Zuni, to the abandoned Pueblo of Senecú on the Rio Grande.  For a suitable price the man is willing to guide the expedition there.  Vargas is excited to hear about this route, which is a significant shortcut compared to the route he and his men took on the way out, not only because it will shorten the return journey but because, if the material he acquired a sample of at Hopi turns out to really contain mercury, this would be a useful route over which to transport it to Mexico.  Jorge says that the man told him that the route has enough water holes that only a day and a night would be spent at locations without water.  This, in addition to the shorter distance, is very appealing to Vargas, who well remembers the paucity of good water holes on the trip up.  He therefore orders Jorge to bring him the man.

When the man, who says his name is Agustín, arrives, Vargas questions him about the route and he verifies the account given by Jorge.  He says it takes about a week.  He notes that the days are short this time of year, meaning that only a short distance can be traveled each day compared to what is possible in the summer.  Vargas asks what he wants as payment for guiding the expedition, and he responds that he only wants two other men from Zuni to accompany him, with horses, buffalo hides, and supplies sufficient for the round-trip journey to be provided for each of the three.  Vargas agrees to this payment and tells him to show up at the camp the next morning and the horses and supplies will be ready for him.  Two Spanish-speaking men from Zuni offer to accompany Agustín, and Vargas is pleased, since he knows and trusts them.

November 28 (November 18, o.s.)

Jamaica: The Council meets in Port Royal and orders that HMS Guernsey be supplied. In regard to a letter from Governor Codrington of the Leeward Islands requesting military help, the councilors decide to respond that given the increasing military presence of the French at St. Domingue on Hispaniola, which lies between Jamaica and the Leewards, it would be impossible to provide any assistance.

Meanwhile, the Lords of Trade and Plantations meet in London.  They consider the petition dated August 30 by some of the Jews of Jamaica asking to be granted citizenship, addressed to Queen Mary, who had referred it to the Lords.  They decide to reject it.

Mexico/New Mexico: The viceroy, the Conde de Galve, meets with his junta of top officials to consider the request of Diego Trujillo on November 26 that ten or twelve priests be sent to New Mexico immediately.  The junta decides that Trujillo’s arguments are convincing and orders that twelve priests be sent immediately and funded as is customary.  They also decide to send a message to Governor Vargas relating the response of Father Juan de Capistrano to the governor’s nomination of Father Francisco de Vargas to head up the Franciscan order in the colony, including the reasons for appointing Father Salvador de San Antonio instead.

Father Francisco Farfán is selected to lead the group of priests being sent to New Mexico.  He has a draft drawn up entitling him to three years’ advance payment for the group, as has been customary for priests going to New Mexico, since the distance is so far and wagon trains so infrequent.  When he brings the draft to the treasurer for his signature, however, the treasurer refuses to sign, insisting that the junta only authorized one year of advance pay.  Farfán immediately writes to the viceroy, asking for clarification.  The viceroy, upon receiving the letter, confers with the junta and decides to authorize a year and a half of advance pay, since it is not yet clear how permanent the reconquest will be.  He sends a letter to Farfán to notify him so that he can have a draft drawn up for the appropriate amount.