This book, originally published in 1989 and long unavailable, is reissued in conjunction with the completed multi-volume translation of the official correspondence of don Diego De Vargas, late seventeenth-century governor and re-coloniser of New Mexico. These personal letters not only illuminate their author but the history of New Mexico as don Diego experienced it. Like the Journals of don Diego de Vargas, this volume reflects years of document collection, translation, and annotation by the Vargas Project directed by John L Kessell.

A documentary account of the resettlement of New Mexico composed of journals and official government records from the late 17th century.

The little-studied witchcraft trial that took place at Abiquiu, New Mexico, between 1756 and 1766 is the centerpiece of this book. The witchcraft outbreak took place less than a century after the Pueblo Revolt and symbolized a resistance by the Genzaros (hispanicized Indians) of Abiquiu to forced Christianization.

The Abiquiu Genzaro land grant where the witchcraft outbreak occurred was the crown jewel of Governor Vlez Cachupns plan to achieve peace for the early New Mexican colonists. They were caught between the Pueblo Indians' resistance to Christianization and raids by the nomadic...

This long-lost journal, now available in paperback, gives a unique look into the old Navajo country. Recently rediscovered, it is both the earliest and only extensive eyewitness account of the traditional Navajo homeland in the eighteenth century. It reveals new information on Hispanic New Mexico and relations with the Indians. For the first twenty days in August of 1705, Roque Madrid led about 100 Spanish soldiers and citizens together with some 300 Pueblo Indian allies on a 312-mile march in retaliation for Navajo raiding. The bilingual text permits appreciation of the unusually literate...

Having retaken Santa Fe by force of arms late in 1693, Diego de Vargas faces unrelenting challenges, waging active warfare against defiant Pueblo Indian resisters while maintaining peace with Pueblo allies; providing homes, food, and supplies for 1,500 unsure colonists; and bidding unceasingly for greater support from viceregal authorities in Mexico City. At the head of combined units of Spanish and Pueblo fighting men, the governor in 1694 leads repeated assaults on castle-like fortified sites. Through combat, prisoner exchange, and negotiation, he reestablishes the kingdom. Franciscans...