administration of his vast colonial empire.

[12]   AASF, Patentes, book lxxiii, box 6.

[13]   "The Penitentes of the Southwest" (unpublished Ph. D. dissertation, Yale University, 1935).

[14]   Chavez, Archives, p. 3 (ftn.).

[15]   Fray Francisco Atanasio Domínguez, The Missions of New Mexico, 1776, transl. and annot. Eleanor B. Adams and Fray Angelico Chavez (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1956), p. 124.

[16]   Domínguez, ms., from Biblioteca Nacional de Méjico, leg. 10, no. 46, p. 300.

[17]   Ibid., no. 43, p. 321.

[18]   Chavez, "Penitentes," p. 100.

The History of Abiquiú

Figure 1. Mid-19th-century New Mexico, showing pertinent geographical features, Indian pueblos (indicated by solid triangles), and Spanish villages cited in text.

About three generations before the first morada was built at Abiquiú, the conditions of settlement mentioned earlier and subsequent historical events resulted in an environment conducive to the development of penitente activity. Shortly after 1740, civil authorities in Santa Fe attempted to settle colonists along the Chama River in order to create a buffer zone between marauding Indians to the northwest and Spanish and Pueblo villages on the Rio Grande (Figure 1). This constant threat of annihilation produced self-reliant and independent-minded settlers.

Unorthodoxy appeared early in the religious history of Abiquiú. By 1744, settlers had installed Santa Rosa de Lima as their patroness in a little riverside plaza near modern Abiquiú. After a decade, several colonists from Santa Rosa were moved to the hilltop plaza of Abiquiú, where the mission of Santo Tomás Apostol had been established. In his 1776 visit to Abiquiú, Domínguez noted, however, a continuing allegiance to the earlier patroness: "... settlers use the name of Santa Rosa, as the lost mission was called in the old days. Therefore, they celebrate the feast of this female saint [August 30th] and not of that masculine saint [St. Thomas the Apostle, December 21]."[19] Loyalty to Saint Rose survived this official protest, and village festivals have persisted in honoring Santa Rosa to this day. It is, therefore, not surprising to find her image in the earlier east morada of Abiquiú.

A disturbing influence in the religious life of Abiquiú were semi-Christianized servants (genízaros), who had been ransomed from the Indians by Spaniards.[20] Often used to establish frontier settlements, genízaros came to be a threat to the cultural stability of Abiquiú. For example, in 1762, two genízaros accused of witchcraft were taken to Santa Cruz for judicial action. After the trial, Governor Cachupín sent a detachment from Santa Fe to Abiquiú to destroy an inscribed stone said to be a relic of black magic.[21] Similar incidents with genízaros during the next generation prolonged the unstable religious pattern at Abiquiú. In 1766, an Indian girl accused a genízaro couple of killing the resident priest, Fray Felix Ordoñez y Machado, by witchcraft.[22] And again in 1782 and 1786, charges of apostasy were entered against Abiquiú genízaros.[23]

Another disturbing element in the religious history of Abiquiú was the disinterest of her settlers in the building and furnishing of Santo Tomás Mission. Although the structure was completed in the first generation of settlement at Abiquiú, 1755 to 1776, Domínguez could report only two contributions from colonists, both loans: "In this room [sacristy] there is an ordinary table with a drawer and key ... a loan from a settler called Juan Pablo Martin ... the chalice is in three pieces, and one of them, for it is a loan by the settlers, is used for a little shrine they have."[24] All mission equipment was supplied by royal funds (sínodos) except some religious articles provided by the resident missionary, Fray Fernández, who finished the structure raised half way by his predecessor, Fray Juan José Toledo. Both Franciscans found settlers busy with everyday problems of survival and resentful when called on to labor for the mission. The settlers not only failed to supply any objects, but when they were required to work at the mission, all tools and equipment had to be supplied to them.[25]

Despite these detrimental influences, the mission at Abiquiú continued to grow. Between 1760 and 1793, the population increased from 733 to 1,363, making Abiquiú the third largest settlement in colonial New Mexico north of Paso del Norte [Ciudad Juarez].[26] (Only Santa Cruz with 1,650 and Santa Fe with 2,419 persons were larger.) In 1795, the pueblo had maintained its size at 1,558, with Indians representing less than 10 percent of the population.public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@44678@[email protected]#Foot_27" id="Ref_27"