Chamuscado and Rodriguez Expedition

The Chamuscado and Rodríguez Expedition visited New Mexico in 1581-1582. The expedition was led by Francisco Sánchez, called "El Chamuscado," and Fray Agustín Rodríguez, the first Spaniards known to have visited the Pueblo Indians since Francisco Vásquez de Coronado 40 years earlier.

Fray Agustín Rodríguez, stationed near the mining town of Santa Barbara, Chihuahua, the northernmost outpost of New Spain, organized the expedition. In 1579, Rodríguez became interested when an Indian told him of settlements to the north in which the Indians grew cotton and wove cloth. To the Spanish this meant that the Indians were civilized beings who might be made Christian. Rodríguez got permission from Spanish authorities "for the purpose of preaching the Holy Gospel." Rodríguez apparently had little familiarity with Coronado's expedition but had read the account of Cabeza de Vaca.

The expedition left Santa Barbara on June 5, 1581. The appointed leader was El Chamuscado (Spanish for "scorched"), so-called because of his flaming red beard. The expedition included nine Spanish soldiers, three Catholic clerics, including Agustín, and 19 Indian servants, including two women. The soldiers were well armed and mounted; the expedition took along ninety horses and 600 sheep, goats, cattle and pigs. The expedition was also authorized to explore the country for valuable minerals.

The expedition proceeded down the Conchos River to its junction with the Rio Grande. Along more than one hundred miles of the Conchos River lived the Concho and Raya Indians who spoke the same language and were "naked and lived on roots and other things." Downriver, occupying 40 miles of the river banks were the Cabris or Pasaguantes, also "naked" but speaking a different language and cultivating squash and beans in addition to gathering wild plants. They were described as "very handsome." Both the Concho and the Cabri had been victims of slave raids by Spaniards indicating that Spanish slavers had preceded the official expedition of Chamuscado and Rodríguez.

Near La Junta, the junction of the Conchos River and the Rio Grande, Chamuscado and Rodríguez found several groups of Indians. At the junction and south were the Abraidres; northward were the Patarabueyes and Otomoacos or Amotomancos. They were friendly, the men described as "handsome" and the women "beautiful". They lived in wattled houses and grew squash and beans, but the Spanish considered them "naked and barbarous people." (See La Junta Indians) Northwards, near present-day El Paso lived the Caguates. They lived in mud brick houses and, while growing corn and beans, they also journeyed to the Great Plains to hunt buffalo and ate fish caught in the river. The explorers estimated that the Indians between La Junta and El Paso numbered about 10,000. The Indians directed the Spanish to follow the Rio Grande upstream to where they would find "houses two stories high and of good appearance, built of mud walls and white inside, the people being dressed in cotton." Scholars debate which of these various tribes, if any, were the people later known as Jumanos.

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