The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 18, July 1914 - April, 1915 Page: 222

The Southwestern Historical Quarterly

The Beginnings of Spanish Settlement in the El Paso District.
By Anne E. Hughes (University of California Publicatiors in
History, Volume I, No. 3. Pp. 295-392. Berkeley, 1914.)
The author of this monograph begins her study by summariz-
ing, principally from secondary sources, the northward expansion
of the Spaniards into New Mexico and Nueva Vizcaya. This
summary is the clearest and best statement of the movement which
has been made. The body of the work consist, of seven chapters.
In Chapter II is told the story of the founding, before 1680, of
the early missions and the civil settlement at El Paso. Chapter
ITI treats of the impetus giren these settlements by the coming
of the refugees from New Mexico after the Pueblo revolt of 1680,
and of the distribution of these refugees along the Rio Grande.
Chapter IV tells of the permanency given the new settlements at
El Paso, after the first attempt at reconquest, by the establish-
ment of the presidio there, and of the reorganization of the settle-
ments in 1683. Chapter V relates the story of the extensive re-
volt of the Mansos Indians and their neighbors, whose unrest
dated from 1680 and whose revolt was not quelled until 1685.
Chapter VI treats of the removal of the presidio and settlements,
and of their consolidation in the vicinity of El Paso in 1684;
Chapter VII, of the dissatisfaction among the settlers caused by
the change, of the efforts made to abandon El Paso, and of aid
from the superior government which insured the permanency of
the settlement; Chapter VIII, of the quarrel between New Mexico
and Nueva Vizcaya over the jurisdiction of the El Paso district,
and of the final decision in favor of New Mexico. Chapter IX
gives a short but comprehensive Summarv of the entire paper.
As a background for later seventeenth and for eighteenth cen-
tury history of New Mexico and Texas in particular, and in gen-
eral for the history of the whole southwest during that period,
this monograph is a notable contribution. Different readers will
receive from the story widely divergent impressions. The layman
will doubtless be surprised at the apparent minuteness of detail
and the large amount of new material brought together within
its pages. On the other hand, the scholar, familiar in a general
sense with the history of the period covered by Miss Hughes, will

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