The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 4, July 1900 - April, 1901 Page: 18

18 Texas Historical Association Quarterly.
caciques to their own territory, the two principal ones, after having
received baptism, fixed their residence in Jilotepec, the chief city
of the province of the Otomies. They were Nicolas de San Luis, a
descendant of the emperor 'of 'Thla and Jilotepec, and Fernando de
Tapia, 'of the first Otomi nobility; and they conceived the idea of
conquering the Chichimecas of San Juan del Rio and Queretaro.
They easily collected men -and the ,other necessary elements to under-
take the conquest, as rall the caciques of the vast province of Jilo-
tepec and 'Tula were thdir kinsmen, and most -of them had embraced
Christianity. 'Twenty caciques readily offered to follow 'them; and
their squadrons being formed, they went to the conquest .of the Chi-
chimecas, who were scattered over the territory now embracing
Queretaro, Guanajuato, 'San Luis Potosi, Zacatecas, and ,others, and
which territory was then called the "Great Chichimeca."
On St. John the Baptist's day, 1531, they entered and took pos-
session of the place where San Juan del Rio is now. They marched
thence towards the present site of Quer6taro, where a most singular
battle was fought, which terminated in favor of the Otomies on the
twenty-fifth of July, 1531. 'They 'captured many other places and
spread the settlements of Otomies from Jilotepec and Tula north-
ward into Queretaro, Guanajuato, San Luis Potosi, 'and parts of
Hidalgo.22
These were 'the people 'who had been met by :and had mingled with
the Nahoa family of the north, and had a common tongue with
them, or, 'at least, understood the Nahu'atl; and they are today a
living evidence of the former existence ,of the Otomi family; and
the Nahoas living in the State of Mexico and especially in the dis-
tricts of Toluca, Sultepec, and iChaloo de Diaz 'Covarrubias, are not
only proofs of the former existence of their family, but also of their
mingling 'with the Otoimies.
For 'the purposes 'of this paper, it is not deemed necessary to ex-
amine critically all the signs indicating the land from which the
Nahoa family came; nor is it proper to seize upon all that has been
rashly affirmed by those little versed in the traditions or tongues of
the family. The fact that 'tribes of this family were found in parts
of Tamaulipas, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, San Luis Potosi, and Hi-
2An interesting account of this war 'is given by Zamacois, Vol. IV, pp.
548-554.