chiefs allowed them to enter the pass, and the country was named, after the dav, Provincia del Santo Nombre de Jesus. Passing across the San Pedro up a steep grade to a plateau, they were ceremoniously received by four hundred young warriors; further on they met the priests of the sun and Nayarit nobility. They were greeted with the barbarous etiquette of the sierra tribes. The savages readily went through the forms of submission to the authority of Felipe V., but refused to change their religion.
Argument was in vain, and after several days of festivity the Spaniards noted some peculiarities of conduct on the part of their hosts, which prompted them to retire with more alacrity than they had entered.[1]
The mountaineers now became more haughty and daring than ever, until the tribes of the coast, tired of their continued outrages, assumed about 1718 a hostile attitude, attacked small parties which ventured out of the stronghold, and finally were able to cut off Nayarit communication with the coast. Then came a new cédula urging as usual active measures for the breaking up of this last refuge of idolatry in Nueva Galicia. The viceroy put the matter into the hands of Martin Verdugo de Haro, corregidor of Zacatecas, and the latter intrusted it to Juan de la Torre Valdés y Gamboa, a rich and popular citizen of Jerez, with the suggestion that a Nayarit representative be induced to visit Mexico. Circumstances were favorable, since the Nayarits were in great trouble about the cutting-off of their salt supply for consumption and trade. Pablo Felipe, native chief and governor at San Nicolás, exerted his diplomatic powers in favor of Spanish interests, and, particularly in the interests of his friend Torre, easily persuaded the Indians that the viceroy alone could efectually redress their wrongs, that a personal application to that official was essential,
- ↑ A letter to the bishop, February 25, 1716, by Father Solchaga, who accompanied this expedition as chaplain, is the authority given in Apostólicos Afanes, 63-73; it is followed in Alegre, Hist. Comp., iii. 199-201. Other writers do not mention Mendiola's expedition.
