In 1531 Nuño de Guzman passed through Pénjamo to the vicinity of the site of Guanajuato, and added the territory to his conquests. For seventy years the Chichimecs disputed with persistent bravery their right to the soil, until in 1598 peace was established by Rodrigo del Rio, who, in the name of the king of Spain, promised to supply the Indians with food and clothing on the conditions that they should tender allegiance and keep in subjection the refractory. At the same time the viceroy caused to settle there some Tlascaltecs and Aztecs, who instructed the Chichimecs in agricultural and mechanical industries, all under the guidance of missionaries. The first settlements in this province grew out of the establishment by Viceroy Velasco the first, of the presidios at the places now known as San Felipe and San Miguel, as a frontier protection against the Chichimecs; but on the discovery of the Guanajuato mines, as narrated in a previous volume,[1] a small fort was erected in 1554 on the site where Marfil stands, and was called a real de minas. A few years later another real de minas[2] was established at Tepetapa, which is the name of one of the wards of Guanajuato city. For many years this latter settlement was a place of little importance and few inhabitants, and was under the jurisdiction of the alcalde mayor of Celaya. At the close of the sixteenth century a curacy was founded, the population at that time being about four thousand. From this date, owing to the richness of the mines in the vicinity, the prosperity of Guanajuato increased rapidly, and in 1679 the king of Spain granted it the title of villa y real de minas de Santa Fé de Guanajuato.[3]
- ↑ Hist. Mex., iii. 588, this series.
- ↑ In the times of the conquest, the site on which a Spanish army encamped was called 'real,' and not infrequently was partially fortified. Real de minas, therefore, means a military station in a mining district.
- ↑ The name of Santa Fé had been given to the place in 1658 by the oidor Antonio de Lara y Mogrovejo, who had been commissioned by Viceroy Alburquerque to preside over the elaboration of the silver accruing to the crown in that district. Medina, Ib.; Romero, Mich., 157. 'Elle reçut le privilége royal de villa in 1619.' Humboldt, Essai Pol., i. 247. This date must be a misprint.
