Cabeza de Vaca, Castillo, Dorantes, and Estevánico, the black Moor from the west coast of Morocco, wandered through what is now Texas and the southern fringes of New Mexico between 1528 and 1536. In southern New Mexico, they crossed the Pecos River, some two hundred miles south of present-day Santa Rosa, New Mexico. Estevánico returned in 1539, with Fray Marcos de Niza, for further exploration of the region. Tales of the "Seven Cities of Gold" excited the explorers, but they found only squalor and poverty in the small villages they visited.
In 1541, Francisco Vásquez Coronado led a full-scale expedition through the region after establishing his base in Pueblo Indian country. On his way eastward in search of Quivira, the fabled city with streets paved with gold, he visited the Pecos Pueblo, which is located west of the headwaters of the Pecos River. The expedition proceeded southeasterly into the plains and built a bridge over the Pecos River near present-day Puerto de Luna. Like Marcos de Niza before him, Coronado found only a few huts, none with gold.
Spanish settlement of the region began in earnest following the conquest of New Mexico by Don Juan de Oñate in 1598. Oñate and his men established a headquarters at San Juan, near the confluence of the Río Grande and the Río Chama. In 1599, the Spaniards subdued the native peoples at Acoma and established the first permanent colony of Europeans in the populous Pueblo Indian country. Over the next two hundred and twenty years, New Mexico became a region dotted with Spanish missions that were linked to the Pueblos. Professional soldier-citizens were given land grants for their services, and, through farming and stock-raising, they exploited Indian labor.
