for we find that on the 16th of August, 1585, the grants extended to the latter by the alcalde referred to were confirmed and amplified by Governor Carabajal.[1]
The new city of Leon does not appear to have made much progress under Governor Carabajal. But we have no further data concerning the province at this time, except that in 1591 Gaspar de Castaño, who seems to have acted as lieutenant-governor of New Leon, marched with about two hundred men through that territory and Coahuila, on his way to New Mexico.[2]
Two years later the first Franciscans obtained a permanent foothold in the province, under Father Andrés de Leon, who was accompanied by fathers Diego de Arcaya and Antonio Zalduende. These friars were of the number who accompanied the expedition despatched by Velasco, with the Tlascaltec families, to colonize the Chichimec country. Having reached Saltillo, where they founded the village of San Estévan, adjoining the convent of that name, they penetrated to the valley of Estremadura, and founded a large mission at a place known to-day as Piedra Parada, distant about a league from Leon. Father Zalduende then returned and continued his missionary labors in the interior of Coahuila.
Governor Carabajal died about 1595,[3] and Pedro Rodriguez, who may have been an alcalde, was left in charge of the government when the colony was struggling for existence. In 1596 Diego de Montemayor was made lieutenant-governor and captain-general of
- ↑ 'Este auto de revalidacion está puesto en la ciudad de Leon, del Nuevo Reyno de Leon.' Gonzalez, Col. N. Leon, p. vi. 5. 'He hallado aqui un documento . . . que prueba que el año de 1584 San Luis era villa, y capital de la provincia, regida por un alcalde Mayor, que lo era Gaspar de Castaño, cuya jurisdiccion se estendia hasta el Nuevo Reyno de Leon.' No mention is made of the proceedings of Carabajal after this, but it is not improbable he employed several years in completing his project.
- ↑ Sosa, Mem., in Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc., iv. 283-354; also Id., xv. 191-261.
- ↑ Calle, Mem. y Not., 105. The exact time of his death is not given.
