nency of this settlement secured. In 1610 the border was advanced to Rio del Fuerte, so named after the fort of Montesclaros there erected; and now the Jesuits began the conversion of Mayos and Yaquis. Thirty years later San Juan Bautista was founded in Sonora Valley, already made known by expeditions which had passed into the northern regions. All this country west of the Sierra Madre was ruled by a military captain appointed by the viceroy, but subject in civil matters to the governor at Durango. In Coahuila, Saltillo was formally founded in 1586, and Parras in 1598, partly by Tlascaltecs, while in Chihuahua it was not till 1631 that a presidio rose at Parral in the rich mining region, and permanent missions in 1639 among the Tarahumaras.[1]
Side by side with settlers and miners strode the friars, in this region, notably the Jesuits, whose aim was not alone to convert, but to pacify and prepare the natives for the yoke of Christ and the colonists. It was cheap and effective, this subjugation by the cross. Warfare against the wilder tribes of the north proved quite different from that against the more cultured and settled communities encountered by Cortes. Here the capture of a capital, the treaty with a ruler, generally sufficed to control the people; but among the northern tribes treaties availed little with the petty, irresponsible chieftains unless they were specially commissioned by the people, and to ravage their villages was seldom effective. Hence, after many and costly military operations. Viceroy Velasco had toward the close of the preceding century found it necessary to adopt a different course, and stoop to what may be termed humiliating concessions. But he stooped to conquer, for under shelter of this purchased peace missionaries crept forward to fasten a gradually tightening bond, secured at different points by military colonies. This policy did not succeed.in every quar-
- ↑ The history of Nueva Vizcaya, based on such standard authorities as Ibarra, Helacion; Durango, Doc. Hist., MS.; Sinaloa, Mem. Hist., MS.; Al-
