im of precedence for Santa
Fe is based upon the statement (whether historically correct or not is
a question) that when the Spaniards first entered the region from the
southern portion of Mexico, about 1542, they found a very large Pueblo
town on the present site of Santa Fe, and that its prior existence
extended far back into the vanished centuries. This is contradicted
by other historians, who contend that the claim of Santa Fe to be the
oldest town in the United States rests entirely on imaginary annals of
an Indian Pueblo before the Spanish Conquest, and that there are but
slight indications that the town was built on the site of one.[9]

The reader may further satisfy himself on these mooted points by
consulting the mass of historical literature on New Mexico, and the
records of its primitive times are not surpassed in interest by those of
any other part of the continent. It was there the Europeans first made
great conquests, and some years prior to the landing of the Pilgrims, a
history of New Mexico, being the journal of Geronimo de Zarate Salmaron,
was published by the Church in the City of Mexico, early in 1600.
Salmaron was a Franciscan monk; a most zealous and indefatigable worker.
During his eight years' residence at Jemez, near Santa Fe, he claims
to have baptized over eight thousand Indians, converts to the Catholic
faith. His journal gives a description of the country, its mines, etc.,
and was made public in order that other monks reading it might emulate
his pious example.

Between 1605 and 1616 was founded the Villa of Santa Fe, or San
Francisco de la Santa Fe. "Villa," or village, was an honorary title,
always authorized and proclaimed by the king. Bancroft says that it was
first officially mentioned on the 3d of January, 1617.

The first immigration to New Mexico was under Don Juan de Onate about
1597, and in a year afterward, according to some authorities, Santa Fe
was settled. The place, as claimed by some historians, was then named
El Teguayo, a Spanish adaptation of the word "Tegua," the name of the
Pueblo nation, which was quite numerous, and occupied Santa Fe and the
contiguous country. It very soon, from its central position and charming
climate, became the leading Spanish town, and the capital of the
Province. The Spaniards, who came at first into the country as friends,
and were apparently eager to obtain the good-will of the intelligent
natives, shortly began to claim superiority, and to i