This is one in a series of chronologies on historic contributions of Basques posted in Euskal Kazeta.

RELATED CHRONOLOGIES:
Basques in the Americas 1492-1592
Basques in the Americas 1592-1692
Basques in the Americas 1792-1893
Captain José Diaz del Carpio

1733– Captain José Diaz del Carpio, from Gamarra, Alaba, is made commander of Jano presidio in Sonora.

1734– Fernández de Jáuregui y Urrutia is named captain general of Nuevo León.

1735– Francisco de Garrastegui is alcalde mayor of Sonora and opens the borders of Sonora to Anza for further exploration. José de Mesa and Francisco de Longoria sue Garrastegui as they wish to be commissioned to make the northern explorations.

1735– Francisco Antonio González de Echavarry y Ugarte, from Gasteiz, is judge of the High Court of Mexico City. After holding this position for thirty years, he is appointed Mexico City’s governor and captain general.

1736– Michel de Salaberry is a successful commercial shipper between Quebec and France. He is a naval officer and a ship owner from the Irumberry family. He plays a major role in creating strong ties between New France and France.

1736– José de Echevarria is Father Visitor of the missions in Sonora. At the same time, fray Juan de Echagoyen is a missionary at Baviácora.

Martin de Elizacoechea

1737– Martin de Elizacoechea, born in Azpilkueta, Nafarroa, becomes Bishop of Durango, Kingdom of Nueva Vizcaya, Mexico. (He had also been dean and chancellor of the University of Mexico and bishop of Cuba and Michoacán.) Pedro de Echenique and Juan Ignacio de Arrasain, fellow Nafarroans, are his personal secretary and confessor, respectively.
Elizacoechea is addressed as, “Doctor don Martín de Elizacoechea, bishop of Durango, the kingdom of Nueva Viscaya, its confines, and the provinces of New Mexico,

Bill Douglass’ “Amerikanuak” is the most comprehensive book written about Basque exploration of the New World.

Tarahumara, Sonora, Sinaloa, Pimas, Moqui, and of His Majesty’s Council.”

1737– Elizacoechea and his confessor, Arrasain, pass the cliffs of El Morro in New Mexico and leaves the following inscriptions, translated from the Spanish:

The 28th day of September of the year 1737 there arrived here the very illustrious Señor Doctor Don Martín de Elizacochea Bishop of Durango and on the 29th went on to Zuni.

The 28th day of September of the year 1737 There arrived here the Bachelor [of Arts] Don Juan Ignacio
de Arrasain

Juan Bautista de Anza, the Elder

1736– Juan Bautista de Anza, The Younger is born on July 7 in the village of Cuqiárachi, Sonora.

1737– Juan Bautista de Anza, the Elder, Chief Justice of Sonora, petitions Viceroy and Archbishop Juan Antonio de Vizarrón y Equiarreta to open a land route from Sonora to Alta California.

1737– Fray José de Arlegui publishes his La Crónica de la Provincia de N.S.P.S. Francisco de Zacatecas. It is a fanciful, error-filled history of the province of Nueva Leon which causes confusion and the spread of misinformation that is not resolved until modern research proves its inconsistencies.

1739– The eighteen-century marks extensive economic growth in Cuba. The crowning event is when El Real Compania de Comercio de la Habana (The Royal Company of Commerce of Havana) is formed. The company is created with Basque capital and holds monopolies on Havana’s foreign commerce in tobacco, sugar, leather, and shipyards for many years. It is lead by Martín de Arostegui Larrea. Among his business contacts and associates in Cuba and Europe are: José de Iturrigaray, Miguel Antonio de Zuazábar, Juan Bautista de Zuazábar, Francísco de Aldecoa, Agustín de Aldecoa, Andres de Otamendi, Bernardo de Goicoa and Luís Ibarra. Unfortunately, Arostegui actually concentrates on trading slaves and selling tobacco for his own personal gain to the British American colonies rather than to Spain. His business partners learn of his deeds and in 1752 he is arrested and removed from the company.

However, almost all commerce to and from the New World passes through Havana. Historian Pastor states that, “Cuba’s eighteenth-century could be characterized, especially qualitatively, as a period of Basque preeminence.” Basques constitute an influential and powerful pressure group in the island’s social, economic, and cultural events. Domingo de Lizundia y Odria de Echeverría, from Guipuzkoa, is treasurer of the Royal Tobacco Income. His daughter marries Araban brigadier Matías de Armona y Murga. José de Lizundiá, Domingo’s brother, and a member of the Council of His Majesty in the Head Accountants’ Office and administrator general of royal income, marries into the family of Bizkaian José de Beitia y Rentería, the marquis of Real Socorro. It is one of the wealthiest and most influential Basque families in Cuba

1739– José de Urrutia, mentioned previously, leads a campaign against the Apache in what is now known as the Texas Hill Country. This campaign would bring a short period
of peace and stability to the area. Urrutia has many holdings in Coahulia and Texas He dies in San Antonio on July 16, 1741. (Urrutia had great respect for the abilities of the Apache.)

1740– Toribio Urrutia, son of José, takes command of San Antonio for his ailing father. Other Basques in San Antonio at the time are: Fernando de Arocha, José de Arocha, José Gil de Leyola, José María Oliberri, Manuel Urrutia and José María Urrutia.

1740– While returning home from patrol on May 9, Juan Bautista de Anza, the Elder, Sonoran hero and Captain of the royal presidio of Fronteras, is killed by arrows from a lightning-quick Apache ambush. His burial place is unknown.

(When Anza became captain of the presidio at Fronteras he was responsible for protecting a huge area of more than 100,000 square miles. This was more than ten times larger than the entire Basque Country and he had only 50 soldiers to patrol it with. One-quarter to one-third of the area was in what is now Arizona and it was from this section of the territory that the Apache staged most of their raids into lower Sonora.)

Anza’s accomplishments are far too numerous to mention here. Please see Donald Garate’s “Juan Bautista de Anza, Basque Explorer in the New World, 1693-1740.”

According to historian Garate, the Apache attacked somewhere in the Pimería Alta (southern Arizona and northern Sonora) almost every month during the full moon. They used the darkness of the night for cover and the light of the moon for swift travel.

1740– On May 12 José Diaz Del Carpio, captain of the Jano presidio, leads an attack on a fairly large group of Apache warriors as revenge over the killing of Anza. He kills 13 and takes another 14 as prisoners. It is not known if the Indians he killed were, in fact, responsible for Anza’s death.

(The illustration by Frederick Remington on the front page of this document depicts the armor worn by the Spanish in the early years of conquest. By the late 1600’s and early 1700’s the soldiers had switched to layers of leather on long coats to replace the metallic body armor. They also carried a leather shield and were armed with firearms and lances. They wore flat, broad hats to replace the helmets of earlier years. Both forms of protection were heavy and hot. According to Garate, each soldier on the frontier was also required to have ten horses and one pack mule. Officers were often required to have as many as fifteen horses and a pack mule.)

Agustín de Vildósola

1740– In August, Agustín de Vildósola defeats a force of more than 6,000 rebelling Indians in Sonora. A year later, Vildósola, who had primarily been a mining developer in northern Mexico since the early 1720s, becomes the second governor of Sonora.

1741– Blas de Lezo y Olavarrieta, after very successful terms in the French and Spanish navy, is best known for his leadership as Commander General of Cartagena, Columbia. The British attack Cartagena in 1741 with one of the largest war fleets in history. The Spanish, greatly outnumbered prevail under Lezo’s leadership after a vicious battle that lasts sixty-seven days. His defeat of the British assures the preservation of the Spanish Empire in the Americas. He dies from the plague, caused by the large numbers of unburied corpses.

1742– By this time, Basques have been in the New World for over two hundred and fifty years.

1742– Fray José Buzeta introduces potable water to Guadalajara.

1745– Fray Pedro Yrigoyen has success with the conversion of the Moqui.

1747- Agustín de Vildósola establishes the presidio of Pitic in northern Sonora. In the same year, Basque friars Francisco Xavier de Anaya, Agustín de Arriola and Gabriel de Urrutia are also serving in the area.

Gabriel Antonio de Vildósola
1747– Gabriel Antonio de Vildósola, from Elejabeitia, Bizkaia and a distant relative of Agustín, is living in the Pimería Alta region of northern Sonora at the royal mining town of Real de Basochuca. There, on February 1, he marries Josefa Gregoria Juaquina de Anza, the fourteen-year old daughter of Juan Bautista de Anza, the Elder.

1749– Three missions are established on the San Gabriel River in Texas. Fray Juan José Ganzabal is the head of Mission San Ildofonso. In 1751 Captain Felipe de Rábago y Terán is appointed commandant of the nearby presidio of San Francisco Xavier de Gigedo. Rábago has an affair with the wife of soldier Juan José Ceballos. Ganzabal delivers a decree of excommunication to Rábago. On May 11, 1752 gunshots and arrows kill Ganzabal and Ceballos. The attack was certainly instigated by Rábago but was blamed on Indians.

1751– Juan Bautista de Anza II joins the Spanish militia at the age of 15. His brother-in-law, Gabriel Antonio de Vildósola, becomes his military mentor.

1751– In November, the Pima Indians in Sonora begin a bloody revolt against every outpost, mission and ranch in the area. Scores of Spanish men, women and children are killed, in addition to friendly Indians. Pima chief Captain-General Luís Oacicagigua leads the revolt.

1751– Led by Lieutenant Bernardo de Urrea, the Spanish decisively defeat Pima rebels at Aribaca.

1752– Captain José Diaz del Carpio sends a note to Pima chief Oacicagigua asking him to surrender. Oacicagigua consents and walks alone into Tubac to present himself to Del Carpio. The Pima revolt is over. If Oacicagigua had not surrendered, the Spanish retaliation would have been the bloody extermination of the Pima.

1752– Juan Tomás de Beldarrain, commander of the Company of Sinaloa, is made the first commander of the Royal Fort of St. Ignatius at Tubac in what is now Arizona.

1752– Don Bernardo de Urrea, Captain of the Altar presidio puts down a rebellion by the Pimas Altas Indians. As a result the Pimas settle down at the neighboring missions.

1752– Ignace-Michel-Louis Antoine d’Irumberry de Salaberry is born in Quebec. Son of previously mentioned Michele de Salaberry, Ignace fights against the Americans in the Battle of Saratoga, New York in 1777.

1752– Manuel de Aldaco, the leading silver banker of his day and Ambrosio de Meave and Francisco de Echeveste, both successful merchants, found El Colegio de San Ignacio de Mexico. Know as the Colegio de las Vizcainas, it is a school for orphan Basque girls.

1753-1754 Captain Bernardo de Urrea is the founding commandant of the presidio of Altar, Sonora. Later, his sons and their descendents become leaders in the province.
Mariano de Urrea, Bernardo’s grandson, is commandant of Altar from 1805 to 1811 and Mariano’s son, José de Urrea, Bernardo’s great grandson, becomes a notable general to be mentioned later.

1754– Gabriel Antonio de Vildósola is appointed captain of the Presidio of Fronteras. Basque Francisco Bustamante will also command Fronteras.

1755– On May 15, captain in charge Tomás de la Barrera y Gallardo, his wife Doña Catalina de Uribe, their nine children and seven servants lead three other families to settle Laredo.

1756– Don Juan Antonio de Urrutia y Arana is a powerful and wealthy noble and patron of the arts in eighteenth century Queretaro, Mexico. In Queretaro he is also responsible for the building of an aqueduct to bring drinking water to the city from nearby springs. It is composed of seventy-four stone arches that run almost a mile and in places are over seventy feet high.

1756- Gabriel Vildósola leads soldiers against the Gila Apache in an effort to secure a safe route between Sonora and Santa Fe.

1756- Anza II, age 20, is made cavalry lieutenant at Fronteras. The Apache will wound him on two different occasions.

1758- José Antonio de Cuervo purchases the estancia, Confradía de los Animas, from Vincente de Saldivar. Among other things, Saldivar has been producing mezcal at the location for years. Cuervo becomes the first licensed producer of mezcal tequila. His descendent, José María Guadalupe Cuervo, uses the land to build a tequila distillery. In 1900, José Cuervo Labastida changes the name of the tequila brand to “José Cuervo.”

1758– Joachin de Usarraga is ensign in charge of the Pimería Alta Company.

1759- On September 7 Juan Tomás de Beldarrain, first Captain of Tubac presidio in Arizona, dies from wounds caused by a poisoned Seri Indian arrow. He is buried at Mission Guevavi, now only eroding mounds of adobe. Governor Juan de Mendoza appoints Juan Bautista de Anza, II, to take his place. (An interesting note provided by historian Garate is that Juan Tomás de Beldarrain and Ambrosio de Meave, the financier who controlled the money for all of Nueva España in the last quarter of the 18th century, were born and raised directly across the street from each other in Durango, Bizkaia.)

José Antonio de Vildósola

1759- José Antonio de Vildósola, Gabriel’s nephew, takes Anza’s place as lieutenant at Fronteras. His arrival date in Mexico from the Basque Country is unknown.

1759-1776- Julián de Arriaga is Minister of the Indies. He is accountable only to the king.

1760– Governor Mendoza is struck in the throat by a poisoned Seri arrow near Saracachi, Sonora. He is brought back to Horcasitas where he dies two days later on November 27.

Life at this time on the northern frontier of Mexico is extremely tenuous. Indians could overrun the tiny settlements in an instant. No one knew when an arrow or a club or spear would end his or her life. Priests living in this wilderness mentioned in letters to each other that they expect to be killed as “God’s will.”

In a 1761 letter to Minister of the Indies, Julián de Arriaga, Bishop of Durango Pedro Tamarón y Romeral, tells Arriaga that between the years of 1749 and 1763 the Apache killed more than 800 people and destroy approximately $4 million pesos worth of property, all within a two hundred mile radius of Chihuahua. Flourishing cattle ranches, farms and missions are abandoned along with some of the silver mines because the roads used for the transportation of ore and supplies are unsafe.
In his book on Anza, Garate quotes Anza, the Elder, as saying, “With good reason the inhabitants of the province are fearful of seeing themselves destroyed by such a cruel and pernicious enemy. Yet, since it is difficult to know where the Apaches are going to vent their fury next, it is difficult to guard against them.” Garate states that the Sonoran area was “…one of the wildest, harshest, and least-tamed frontiers of the New World.” However, as in other areas, smallpox and measles epidemics kill many more people in Sonora than all the Apache wars combined.

1760– Francisco Antonio de Echévarri is Viceroy of Mexico.

1760– Fray Joséph Manuel Díaz del Carpio, probably the son of Captain Joséph Díaz del Carpio, former commandant at Terrenate, is the priest at Tubac.

1760’s- José Antonio Aguirre and his bother-in-law Miguel de Pedrorena and three Americans plan and are owners of the city of San Diego.

1760’s-1790’s– José Joaquín Lecuona is treasurer in Mexico for expeditions to Sonora, Nueva Vizcaya, Loreto, San Blas and California.

1761– Francisco Xavier de Gamboa publishes Commentaries on the Mining Ordinances regarding the technical aspects of mining gold and silver in Mexico.

1761– On June 24, Juan Bautista de Anza II marries Anna María Pérez Serrano. As is the custom of the day, the marriage needs to be approved by governor of the province who happens to be long-time friend of the Anza family, Bernardo de Urrea.

1761– José Manuel Diaz del Carpio, son of José Diaz del Carpio, the Janos commander who attempted to avenge Anza II father’s death, serves as military chaplain at Tubac. José Manuel is a brother-in-law of Anna María Pérez Serrano as his brother, Ignacio, is married to a sister of Anza, María Gertrudis de Anza.

1761-1762– Gabriel and José Vildósola, along with Anza II are involved in campaigns against the Seri and Apache in the Gila River area.

1762– In the fall, a joint campaign against the Seri involves several Basque presidio commanders: Anza from Tubac, Bernardo de Urrea from Altar, Gabriel de Vildósola from Fronteras and José de Leizaloa from Janos.

1763– Luis Antonio Menchaca, grandson of José Urrutia, takes command of San Antonio.

1764– Lieutenant Colonel Juan de Ugalde, son of Brigadier General Miguel and Doña Catalina González de Ugalde, is sent to South America where he is Corregidor of
Cochabamba, Bolivia until 1772 when he returns to Spain. He will return to the New World as an Indian fighter in1776.

1764– Second lieutenant Joseph Ramón de Urrutia y De Las Casas, born in Casa de la Mella, Bizkaia, comes to New Spain. He is a trained cartographer and on a 1766-1768 expedition to the northern frontier of New Spain he draws a comprehensive map of the entire area plus 22 plans of various presidios and towns visited during the expedition.
(Urrutia’s amazing drawings can be see on the Tumacácori website.) In 1770 he returns to Spain and takes various assignments around the world. He is appointed field marshal and in 1795 he is named captain-general of the armies of Spain. In 1797 he becomes a member of the King’s Supreme Council of War. He dies on March 1, 1803 in Madrid. A full-length portrait of Urrutia by Francisco Goya hangs in the Museo del Prado in Madrid.

1765– Juan Bautista de Anza II makes Joséph Antonio de Huandurraga ensign at Tubac. Huandurraga is hated by the lower ranking soldiers because of his harsh and cruel discipline and his sexual advances towards the married women of the presidio. He did, however, stage a successful defense of Mission San Xavier del Bac, near Tucson, against the Apache while Anza was south on another campaign.

1767– At San Blas de Nayarit, on the Pacific coast of Mexico, a naval base is built to launch new explorations and provision colonies. San Blas is the most important sea base in the North Pacific from 1767 to 1797. The first administrator of the region is Juan de Urrengoechea y Arrinda. The three head ship builders are also Basques, Pedro de Yzaguirre, Francisco Segurola and Manuel de Bastarrechea.

1767– The King of Spain recalls and exports all the Jesuit priests from Nueva España
back to Spain. The Franciscans take their place.

1768-1772– In Sonora, Indian outbreaks are numerous and the principal cause for the decline of the province according to one frontier Padre.

1768– In May, General Domingo Elizondo is sent to Sonora from Spain with 1,100 troops to put down uprisings and raids by Seri, Pima, Suaqui and Sibubapa Indians.

1769– General Elizondo leads four divisions against the Seri. Gabriel de Vildósola leads one of the divisions. One of his officers is Ignacio de Urrea of the Altar presidio and Gabriel’s nephew, Antonio, leads the scouts. Juan Bautista de Anza II serves under Elizondo and Miguel Gregorio de Echarri is Elizondo’s supply officer.
In April of 1771, after 38 months, the Seri War is abandoned as being far too costly and largely unsuccessful due to the Indians’ effective guerrilla-fighting techniques.

Says Historian David Weber: “Spain’s goal, of course, had not been the annihilation of the Indians, but rather their transformation into tax-paying Christians.” However, the continued loss of their territories, native religion and culture, being forced into unpaid labor and the exposure to new diseases made a peaceful transition into the Spanish lifestyle very difficult.

Antonio María Bucareli y Ursúa
1768– Antonio María Bucareli y Ursúa is appointed Governor and Captain General of Cuba. Of Basque descent on his mother’s side he is appointed Viceroy of Nueva España in 1771 and holds the office until he dies on April 19, 1779. He is noted for the prudent and humane administration of his office and, under his leadership, Mexico enjoys greater prosperity and security than most of Spanish America. (Historian Herbert E. Bolton says Bucareli y Ursúa is “…one of the ablest of all the corps of remarkable officials who served New Spain in the later eighteenth century…”) It is by his earlier order that Felipe de Neve founds the city of Los Angeles, Alta California in 1781.

Jacobo de Ugarte y Loyola

1769– Jacobo de Ugarte y Loyola is appointed governor of Coahuila. Born in Bizkaia, before coming to Mexico he is in fourteen European and African campaigns and spends eight years as governor and military commandant in Peru.

1769– Gaspar de Portola’s expedition into present day California includes friar Juan Viscaino and Mallorcan friar, Junipero Serra.

1769– On July 16, Father Serra, accompanied by fellow Franciscans Juan Vizcaino, Fernando Parron and Francisco Gomez blesses the site of Mission San Diego de Alcala, the first mission in Alta California.

1770– The following soldiers of Basque descent served in San Diego between 1770 and 1774: Juan Antonio Ibarra, Manuel Bernal, Salvador Carreaga and Pedro Lisalde. At Monterrey at the same time are: Dionisio Bernal, Ignacio Cantua, José María Gongora and Ramon Ibarra.

1770– Wealthy Cuban Basques, Silvestre Abarca y Aznar and Agustín Cramer Mañecas, both originally from Nafarroa, construct the warehouse of the Royal Tobacco Trading Post. It remains one of Havana’s main buildings until the early 20th Century.

Many Basques are prominent in the mercantile business of Cuba. Among these are: Sebastián de Arratibel Zafinea, Gabriel Francisco de Ercaizti Goizueta, Francisco Isaac de Mendiola y Múgica, Juan Ignacio Urriza, and Domingo Ugarte Zubiate. Zubiate marries María Jesús Arostegui, the daughter of one of the founders of the Royal Company of Commerce of Havana, Martín de Arostegui Larrea.

In addition, Sebastián de Lasa y Irala, from Gipuzkoa, and his son, introduce new types of sugar cane to the island.

1771-1776– It is still very dangerous in northern Mexico. According to historian Alfred Thomas, n Nueva Vizcaya alone, Indians kill 1,963 people, destroy 116 ranches and settlements and take almost 80,000 head of livestock.

1771– José Antonio de Vildósola is made captain of the presidio of Terrenate.

1771– Governor of New Mexico Fermín de Mendinueta negotiates peace with the Comanche. Mendinueta must deal with several different tribes from all sides of the province, all threatening war.

1771– Catalan Friar Palou is appointed religious leader of the Alta California missions with Basque José Antonio de Murguia as his aide.

1771– Friar Juan José Agorreta serves briefly at mission Tumacácori.

1771-1776– Historian Alfred Thomas states that in Nueva Viscaya Indians killed 1,963 people, depopulated 116 ranches and settlements and stole 77,000 head of livestock.

1772– Three Basques are in charge of Alta California missions: Gregorio Amurrio, San Diego; Fermín Francisco de Lasuén, San Gabriel and Juan Prestamero, San Luis Obispo. Catholic missionaries, including the Basques, bring livestock and many food crops into the areas they settle, which become the basis for future agricultural endeavors.

1772– Domingo de Bonechea Andonaegui, born in Geteria in 1713, makes his first voyage to Tahiti. Sailing from Callao, Peru this is a preliminary trip to try and add Tahiti to the Spanish Empire.

1772– New Mexico governor Pedro Fermín de Mendinueta reports that the Indians of the province are “…harrying it with incessant robberies, attacks and murders…” so that 
”…in all its regions there is no safe place in which to keep horses or herds of cattle.”

1772– King Carlos III of Spain makes the following statement: “I prohibit the commandant-inspector and the captains of presidios from granting the [Indians of New Spain] peace,” prompting even more violence between the natives and settlers.

1774– Juan Bautista de Anza, II, receives backing from Basque bankers, financiers and monopolists in Mexico City for expeditions to open a land route from Sonora to Alta California and for the colonization of what is now San Francisco, California. (The expeditions are intended to establish and protect Spanish interests in Alta California from the Russians and British who are gradually moving down the Pacific coast from the north.)

In his paper, “Juan Bautista de Anza, His Ethnic Connections and the Expedition to Alta California,” historian Donald Garate shows that Anza is chosen to make the trek rather than Governors Sastre and Crespo of Sonora or Commander Rivera of California, for several reasons. Among these reasons are his family and ethnic heritage as a criollo of Basque descent and his connections to the powerful political, financial and trade network of Basques in and around Mexico City. Anza is able to secure this political and financial aid, which is largely unavailable to non-Basques.

The powerful Basques in the government include the Viceroy of Mexico Antonio María Bucareli y Ursua, Francisco de Viana of the Royal Audencia of Mexico, Joseph Antonio de Areche, senior fiscal of the Royal Audencia, Domingo de Arangoiti, who takes Areche’s place in the Audencia when Areche is sent to Peru, and Julian de Arriaga, Minister of the Indies, who must approve of and present Anza’s plans to the King of Spain.

Two influential lawyers are also involved in this network. They are previously mentioned Francisco Xavier de Gamboa, a criollo who drew up the rules of government for the College of the Vizcainas and Durango resident Agustin Josef de Echeverria y Orcolaga, a native Basque.

The Council of War must also approve of Anza’s plans. At least half the members of the Council are Basque. They include Bucareli y Ursua, Areche, Juan Chrisostomo de Barroeta, Fernando Mangino and Antonio de Villaurrutia. Villaurrutia is the only criollo, or Mexican-born Basque, the others are Old Country Basques.

Financiers and merchants that are intertwined in this Basque substructure and who are important to Anza are his friend and Sonoran merchant Francisco de Guizamotegui and Juan Bautista de Arosqueta who founds a business that evolves into one of the most powerful economic establishments in all of Nueva España. Arosqueta’s daughter, Josefa, marries Francisco de Fagoaga Iragorri in 1716 and meshes the wealth of these two families together. Fagoaga establishes and owns the Royal Silver Bank of Mexico. After he dies, the Fagoaga brothers, Antonio de Bassoco and their brothers-in-law, the Villaurrutias and Castañizas make up the most powerful colonial establishment in trade, church and law throughout all of Mexico.

Another important businessman is Manuel de Aldaco, who marries Fagoaga’s daughter. According to historian Juan Javier Pescador: “Aldaco’s influence and Basque network extended from northern Spain to the Caribbean islands, New Spain, Central America, and northern New Spain. Basque families such as the Vildosola, Ugarte, Ansa, and Urquidi, among others, who controlled the trade networks and governmental appointments in Sonora, Durango, Chihuahua, New Mexico, and Coahuila, were also deeply connected with the Fagoaga-Aldaco firm throughout the eighteenth century.

As mentioned earlier, Aldaco is a founder of the College of the Vizcaina’s. He also finances Pedro de Anza, Juan Bautista’s godfather and Jose de Laborda in their huge silver strike in Taxco. Aldaco is an heir to the estate of Francisco de Fagoaga and when Fagoaga dies in 1770 he wills this estate to his son, Aldaco’s brother-in-law, Francisco Manuel de Fagoaga. When Francisco Manuel dies in 1736, his widow assigns Aldaco to manage her estate. Aldaco then assigns management of the Royal Silver Bank and Casa Mercantil de los Fagoaga to Basque Ambrosio de Meave. Meave then has complete control over Mexico’s silver and is, according to Donald Garate, “…probably the single most financially powerful person in all of Nueva España in Anza’s day.” When Meave dies, Basques Manuel Ramón de Goya, Antonio de Bassoco, Juan Jose de Echeveste and Francisco Xavier de Gamboa administer his estate. Echeveste is the purchasing agent for Baja and Alta California and also controls the tobacco, playing card and gunpowder monopolies in Mexico along with Francisco de Urbieta. Echeveste is also the nephew of Francisco de Echeveste, mentioned earlier as a founder of the College of the Vizcaina’s. Garate reports that the Echevestes and Anzas were intermarried in Spain and that the Anzas, Aldacos and Fagoagas came from villages only a few miles apart in the Basque Country and the families knew each other before anyone left Spain for the New World. Many of these influential men are members of the Confraternity of Our Lady of Aránzazu.

As Garate has shown, due to Anza’s Basque heritage and connections, he had a substantial edge over anyone else trying to obtain financing and political backing for the establishment of the route into Alta California and the settling of Monterey.

Portrait of Juan Bautista de Anza II

The portrait of Anza II shown hangs in the Palace of the Governor’s Museum in Santa Fe. It was believed to have been painted in life in 1774 by Franciscan Friar Orci during Anza’s stay in Mexico City, between his expeditions to California.
Historian Ron Kessler notes, however, that in the summer of 2000 the painting was taken to the National Museum of History in Mexico City for analysis. Experts determined that the painting was not an original painting and that it had been painted after the turn of the twentieth century.

At the time of Anza’s first expedition, Alta California’s Spanish settlements consists of two small military posts; El Presidio Real de San Diego and El Presidio Real de San Carlos de Monterey, plus five missions; San Diego de Alcalá, San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo, San Antonio de Padua, San Gabriel Arcángel and San Luis Obispo de Tolosa. Basques are in charge of three of these missions: Gregorio Amurrio at San Diego, Fermín Francisco de Lasuén at San Gabriel and Juan Prestamero at San Luis Obispo. In addition, José Antonio de Murguía is a priest at Carmel and Pablo de Mugartegi is a priest at San Luis Obispo. At the time there are less than 100 Europeans in all of Alta California.

On his first exploratory trip, Anza leaves Tubac on January 9, 1774 with a small party of soldiers, mule packers, two friars, a few assorted tradesmen and Sebastian Tarabal, a Baja Indian who had just walked to Sonora from Mission San Gabriel, Alta California. The group starts out across the desert headed for California. It is a difficult experience and in one instance the group wanders through and around sand dunes for almost a month. Eventually, the 25 or so remaining members of the party (Anza had sent several back towards Sonora during the time in the dunes) arrive at Mission San Gabriel on March 22, 74 days after leaving Tubac.
After he visits Monterey, Anza returns to Tubac on May 26, 1774. He had covered more than 2,000 miles on the round trip. He immediately begins making plans for another colonizing expedition and a return to Monterey.

1774– Bernardo de Urrea is captain at Altar presidio and helps replace some of the worn horses for Anza on his trek west.

1774-1775– Julián de Arriaga, Minister of the Indies, sends six new officials to the port of San Blas, Mexico. Three are Basque, Bruno de Hezeta y Dudagoitia, from Bilbao, Juan Francisco la Bodega y Quadra, born in Peru and Ignacio de Arteaga. In 1775, Hezeta and Bodega sail from San Blas to Alaska establishing the northernmost claim of sovereignty for Spain. Bodega Bay north of San Francisco is named on this expedition and Hezeta discovers the mouth of the Columbia River. Again, the intent of this expedition is to slow or stop the English and Russians’ advance on California. (Hezeta joined the Spanish navy at age 14 and, later in his career he captained a Manila galleon between the Philippines and Mexico. He then returned to Spain and fought in naval battles against the French and British.)

As a result of their privileged economic positions, of some of the Basques in Nueva España began forming ranks of nobility as in no other area of the New World. Among these are the Castañizas, the Bassocos, the Villaurrutias, the Iturbides and the Fagoagas. Others are: Miguel de Berrio y Saldivar, Francisco José de Landeta y Urtuzuastegui, Pedro de Garrastegui y Oleaga, Francisco Javier Vasconcelos Berruecos y Cuelleno, Vincente Manuel de Sardaneta y Lagazpi and Rodrigo de Vivero y Aberrucia.

1775– Fray Antonio de Arriquibar serves at mission Tumacácori until 1780. During that time another Basque priest, Joaquín Antonio Belarde, aids his ministry.

1775– Padres Fermín Francisco de Lasuén, Gregorio Amurrio and another Basque, Pablo de Mugartegui, found the original mission San Juan Capistrano. In addition, between 1786 and 1798 Lasuén founds nine more California Missions. Noted California historian Hubert H. Bancroft praises Lasuén as, “First among the California prelates…a friar who rose above his environment and lived many years in advance of his time.”

Between Serra’s first voyage in 1769 and the secularization of the missions in 1834, a total of 128 friars serve the Alta California missions. Twenty-nine of these are Basque: Marcos Amestoy, Gregorio Amurrio, Arreñaza, José Arroíta, Josef Barona, José Antonio Calazada, Domingo Carranza, Tomás Esténaga, Francisco González de Ibarra, Domingo de Iturrate, Martín de Landaeta, Fermín Francisco de Lasuén, Marcelino Marquinez, José Manuel de Martiarena, Pablo de Mugartegui, José Antonio de Murguia, Matías Antonio de Noriega, Juan Prestamero, Andrés Quintana, Saizar de Vitoria, Juan Norberto de Santiago, Vincente Francisco de Sarria, Faustino Solá, Román Fernandez de Ulibarri, Francisco Xavier Uría, José Antonio de Uría, José Antonio de Urresti, Juan Vizcaino and José Maria de Zalvidea.

1775-1776– Governor Bucareli y Ursua requests that Anza and Juan José Echeveste mentioned earlier as part of the Basque network in Mexico City, give him an estimate regarding the cost of a colonization trip to California. Echeveste develops the entire list of needed supplies “from shoes to hair ribbons” and the total costs. Anza then asks Bucarelli y Ursua to appoint Basque Miguel Gregorio de Echarri, mentioned before as General Elizalde’s supply officer, as his supply officer. The first officer and field soldier chosen by Anza’s to accompany him on the expedition is José Joaquín Moraga. Moraga is Basque and Anza praises his “greater intelligence and his ability to write.” When chosen by Anza, Moraga is a Lieutenant at Fronteras and has served in the army for eighteen years. The Apache had killed his father—a frontier soldier, as they had Anza’s father.
With these details completed, Anza leads a much larger second expedition on a 6-month trek from October 1775 to March 1776 from Tubac, Sonora to Monterey, Alta California. It involves 300 men, women and children plus 1,000 animals. Because of births along the way, more people arrive in Monterey than left Tubac. During the trek he visits the sites of what will become the cities of Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Jose and San Francisco.

The livestock Anza brings to Alta California enable the missions to be self-supporting and initiates the large herds of the Rancho Era. At the request of missionaries he also brings the first domesticated cats to California (two each for San Diego and San Gabriel) for the control of mice. Historian Herbert E. Bolton says this of Anza: “His performance of the strenuous tasks to which he was assigned revealed him in his true proportions—a man of heroic qualities, tough as oak, and silent as the desert from which he sprang.”

1776– On March 28, Anza, his lieutenant Moraga, his chaplain Pedro Font and 17 soldiers reach San Francisco Bay. They are the first Europeans to stand on the San Francisco side of what we now call the Golden Gate. Anza becomes the founder of San Francisco and Moraga helps build the presidio there and aids with the construction of the mission. Moraga is the first commandant of the San Francisco presidio. Present at the initial settlement of San Francisco are Basques: Moraga, Juan Bernal, Felipe de Ochoa, Salvador Carriaga and Alejandro Antonio Duarte.

1776– On August 18 the Spanish ship San Carlos is first to sail into San Francisco Bay and put to anchor. Its pilot is Juan Bautista Aguirre and the ship makes a reconnaissance of the harbor.

Thus, the three major settlement excursions from Mexico into what will become the US are Basque financed and/or led: Oñate into New Mexico, Azlor into Texas with Urdiñola family money and Anza into California. (See “Basque Capital and the Settlement of the Southwestern United States” by this author in the 2008 Journal of the Society of Basque Studies in America.)

1776– Father Juan Bautista Beldarrain, who had briefly served during this year at Mission Tumacácori, begins the reconstruction of Mission San Xavier del Bac with 7,000 pesos (more than 20 years of a missionary’s salary) borrowed from a wealthy businessman. Beldarrain dies in 1790 with the church unfinished and undecorated. Father Juan Bautista Llorens oversees its completion by the year 1797. It is now one of the most famous and most photographed missions in the Southwest.

1776– José Antonio de Vildósola is made presidio volante of Sonora. He is furnished 476 soldiers and his force becomes a mobile trouble-shooting force.

1777– In November, José Joaquín Moraga, Anza’s former lieutenant, is directed by governor Bucareli y Ursua to lead a group of settlers to the area of present day San José, California to settle what would become the first town in California. Known as El Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe its settlers are to supply food crops to the presidios of San Francisco and Monterey. (When Anza returned to Tubac in 1776, Moraga remained in California. Moraga died in San Francisco in 1785.)

1777– Commanding General Cavallero de Croix recommends either of two Basques to be governor of New Mexico: Jacobo de Ugarte y Loyola or Pedro de Garibay. However, the King of Spain had already appointed Juan Bautista de Anza II. In addition, Anza is made commander of all troops in Sonora. In this same year he leads an expedition into Moqui Country to try and save that people who are dying as a result of a long drought.

1777– Juan de Ugalde, mentioned before and now a Colonel, is sent back to the New World as governor of San Francisco de Coahuila in northern New Spain. His main focus is to protect Coahuila from Lipan and Mescalero Apaches.

1777– Jacobo de Ugarte y Loyola, mentioned previously, is made military governor of Sonora. He also serves briefly as the governor of Puebla de Los Angeles, Sonora, in the mid 1780’s. While in Sonora, Ugarte leaves the planning and campaigning against the Apache to Joseph Antonio de Vildósola.

1777– On November 24 Manuel Barragua and two other residents of Tubac write a letter to Captain Pedro de Allande y Saaverada protesting the loss of protection from the Apache because of the transfer of the Tubac presidio to Tucson.

1777– The general overseer of Peru is José Antonio de Arreche.

1778– José Antonio de Arrieta is Lt. Governor of New Mexico.

1778– Charles-Michel d’Irumberry de Salaberry is born in Quebec. He is the son of previously mentioned Ignace. Charles wins distinction for repelling the Americans’ advance on Quebec during the War of 1812.

1778– Some frontier soldiers also raise livestock to supplement their income by feeding their outpost. An example is militiaman at Laredo, José María Elizondo, who lists two hundred cattle and over three thousand sheep, goats and other livestock in his possession.

1778– Tedoro de Croix, commanding General of the Provincias Internas, holds his first Council of War at Monclova to realign and reinforce the frontier presidios. Of the twelve military experts in attendance, at least three are Basque: Jacobo Ugarte y Loyola, Juan de Ugalde and Diego de Borica.

1779– In Croix’s third Council of War, at least half the participants are Basques: Fermín de Mendinueta, Juan Bautista de Anza and Jacobo Ugarte y Loyola.

1779– José Antonio Vildósola returns to Terrenate as commander and Basque Pedro de Allande is placed in charge of the Tucson presidio. Allande builds most of the presidio at his own expense. He places the heads of several slain Apache on the battlements of one of the walls.

1779– Captains Ignacio de Arteaga and Juan Francisco la Bodega y Quadra and their pilot, Juan Bautista de Aguirre, sail from San Blas, Mexico to the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska and claim it for Spain. They are the first Europeans to see the mouth of the Columbia River.

1779– Anza II leads a successful expedition finding a route between Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Arizpe, Sonora, the capitol of the Privincias Internas.

1779– In August and September, Anza II, at age 42, leads what has been called one of the finest military expeditions in North American history. He heads a party of 600 men and 1,500 horses across New Mexico and Colorado to engage Chief Cuerno Verde and his Comanche. Near present day Rye, Colorado, he corners the chief and kills him and several other leaders. He sends the chief’s unique headdress to the viceroy in Mexico City as proof of his accomplishment. The viceroy forwards it to the Vatican. This victory precipitates the Pecos Peace Treaty.
Anza’s excursion into Colorado is the first extensive European entry into the area

1780– Frigate Captain Juan Francisco la Bodega y Quadra, mentioned previously, leaves Mexico for Havana to fight the British in the Caribbean.

1780– Captain Don Joséph Antonio Vildósola is commandant and Indian fighter at Las Nutrias.

(Basque military leaders in the New World were numerous. All Basques had been granted nobility in the 1400’s and only men of noble birth could become military officers. Many of these same commanders grew up speaking only Basque. However, to be an officer one was required to speak and write Spanish. Therefore, many learned Spanish as their second language.)

1780– Padre Francisco Tomás Hermenegildo Garces, who had accompanied both of Anza’s expeditions into California, and Basque Padre Antonio Barreneche, are directed to build mission Purisima Concepcion at Fort Yuma. On July 19, 1781 after an Indian attack the previous day, the two friars seek shelter on the California side of the Colorado River. Yuma Indians find them and club them both to death. Father Garces and Father Barreneche become the second and third missionaries martyred in California.

1780– The mayor of Lima is Francisco de Ocharan y Mollinedo.

1780– Captain at the Altar presidio, Miguel Ignacio de Urrea is killed by the Apache. He is the son of Bernardo de Urrea, soldier and owner of the ariz ona ranch.

1780– The commissioner of Alamos, Pimería Alta is Juan Agustine de Iriarte and the commissioner of Sinaloa is Agustín Antonio de Norsagaray.

1780- Bernardo Gálvez, along with José de Ezpeleta, force the surrender of British troops at Fort Charolette at Mobile, now in Alabama. Ezpeleta remains to defend Mobile.

1780– Jacobo de Ugarte y Loyola establishes the presidio of Bavispe, Sonora.

1780– On September 10, after considerable study of reports of previous Spanish contacts with the Western tribes, Governor of New Mexico Juan Bautista de Anza leads a party of soldiers, Indians and several priests west from Santa Fe towards the Hopi pueblos of Zuni and Oraibi. His mission is different than previous Spanish contacts. Rather than using the “whip-and-gun” technique in dealing with the peoples of the pueblos, he goes with food and the assurances to the Indians of fair treatment by the government and the priests.
Historian John M. Slater calls Anza, “…a man of remarkable qualities of leadership and of great integrity of character…”

1781-1782– Governor Juan de Ugalde of Coahuila carries out extensive campaigns against the Apache in northern Coahuila and the lower Pecos region of Texas. The campaign is unsuccessful as in June of 1784 the Indians kill forty-six people and steal six hundred horses and mules. However, Ugalde is not finished fighting the Apache.

1782– Juan Pantoja y Arriaza, pilot of La Princesa, makes the first charts of San Diego Bay.

1782– Manuel de Urquidi is given a five year contract to provision San Eleazario presidio and later, in 1783, Santa Fe as well.

1783– Of the six merchants listed by the Merchants Guild of Chihuahua to supply the military on the Sonoran frontier, five are Basque: Francisco Guizarnótegui, Joaquín de Amezqueta, Joseph Antonio de Yribarren, Manuel de Urquidi and Joaquín de Ugarte.

1783– Simón Bolivar, El Libertador, is born in Caracas, Venezuela, to a wealthy Basque family from Bizkaia. Bolivar becomes the father of Latin American independence as he frees from Spanish rule the area of Latin America that will become Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Venezuela and part of Peru. The country of Bolivia is named for him. He is the subject of numerous books. (In 2004, Bolivar’s set of flintlock pistols sets an auction record for firearms when they are sold for over one million dollars.)

Basques immigrate to South America by the thousands. Their social, economic, religious and governmental contributions were and are monumental. The University of Nevada has published an extensive book by José Manuel Azcona Pastor dealing with this influx. It is titled “Possible Paradises–Basque Emigration to Latin America.”

1783-1799– Father Francisco Yturralde completes mission San Pedro y San Pablo de Tubutama in the northern Sonoran desert.

1784– Diego de Borica is Adjutant Inspector at Janos.

Signature for Joseph Gardoqui and Sons with Diego Gardoqui’s rubric

1785- Diego Gardoqui comes to the new country of the United States as the first Spanish ambassador to America. Born Diego María de Gardoqui y Arriquibar he is the head of the successful commercial house of Joseph Gardoqui and Sons in Bilbao with business connections to the American colonies. During the Revolutionary War with Great Britain he aids American privateers such as John Paul Jones as they cruise European waters capturing ships of various registry. In Spain, Gardoqui sells the cargo the Americans seize and helps refit the ships as warships for the Colonists. He obtains loans for the US and also sends needed war materials and supplies to the colonies. In addition, Gardoqui sends clothes and blankets to George Washington during his ordeal at Valley Forge. While he always works with the best interests of Spain in mind, he is a true ally to the Americans when they have few other friends in Europe. He and John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, work out a treaty dealing with trade access along the Mississippi River. However, congress does not ratify the treaty.

Gardoqui also supplied his good friend George Washington with a prized royal Spanish stud work-donkey so Washington could breed his own mares and produce work mules. Washington named the donkey “Royal Gift.” This became the beginning of the U.S. mule industry. A statue honoring Gardoqui stands in Philadelphia and his portrait hangs in the Palace of Governors in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

1785– The heavy Basque presence in Mexico is demonstrated in Patzcuaro, Mohican. Some of the Basques there are public officials while others are mining operators or merchants trading with the Orient via Acapulco. The city organization of Amigos del Pails has 16 Basque members and in 1787 nine out of the ten city councilmen are Basques. In addition, at the same time, the merchant guild of Chihuahua is composed almost completely of Basques.

1786– Fray Lausén founds Mission Santa Barbara in Alta California.

1786– Juan Bautista de Anza II orchestrates the Pecos Peace Treaty with the Comanche which is the longest lasting peace treaty ever signed by the Comanche and any government of Spain, Mexico or the U.S. An important element of the treaty was the promise of fair trade at Taos where New Mexican traders often cheated the Comanche. Anza went on to lay the foundation for an alliance with the Navajo. In the same year he also negotiates a peace, trade and alliance pact with several other bands of Navajo.

Historian Alfred Thomas says this regarding Anza’s handling of the Indian barricade in New Mexico: “The results were little short of remarkable. He reorganized towns and pueblos…and built up their defense. He opened a route between New Mexico and Sonora for trading and strategic purposes. He carried aid and the offer of protection of Spanish arms to the Moqui, and saved people from extermination by drought, disease, Utes and Navajos. Finally he campaigned with brilliant success against the enemies of the frontier. Far up in present Colorado in 1779 he hunted down and defeated the Comanches. Next with kindness and rare political sagacity he won their affection, reconciled them with their bitterest enemy, the Utes, and then bound both to Spanish power by a defensive and offensive alliance against the Apaches. More, with this combined force of Spaniard, Ute and Comanche, he threatened the Navajo, forced them into the compact, required them to dissolve their agreements with the Gila Apaches and to declare war upon these former friends and allies. [Anza was] among the leading governors and frontiersmen of provincial North America.”

1786– Jacobo de Ugarte y Loyola is made commandant general of the Interior Provinces, which includes Sonora, Alta and Baja California, Nueva Vizcaya, New Mexico, Texas and Coahuila. He governs Sonora and the Californias in person but, because of the vast distances involved, he chooses three fellow Basques to govern the rest: Diego de Borica, Nueva Vizcaya; Juan Bautista de Anza, New Mexico; and Juan de Ugalde, Texas and Coahuila. Another Basque on his staff is surgeon Gregorio Arriola.
Ugarte insists the only acceptable remedy to problems posed by Lipan Apaches is to deport them to an overseas province. Later, having jurisdiction of the Interior Provinces he implements a policy consistent with his hatred of the Apaches. However, he favors a general peace with the Comanche and a treaty is negotiated, at the expense of the Lipan Apaches, by Governor Domingo Cabello y Robles in Texas. Ugarte dies August 19, 1798 in Guadalajara after completing 58 years in the service of Spain.

1786– Anza II asks to be released as governor of New Mexico.

1786– Faustino de Elhuyart is named director general of the Tribunal of Aztec Mining covering all of Mexico.

1786– Felipe Antonio de Goicoechea is named Comandante of the Royal Presidio of Santa Bárbara in Alta California. For two years he leads the construction of the entire presidio complex, some of which may still be visited just off State Street in downtown Santa Barbara today. He is the first of at least five Basque Comandantes of the Santa Bárbara presidio. The others are: José de la Guerra y Noriega (twice), Gabriel Moraga, José Joaquin Maitorena and Juan María Ibarra. Other initial Basques at Santa Bárbara are: José Carmen Arana, José Prudencia Arangure, Manuel Orchaga, Loreto Salazar and Manuel Duarte, who would later be killed by Indians.

1786– Indian fighter Juan de Ugalde, mentioned previously, is promoted to commander of arms of the Provincias Internas with authority over Coahuila, Nuevo León, Nuevo Santander and Texas.

1786– Juan Agustín Iriarte is commissioner of Alamos and Agustín Antonio de Norsagaray is commissioner of Villa Sinaloa.

1787– Ugalde is made commanding general of the same area mentioned above.

1787- Fray Lasuén founds Mission La Purisíma Concepción in Alta California.

1787– Anza II is made Commander of Buenaventura Presidio (formally Fronteras.) (Anza II is another of the frontier Basques who had a deep respect for the fighting ability of the Apache.)

1787– Anza II sends Don Manuel de Echeagaray, captain of the Presidio of Santa Cruz, New Mexico, into the Mogollón Mountains to engage the Apache. The campaign is extremely successful. In 1788 Jacobo de Ugarte y Loyola promotes Echeagaray to Lt. Colonel because of his successes.

1787– Fray Pedro de Arriquibar is the last Franciscan missionary at the original Tubac garrison.

1787– Francisco Guizarnótegui receives a five-year contract to be the sole supplier for all the military companies of Nueva Vizcaya and New Mexico.

1787– Juan Bautista Elguezábal is captain of San Carlos presidio.

1787– In March, eight bands of Mescalero Apache gather at El Norte presidio to accept a peace proposal. Afterwards, several bands move from the presidial reservation into an area of Coahuila patrolled by Colonel Juan de Ugalde and his troops. He is unaware of the truce and attacks one of the bands. Even after he learns of the pact, he attacks two additional bands. Ugalde refuses to observe the end of hostilities or to release those he takes prisoner.

1787– Spaniards are offered rewards for pairs of Apache ears. By the 1790’s it is common to ship Apache prisoners, even women and children, from New Spain to Havana. They are bound and imprisoned en route. Being exposed to new diseases, most die before they reach the island. Those who do survive usually spend the rest of their lives as slaves.

1787– The minister of the Indies is the experienced and able Jacobo de Ugarte y Loyola. Ugarte begins bringing peace and stability in the borderlands with the various Apache bands. It is the turning point in the Apache-Spanish relations.

1788– Don Marcial de Echeagaray leads an expedition to attempt to find a route through the Gila Mountains to Zuñi.

1788- Anza II is commander of the Tucson Presidio. On December 19, while visiting his home in Arizpe, he dies suddenly at the age of 52. He is buried in the side chapel of the cathedral of Nuestra Señora de Loreto at Arizpe, Sonora.
Historian Ronald Kessler says this of Anza, “[When he died it] ended the most brilliant military career in all of the history of North America. This man’s life has affected millions of people. The peace he achieved between many nations is a grand example to be followed. [I] firmly believe that this man is the greatest American Hero that ever lived. If only the people of the North American continent could realize the enormous shadow that he has cast.”

1789– The justice of the High Court of Caracas is José Bernardo de Asteguieta y Díaz de Sarralde.

1789- Juan de Ugalde launches a major campaign against the Apache in West Texas.

1790– Ugalde defeats a group of more than 300 Lipan and Mescalero Apache at Arroyo de la Soledad, the present day Sabinal River Canyon. This effectively breaks the back of Apache resistance in Texas. In commemoration of this victory the battlefield is named Cañon de Ugalde and the city and county of Uvalde, Texas take their names from commander Ugalde. In 1790 Ugalde is relieved of his command due to poor treatment of the Mescalero. He is ordered back to Spain where he is promoted to field marshal in 1797 and to lieutenant general in 1810 and awarded the Gran Cruz de San Hermenegildo in 1815. He dies in Cádiz in 1816 at the age of 87.

Don Miguel José de Azanz

1789-1790– Miguel José de Azanza, from Acoiz, Nafarroa, is Viceroy of New Spain.

1790– According to William A. Douglass, during this year in California history, Basques occupy many key posts in the Church and government. Pablo de Mugartegui is the director and chief of the California missions serving from Mexico City. Jacobo Ugarte y Loyola is commander of the Internal Provinces, which includes California. The lieutenant governor of both Californias is José Joaquin Arrillaga. The commander of the port city of San Blas, Mexico, through which California is supplied is Juan Francisco la Bodega y Quadra and the official of Tepic, who serves the Franciscans as the purchasing agent for the missions is Esteban Lazcano.

1791– José Ygnacio Moraga is commander of the Tucson Presidio. His younger brother, José Joaquín Moraga was Anza II’s lieutenant on the California expedition and was credited with founding San José.

1791– Juan de Pagazaurtundúa is a military engineer assigned to the Sonoran frontier.

1791– Fray Lasuén founds Missions Santa Cruz and Nuestra Señora de la Soledad in Alta California.

1792– By this time, Basques have been in the New World for over three hundred years.

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Credits for Signatures, Drawings and Rubrics:

Diego Gordoqui:
Personal communication with Donald Garate

Francisco de Urdiñola, Juan de Oñate, Antonio de Ybargaray, Bernardo Mendizábal, Francisco de Ayeta, José de Arranegui and Pedro Mendinueta and Oñate crest:
Kiva, Cross, and Crown: Pecos Indians in New Mexico, 1540-1840 by John Kessell

Juan Antonio de Vizarrón y Equiarreta, Tomas de Garnica, Domingo de Gomendio Urrutia, José de Gorraez, José de Olave, Gavriel de Prudholm Butron y Mujica, Bernardo de Urrea, Juan José de Zarasua, José Diaz del Carpio, Martin de Elizacoecha, Juan Bautista de Anza, Agustine de Vildósola:
Juan Bautista de Anza: Basque Explorer in the New World, 1693-1740 by Donald T. Garate

Gabriel Vildósola and José Vildósola: The Vildósola Family: A Sonoran Political, Military, and Ethnic Legacy, by Donald T. Garate

Juan de Uriberri: El Morro: Inscription Rock New Mexico by John M. Slater

All others:
California Calligraphy: Identified Autographs of Personages Connected With the Conquest and Development of the Californias, Maynard Geiger, editor.

Anza II portrait: Museum of New Mexico—Public Domain

José Diaz del Carpio
1733- Captain José Diaz del Carpio, from Gamarra, Alaba, is made commander of Jano presidio in Sonora.

1734- Fernández de Jáuregui y Urrutia is named captain general of Nuevo León.

1735- Francisco de Garrastegui is alcalde mayor of Sonora and opens the borders of Sonora to Anza for further exploration. José de Mesa and Francisco de Longoria sue Garrastegui as they wish to be commissioned to make the northern explorations.

1735- Francisco Antonio González de Echavarry y Ugarte, from Gasteiz, is judge of the High Court of Mexico City. After holding this position for thirty years, he is appointed Mexico City’s governor and captain general.

1736- Michel de Salaberry is a successful commercial shipper between Quebec and France. He is a naval officer and a ship owner from the Irumberry family. He plays a major role in creating strong ties between New France and France.

1736- José de Echevarria is Father Visitor of the missions in Sonora. At the same time, fray Juan de Echagoyen is a missionary at Baviácora.

Martin de Elizacoechea

1737- Martin de Elizacoechea, born in Azpilkueta, Nafarroa, becomes Bishop of Durango, Kingdom of Nueva Vizcaya, Mexico. (He had also been dean and chancellor of the University of Mexico and bishop of Cuba and Michoacán.) Pedro de Echenique
and Juan Ignacio de Arrasain, fellow Nafarroans, are his personal secretary and confessor, respectively.
Elizacoechea is addressed as, “Doctor don Martín de Elizacoechea, bishop of Durango, the kingdom of Nueva Viscaya, its confines, and the provinces of New Mexico, Tarahumara, Sonora, Sinaloa, Pimas, Moqui, and of His Majesty’s Council.”

1737- Elizacoechea and his confessor, Arrasain, pass the cliffs of El Morro in New Mexico and leaves the following inscriptions, translated from the Spanish:

The 28th day of September of the year 1737
there arrived here the very illustrious Señor Doctor Don Martín
de Elizacochea Bishop of Durango
and on the 29th went on to Zuni

The 28th day of September of the year 1737
There arrived here the Bachelor [of Arts] Don Juan Ignacio
de Arrasain

Juan Bautista de Anza, the Elder

1736- Juan Bautista de Anza , The Younger is born on July 7 in the village of Cuqiárachi, Sonora.

1737- Juan Bautista de Anza, the Elder, Chief Justice of Sonora, petitions Viceroy and Archbishop Juan Antonio de Vizarrón y Equiarreta to open a land route from Sonora to Alta California.

1737- Fray José de Arlegui publishes his La Crónica de la Provincia de N.S.P.S. Francisco de Zacatecas. It is a fanciful, error-filled history of the province of Nueva Leon which causes confusion and the spread of misinformation that is not resolved until modern research proves its inconsistencies.

1739- The eighteen-century marks extensive economic growth in Cuba. The crowning event is when El Real Compania de Comercio de la Habana (The Royal Company of Commerce of Havana) is formed. The company is created with Basque capital and holds monopolies on Havana’s foreign commerce in tobacco, sugar, leather, and shipyards for many years. It is lead by Martín de Arostegui Larrea. Among his business contacts and associates in Cuba and Europe are: José de Iturrigaray, Miguel Antonio de Zuazábar, Juan Bautista de Zuazábar, Francísco de Aldecoa, Agustín de Aldecoa, Andres de Otamendi, Bernardo de Goicoa and Luís Ibarra. Unfortunately, Arostegui actually concentrates on trading slaves and selling tobacco for his own personal gain to the British American colonies rather than to Spain. His business partners learn of his deeds and in 1752 he is arrested and removed from the company.
However, almost all commerce to and from the New World passes through Havana. Historian Pastor states that, “Cuba’s eighteenth-century could be characterized, especially qualitatively, as a period of Basque preeminence.” Basques constitute an influential and powerful pressure group in the island’s social, economic, and cultural events. Domingo de Lizundia y Odria de Echeverría, from Guipuzkoa, is treasurer of the Royal Tobacco Income. His daughter marries Araban brigadier Matías de Armona y Murga. José de Lizundiá, Domingo’s brother, and a member of the Council of His Majesty in the Head Accountants’ Office and administrator general of royal income, marries into the family of Bizkaian José de Beitia y Rentería, the marquis of Real Socorro. It is one of the wealthiest and most influential Basque families in Cuba

1739- José de Urrutia, mentioned previously, leads a campaign against the Apache in what is now known as the Texas Hill Country. This campaign would bring a short period
of peace and stability to the area. Urrutia has many holdings in Coahulia and Texas He dies in San Antonio on July 16, 1741. (Urrutia had great respect for the abilities of the Apache.)

1740- Toribio Urrutia, son of José, takes command of San Antonio for his ailing father. Other Basques in San Antonio at the time are: Fernando de Arocha, José de Arocha, José Gil de Leyola, José María Oliberri, Manuel Urrutia and José María Urrutia.

1740- While returning home from patrol on May 9, Juan Bautista de Anza, the Elder, Sonoran hero and Captain of the royal presidio of Fronteras, is killed by arrows from a lightning-quick Apache ambush. His burial place is unknown.

(When Anza became captain of the presidio at Fronteras he was responsible for protecting a huge area of more than 100,000 square miles. This was more than ten times larger than the entire Basque Country and he had only 50 soldiers to patrol it with. One-quarter to one-third of the area was in what is now Arizona and it was from this section of the territory that the Apache staged most of their raids into lower Sonora.)
Anza’s accomplishments are far too numerous to mention here. Please see Donald Garate’s “Juan Bautista de Anza, Basque Explorer in the New World, 1693-1740.”

According to historian Garate, the Apache attacked somewhere in the Pimería Alta (southern Arizona and northern Sonora) almost every month during the full moon. They used the darkness of the night for cover and the light of the moon for swift travel.

1740- On May 12 José Diaz Del Carpio, captain of the Jano presidio, leads an attack on a fairly large group of Apache warriors as revenge over the killing of Anza. He kills 13 and takes another 14 as prisoners. It is not known if the Indians he killed were, in fact, responsible for Anza’s death.

(The illustration by Frederick Remington on the front page of this document depicts the armor worn by the Spanish in the early years of conquest. By the late 1600’s and early 1700’s the soldiers had switched to layers of leather on long coats to replace the metallic body armor. They also carried a leather shield and were armed with firearms and lances. They wore flat, broad hats to replace the helmets of earlier years. Both forms of protection were heavy and hot. According to Garate, each soldier on the frontier was also required to have ten horses and one pack mule. Officers were often required to have as many as fifteen horses and a pack mule.)

Agustín de Vildósola

1740- In August, Agustín de Vildósola defeats a force of more than 6,000 rebelling Indians in Sonora. In 1741 Vildósola, who had primarily been a mining developer in northern Mexico since the early 1720s, becomes the second governor of Sonora.

1741- Blas de Lezo y Olavarrieta, after very successful terms in the French and Spanish navy, is best known for his leadership as Commander General of Cartagena, Columbia. The British attack Cartagena in 1741 with one of the largest war fleets in history. The Spanish, greatly outnumbered prevail under Lezo’s leadership after a vicious battle that lasts sixty-seven days. His defeat of the British assures the preservation of the Spanish Empire in the Americas. He dies from the plague, caused by the large numbers of unburied corpses.

1742- By this time, Basques have been in the New World for over two hundred and fifty years.

1742- Fray José Buzeta introduces potable water to Guadalajara.

1745- Fray Pedro Yrigoyen has success with the conversion of the Moqui.

1747- Agustín de Vildósola establishes the presidio of Pitic in northern Sonora. In the same year, Basque friars Francisco Xavier de Anaya, Agustín de Arriola and Gabriel de Urrutia are also serving in the area.

Gabriel Antonio de Vildósola
1747- Gabriel Antonio de Vildósola, from Elejabeitia, Bizkaia and a distant relative of Agustín, is living in the Pimería Alta region of northern Sonora at the royal mining town of Real de Basochuca. There, on February 1, he marries Josefa Gregoria Juaquina de Anza, the fourteen-year old daughter of Juan Bautista de Anza, the Elder.

1749- Three missions are established on the San Gabriel River in Texas. Fray Juan José Ganzabal is the head of Mission San Ildofonso. In 1751 Captain Felipe de Rábago y Terán is appointed commandant of the nearby presidio of San Francisco Xavier de Gigedo. Rábago has an affair with the wife of soldier Juan José Ceballos. Ganzabal delivers a decree of excommunication to Rábago. On May 11, 1752 gunshots and arrows kill Ganzabal and Ceballos. The attack was certainly instigated by Rábago but was blamed on Indians.

1751- Juan Bautista de Anza II joins the Spanish militia at the age of 15. His brother-in-law, Gabriel Antonio de Vildósola, becomes his military mentor.

1751- In November, the Pima Indians in Sonora begin a bloody revolt against every outpost, mission and ranch in the area. Scores of Spanish men, women and children are killed, in addition to friendly Indians. Pima chief Captain-General Luís Oacicagigua leads the revolt.

1751- Led by Lieutenant Bernardo de Urrea, the Spanish decisively defeat Pima rebels at Aribaca.

1752- Captain José Diaz del Carpio sends a note to Pima chief Oacicagigua asking him to surrender. Oacicagigua consents and walks alone into Tubac to present himself to Del Carpio. The Pima revolt is over. If Oacicagigua had not surrendered, the Spanish retaliation would have been the bloody extermination of the Pima.

1752- Juan Tomás de Beldarrain, commander of the Company of Sinaloa, is made the first commander of the Royal Fort of St. Ignatius at Tubac in what is now Arizona.

1752- Don Bernardo de Urrea, Captain of the Altar presidio puts down a rebellion by the Pimas Altas Indians. As a result the Pimas settle down at the neighboring missions.

1752- Ignace-Michel-Louis Antoine d’Irumberry de Salaberry is born in Quebec. Son of previously mentioned Michele de Salaberry, Ignace fights against the Americans in the Battle of Saratoga, New York in 1777.

1752- Manuel de Aldaco, the leading silver banker of his day and Ambrosio de Meave and Francisco de Echeveste, both successful merchants, found El Colegio de San Ignacio de Mexico. Know as the Colegio de las Vizcainas, it is a school for orphan Basque girls.

1753-1754 Captain Bernardo de Urrea is the founding commandant of the presidio of Altar, Sonora. Later, his sons and their descendents become leaders in the province.
Mariano de Urrea, Bernardo’s grandson, is commandant of Altar from 1805 to 1811 and Mariano’s son, José de Urrea, Bernardo’s great grandson, becomes a notable general to be mentioned later.

1754- Gabriel Antonio de Vildósola is appointed captain of the Presidio of Fronteras. Basque Francisco Bustamante will also command Fronteras.

1755- On May 15, captain in charge Tomás de la Barrera y Gallardo, his wife Doña Catalina de Uribe, their nine children and seven servants lead three other families to settle Laredo.

1756- Don Juan Antonio de Urrutia y Arana is a powerful and wealthy noble and patron of the arts in eighteenth century Queretaro, Mexico. In Queretaro he is also responsible for the building of an aqueduct to bring drinking water to the city from nearby springs. It is composed of seventy-four stone arches that run almost a mile and in places are over seventy feet high.

1756- Gabriel Vildósola leads soldiers against the Gila Apache in an effort to secure a safe route between Sonora and Santa Fe.

1756- Anza II, age 20, is made cavalry lieutenant at Fronteras. The Apache will wound him on two different occasions.

1758- José Antonio de Cuervo purchases the estancia, Confradía de los Animas, from Vincente de Saldivar. Among other things, Saldivar has been producing mezcal at the location for years. Cuervo becomes the first licensed producer of mezcal tequila. His descendent, José María Guadalupe Cuervo, uses the land to build a tequila distillery. In 1900, José Cuervo Labastida changes the name of the tequila brand to “José Cuervo.”

1758- Joachin de Usarraga is ensign in charge of the Pimería Alta Company.

1759- On September 7 Juan Tomás de Beldarrain, first Captain of Tubac presidio in Arizona, dies from wounds caused by a poisoned Seri Indian arrow. He is buried at Mission Guevavi, now only eroding mounds of adobe. Governor Juan de Mendoza appoints Juan Bautista de Anza, II, to take his place. (An interesting note provided by historian Garate is that Juan Tomás de Beldarrain and Ambrosio de Meave, the financier who controlled the money for all of Nueva España in the last quarter of the 18th century, were born and raised directly across the street from each other in Durango, Bizkaia.)

José Antonio de Vildósola

1759- José Antonio de Vildósola, Gabriel’s nephew, takes Anza’s place as lieutenant at Fronteras. His arrival date in Mexico from the Basque Country is unknown.

1759-1776- Julián de Arriaga is Minister of the Indies. He is accountable only to the king.

1760- Governor Mendoza is struck in the throat by a poisoned Seri arrow near Saracachi, Sonora. He is brought back to Horcasitas where he dies two days later on November 27.

Life at this time on the northern frontier of Mexico is extremely tenuous. Indians could overrun the tiny settlements in an instant. No one knew when an arrow or a club or spear would end his or her life. Priests living in this wilderness mentioned in letters to each other that they expect to be killed as “God’s will.”
In a 1761letter to Minister of the Indies Julián de Arriaga, Bishop of Durango Pedro Tamarón y Romeral tells Arriaga that between the years of 1749 and 1763 the Apache kill more than eight hundred people and destroy approximately four million pesos worth of property, all within a two hundred mile radius of Chihuahua. Flourishing cattle ranches, farms and missions are abandoned along with some of the silver mines because the roads used for the transportation of ore and supplies are unsafe.
In his book on Anza, Garate quotes Anza, the Elder, as saying, “With good reason the inhabitants of the province are fearful of seeing themselves destroyed by such a cruel and pernicious enemy. Yet, since it is difficult to know where the Apaches are going to vent their fury next, it is difficult to guard against them.”
Garate states that the Sonoran area was “…one of the wildest, harshest, and least-tamed frontiers of the New World.” However, as in other areas, smallpox and measles epidemics kill many more people in Sonora than all the Apache wars combined.

1760- Francisco Antonio de Echévarri is Viceroy of Mexico.

1760- Fray Joséph Manuel Díaz del Carpio, probably the son of Captain Joséph Díaz del Carpio, former commandant at Terrenate, is the priest at Tubac.

1760’s- José Antonio Aguirre and his bother-in-law Miguel de Pedrorena and three Americans plan and are owners of the city of San Diego.

1760’s-1790’s- José Joaquín Lecuona is treasurer in Mexico for expeditions to Sonora, Nueva Vizcaya, Loreto, San Blas and California.

1761- Francisco Xavier de Gamboa publishes Commentaries on the Mining Ordinances regarding the technical aspects of mining gold and silver in Mexico.

1761- On June 24, Juan Bautista de Anza II marries Anna María Pérez Serrano. As is the custom of the day, the marriage needs to be approved by governor of the province who happens to be long-time friend of the Anza family, Bernardo de Urrea.

1761- José Manuel Diaz del Carpio, son of José Diaz del Carpio, the Janos commander who attempted to avenge Anza II father’s death, serves as military chaplain at Tubac. José Manuel is a brother-in-law of Anna María Pérez Serrano as his brother, Ignacio, is married to a sister of Anza, María Gertrudis de Anza.

1761-1762- Gabriel and José Vildósola, along with Anza II are involved in campaigns against the Seri and Apache in the Gila River area.

1762- In the fall, a joint campaign against the Seri involves several Basque presidio commanders: Anza from Tubac, Bernardo de Urrea from Altar, Gabriel de Vildósola from Fronteras and José de Leizaloa from Janos.

1763- Luis Antonio Menchaca, grandson of José Urrutia, takes command of San Antonio.

1764- Lieutenant Colonel Juan de Ugalde, son of Brigadier General Miguel and Doña Catalina González de Ugalde, is sent to South America where he is Corregidor of
Cochabamba, Bolivia until 1772 when he returns to Spain. He will return to the New World as an Indian fighter in1776.

1764- Second lieutenant Joseph Ramón de Urrutia y De Las Casas, born in Casa de la Mella, Bizkaia, comes to New Spain. He is a trained cartographer and on a 1766-1768 expedition to the northern frontier of New Spain he draws a comprehensive map of the entire area plus 22 plans of various presidios and towns visited during the expedition.
(Urrutia’s amazing drawings can be see on the Tumacácori website.) In 1770 he returns to Spain and takes various assignments around the world. He is appointed field marshal and in 1795 he is named captain-general of the armies of Spain. In 1797 he becomes a member of the King’s Supreme Council of War. He dies on March 1, 1803 in Madrid. A full-length portrait of Urrutia by Francisco Goya hangs in the Museo del Prado in Madrid.

1765- Juan Bautista de Anza II makes Joséph Antonio de Huandurraga ensign at Tubac. Huandurraga is hated by the lower ranking soldiers because of his harsh and cruel discipline and his sexual advances towards the married women of the presidio. He did, however, stage a successful defense of Mission San Xavier del Bac, near Tucson, against the Apache while Anza was south on another campaign.

1767- At San Blas de Nayarit, on the Pacific coast of Mexico, a naval base is built to launch new explorations and provision colonies. San Blas is the most important sea base in the North Pacific from 1767 to 1797. The first administrator of the region is Juan de Urrengoechea y Arrinda. The three head ship builders are also Basques, Pedro de Yzaguirre, Francisco Segurola and Manuel de Bastarrechea.

1767- The King of Spain recalls and exports all the Jesuit priests from Nueva España
back to Spain. The Franciscans take their place.

1768-1772- In Sonora, Indian outbreaks are numerous and the principal cause for the decline of the province according to one frontier Padre.

1768- In May, General Domingo Elizondo is sent to Sonora from Spain with 1,100 troops to put down uprisings and raids by Seri, Pima, Suaqui and Sibubapa Indians.

1769- General Elizondo leads four divisions against the Seri. Gabriel de Vildósola leads one of the divisions. One of his officers is Ignacio de Urrea of the Altar presidio and Gabriel’s nephew, Antonio, leads the scouts. Juan Bautista de Anza II serves under Elizondo and Miguel Gregorio de Echarri is Elizondo’s supply officer.
In April of 1771, after thirty-eight months, the Seri War is abandoned as being far too costly and largely unsuccessful due to the Indians’ effective guerrilla-fighting techniques.

Historian David Weber states: “Spain’s goal, of course, had not been the annihilation of the Indians, but rather their transformation into tax-paying Christians.” However, the continued loss of their territories, native religion and culture, being forced into unpaid labor and the exposure to new diseases made a peaceful transition into the Spanish lifestyle very difficult.

Antonio María Bucareli y Ursúa
1768- Antonio María Bucareli y Ursúa is appointed Governor and Captain General of Cuba. Of Basque descent on his mother’s side he is appointed Viceroy of Nueva España in 1771 and holds the office until he dies on April 19, 1779. He is noted for the prudent and humane administration of his office and, under his leadership, Mexico enjoys greater prosperity and security than most of Spanish America. (Historian Herbert E. Bolton says Bucareli y Ursúa is “…one of the ablest of all the corps of remarkable officials who served New Spain in the later eighteenth century…”) It is by his earlier order that Felipe de Neve founds the city of Los Angeles, Alta California in 1781.

Jacobo de Ugarte y Loyola
1769- Jacobo de Ugarte y Loyola is appointed governor of Coahuila. Born in Bizkaia, before coming to Mexico he is in fourteen European and African campaigns and spends eight years as governor and military commandant in Peru.

1769- Gaspar de Portola’s expedition into present day California includes friar Juan Viscaino and Mallorcan friar, Junipero Serra.

1769- On July 16, Father Serra, accompanied by fellow Franciscans Juan Vizcaino, Fernando Parron and Francisco Gomez blesses the site of Mission San Diego de Alcala, the first mission in Alta California.

1770- Between 1770 and 1794, among the soldiers of Basque descent at San Diego are: Juan Antonio Ibarra, Manuel Bernal, Salvador Carreaga and Pedro Lisalde.
At Monterrey at the same time are: Dionisio Bernal, Ignacio Cantua, José María Gongora and Ramon Ibarra.

1770- Wealthy Cuban Basques, Silvestre Abarca y Aznar and Agustín Cramer Mañecas, both originally from Nafarroa, construct the warehouse of the Royal Tobacco Trading Post. It remains one of Havana’s main buildings until the early 20th Century.
Many Basques are prominent in the mercantile business of Cuba. Among these are: Sebastián de Arratibel Zafinea, Gabriel Francisco de Ercaizti Goizueta, Francisco Isaac de Mendiola y Múgica, Juan Ignacio Urriza, and Domingo Ugarte Zubiate. Zubiate marries María Jesús Arostegui, the daughter of one of the founders of the Royal Company of Commerce of Havana, Martín de Arostegui Larrea.
In addition, Sebastián de Lasa y Irala, from Gipuzkoa, and his son, introduce new types of sugar cane to the island.

1771-1776- It is still very dangerous in northern Mexico. According to historian Alfred Thomas, n Nueva Vizcaya alone, Indians kill 1,963 people, destroy 116 ranches and settlements and take almost 80,000 head of livestock.

1771- José Antonio de Vildósola is made captain of the presidio of Terrenate.

1771- Governor of New Mexico Fermín de Mendinueta negotiates peace with the Comanche. Mendinueta must deal with several different tribes from all sides of the province, all threatening war.

1771- Catalan Friar Palou is appointed religious leader of the Alta California missions with Basque José Antonio de Murguia as his aide.

1771- Friar Juan José Agorreta serves briefly at mission Tumacácori.

1771-1776- Historian Alfred Thomas states that in Nueva Viscaya Indians killed 1,963 people, depopulated 116 ranches and settlements and stole 77,000 head of livestock.

1772- Three Basques are in charge of Alta California missions: Gregorio Amurrio, San Diego; Fermín Francisco de Lasuén, San Gabriel and Juan Prestamero, San Luis Obispo. Catholic missionaries, including the Basques, bring livestock and many food crops into the areas they settle, which become the basis for future agricultural endeavors.

1772- Domingo de Bonechea Andonaegui, born in Geteria in 1713, makes his first voyage to Tahiti. Sailing from Callao, Peru this is a preliminary trip to try and add Tahiti to the Spanish Empire.

1772- New Mexico governor Pedro Fermín de Mendinueta reports that the Indians of the province are “…harrying it with incessant robberies, attacks and murders…” so that 
”…in all its regions there is no safe place in which to keep horses or herds of cattle.”

1772- King Carlos III of Spain makes the following statement: “I prohibit the commandant-inspector and the captains of presidios from granting the [Indians of New Spain] peace,” prompting even more violence between the natives and settlers.

1774- Juan Bautista de Anza, II, receives backing from Basque bankers, financiers and monopolists in Mexico City for expeditions to open a land route from Sonora to Alta California and for the colonization of what is now San Francisco, California. (The expeditions are intended to establish and protect Spanish interests in Alta California from the Russians and British who are gradually moving down the Pacific coast from the north.)

In his paper, “Juan Bautista de Anza, His Ethnic Connections and the Expedition to Alta California,” historian Donald Garate shows that Anza is chosen to make the trek rather than Governors Sastre and Crespo of Sonora or Commander Rivera of California, for several reasons. Among these reasons are his family and ethnic heritage as a criollo of Basque descent and his connections to the powerful political, financial and trade network of Basques in and around Mexico City. Anza is able to secure this political and financial aid, which is largely unavailable to non-Basques.

The powerful Basques in the government include the Viceroy of Mexico Antonio María Bucareli y Ursua, Francisco de Viana of the Royal Audencia of Mexico, Joseph Antonio de Areche, senior fiscal of the Royal Audencia, Domingo de Arangoiti, who takes Areche’s place in the Audencia when Areche is sent to Peru, and Julian de Arriaga, Minister of the Indies, who must approve of and present Anza’s plans to the King of Spain.

Two influential lawyers are also involved in this network. They are previously mentioned Francisco Xavier de Gamboa, a criollo who drew up the rules of government for the College of the Vizcainas and Durango resident Agustin Josef de Echeverria y Orcolaga, a native Basque.

The Council of War must also approve of Anza’s plans. At least half the members of the Council are Basque. They include Bucareli y Ursua, Areche, Juan Chrisostomo de Barroeta, Fernando Mangino and Antonio de Villaurrutia. Villaurrutia is the only criollo, or Mexican-born Basque, the others are Old Country Basques.

Financiers and merchants that are intertwined in this Basque substructure and who are important to Anza are his friend and Sonoran merchant Francisco de Guizamotegui and Juan Bautista de Arosqueta who founds a business that evolves into one of the most
powerful economic establishments in all of Nueva España. Arosqueta’s daughter, Josefa, marries Francisco de Fagoaga Iragorri in 1716 and meshes the wealth of these two
families together. Fagoaga establishes and owns the Royal Silver Bank of Mexico. After he dies, the Fagoaga brothers, Antonio de Bassoco and their brothers-in-law, the Villaurrutias and Castañizas make up the most powerful colonial establishment in trade, church and law throughout all of Mexico.
Another important businessman is Manuel de Aldaco, who marries Fagoaga’s daughter. According to historian Juan Javier Pescador: “Aldaco’s influence and Basque network extended from northern Spain to the Caribbean islands, New Spain, Central America, and northern New Spain. Basque families such as the Vildosola, Ugarte, Ansa, and Urquidi, among others, who controlled the trade networks and governmental appointments in Sonora, Durango, Chihuahua, New Mexico, and Coahuila, were also deeply connected with the Fagoaga-Aldaco firm throughout the eighteenth century. (Emphasis added)

As mentioned earlier, Aldaco is a founder of the College of the Vizcaina’s. He also finances Pedro de Anza, Juan Bautista’s godfather and Jose de Laborda in their huge silver strike in Taxco. Aldaco is an heir to the estate of Francisco de Fagoaga and when Fagoaga dies in 1770 he wills this estate to his son, Aldaco’s brother-in-law, Francisco Manuel de Fagoaga. When Francisco Manuel dies in 1736, his widow assigns Aldaco to manage her estate. Aldaco then assigns management of the Royal Silver Bank and Casa Mercantil de los Fagoaga to Basque Ambrosio de Meave. Meave then has complete control over Mexico’s silver and is, according to Donald Garate, “…probably the single most financially powerful person in all of Nueva España in Anza’s day.” When Meave dies, Basques Manuel Ramón de Goya, Antonio de Bassoco, Juan Jose de Echeveste and Francisco Xavier de Gamboa administer his estate. Echeveste is the purchasing agent for Baja and Alta California and also controls the tobacco, playing card and gunpowder monopolies in Mexico along with Francisco de Urbieta. Echeveste is also the nephew of Francisco de Echeveste, mentioned earlier as a founder of the College of the Vizcaina’s. Garate reports that the Echevestes and Anzas were intermarried in Spain and that the Anzas, Aldacos and Fagoagas came from villages only a few miles apart in the Basque Country and the families knew each other before anyone left Spain for the New World. Many of these influential men are members of the Confraternity of Our Lady of Aránzazu.

As Garate has shown, due to Anza’s Basque heritage and connections, he had a substantial edge over anyone else trying to obtain financing and political backing for the establishment of the route into Alta California and the settling of Monterey.

Portrait of Juan Bautista de Anza II

The portrait of Anza II shown hangs in the Palace of the Governor’s Museum in Santa Fe. It was believed to have been painted in life in 1774 by Franciscan Friar Orci during Anza’s stay in Mexico City, between his expeditions to California.
Historian Ron Kessler notes, however, that in the summer of 2000 the painting was taken to the National Museum of History in Mexico City for analysis. Experts determined that the painting was not an original painting and that it had been painted after the turn of the twentieth century.

At the time of Anza’s first expedition, Alta California’s Spanish settlements consists of two small military posts; El Presidio Real de San Diego and El Presidio Real de San Carlos de Monterey, plus five missions; San Diego de Alcalá, San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo, San Antonio de Padua, San Gabriel Arcángel and San Luis Obispo de Tolosa. Basques are in charge of three of these missions: Gregorio Amurrio at San Diego, Fermín Francisco de Lasuén at San Gabriel and Juan Prestamero at San Luis Obispo. In addition, José Antonio de Murguía is a priest at Carmel and Pablo de Mugartegi is a priest at San Luis Obispo. At the time there are less than 100 Europeans in all of Alta California.

On his first exploratory trip, Anza leaves Tubac on January 9, 1774 with a small party of soldiers, mule packers, two friars, a few assorted tradesmen and Sebastian Tarabal, a Baja Indian who had just walked to Sonora from Mission San Gabriel, Alta California. The group starts out across the desert headed for California. It is a difficult experience and in one instance the group wanders through and around sand dunes for almost a month. Eventually, the 25 or so remaining members of the party (Anza had sent several back towards Sonora during the time in the dunes) arrive at Mission San Gabriel on March 22, 74 days after leaving Tubac.
After he visits Monterey, Anza returns to Tubac on May 26, 1774. He had covered more than 2,000 miles on the round trip. He immediately begins making plans for another colonizing expedition and a return to Monterey.

1774- Bernardo de Urrea is captain at Altar presidio and helps replace some of the worn horses for Anza on his trek west.

1774-1775- Julián de Arriaga, Minister of the Indies, sends six new officials to the port of San Blas, Mexico. Three are Basque, Bruno de Hezeta y Dudagoitia, from Bilbao, Juan Francisco la Bodega y Quadra, born in Peru and Ignacio de Arteaga. In 1775, Hezeta and Bodega sail from San Blas to Alaska establishing the northernmost claim of sovereignty for Spain. Bodega Bay north of San Francisco is named on this expedition and Hezeta discovers the mouth of the Columbia River. Again, the intent of this expedition is to slow or stop the English and Russians’ advance on California. (Hezeta joined the Spanish navy at age 14 and, later in his career he captained a Manila galleon between the Philippines and Mexico. He then returned to Spain and fought in naval battles against the French and British.)

As a result of their privileged economic positions, of some of the Basques in Nueva España began forming ranks of nobility as in no other area of the New World. Among these are the Castañizas, the Bassocos, the Villaurrutias, the Iturbides and the Fagoagas. Others are: Miguel de Berrio y Saldivar, Francisco José de Landeta y Urtuzuastegui, Pedro de Garrastegui y Oleaga, Francisco Javier Vasconcelos Berruecos y Cuelleno, Vincente Manuel de Sardaneta y Lagazpi and Rodrigo de Vivero y Aberrucia.

1775- Fray Antonio de Arriquibar serves at mission Tumacácori until 1780. During that time another Basque priest, Joaquín Antonio Belarde, aids his ministry.

1775- Padres Fermín Francisco de Lasuén, Gregorio Amurrio and another Basque, Pablo de Mugartegui, found the original mission San Juan Capistrano. In addition, between 1786 and 1798 Lasuén founds nine more California Missions. Noted California historian Hubert H. Bancroft praises Lasuén as, “First among the California prelates…a friar who rose above his environment and lived many years in advance of his time.”

Between Serra’s first voyage in 1769 and the secularization of the missions in 1834, a total of 128 friars serve the Alta California missions. Twenty-nine of these are Basque: Marcos Amestoy, Gregorio Amurrio, Arreñaza, José Arroíta, Josef Barona, José Antonio Calazada, Domingo Carranza, Tomás Esténaga, Francisco González de Ibarra, Domingo de Iturrate, Martín de Landaeta, Fermín Francisco de Lasuén, Marcelino Marquinez, José Manuel de Martiarena, Pablo de Mugartegui, José Antonio de Murguia, Matías Antonio de Noriega, Juan Prestamero, Andrés Quintana, Saizar de Vitoria, Juan Norberto de Santiago, Vincente Francisco de Sarria, Faustino Solá, Román Fernandez de Ulibarri, Francisco Xavier Uría, José Antonio de Uría, José Antonio de Urresti, Juan Vizcaino and José Maria de Zalvidea.

1775-1776- Governor Bucareli y Ursua requests that Anza and Juan José Echeveste mentioned earlier as part of the Basque network in Mexico City, give him an estimate regarding the cost of a colonization trip to California. Echeveste develops the entire list of needed supplies “from shoes to hair ribbons” and the total costs. Anza then asks Bucarelli y Ursua to appoint Basque Miguel Gregorio de Echarri, mentioned before as General Elizalde’s supply officer, as his supply officer. The first officer and field soldier chosen by Anza’s to accompany him on the expedition is José Joaquín Moraga. Moraga is Basque and Anza praises his “greater intelligence and his ability to write.” When chosen by Anza, Moraga is a Lieutenant at Fronteras and has served in the army for eighteen years. The Apache had killed his father—a frontier soldier, as they had Anza’s father.
With these details completed, Anza leads a much larger second expedition on a 6-month trek from October 1775 to March 1776 from Tubac, Sonora to Monterey, Alta California. It involves 300 men, women and children plus 1,000 animals. Because of births along the way, more people arrive in Monterey than left Tubac. During the trek he visits the sites of what will become the cities of Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Jose and San Francisco.

The livestock Anza brings to Alta California enable the missions to be self-supporting and initiates the large herds of the Rancho Era. At the request of missionaries he also brings the first domesticated cats to California (two each for San Diego and San Gabriel) for the control of mice. Historian Herbert E. Bolton says this of Anza: “His performance of the strenuous tasks to which he was assigned revealed him in his true proportions—a man of heroic qualities, tough as oak, and silent as the desert from which he sprang.”

1776- On March 28, Anza, his lieutenant Moraga, his chaplain Pedro Font and 17 soldiers reach San Francisco Bay. They are the first Europeans to stand on the San Francisco side of what we now call the Golden Gate. Anza becomes the founder of San Francisco and Moraga helps build the presidio there and aids with the construction of the mission. Moraga is the first commandant of the San Francisco presidio. Present at the initial settlement of San Francisco are Basques: Moraga, Juan Bernal, Felipe de Ochoa, Salvador Carriaga and Alejandro Antonio Duarte.

1776- On August 18 the Spanish ship San Carlos is first to sail into San Francisco Bay and put to anchor. Its pilot is Juan Bautista Aguirre and the ship makes a reconnaissance of the harbor.

Thus, the three major settlement excursions from Mexico into what will become the US are Basque financed and/or led: Oñate into New Mexico, Azlor into Texas with Urdiñola family money and Anza into California. (See “Basque Capital and the Settlement of the Southwestern United States” by this author in the 2008 Journal of the Society of Basque Studies in America.)

1776- Father Juan Bautista Beldarrain, who had briefly served during this year at Mission Tumacácori, begins the reconstruction of Mission San Xavier del Bac with 7,000 pesos (more than 20 years of a missionary’s salary) borrowed from a wealthy businessman. Beldarrain dies in 1790 with the church unfinished and undecorated. Father Juan Bautista Llorens oversees its completion by the year 1797. It is now one of the most famous and most photographed missions in the Southwest.

1776- José Antonio de Vildósola is made presidio volante of Sonora. He is furnished 476 soldiers and his force becomes a mobile trouble-shooting force.

1777- In November, José Joaquín Moraga, Anza’s former lieutenant, is directed by governor Bucareli y Ursua to lead a group of settlers to the area of present day San José, California to settle what would become the first town in California. Known as El Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe its settlers are to supply food crops to the presidios of San Francisco and Monterey. (When Anza returned to Tubac in 1776, Moraga remained in California. Moraga died in San Francisco in 1785.)

1777- Commanding General Cavallero de Croix recommends either of two Basques to be governor of New Mexico: Jacobo de Ugarte y Loyola or Pedro de Garibay. However, the King of Spain had already appointed Juan Bautista de Anza II. In addition, Anza is made commander of all troops in Sonora. In this same year he leads an expedition into Moqui Country to try and save that people who are dying as a result of a long drought.

1777- Juan de Ugalde, mentioned before and now a Colonel, is sent back to the New World as governor of San Francisco de Coahuila in northern New Spain. His main focus is to protect Coahuila from Lipan and Mescalero Apaches.

1777- Jacobo de Ugarte y Loyola, mentioned previously, is made military governor of Sonora. He also serves briefly as the governor of Puebla de Los Angeles, Sonora, in the mid 1780’s. While in Sonora, Ugarte leaves the planning and campaigning against the Apache to Joseph Antonio de Vildósola.

1777- On November 24 Manuel Barragua and two other residents of Tubac write a letter to Captain Pedro de Allande y Saaverada protesting the loss of protection from the Apache because of the transfer of the Tubac presidio to Tucson.

1777- The general overseer of Peru is José Antonio de Arreche.

1778- José Antonio de Arrieta is Lt. Governor of New Mexico.

1778- Charles-Michel d’Irumberry de Salaberry is born in Quebec. He is the son of previously mentioned Ignace. Charles wins distinction for repelling the Americans’ advance on Quebec during the War of 1812.

1778- Some frontier soldiers also raise livestock to supplement their income by feeding their outpost. An example is militiaman at Laredo, José María Elizondo, who lists two hundred cattle and over three thousand sheep, goats and other livestock in his possession.

1778- Tedoro de Croix, commanding General of the Provincias Internas, holds his first Council of War at Monclova to realign and reinforce the frontier presidios. Of the twelve military experts in attendance, at least three are Basque: Jacobo Ugarte y Loyola, Juan de Ugalde and Diego de Borica.

1779- In Croix’s third Council of War, at least half the participants are Basques: Fermín de Mendinueta, Juan Bautista de Anza and Jacobo Ugarte y Loyola.

1779- José Antonio Vildósola returns to Terrenate as commander and Basque Pedro de Allande is placed in charge of the Tucson presidio. Allande builds most of the presidio at his own expense. He places the heads of several slain Apache on the battlements of one of the walls.

1779- Captains Ignacio de Arteaga and Juan Francisco la Bodega y Quadra and their pilot, Juan Bautista de Aguirre, sail from San Blas, Mexico to the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska and claim it for Spain. They are the first Europeans to see the mouth of the Columbia River.

1779- Anza II leads a successful expedition finding a route between Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Arizpe, Sonora, the capitol of the Privincias Internas.

1779- In August and September, Anza II, at age 42, leads what has been called one of the finest military expeditions in North American history. He heads a party of 600 men and 1,500 horses across New Mexico and Colorado to engage Chief Cuerno Verde and his Comanche. Near present day Rye, Colorado, he corners the chief and kills him and several other leaders. He sends the chief’s unique headdress to the viceroy in Mexico City as proof of his accomplishment. The viceroy forwards it to the Vatican. This victory precipitates the Pecos Peace Treaty.
Anza’s excursion into Colorado is the first extensive European entry into the area

1780- Frigate Captain Juan Francisco la Bodega y Quadra, mentioned previously, leaves Mexico for Havana to fight the British in the Caribbean.

1780- Captain Don Joséph Antonio Vildósola is commandant and Indian fighter at Las Nutrias.

(Basque military leaders in the New World were numerous. All Basques had been granted nobility in the 1400’s and only men of noble birth could become military officers. Many of these same commanders grew up speaking only Basque. However, to be an officer one was required to speak and write Spanish. Therefore, many learned Spanish as their second language.)

1780- Padre Francisco Tomás Hermenegildo Garces, who had accompanied both of Anza’s expeditions into California, and Basque Padre Antonio Barreneche, are directed to build mission Purisima Concepcion at Fort Yuma. On July 19, 1781 after an Indian attack the previous day, the two friars seek shelter on the California side of the Colorado River. Yuma Indians find them and club them both to death. Father Garces and Father Barreneche become the second and third missionaries martyred in California.

1780- The mayor of Lima is Francisco de Ocharan y Mollinedo.

1780- Captain at the Altar presidio, Miguel Ignacio de Urrea is killed by the Apache. He is the son of Bernardo de Urrea, soldier and owner of the ariz ona ranch.

1780- The commissioner of Alamos, Pimería Alta is Juan Agustine de Iriarte and the commissioner of Sinaloa is Agustín Antonio de Norsagaray.

1780- Bernardo Gálvez, along with José de Ezpeleta, force the surrender of British troops at Fort Charolette at Mobile, now in Alabama. Ezpeleta remains to defend Mobile.

1780- Jacobo de Ugarte y Loyola establishes the presidio of Bavispe, Sonora.

1780- On September 10, after considerable study of reports of previous Spanish contacts with the Western tribes, Governor of New Mexico Juan Bautista de Anza leads a party of soldiers, Indians and several priests west from Santa Fe towards the Hopi pueblos of Zuni and Oraibi. His mission is different than previous Spanish contacts. Rather than using the “whip-and-gun” technique in dealing with the peoples of the pueblos, he goes with food and the assurances to the Indians of fair treatment by the government and the priests.
Historian John M. Slater calls Anza, “…a man of remarkable qualities of leadership and of great integrity of character…”

1781-1782- Governor Juan de Ugalde of Coahuila carries out extensive campaigns against the Apache in northern Coahuila and the lower Pecos region of Texas. The campaign is unsuccessful as in June of 1784 the Indians kill forty-six people and steal six hundred horses and mules. However, Ugalde is not finished fighting the Apache.

1782- Juan Pantoja y Arriaza, pilot of La Princesa, makes the first charts of San Diego Bay.

1782- Manuel de Urquidi is given a five year contract to provision San Eleazario presidio and later, in 1783, Santa Fe as well.

1783- Of the six merchants listed by the Merchants Guild of Chihuahua to supply the military on the Sonoran frontier, five are Basque: Francisco Guizarnótegui, Joaquín de Amezqueta, Joseph Antonio de Yribarren, Manuel de Urquidi and Joaquín de Ugarte.

1783- Simón Bolivar, El Libertador, is born in Caracas, Venezuela, to a wealthy Basque family from Bizkaia. Bolivar becomes the father of Latin American independence as he frees from Spanish rule the area of Latin America that will become Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Venezuela and part of Peru. The country of Bolivia is named for him. He is the subject of numerous books. (In 2004, Bolivar’s set of flintlock pistols sets an auction record for firearms when they are sold for over one million dollars.)

Basques immigrate to South America by the thousands. Their social, economic, religious and governmental contributions were and are monumental. The University of Nevada has published an extensive book by José Manuel Azcona Pastor dealing with this influx. It is titled “Possible Paradises–Basque Emigration to Latin America.”

1783-1799- Father Francisco Yturralde completes mission San Pedro y San Pablo de Tubutama in the northern Sonoran desert.

1784- Diego de Borica is Adjutant Inspector at Janos.

Signature for Joseph Gardoqui and Sons with Diego Gardoqui’s rubric

1785- Diego Gardoqui comes to the new country of the United States as the first Spanish ambassador to America. Born Diego María de Gardoqui y Arriquibar he is the head of the successful commercial house of Joseph Gardoqui and Sons in Bilbao with business connections to the American colonies. During the Revolutionary War with Great Britain he aids American privateers such as John Paul Jones as they cruise European waters capturing ships of various registry. In Spain, Gardoqui sells the cargo the Americans seize and helps refit the ships as warships for the Colonists. He obtains loans for the US and also sends needed war materials and supplies to the colonies. In addition, Gardoqui sends clothes and blankets to George Washington during his ordeal at Valley Forge. While he always works with the best interests of Spain in mind, he is a true ally to the Americans when they have few other friends in Europe. He and John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, work out a treaty dealing with trade access along the Mississippi River. However, congress does not ratify the treaty.

Gardoqui also supplied his good friend George Washington with a prized royal Spanish stud work-donkey so Washington could breed his own mares and produce work mules. Washington named the donkey “Royal Gift.” This became the beginning of the U.S. mule industry. A statue honoring Gardoqui stands in Philadelphia and his portrait hangs in the Palace of Governors in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

1785- The heavy Basque presence in Mexico is demonstrated in Patzcuaro, Mohican. Some of the Basques there are public officials while others are mining operators or merchants trading with the Orient via Acapulco. The city organization of Amigos del Pails has 16 Basque members and in 1787 nine out of the ten city councilmen are Basques. In addition, at the same time, the merchant guild of Chihuahua is composed almost completely of Basques.

1786- Fray Lausén founds Mission Santa Barbara in Alta California.

1786- Juan Bautista de Anza II orchestrates the Pecos Peace Treaty with the Comanche which is the longest lasting peace treaty ever signed by the Comanche and any government of Spain, Mexico or the U.S. An important element of the treaty was the promise of fair trade at Taos where New Mexican traders often cheated the Comanche. Anza went on to lay the foundation for an alliance with the Navajo. In the same year he also negotiates a peace, trade and alliance pact with several other bands of Navajo.

Historian Alfred Thomas says this regarding Anza’s handling of the Indian barricade in New Mexico: “The results were little short of remarkable. He reorganized towns and pueblos…and built up their defense. He opened a route between New Mexico and Sonora for trading and strategic purposes. He carried aid and the offer of protection of Spanish arms to the Moqui, and saved people from extermination by drought, disease, Utes and Navajos. Finally he campaigned with brilliant success against the enemies of the frontier. Far up in present Colorado in 1779 he hunted down and defeated the Comanches. Next with kindness and rare political sagacity he won their affection, reconciled them with their bitterest enemy, the Utes, and then bound both to Spanish power by a defensive and offensive alliance against the Apaches. More, with this combined force of Spaniard, Ute and Comanche, he threatened the Navajo, forced them into the compact, required them to dissolve their agreements with the Gila Apaches and to declare war upon these former friends and allies. [Anza was] among the leading governors and frontiersmen of provincial North America.”

1786- Jacobo de Ugarte y Loyola is made commandant general of the Interior Provinces, which includes Sonora, Alta and Baja California, Nueva Vizcaya, New Mexico, Texas and Coahuila. He governs Sonora and the Californias in person but, because of the vast distances involved, he chooses three fellow Basques to govern the rest: Diego de Borica, Nueva Vizcaya; Juan Bautista de Anza, New Mexico; and Juan de Ugalde, Texas and Coahuila. Another Basque on his staff is surgeon Gregorio Arriola.
Ugarte insists the only acceptable remedy to problems posed by Lipan Apaches is to deport them to an overseas province. Later, having jurisdiction of the Interior Provinces he implements a policy consistent with his hatred of the Apaches. However, he favors a general peace with the Comanche and a treaty is negotiated, at the expense of the Lipan Apaches, by Governor Domingo Cabello y Robles in Texas. Ugarte dies August 19, 1798 in Guadalajara after completing 58 years in the service of Spain.

1786- Anza II asks to be released as governor of New Mexico.

1786- Faustino de Elhuyart is named director general of the Tribunal of Aztec Mining covering all of Mexico.

1786- Felipe Antonio de Goicoechea is named Comandante of the Royal Presidio of Santa Bárbara in Alta California. For two years he leads the construction of the entire presidio complex, some of which may still be visited just off State Street in downtown Santa Barbara today. He is the first of at least five Basque Comandantes of the Santa Bárbara presidio. The others are: José de la Guerra y Noriega (twice), Gabriel Moraga, José Joaquin Maitorena and Juan María Ibarra. Other initial Basques at Santa Bárbara are: José Carmen Arana, José Prudencia Arangure, Manuel Orchaga, Loreto Salazar and Manuel Duarte, who would later be killed by Indians.

1786- Indian fighter Juan de Ugalde, mentioned previously, is promoted to commander of arms of the Provincias Internas with authority over Coahuila, Nuevo León, Nuevo Santander and Texas.

1786- Juan Agustín Iriarte is commissioner of Alamos and Agustín Antonio de Norsagaray is commissioner of Villa Sinaloa.

1787- Ugalde is made commanding general of the same area mentioned above.

1787- Fray Lasuén founds Mission La Purisíma Concepción in Alta California.

1787- Anza II is made Commander of Buenaventura Presidio (formally Fronteras.) (Anza II is another of the frontier Basques who had a deep respect for the fighting ability of the Apache.)

1787- Anza II sends Don Manuel de Echeagaray, captain of the Presidio of Santa Cruz, New Mexico, into the Mogollón Mountains to engage the Apache. The campaign is extremely successful. In 1788 Jacobo de Ugarte y Loyola promotes Echeagaray to Lt. Colonel because of his successes.

1787- Fray Pedro de Arriquibar is the last Franciscan missionary at the original Tubac garrison.

1787- Francisco Guizarnótegui receives a five-year contract to be the sole supplier for all the military companies of Nueva Vizcaya and New Mexico.

1787- Juan Bautista Elguezábal is captain of San Carlos presidio.

1787- In March, eight bands of Mescalero Apache gather at El Norte presidio to accept a peace proposal. Afterwards, several bands move from the presidial reservation into an area of Coahuila patrolled by Colonel Juan de Ugalde and his troops. He is unaware of the truce and attacks one of the bands. Even after he learns of the pact, he attacks two additional bands. Ugalde refuses to observe the end of hostilities or to release those he takes prisoner.

1787- Spaniards are offered rewards for pairs of Apache ears. By the 1790’s it is common to ship Apache prisoners, even women and children, from New Spain to Havana. They are bound and imprisoned en route. Being exposed to new diseases, most die before they reach the island. Those who do survive usually spend the rest of their lives as slaves.

1787- The minister of the Indies is the experienced and able Jacobo de Ugarte y Loyola. Ugarte begins bringing peace and stability in the borderlands with the various Apache bands. It is the turning point in the Apache-Spanish relations.

1788- Don Marcial de Echeagaray leads an expedition to attempt to find a route through the Gila Mountains to Zuñi.

1788- Anza II is commander of the Tucson Presidio. On December 19, while visiting his home in Arizpe, he dies suddenly at the age of 52. He is buried in the side chapel of the cathedral of Nuestra Señora de Loreto at Arizpe, Sonora.
Historian Ronald Kessler says this of Anza, “[When he died it] ended the most brilliant military career in all of the history of North America. This man’s life has affected millions of people. The peace he achieved between many nations is a grand example to be followed. [I] firmly believe that this man is the greatest American Hero that ever lived. If only the people of the North American continent could realize the enormous shadow that he has cast.”

1789- The justice of the High Court of Caracas is José Bernardo de Asteguieta y Díaz de Sarralde.

1789- Juan de Ugalde launches a major campaign against the Apache in West Texas.

1790- Ugalde defeats a group of more than 300 Lipan and Mescalero Apache at Arroyo de la Soledad, the present day Sabinal River Canyon. This effectively breaks the back of Apache resistance in Texas. In commemoration of this victory the battlefield is named Cañon de Ugalde and the city and county of Uvalde, Texas take their names from commander Ugalde. In 1790 Ugalde is relieved of his command due to poor treatment of the Mescalero. He is ordered back to Spain where he is promoted to field marshal in 1797 and to lieutenant general in 1810 and awarded the Gran Cruz de San Hermenegildo in 1815. He dies in Cádiz in 1816 at the age of 87.

Don Miguel José de Azanza
1789-1790- Miguel José de Azanza, from Acoiz, Nafarroa, is Viceroy of New Spain.

1790- According to William A. Douglass, during this year in California history, Basques occupy many key posts in the Church and government. Pablo de Mugartegui is the director and chief of the California missions serving from Mexico City. Jacobo Ugarte y Loyola is commander of the Internal Provinces, which includes California. The lieutenant governor of both Californias is José Joaquin Arrillaga. The commander of the port city of San Blas, Mexico, through which California is supplied is Juan Francisco la Bodega y Quadra and the official of Tepic, who serves the Franciscans as the purchasing agent for the missions is Esteban Lazcano.

1791- José Ygnacio Moraga is commander of the Tucson Presidio. His younger brother, José Joaquín Moraga was Anza II’s lieutenant on the California expedition and was credited with founding San José.

1791- Juan de Pagazaurtundúa is a military engineer assigned to the Sonoran frontier.

1791- Fray Lasuén founds Missions Santa Cruz and Nuestra Señora de la Soledad in Alta California.

1792- By this time, Basques have been in the New World for over three hundred years.

References

Abarr, James. Enchanting El Morro a Lasting Record of Past Travelers. ABQ
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Credits for Signatures, Drawings and Rubrics:

Diego Gordoqui:
Personal communication with Donald Garate

Francisco de Urdiñola, Juan de Oñate, Antonio de Ybargaray, Bernardo Mendizábal, Francisco de Ayeta, José de Arranegui and Pedro Mendinueta and Oñate crest:
Kiva, Cross, and Crown: Pecos Indians in New Mexico, 1540-1840 by John Kessell

Juan Antonio de Vizarrón y Equiarreta, Tomas de Garnica, Domingo de Gomendio Urrutia, José de Gorraez, José de Olave, Gavriel de Prudholm Butron y Mujica, Bernardo de Urrea, Juan José de Zarasua, José Diaz del Carpio, Martin de Elizacoecha, Juan Bautista de Anza, Agustine de Vildósola:
Juan Bautista de Anza: Basque Explorer in the New World, 1693-1740 by Donald T. Garate

Gabriel Vildósola and José Vildósola: The Vildósola Family: A Sonoran Political, Military, and Ethnic Legacy, by Donald T. Garate

Juan de Uriberri: El Morro: Inscription Rock New Mexico by John M. Slater

All others:
California Calligraphy: Identified Autographs of Personages Connected With the Conquest and Development of the Californias, Maynard Geiger, editor.

Anza II portrait: Museum of New Mexico—Public Domain