Note 48 — COMMENCEMENT OF THE EXPEDITION

Santa Fé is one of the oldest towns within the present limits of the United States. The site was first visited by Coronado in 1541; but the founding of the town was the work of Oñate, who established the colony of New Mexico in 1598. The date of the founding of Santa Fé is uncertain, owing to the destruction of the records by the revolt of 1680; but it was sometime between 1605 and 1609. By 1630, Santa Fé had one thousand inhabitants; its first church was built on the site of the present cathedral, in 1622-27; the ancient governmental palace, still existing, dates from the seventeenth century. In 1680 the Spaniards were expelled, but twelve years later returned under Diego de Vargas. From that time to the present, Santa Fé has been continuously inhabited. In the eighteenth century, French traders found their way thither, and by the early nineteenth the American trade began. In 1822, the Mexican standard was raised over the town, and in 1846 General Stephen W. Kearny secured its surrender to the United States. Santa Fé has always been the capital of the territory. It has now (1905) a population of about eight thousand. At the time of Pattie's visit the governor of New Mexico, the first under republican rule, was Bartolome Baca.—Ed.