They spent 2 days copying the inscriptions, and stated that when they were here, not a single English inscription could be found on the rock.
Recall the word “gentleman” crossed out back at [Stake No. 20]? Mr. Kern’s drawing faithfully shows the word X’d out just as you saw it.
The Spanish inscription below was done by one of three Spanish soldiers left to “guard” 2,000 Zuñi Indians in 1699. It reads:
“I am of the hand (that is, written by) of Felipe de Arellano on the 16th of September, soldier.”
In 1700, the Zuñis apparently thought the odds in their favor were good, so they killed the three Spaniards.
To the right of Arellano’s inscription is a marvel of Spanish “shorthand.” A good scholar translated it for us. Here it is in both Spanish and English:
“Se pasaron a 23 de marzo de 1632 años a la venganza de muerte del Padre Letrado.—Lujan”
The translation reads:
“They passed on the 23rd of March, 1632, to the avenging of the death of the Father Letrado.—Lujan”
About the year 1629, Father Letrado built the earliest mission chapel at what we call today Salinas National Monument (near Mountainair, New Mexico, southwest of Albuquerque).