“We passed by here, the Sergeant Major and Captain Juan de Archuleta and Adjutant Diego Martin Barba and Ensign Agustin de Ynojos, the year of 1636.”
The “Sergeant Major” was not an enlisted man, as now—he was the officer in direct command of the troops. The ensign was the standard bearer, corresponding in grade to a second lieutenant.
Barba and Archuleta were accused of aiding a rebellion during one of the numerous civil disturbances that plagued the Spanish in New Mexico. In 1643 they were beheaded.
10.
Here is the oldest and most famous inscription at El Morro. It was done by the first governor of New Mexico, Don Juan de Oñate, in 1605, 15 years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock.
In 1604, Oñate rode south with 30 men to the Gulf of California. On his return the next year, he made his inscription, which reads:
“Paso por aquí el adelantado Don Juan de Oñate del descubrimiento de la mar del sur a 16 de Abril de 1605.”
The translation reads:
“Passed by here the Governor Don Juan de Oñate, from the discovery of the Sea of the South on the 16th of April, 1605.”
By “Sea of the South,” Oñate meant Gulf of California, an arm of the Pacific Ocean. He was not the first Spaniard to see it, of course.