| In 1598 Don Juan de
Oñate y Salazar set out from Santa Barbara, near
present-day Chihuahua, Mexico with 600 settlers.
Their destination was el tierra adentro, the
interior land. After 3 months they reached the
Indian Pueblo they named San Juan. It was the first
European community west of the Mississippi.
The 1,500-mile route Oñate traversed between
Chihuahua and Santa Fe came to be called El Camino
Real de Tierra Adentro, or the Royal Road to the
Interior. For 300 years it was the lifeline between
the frontier and Mexico, and over it passed
governors, settlers, priests, and the occasional
merchant. It also became a conduit for language,
culture, religion and trade.
The horse initially gave Spaniards an advantage
over others in the New World. But not everybody
owned a horse, and those who didn’t traveled in
carros or by foot. Carros were
four-wheeled wagons commercially made for traveling
long distances from central Mexico to the
northernmost frontiers of New Mexico.
About every three years supply caravans made use
of carros coming to New Mexico. Merchants brought
scarce manufactured goods to New Mexico and returned
with piñon nuts, buckskin and woven cloth. Another
locally made version of the carro was the carreta, a
smaller, two-wheeled version of the carro used for
travel within New Mexico.
During the Spanish colonial period, communication
between Mexico and Europe was often faster and more
frequent than news between Mexico City and New
Mexico. As a result, New Mexico was an isolated
place. However, communication within the province
took place along these trails. Scouts and traders
exchanged goods and conveyed news. They also
communicated by marking on rocks and trees. The most
famous example is Inscription Rock at El Morro, New
Mexico.
For Spaniards, the most important form of
communication was the written word. They were
meticulous at recording everything they did. Scribes
who documented everything went along on early
colonizing expeditions. Many wrote in personal
journals and sent letters back home. There were also
records of expeditions that included inventories of
every person present and descriptions of the towns
and the area.
Also important were the cartographers who
accompanied many expeditions. Maps communicated
where they went, and where they were going. A map
could also illustrate the land that until then were
unknown.
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