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Neither Chamuscado nor Espejo kept journals, but Castaño de Sosa, and especially Oñate, did. But the document itself is a sober, matter-of-fact record of occurrences and geographical details, interspersed with observations of more or less ethnological value. The diario forms the beginning of accurate knowledge of the region under consideration.

Chamuscado having died on the return journey, the document is not signed by him, but by his men. The document had been lost sight of until I called attention to it nearly thirty years ago, the subsequent exploration by Antonio de Espejo having monopolized the attention of those interested in the early exploration of New Mexico.

The brief report of the eight companions of Francisco Sanchez Chamuscado who in 1580 accompanied the Franciscan missionaries as far as Bernalillo, the site of which was then occupied by Tigua villages, and who went thence as far as Zuñi, is important, although it presents merely the sketch of a rather hasty reconnoissance.

The three monks which Chamuscado had left in New Mexico had sacrificed their lives in an attempt to convert the natives. They were martyrs of their faith, hence glories of their order, and the Franciscan author could not refrain from commemorating their deeds and their faith.