The  objects  for  which  possession  was  taken  are  stated  at  large  in  the  act  of  poases-
sion,  and  they  may  be  summarized  as  follows:  **To  reduce  the  country  to  the
dominion  of  Spain;  to  settle  and  colonize  it;  to  introduce  into  it  all  the  necessary
wagons,  horses,  oxen,  sheep,  and  other  livestock;  to  introduce  the  Spanish  customs
and  laws,  together  with  the  Christian  religion  amon^  the  Indians;  to  civilize  them,
introducing  among  them  the  mechanical  and  industrial  arts;  to  instruct  them  in  the
use  of  all  those  matters  that  would  tend  to  their  mental  and  moral  advancement,
and  to  assimilate  them  in  such  a  way  by  the  Spanish  scheme  of  conquest  that  they
mi^ht  become  a  truly  civilized  people,  learning  everything  that  would  increase  their
polity  and  happiness."

This  colonizing  expedition,  comprising  about  four  hundred  men,  among  whom  one
hundred  and  fifty  had  their  wives  and  children  with  them,  carried  with  them  all  the
implements  and  material  for  the  building  of  a  new  civilization  in  the  wilderness  of
the  new  coimtry.  They  were  accompanied  by  ten  or  twelve  friars  under  the  leader-
ship of  a  commissary  general.
In  July  of  1598  the  first  settlement  was  established  at  San  Gabriel,  near  the  locality
where  now  stands  the  Indian  pueblo  of  San  Juan  de  los  Caballeros,  at  the  junction  of
the  Chama  and  the  Rio  Grande.  This  place  was  the  center  of  the  Spanish  government
until,  for  various  reasons,  a  short  while  afterwards,  the  settlement  was  transferred  to
Santa  Fe,  the  present  capital  of  the  Territory.
