Castaño de Sosa, Gaspar ___ 1550g-1593g ___ Portuguese ___ soldier, explorer

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
Castaño de Sosa was born in Portugal, probably around the middle of the 16th century. He served in New Spain, as the deputy of Governor Carvajal, but, when Carvajal was arrested by order of the Holy Office of the Inquisition, he took over as chief in the town of Almadén (now Monclova). In 1590, though, disillusioned by the unproductive mines locally, he led an expedition to northern New Mexico. He marched north to the Rio Grande, and then along the Pecos River to Pecos Pueblo. He established headquarters at Santo Domingo, near present-day Albuquerque. However, charges against Carvajal led to Castano being suspected of Judaism also, and a small force of men was sent to New Mexico to arrest him. He was brought back to New Spain, tried, convicted, and exiled to the Philippines. The conviction was repealed but, by then, Castaño had already died on a ship in the South China Sea. His diary describes the expedition to New Mexico, and contains many observations about the Indians.
A biography link
Wikipedia bio (in Portuguese)

DIARY DATES, CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
1590-1591 ___ social religious exploration slavery

WEB TEXT LINKS
about
 

ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LINKS

SOME PUBLISHED TITLES
A Colony on the Move: Gaspar Castaño de Sosa's Journal
 

July 2005. September 2008
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IMPORTANT NOTES AND CAUTIONS: 1) The first line of basic information may be incomplete in several ways: some historical figures have different names (titles, pen-names); their birth and death dates may be unknown or uncertain (g - guess, c - circa); similarly, their occupations may be unknown, or they may have had other jobs; and, for early diarists, I've used 'British' a bit too freely. 2) The biographical summary may not be accurate. It was compiled quickly from various sources, mostly on the internet, and the facts were not checked anywhere near as rigorously as they would have been if they'd been intended for publication in a printed form. 3) The journal dates and descriptors (which are in no particular order) must be treated with caution: since I have not examined the diaries myself, the descriptors are only guesses based on bibliographies, anthologies and internet biographies. 4) For the biography and etext links, I have ignored any sites with charges, and I have avoided, wherever possible, those with pop-ups or too much advertising. I have limited myself to providing three etext links where there is some variety between them. 5) For the original manuscript links, I have limited myself to providing a maximum of two (although, for a few diarists, their original diaries are held in more than two places). 6) I have provided the titles - chosen randomly - for up to three printed editions of the diaries.