The ambitious project of publishing the multivolume translation of The Journals of don Diego de Vargas, 1691-1704 has been launched with the appearance of Remote Beyond Compare: Letters of don Diego de Vargas to His Family from New Spain and New Mexico, 1675-1706. This first volume, consisting of the Spanish transcript and English translation, with annotation, of sixty-four letters written by, to, or about Vargas to or from his relatives and associates, serves as a biographical introduction to the series. Future volumes will consist of translations of Vargas’s official journals and other pertinent documents accompanied by microfiche editions of Spanish transcripts gathered from numerous archives in Spain, Mexico, and the United States.
From the letters the Vargas project’s editor, John L. Kessel, extracts a biographical sketch of don Diego de Vargas—captain-general and governor charged with the reconquest and recolonization of New Mexico a dozen years after the 1680 revolt of the province’s native Pueblo Indians. One glimpses the life-style of this member of Spain’s middling nobility: his concern over the administration of his properties and providing dowries for his daughters; his grief over the untimely death of his son; his efforts to secure his encomienda and title of nobility; his defense against false charges brought by his successor as governor; his difficulties caused by mail, money, and property lost in shipments home; his petitions to the king for a salary equal to that of the governor of Nueva Vizcaya and for a more lucrative post; and his expectation of being awarded the robe of the military Order of Santiago. Kessel’s carefully researched and readable first volume of the planned series adds depth and understanding to a major player on New Spain’s northern frontier—the sort of contribution historians have come to expect of him. We eagerly look forward to subsequent Vargas journals.
