The First "Onate" Colonist to Die In New Mexico

This is a picture I found on the internet of someone wearing a Spanish helmet. It is not a picture of anyone I know.

The 1st Pedro Robledo the my 11th great grandfather.

He died at Paraje de Robledo (now Radium Springs), Nuevo Mexico, he was a member of the 1598 Onate expedition and was the first person of that expedition to die in New Mexico. Parage de Robledo was named after him. He migrated to Nueva Espana (Mexico) about 1576.

Reference "The Last Conquistador" by Marc Simmons, in reference to the Onate colonists, it states on page 96 "Pioneering in colonial New Spain was decidedly a young mans activity. The sixty year old officer Pedro Robledo, gone entirely grey, was a conspicuous exception. When the frailties of age prevented him from carrying his own weight on the march, he had four stalwart, red headed sons, the eldest twenty seven and the youngest eighteen, who amply compensated".

Here is a web sit with some very interesting information of an interesting individual in New Mexico history.

http://cybergata.com/roots/4693.htm

His descendants in New Mexico now number in the 10's of thousands.

The trip up the Camino Real had to be brutal in those days.