Oñate was accompanied by three others whose names and fortunes are fitted to thrill those to whom the real human hero is a figure more full of true romance than the characters of fiction. These were the two nephews of Oñate, Juan de Zaldívar, _maestro de Campo_; Vicente Zaldívar, _sarjento-mayor_; and Captain Gaspar de Villagrá, _procurador-general_. Villagrá proved himself not only valiant in arms but a poet of no mean rank. Eleven years after the event, Villagrá published in Seville a rhymed account of the whole of the first Oñate expedition. When Bancroft consulted it in 1877, as a mere literary curiosity, he found instead “A complete narrative of remarkable historic accuracy ...” and he adds, “Of all the territories of America, New Mexico alone may point to a poem as the original authority for its early annals.” [Illustration: FACSIMILE OF TITLE-PAGE OF VILLAGRÁ’S RHYMED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO] Don Gaspar begins his epic in true Virgilian manner: Of arms I sing and of the man heroic: The being, valor, prudence, and high effort Of him whose endless, never-tiring patience Over an ocean of annoyance stretching Despite the fangs of foul, envenomed envy Brave deeds of prowess ever is achieving: Of those brave men of Spain, conquistadores Who, in the Western India nobly striving And searching out all of the world yet hidden Still onward press their glorious achievements By their strong arms and deeds of daring valor In strife of arms and hardships as enduring As, with rude pen, worthy of being honored.[52] Bancroft regrets that the petition and contract granted to Oñate by the viceroy Velasco were unattainable.[53] Since his writing they have been discovered.[54] His contract to colonize New Mexico was made in 1595. Oñate agreed to supply at his own cost not only two hundred men, but all their equipment, and the live-stock, merchandise, and provisions for the support of the colony for a year. They started forth with eighty-three wagons, seven thousand head of stock, and one hundred and thirty persons. In return for this, besides emoluments of land and titles, free from crown taxation, Oñate was to be governor, _adelantado_, and captain-general of the province. He asked the government also for the support of six friars with proper church furnishings, and likewise full instructions concerning the conversion of the Indians, and the tributes he had the right to exact from them. A change of viceroys brought about most annoying delays—even a leisurely investigation into Oñate’s fitness for the task. There seem to have been no limits to the official obstacles put in his path, including false calumnies whose refutation was not easily established. But, according to Villagrá,[55] the general never for one moment dreamed of relinquishing his enterprise.