Ácoma, ruined and desolated, had now to be toilfully and painfully rebuilt. It was indeed a desperate spectacle of crumbled rock, and adobe—all that was left of what had been for untold years the habitation and fortress of this Keres tribe. But the homing instinct of every created being forbade its people to dream of anything else than a reincarnation of what was to them their only refuge and dwelling place. Saddened that their castle-crag was no longer so safe from violation as they had always believed, these men and women took up their weary task of reclamation. They were, indeed, all too familiar with the devastation by Apaches of many a pueblo. These new foes were only men of another color, centaur-like and made more invincible, it is true, by horrible fire-breathing sticks that dealt deadly stings. But this was Fate. [Illustration: ÁCOMA, LOOKING NORTHWARD _Bolton_] Once again we may watch in fancy the long procession of patient men and women bringing on their backs adobes from the plain below, and timber from far-distant San Mateo. Each heavy burden must be carried up the steep, crooked trail. Yet by slow degrees the long adobe blocks of houses did become habitable again, and life resumed its ancient sway. Little wonder that for long thereafter the Ácomas felt deadly enmity for the Spaniards. In reconstructing a new life upon the ruins of the old one, we have to take into account a new element—one so alien to all the Ácomas had hitherto known that we shall do well to pause for some understanding of the régime under which Spain adapted these primitive people to civilization. High officials were aware that no soldier guard would suffice. Here and now, as everywhere in the years to come, it was the tireless persistence of fighting and teaching Franciscan friars that proved the most successful means of keeping relations friendly with the Indians. The lesson taught the Indians at Ácoma was so thorough that the Spanish rule was accepted by the other pueblos without further resistance. From San Juan, Oñate moved his headquarters to San Gabriel in 1601. Some eight years later Santa Fé was founded and made the permanent capital. Colonists and friars now settled into a contented routine. Before Oñate went off east in search of Quivira, he and the Father Commissary distributed the friars among the pueblos in seven districts. In the pueblos churches were built, monasteries founded, and schools established. In temporal affairs the natives were put under a hybrid system, part Indian, part Spanish. The more one reads of Spain’s efforts in establishing her rule over a new continent, the more impressed one must be by the use made of the mission as a frontier agency. No one else has treated this subject with such illumination as Bolton, to whose vivid essay I wish to acknowledge my debt.[70]