During this period the government of New Mexico was administered from El Paso, the provincial capital (Santa Fé) having been completely abandoned in 1680. On October 20, 1683, more than 200 Jumano visited El Paso for the purpose of asking for missionaries, “stating that thirty-two tribes were waiting for baptism, because, being on the point of fighting a great battle, and anxious because they were few while the enemy were more than 30,000 in number, they invoked the aid of the holy cross, of which they had heard from their forefathers, and at once there descended through the air a cross wrought in red, with a pedestal two yards in breadth ... and that when this cross was put on their banner, they had conquered their enemies without losing a man, and gaining much spoils of war.” Having acknowledged the miracle, they came to ask for baptism. Three friars went to them and found “a great multitude of Xumanas and Tejas; they decided to return with better preparation and a greater number of ministers.... Some friars returned with the intention of going among the Xumanas and Tejas, to Caracoles river, where it is said that pearls are fished, in order that they might ascertain the truth.... The apparition of the cross turned out to be uncertain, because it was a ruse devised by an Indian of the Tejas in order that the Spaniards might help them to cross the Conchas river to their land, which passage the Apaches were trying to prevent; and such chimeras are often tried by the Indians, because they know how easily the Spaniards can be made to believe them.”[20] This statement is generally too indefinite to be of much value beyond the fact that the Jumano—or at least some of them—again ventured across the plains as far as El Paso, with another miracle to unfold. We may not assume from the foregoing statement that the Jumano at this time were dwelling in the neighborhood of the Conchos-Rio Grande junction, where they were first met, as there is definite evidence that their old home had become occupied by the Conchos, Julimes, and Chocolomos,[21] who, so far as is known, were unrelated.