<P> In November 1681, Antonio de Otermin attempted to return to New Mexico . He assembled a force of 146 Spanish and an equal number of Indian soldiers in El Paso and marched north along the Rio Grande . He first encountered the Piro pueblos, which had been abandoned and their churches destroyed . At Isleta pueblo he fought a brief battle with the inhabitants and then accepted their surrender . Staying in Isleta, he dispatched a company of soldiers and Indians to establish Spanish authority . The Puebloans feigned surrender while gathering a large force to oppose Otermin . With the threat of a Puebloan attack growing, on January 1, 1682 Otermin decided to return to El Paso, burning pueblos and taking the people of Isleta with him . The first Spanish attempt to regain control of New Mexico had failed . </P> <P> Some of the Isleta later returned to New Mexico, but others remained in El Paso, living in the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo . The Piro also moved to El Paso to live among the Spaniards, eventually forming part of the Piro, Manso, and Tiwa tribe . </P> <P> The Spanish were never able to re-convince some Puebloans to join Santa Fe de Nuevo México, and the Spanish often returned seeking peace instead of reconquest . For example, the Hopi remained free of any Spanish attempt at reconquest; though they did, at several non-violent attempts, try for unsuccessful peace treaties and unsuccessful trade agreements . For some Puebloans, the Revolt was a success in its objective to drive away European influence . </P> <P> The Spanish return to New Mexico was prompted by their fears of French advances into the Mississippi valley and their desire to create a defensive frontier against the increasingly aggressive nomadic Indians on their northern borders . In August 1692, Diego de Vargas marched to Santa Fe unopposed along with a converted Zia war captain, Bartolomé de Ojeda . De Vargas, with only sixty soldiers, one hundred Indian auxiliaries, seven cannons (which he used as leverage against the Pueblo inside Santa Fe), and one Franciscan priest, arrived at Santa Fe on September 13 . He promised the 1,000 Pueblo people assembled there clemency and protection if they would swear allegiance to the King of Spain and return to the Christian faith . After a while the Pueblo rejected the Spaniards . After much persuading, the Spanish finally made the Pueblo agree to peace . On September 14, 1692, de Vargas proclaimed a formal act of repossession . It was the thirteenth town he had reconquered for God and King in this manner, he wrote jubilantly to the Conde de Galve, viceroy of New Spain . During the next month de Vargas visited other Pueblos and accepted their acquiescence to Spanish rule . </P>

A pueblo rebel in 1681 explains the reasons behind the pueblo revolt