Witchcraft in Early North America - Alison Games [94]
5th. Asked if only for the foregoing she has the suspicious and evil presumption against the said Indian women, or if she knows them to be public or pretended sorcerers, let her speak and declare it: This declarant said she does not know that these Indians are sorcerers, but only that another evil is to be ascribed to them from that which she has already declared as to the criminal intimacy her husband had, having been accused by her after what had happened, said that it was false that he had the aforesaid intimacy and that he had only said it by way of a joke, and thus from this excuse and having heard it said of her said husband that soon after he was married he denied it in order to appease the said Indian women, her distrust increased and also because she knew that her sister-in-law, Maria Lujan, wife of Sebastian Martin, and Augustina Romero had been bewitched and this was public rumor and knowledge and that an Indian called Juanchillo and his wife Chepa took care of them and cured them, it being said likewise that this spell had been cast upon them in this same village of San Juan and for these reasons and circumstances she founds her suspicion and presumption, and this is her answer; and having read to her the first, second and this third declaration, she said that she understood it all, that it is just as she has declared and she has nothing to add or alter and thus it may be signed and sealed under her oath, she being of age given; she did not sign because she cannot write. . . .
[Other depositions followed that same day from the people named in Leonor Dominguez’s declaration.]
Declaration of Miguel Martin
Then, immediately, I had appear before me, Miguel Martin, husband of Leonor Dominguez, to whom I administered the oath, in the name of God, our Lord, and the sign of the Holy Cross, which having taken, he promised to speak the truth in whatever he might know or that might be asked him.
Asked if on Holy Thursday or Palm Sunday he took his wife, Leonor Dominguez, to the church in the New Town of Santa Cruz, he should speak and declare it; the declarant said that Holy Thursday was the day on which he took his wife to the said church and not Palm Sunday.
1st. Asked if it is true that his wife, having come out from the said church on this day, met him by chance and gave him a blow in the face, saying “Curse you, it is your fault that your mother-in-law hates me” and that this declarant replied, saying: “Who is my mother-in-law?” and his wife told him the [daughter] of Zhiconqueto and this declarant replied —“Don’t be a fool, what was not in your year was not to your hurt,” he should speak and declare it; this declarant said that it is true that coming out of the church his said wife gave him a push and said those words that she declares and that this declarant replied, Don’t be jealous or lying and that nothing else occurred beyond this, and this is his answer.
2nd. Asked if it is true that he had criminal intimacy with Angelina, daughter of Zhiconqueto, before or after his marriage, he should speak and declare it; declarant said that he never had such intimacy and that what had been told about him in this respect is false.
3rd. Asked why he denies this when in a conversation he had with Alfonso Bael, the youth who is a cousin of his wife, and before his brother-in-law Tornas Giron and his wife, Antonia Dominguez, he confessed that he had had criminal intimacy with two Indian women of the Village of Taos and with another of the village of San Juan, and that when they were alone he confessed to his said wife, Leonor Dominguez, that it was the Indian who is the daughter of the said Zhiconqueto; why did he say that and why he denied that he was married soon after the wedding, let him speak and declare; declarant said that all this which is asked him is of no use and is malicious and trumped up and that neither the one nor the other happened; and this is his answer. . . .
6th. Asked why,