Antonio de Espejo
In February 1583, Espejo arrived at the territory of the Piros, the most southerly of the Pueblo villagers. From there the Spanish continued up the Rio Grande. Espejo described the Pueblo villages as "clean and tidy". The houses were multi-storied and made of adode bricks. "They make very fine tortillas," Espejo commented, and the Pueblos also served the Spanish turkeys, beans, corns, and pumpkins. The people "did not seem to be bellicose". The southernmost Pueblos had only clubs for weapons plus a few "poor Turkish bows and poorer arrows". Further north, the Indians were better armed and more aggressive. Some of the Pueblo towns were large, Espejo described Zia as having 1,000 houses and 4,000 men and boys. In their farming, the Pueblos used irrigation "with canals and dams, built as if by Spaniards". The only Spanish influence that Espejo noted among the Pueblos was their desire for iron. They would steal any iron article they could find.
Canarian Americans
Before the arrival of the Canarian settlers in 1730, the San Pedro channel was built for the exclusive use of the Canary Island colonists. It was called the "acequia madre", the "mother ditch" that crossed the city. Its waters irrigated agricultural fields around San Antonio from that time until 1906. The last channel to supply water to the citizens was dug in 1777 for the new settlers of Los Adaes, and its remains can still be seen. American historical research indicates that Canarian irrigation practices in the San Antonio colonial period can only be understood in the context of traditional irrigation practices developed over thousands of years by the settlers' ancestors in the Canary Islands.