Pedro Navarez ("El Chato") was a noted bandit active in Chihuahua, Mexico, in the early 1800's. Much folklore surrounds his memory as a Robin Hood character who cached robbery proceeds all over the Satevo-Parral-Delicias country south of Chihuahua city. Reports of his death are highly romanticized in Mexico, but the waybills to his treasures were apparently disclosed by his daughter in the 1840s and consisted mainly of coins buried in clay pots on several ranches. There is little reason to believe he was in New Mexico, where the pickings for roadside bandits were very slim along the Rio Grande, especially compared to the riches available in Chihuahua at the time.
The famous New Mexico Navarez waybill has many variations, and as can be seen from the above quoted example, are fraught with egregious errors. First, the time period is wrong by 200 years. Second, in the 17th century, there was no mountain range upstream from Paso del Norte known as the Caballos. That's two amateurish mistakes by the time the first sentence is read. That's about all a fact checker needs to close the book on this story. The Caballos are an interesting subject, but Navarez doesn't belong in the conversation.
