OCR Text |
Show 128 LEADING FACTS OF NEW MEXICAN HISTORY Fr ore om ne Seeek, aoe a, ee i= 4 > eee a ss en Lo ener to leave the coast and 20 inland in order to subsist for months on the tuna or cactus fruit; and the beans of the mesquite are mentioned time and again, as one of the principal means of subsistence of these hordes during certain er Such statements can only apply to Southern periods of the and Central exas. ~ Again a small tree or shrub is mentioned bearing edible nuts.!*® At first glance, the Pifion, or Pinus Edulis, may be thought of, a 184 ** The descriptions are full and accurate. Not only th the name Mesquite, also ioned Mesquisez, a ee and possibly p- 609; Naufragios appears in , Pp. 538: ‘Este Mesquisez es una fruta que cuando estA en el arbol es muy amarga, y es de la manera de algarFaobas y comese con tierra, y con ella est4 dulce, y bueno de comer.’ 135 That these cannot have been the New Mexican Pifiones is Naufragios, p. 540: quite clear, ‘Hay por aquella tierra Pifios chicos , y las pifias de ellas 80N Como pequefios huevos, mas los Pifiones son mejor es que los de Castilla, porque tienen las cascaras muy delgadas; y cuando estan verdes muelenlos y TaN ee eR the natives were wont Sad anything to eat, still less wherewith to feed guests, and while buffalo robes were plentiful, the animal itself was said to exist ‘three days’ journey from there in plains among mountains which they said descended from higher up towards the sea, and that they themselves went thither also. These plains between mountains are the plains through the western edge of which the Pecos approaches the Rio Grande; the mountains are the maze of arid chains covering the triangle formed in the extreme northwest of Texas by the Rio Grande and the Pecos. ‘The upper course of the Rio Brazos, perhaps on the thirty-second parallel of latitude, appears therefore to have been the most northerly point reached by the wanderers on their peregrination s. This is also the latitude of the southern boundary of New Mexico; but they struck that parallel at least four degrees of longitude east of the southeastern corner of the New Mexican territory, and thence declined to the southwest to two and a half degrees farther south. As long as they were east of the Rio Grande, or on the soil of the United States of today, Cabeza de Vaca and his friends remained far out of reach of New Mexico. In addition to the geographical and zoographical evidences given, there is further proof derived from the statements of the travellers concerning the flora of the country, and the condition of the aborigines with whom they came in contact. As long as they were together on the coast, and even for some time afterward, they place much stress upon several nutritive plants which were characteristic of the vegetation, and at the Same time prominent means of subsistence for the Indians. Promnent among these are the mesquite 1°4 (Prosopis juliflora) and the cactus pear (Opuntia). Neither of these plants appears in Eastern Texas towards the Indian Territory in any great abundance, and yet but p. 604, Santiago Triumphing over His Enemies. In Collections of New Mexico e te Painted on Elk Skin Historical Society |