OCR Text |
Show THE CITY OF SANTA FE 147 most important settlement, next to Santa Fé, was that of Taos. The city of Santa Fé, which was the most pretentious of all the towns, was very irregularly laid out; most of the streets were no better than highways traversing scattered settlements, interspersed here and there with corn and wheat fields. The only attempt at anything like architectural compactness was found in the buildings surrounding the plaza, all of which were shaded in front by portales CHAPTER THE City or Santa Fé — Tue Op V PALACE — CHURCHES — Mav: NERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE PropLE— CogrumES — AGRICULTURE AND Stock Raising¢— Mines anp MINING — THE Missions, FRAYLES, AND Prirsts— Visits oF CHURCH DIGNITARIES — THE OF i. FRAYLES BisHop AND oF DurRANGO — LISTS Prizsts, 1540 to front, in all probability, a place of at least five thousand inhabitants.°® The census report of 1827 by Governor Narbona of ity as to the number of inhabitants ee Mexico meal prior to author the decree of the Asamblea, in 1844, published exception . by Governor Martinez, with the THE CITY the N ew tedi population is given at 55,403. Undoub 1n the census of 1840, for the population four is an. error or ly there ne census of 1840, when of the Armijo During this period in the history of New Meshes a . : oe people lived in towns oF majority of the os cally “a . tspracti Villag no country population, a condition eyes : oo the raids or the protection of the settlers from andi of the all sides. ee oad Savages, The by whom they were surrounded on Pp tncipal settlements were those of the valley of the ande, those lying in the valley south of the capital beims know as the Rio Abajo and those to the north as Rio <nOwn Arriba. Accordi 57, 98 the outa’ census report tween the vc aig a 100 of New ers ree 2,475: separation 2 whit, eat Alburquerque Mt a 3; couples teachers es and Indians. Pueblos, had: 2.547- of 1827, Mexico 7,677; 17; was found The Not. Hist., pp: 56- 43,433, about evenly divided be- farmers curates in Pino, 6,588; 17; The larger towns, artisans surgeon appears today, having a portal or portico extending along its entire 1846 city of Santa Fé, prior to the American occupation, was, OF SANTA FE The buildings around the plaza comof the rudest description. prised the Palacio, or governor’s house, the custom-house, barracks, which was connected with the jail or calabozo, the Casa Consistorial of the alcaldes, the Capilla de los Soldados or military chapel, several private residences, and the stores occupied by the American traders, The Palacio was a long, low adobe building, very much as it 1. 1,237; len There is 20 most of them including Santa Fé 5,757; San Miguel del Vado, 2,893; Tomé 4 2,043; Cafiada 6,508; San Juan 2,915; Taos 3,606; THE OLD PALACE and exhibited two great curiosities, win- dows of glass and festoons of Indian ears. Glass was a great luxury in New Mexico; the ordinary shutters fastened on the inside with heavy closed dwellings had bars, instead of windows; some of the houses had windows, very small ones, closed with crystalized gypsum in place of glass. The festoons of Indian ears were made up of several strings of dried ears of Indians killed by parties sent out by the government against the In Chihuahua, savages, who were paid a certain sum for each head. of Indians scalps entire the with made was a great exhibition which they had killed by proxy. exhibited or retained. ‘Without At Santa Fé only the ears were This building has other claims to distinction. disparaging the importance of any of the cherished historical localities in the Hast,’’ says Dr. Prince, *"it may be truthhistoric interest and fully said that this ancient palace surpasses in value any other place or object in the United States. It antedates and the settlement of Jamestown, New Amsterdam and Plymouth, as a cold not erection, its since centuries three the during stood has rock or monument, with no claim upon the interest of humanity, as the living except the bare fact of its continued existence, but center of everything of historic importance in the Southwest. MexThrough all that long period, whether under Spanish, Pueblo, authorand power of seat the been has it control, ican or American political ity. Whether the ruler was called viceroy, captain-general, presided chief, department commander, or governor, and whether he has Over a kingdom, a department, a province, been his official residence. — or a territory, this |