OCR Text |
Show 210 JOUR:N"AL OF A VOYAGE my men to release him, and told him, that I looked upon him as too contemptible for further notice, but that he might tell the governor, the next time he employed emissaries, to choose those of more abilities and sense, and that I questioned if his excellency would find the sifting of us an easy task . . This man's name was Baptiste Lalande, he had come frmn the Illinois to the Pawnees, to trade with goods furnished him by William 1\tlorrison, a gentleman of the Illinois, and from thence to New Mexico with the goods, which he had procured and established himself, and was the same man on whmn Robinson had a c1aim. lie returned into the priest's house with me, and instead of making any complaint, he in reply to their enquiries of who I was, &c. informed them, that when he left Louisiana, I was governor of the Illinois. 'I'his I presume he took for granted from n1y having commanded for some time the post of Kaskaskias, the first military post the United States had established in that country since the peace; however the report served but to add to the respect with which my companion and host treated me. Having had at this place the first good n1eal, wine, &c. with the heat of the house, and perhaps rather an immoderate use of the refr shments allowed me, produced an attack of something like the cholera morbus, which alarmed me con~ sidl'rably, and made me determine to be n1ore abstemious in future. This father was a great naturalist, or rather florist : he had large collections of flowers, plants, &c. and several works on his favorite st udics, the margin and bottoms of which were filled Vi'ith his notes in the Castilic. n language. As I had neither a natural turn for botany, sufficient to induce me to puzzle my head much with the Latin, anll did not understand the Castilian, I cnjoycu but little of his ll'ctures, \vhich he co11tinued to THROUGH THE INTERIOR PHO\"JNCES, &c. 211 give me nearly for two hours on thos-.. subject , but by the exercise of a small degree of patience, I entirely ac-· quired the esteem of this worth_ father, he calling m( his son, and lamenting extre1nely that tny fate had not made me one of the holy catholic church.'* St. John's was enclosed with a mud wall, and probably contained 1000 souls ; its population consisted principally of civilized Indians, as indeed docs all the villages of New Mexico, the whites not forming the one twentieth part of the inhabitants. 3d March, Tuesday.-W e marched after breakfast, B. Lalande accompanying us, and in about six miles came to a village, where I suppose there were n1ore than 2000 souls. Here we halted at the house of the priest, who understanding that 1 would not kiss his hand, would not present it to me. The conduct and behaviour of a young priest who came in, was such as in our country would have been £tinply sufficient forever to have banished him from the clerical association, strutting about with a dirk in his boot, a cane in his hand, whispering to one girl, chucking another under the chin, and going out with a third, &c. From this village to another small village of 500 inhabitants, is seven miles. At each of those villages is a small stream, sufficient for the purpose of watering their ftelds. At the father's house we took coffee. Frmn this village, it was l 7 miles to another of 400 civilized Indians. Ilerc we changed horses and prepared for entering the capital, which we carne in sight of in the evening. It is situated along the banks of a small creek, which comes down from the mountains, and runs west to the Rio del Norte. The lcngt h of the capital on the creek may be estimated at one mile; it is but three streets in width. • Sec i\ppcndix to P.trt UI. [No.7·] pJgc 6?· |