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Show 472 Ex. Doc. No. 41. Th se people cannot have associated much ';~t~ the 1\Texira_us, for they scarce know a word of the Iana;uage. 1 Ju may be owmg to an old panish law, referred to by Jyfr. _Murray, the geog:aphc·r; which law confined the lnclians to then vd1agc , not a.l1ow1ng the whi1cs to 'visit t~Jc'm, nor were they admitted mto any plare in l1abited by whit<·s. They howc~er ce~ to possess a smattering. of the Roman Catholic rrligon, theu dwellmgs arc often crowned wtth the .ymbol of the cross; and, as I ~lave already mcnti.one_d, one of the first objects that strikes the eye Is a large chapel wtth 1ts towers and bells. We now returned to our camp in the valley belov,r; although we had ridden up, yrt we did not feel inclinccl to run the ri k of drsce~ding the spiral stairway, on other feet than those of our :propna persona. . At one place, just after 'passing the narrow defile, n ar the tower rock, a wall has been raisc>d by the Indians to prevent accidents from persons falling over the precipice. I took a sketch of this portion of the ascent. When we rcac..:hed th plain we aw large flocks of sheep, herds of cattle, and droves of horses. We hacl encamr>ed by the side of some holes that the Indians had dug; these, they saicl, yiddcd a constant supply of watrr; ancl bdwccn our camp anll the city, there was some water that ran along over the be<l of n slrcam for a few yards, when it disappeared beneath the sand. This furnished the inhabitants with dnnking water; I was obliged to scoop a hollow in the sand before I could get my tin cup full. This running water is three-fourths of a mile from -the foot of the rock . . To look from our camp upon this town, as it sits on the flat top of the rock, which rises so abruptly from the plain, aul catch sight of the little windows, surrounded with white washed square , one is struck with the resemblance of the buildings to a fort. The mind recalls the images it has formed of those fortresses thnt were observed by the ~rmy of Cortez; such as the. village of "Capistlan," in the mountatns of Guasteveque, descnbed by "-' olis, as "a town strongoby nature, seated on the top of a great rock, difficult of access, the way so steep that the Spaniards could not use their ha~tls for fear of their feet slipping." In a second place, he de-scnbes the attack of another fortress: "a cousidcrable fortress, on the highest eminence," in tbc same mountain thus: ''the Indians feigned to be in some disorder, that they might' entiee the Spaniar<l:> to the most dangerous part of the precipice· which they had no sooner effected, than they relurne1l with most horrible cries, letting fall from the t.or such a shower of slonPs, and ent:re rocks, as b~rred up the wa.y, after having borne clown f'Very thing it met w1th." Bernal Dtaz, the doughty captain, is obliged to retire to a ho_llo~ rock~ and advise t~e rest to halt and leave the paths, it bemg 1mposstble to go on wtthout falling into danger.,... • And Cortez hi!flself. tho great gonGr~l, scoing that there wa.11 no continumg ~ho nttl~ck t.b~t wo.y1 and foarwg all would havo J)Grtshec.l, sent them orders immodiately to rctlro, whwb. thoy did with tho same dang or. • \ I. () ~I \ ·"I) .. : |