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Show [ 23] 32 qualifications necessary to his office., possesses th.ose of a long residence in this country, a constant mtercourse with the people, and an intimate knowledge of their langqage and cha.~acter. . In the afternoon I strolled throug'h the "plaza,' or pubhc square. On the north side is the palace, occupying the whole side of the square. On the remaining sides one finds the stores of the merchants and traders, and in the centre of the square a tall flag staff has been erected, from which the banner of freedom now waves. There all the country people congregate to sell their. marketing, and one constantly sees objects to amuse. Trains of "burros" are continually entering the city, laden with kegs of Taos whiskey or immense packs of fodder, melons, wood, or grapes. Our own soldiers, too, are con:;tantly passing and repassing, or mingling with the motley groups of Mexicans and Pueblo Indians. The markets have, in addition to the articles already mentioned, great quantities of "Chili colorado," and "verde," "cebollas" or onions, "sanclias" or water melons, "huevos" or eggs, "queso" or cheese, and "hojas" or corn husks, neatly tied up in bundles for making the cigarritos, "punche" or t.obacco, "uvas" or grapes, and "pinones," nuts of the pine tree, (pinus monophy llus.) These last are slightly baked to make them keep, and are brought to market in great quantities. Besides these things., there are many varieties of bread, and several kinds of meat. The Pueblo Indians bring in great quantities of peaches which are here called . "duraznos." In the evening I attended a ball, here styled a fandango. The Mexican ladies had laid aside their "rebozas,-" and were clothed much after the manner of our own females·. Stuffs most rich, and skirts of monstrou~ width .or fullness. While sitting down they were wrapped I? splendid shawls. These were generally thrown over the head hke the reboza. T~ey gazed round the room with great co~plais~nce as they smoked their cigarritos. Waltzing forms the ch1ef part of all their dances. The prin cipal ones are the "cumbe," and the ''Italiano." These people have an excellent notion of time, fine vo~ces, and seemed to be enthusiastically fond of music. They are pohte to excess, and I hear them often exclaim at what they call r.udeness of the A~erican~, saying "no tienen · vergiienza," for a Mexican nev~r ev.en lights his cigarrito without asking your consent, "con su hcencia senor Y At this dance I had the pleasure of tasting some of the wine from "El passo del Norte," which in its delicious flavor realized all I had anticipated.. · S~ptember 29.-As I had found orders from General Kearny directmg th~ survey. of New IVI.exico, with Lieutenant Peck or' the to.pographical eng1?-eers, I set out this morning to visit the gold mm~s; between tlurty and forty miles to the south of Santa Fe. , Havmg made all . our. prepar~tions yesterday, we were enabled to get off very early this mornmg. The first nine miles of our road led us through groves of cedar and pifiori · at length we O'Ot upon the bare valley, where nought is to be s~en but the cact~s and a scant growth of grass, and the yueca · and along the road great numbers of horned lizzards. T.owards' the latter part of the day 33 [ 23] we entered a very sandy country; here lay huge masses of sandstone and fragments of immense petrified trees. We soon comme, nced clambering up the mountain side, and at last reached the "placero" or "real viejo;" here we made diligent inquiry for a Mr. Waters, at whose house we wished to stay, as we understood he was the only American in the village. We found he had gone off on a hunt. We endeavored to get some of the people of the house to admit us, but they did not seem to like our appearance and refused to let us stay, with them. It was now quite late, w; were v~ry hun~ry, and our mules had had nothing to eat since early this mornmg, and the country around was as sterile a piece , of ground as one could wish to see. "Siempre dija la ventura, una puerta abierta." So, after a great deal of persuasion on our part, they put our mules into a corral, and gave them some corn. No fo der was to be had here; in fact, there was scarcely anything to be had in the village. The houses were the most mi~erable we had yet seen, and the inhabitants the most . abject picture of squalid poverty, and yet the streets of the village are indeed paved with gold. All along the bottom of tb.e stream and in the heart of the , town you see holes scooped out by the gold diggers. After doing our best to make ourselves agreeable to the people, they consented to let us spend the night in a hovel, next door to a mill, in which a burro was busily at work grinding gold ore. Some Indians now entered the town, with trains of burros loaded with musk melons. As we began to feel the cravings of hunger, we purchased some melons and bread, on which we tried to make our suppers. We got our saddles and saddle blankets, and endeavored to form them into a bed on the earthen floor of our luxurious "posada." At length we received the news that a certain Senor Don Ricardo had arrived, who was an American, so we at once repaired to his house. Conceive our delight in meeting with a countrymen, Mr. Richard Dallum, the Alguacil of New Mexico. He immediately invited us to c<;>me and stay at his house, and gave us an ~xcellent supper. . From the "portail." of his house we noticed holes dug in the sides of a hill of sand in front of u~; these were the vestiges o[ the gold diggers. The mountains of sand were based on masses of granite, specimens of which we collected. This village contains about 200 inhabitants, who raise great numbers of sheep and goats. In the neighboring valleys they graze 5,000 sheep. Some years ago they raised many more, but the cons. tant. depredations of the "Navajoes" have caused ,a great diminution m their flocks. September 30.-In company with Mr. Dallum, we started this morning on a tour of exploration. One-fourth of a mile higher up t~e ravine we entered another little town; our way was 'on all Sides full of holes, and sometimes deep wells that had been sunk in search of the precious metal. We saw many miserable looking wretchP-s, clothed in rags, with an old piece of iron to dig the earth, and some gourds, or horns of the mountain goat, to wash the sand. They sit all day at work, and at evening repair to some 3 |