OCR Text |
Show • [ 23] . 56 These people cannot have associated muc,h wit~ the Mexirans, fnr they scarce know a word of the language. Thts may be owing to an old Spanish Jaw, .rpferred to by ¥ r .. Murray, the J!E'Og~t~pht'r; whioh Jaw confined the Indians to their vtllages, not allowing the wfil,ires to 'visit them, nor were they admitted Into any place inhabited by whites. Tht>y howe~er see~ to posse~s a smattering.of the Roman Catholic religon, thetr dwellmgs are otten crowned wtth the ~ymbol of the eros~; and," as I ?ave already mrnti.one.d, one of the first objects that strikes the eye IS a large chapel wtth 1ts towers and bells. . We now returnE'd to our camp in the valley below; although we bad ridden up, yet we did not feel inclined to run ' the ri~k of desce?d1ng the sp~ral stairway, on other feet than those of our proprta persona. , At one place, jqst after passing the narrow defile, near the tower roc·k, a wall has b(•en raist>d by the Indians to prevE'nt aeo}dents from persons falling over the precipice: I took a sketch of this por.tion of the ascent. _mhen we reached the plain we saw large flocks of sheep, herds of ~attle, and droves of horses. We had encamped by the side of some holes that the Indians had dug; these, they said, yielded a co.nstant supply of water; and between our camp and the city, there was some water that ran along OYer the bed of a stream for a few yal'lrls, when it disappeared beneath the S:}nd. 'This furnished the inhabitants with drmking 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.· rro look from our camp upon this town, as it sits on th·e flat top .of the rock, which rises so abruptly from the plain, and catch sight ?f the 'little window~, surrounded with white washed squares, one Is •struck with the resemblance of the buildings to a fort. The mind r~oaHs th·e images it has formed of those fortresses that were obserVed by the army of Cortez; such as the vi11age of ''CapistJ::m," in the· mountains of Guastepeque, described by ' ~olis, · as "a town strong by nature, seated on the top of a preat rock, difficult of access, the way so steep that the Spaniards could not use their ha~-ds for fear of their feet slipping.:' In a seconrl place, he de· scnbes the attack of another fortress: '.'a consiuerable fortress, on th.e big·hest emin~nce," in tlJe st~me mountain, thus: ''the Indians fe~g·ned to be in some disorder, that they might enti1;e the Spaniards to ~he most dangerous part of the precipieE'; which they had no - sooner t>ffected, than thPy returned with most horrible cries, Jetting fall from the top such a shower of stones, and en tire rock~, as b~rred up the way, after having borne down every thing it met Wtth." Bernal Diaz, t.he doughty captain, is obliged to retire to.a hol~Ho": rock~ and advtse t1e rest to halt and leave the paths, 1t he11rlg tmposs1ble to go on without falling into danger.* ' • .th:t~nd Cortez h:!'l~elr. the great gener~J, seeing that there wRs no cont inning ~he att~ck th oy -}d•Y, ~nll feartng 1tll would have pert&hed, sent them orders immediately to rettre, whioll ut 'Wtth the same d~~onger. \ ,' 57 [ 23 J Jn the evening, at a qu~rter past ten o'clock, a meteor of dazzling splendor dashed acr·oss the sky; its path was perpendicular to the horizon, and passed through the head of the constellation draco; the br ightness was sueh as to eclipse the lig-ht of the candle by which I was writing; five minutes afterwards I heud a report ]ike thttt of a di~tant ranuon. · October 22.-We now turnecl our faces eastward, as Acoma is the most western of the New Mexican towns. Zuiii, which, in a dirt>ct liue, is said to be but 80 miles to the west, is situated on the tributary waters of thf' "Rio Gila." Our mules had wandered off a grc:at distance, anrl, owing to the difficulty of catching them, we did not leave· Acoma until 10 o'clock. We then star~ ed for" Rito-,''. a Span ish town. I remained . behind some time, in order to sketch one of the ptlsses to the town of Acoma. This one only is practical for foot passt>ngers. There are, besides, two others, one of which can be passed on horseback, but the principal one is that by which we Wt>nt up yesterday. Our coursE', for the first two miles, led us off in a southeastern ' cJirE'ction. In this short distance we descended rapidly, and having gotten safely over a dangerous road, , we found our selves much lower than we were yesterday. We had reach ed a second level, below that of the light red sandstone of Acoma. The high escarpments between which we passed, presented fine views of the superposition of the different strata. Uppermost is the hard and compact sandstone, such as forms the rock of Acoma; then c.omes a h:nd whitish chty; then a dark sandstone, of a red color; and ·finally, a reddish brown, ferruginous, and sandy clay. · We now travelled northeast, and parallel to our route from Laguna to Acoma; and although not more than four or five milt·s distant from our course of the preceding day, yet the countty presents a new a!'pect. Having ret~ched this second mesa, and bt>ing forced by our route to travel close to the foot of a high esc·arpment, we co~ld not see over it, and therefore could not uiscover ~ny of the pomts .we had alrearly noticed. Several times the trail we wPre followtng gr.ve out; at last, quite late, we struck a fr sh trace of a carreta. We followed th.is trace until night clo d upon us. There was no moon, and dark clouds dimmed the stars; we all f~istnou. nted, anrl in silence endeavored to keep upon the path. Aided by J~equent flashes of lightning, we kt>pt tlte track, and urged on -our Jaded animals, hoping soon to rPach a stream. At length our 'Wagon arriverl at a slight sandy acclivity, where the mules, worn out by the difficulties 'of the road, completely broke down. Here we en~..:amped; on a sand knoll we pitf:hed our tent, and then sent out one of the men in search of water, for we hart not seen one drop stn~e we h·ft our morning's camp. We now lit a cheerful fire of Hrtt'mtsias, 'anci then sat down to a supper of delicious rihs of roasted mutton, sueh as is only found in the mountain region of New ~t-Xtco. We were hardly comfortably seated, when a 1t>rribl. e ~qu<dl of winrl aro~e, accompanied by a sligt.t rain . In the nllc~st of the squalf our tent blew over, and we were obliged to refix 1t several times. We luckily had some extra mule pickets that I |