STATISTICAL XIII. Province of Nuevo Mexico.

footing occasionally in swimming, this mode of passing the river is called passar el rio a volapie.

The water of the Rio del Norte, like that of the Orinoco, and all the great rivers of South America, is extremely muddy. In New Biscay they consider a small river, called Rio Puerco (nasty river), the mouth of which lies south from the town of Albuquerque, near Valencia, as the cause of this phenomenon; but M. Tamaron observed that its waters were muddy far above Santa Fe and the town of Taos. The inhabitants of the Passo del Norte have preserved the recollection of a very extraordinary event which took place in 1752. The whole bed of the river became dry all of a sudden for more than thirty leagues above, and twenty leagues below, the Passo: and the water of the river precipitated itself into a newlyformed chasm, and only made its re-appearance near the Presidio de San Eleazario. This loss of the Rio del Norte remained for a considerable time; the fine plains which surround the Passo, and which are intersected with small canals of irrigation, remained without water; and the inhabitants dug wells in the sand, with which the bed of the river was filled. At length, after the lapse of several weeks, the water resumed its ancient course, no doubt because the chasm and the subterraneous conductors had filled up. This

STATISTICAL XIII. Province of Nuevo Mexico.

ANALYSIS.

phenomenon bears some analogy to a fact which I was told by the Indians of Jaen de Bracamorros during my stay at Tomependa. In the beginning of the eighteenth century the inhabitants of the village of Puyaya saw, to their great terror and astonishment, the bed of the river Amazons completely dried up for several hours. A part of the rocks near the cataract (pongo) of Rentema had fallen down through an earthquake; and the waters of the Maragnon had stopt in their course till they could get over the dike formed by the fall. In the northern part of New Mexico, near Taos, and to the north of that city, rivers take their rise which run into the Mississippi. Rio de Pecos is probably the same with the Red River of the Natchitoches, and the Rio Napestla is, perhaps, the same river which, farther east, takes the name of Arkausas.

The

The colonists of this province, known for their great energy of character, live in a state of perpetual warfare with the neighbouring Indians. It is on account of this insecurity of the country life that we find the towns more populous thian we should expect in so desert a country. The situation of the inhabitants of New Mexico bears, in many respects, a great resemblance to that of the people of Europe during the middle ages. So long as insulation exposes men to per

STATISTICAL XIII. Province of Nuevo Mexico.

ANALYSIS.

sonal danger, we can hope for the establishment of no equilibrium between the population of towns and that of the country.

However, the Indians who live on an intimate footing with the Spanish colonists are by no means all equally barbarous. Those of the east are warlike, and wander about from place to place. If they carry on any commerce with the whites, it is frequently without personal intercourse, and according to principles of which some traces are to be found among some of the tribes of Africa. The savages, in their excursions to the north of the Bolson de Mapimi, plant along the road between Chihuahua and Santa Fe small crosses, to which they suspend a leathern pocket, with a piece of stag flesh. At the foot of the cross a buffalo's hide is stretched out. The Indian indicates by these signs that he wishes to carry on a commerce of barter with those who adore the cross. He offers the christian traveller a hide for provisions, of which he does not fix the quantity. The soldiers of the presidios, who understand the hieroglyphical language of the Indians, take away the buffalo hide, and leave some salted flesh at the foot of the cross *. This system of commerce indicates at once an extraordinary mixture of good faith and distrust.

* Diario del Illmo. Señor Tamaron, (MS.)

STATISTICAL XIII. Province of Nuevo Mexico.

The Indians to the west of the Rio del Norte, between the rivers Gila and Colorado, form a contrast with the wandering and distrustful Indians of the savannas to the east of New Mexico. Father Garces is one of the latest missionaries who in 1773 visited the country of the Moqui, watered by the Rio de Yaquesila. He was astonished to find there an Indian town with two great squares, houses of several stories, and streets well laid out, and parallel to one another. Every evening the people assemble together on the terraces, of which the roofs of the houses are formed. The construction of the edifices of the Moqui is the same with that of the Casas grandes on the banks of the Rio Gila, of which we have already spoken. The Indians who inhabit the northern part of New Mexico give also a considerable elevation to their houses, for the sake of discovering the approach of their enemies. Every thing in these countries appears to announce traces of the cultivation of the ancient Mexicans. We are informed even by the Indian traditions, that twenty leagues north from the Moqui, near the mouth of the Rio Zaguananas, the banks of the Nabajoa were the first abode of the Aztecs after their departure from Aztlan. On considering the civilization which exists on several points of the north-west coast of 'America, in the Moqui, and on the banks of the

STATISTICAL XIII. Province of Nuevo Mexico.

Gila, we are tempted to believe (and I venture to repeat it here) that at the period of the migra tion of the Toltecs, the Acolhues, and the Aztecs, several tribes separated from the great mass of the people to establish themselves in these northern regions. However, the language spoken by the Indians of the Moqui, the Yabipais, who wear long beards, and those who inhabit the plains in the vicinity of the Rio Colorado, is essentially different from the Mexican language.

In the 17th century several missionaries of the order of St. Francis established themselves among the Indians of the Moqui and Nabajoa, who were massacred in the great revolt of the Indians in 1680. I have seen in manuscript maps drawn up before that period the name of the Provincia del Moqui.

The province of New Mexico contains three villas (Santa Fe, Santa Cruz de la Cañada y Taos, and Albuquerque y Alameda), 26 pueblos, or villages, 3 parroquias, or parishes, 19 missions, and no solitary farm (rancho).

* See the testimony of several missionary monks well versed in the knowledge of the Aztec language (Chronica Serafica del Collegio de Queretaro, p. 408.)