"High on a lofty rock of sandstone such as I have described, sits the town of Acoma. On the northern side of the rock the rude boreal blasts have heaped up the sand so as to form a practicable ascent for some distance; the rest of the way is through solid rock. At one place a singular opening or narrow way is formed between a huge square tower of rock and the perpendicular face of the cliff. Then the road winds round like a spiral stairway, and the Indians have fixed in the rock logs of wood, radiating from a vertical axis, like steps; these afford foot-hold to man and beast in clambering up. were dividing the loads so as to carry them up the ladders. And whenever we approached they cried out, Coma! coma!''Eat! eat!' at the same time pointing to the fruit. They generally wear the Navajo blankets, marked with broad stripes, alternately black and white. Their pantaloons are very wide and bag-like, confined at the knee by long woollen stockings, and sometimes by buckskin leggings and moccasins. The women stuff their leggings with wool, which makes their ankles look like those of the elephant. "These people cannot have associated much with the Mexicans, (Spaniards,) as they scarcely know a word of the language. This may be owing to an old Spanish law, referred to by Mr. Murray, which confined the Indians to their villages, prohibiting them from visiting the settlements of the whites, and also exclud seem to possess a smattering of the Roman Catholic religion; their dwellings are often crowned with the symbol of the cross; and, as I have already mentioned, one of the first objects which meets the eye in entering the town, is a large chapel with its towers and bells.” "We were constantly meeting and passing Indians who had their burros' laden with peaches. At last we reached the top of the rock, which was nearly level and contains about sixty acres. Here we saw a large church and several continuous blocks of build-ing the latter from the Indian towns. They ings, containing sixty or seventy houses in each block. They were three stories high, and the walls on the sides that faced outwards were unbroken, and had no windows until near the top. In front the stories retreated back as they ascended, so as to leave a platform along the whole front of each, which platforms are guarded by parapet walls about three feet high. In order to gain admittance, you ascended to the first platform by the means of ladders; the next story is gained in like manner; but to reach the 'azotea,' or roof, the partition walls on the platform that separates the quarters of different families, have been formed into steps. This makes quite narrow stair-cases, as the walls are here not more than a foot in thickThe entrances to the dwellings are from the roof. Here we found great quantities of peaches, which had been cut in halves and spread to dry in the sun. ness. "We entered some of the houses, and the inmates received us with great gladness. They brought out circular baskets, nearly flat,and filled with a kind of corn-bread, resembling hornet's nests, of the same color, and thin as a wafer. This they crumbled between their fingers and put in a second basket, from which we ate. Each family occupies the rooms that are situated vertically over cach other. The lowest story is used as a storeroom, in which they put their corn, pumpkins, melons, and other eatables. The fronts of the houses are covered with festoons of bright red peppers and strings of pumpkins and musk-melons, which have been cut in slices and twisted in bunches to be dried for winter's use. "The people," continues Lieut. Abert, "appeared to be well provided with all the necessaries and luxuries which New Mexico produces. They are quiet, and seem to be generous and happy. As we walked through the town, we saw them unloading their burros.' Quantities of fine cling-stone peaches were spread out upon the ground, as the owners 6 This town is clearly the Acuco mentionby the first Spanish adventurers into this country.* The Indian towns which are situated where the natural defences are insufficient for complete protection, are fortified with considerable skill. Lieut. Peck, who visited it, mentions that the "Pueblo de Taos" is situated upon the banks of a little mountain stream, and consists of an immense adobe structure of successive stages, rising to the height of seven stories, constituting an almost impregnable tower. It is surrounded by a few smaller buildings, and the whole is "enclosed by an adobe wall, strengthened in some places by rough palisades, the defence, as to elicit much admiration of different parts so arranged for mutual the skill of the untaught engineers." It will perhaps be remembered that it was here that the Indians, roused into hostility, made their final stand against the American forces in January, 1847; and, as observed by Lieut. Abert, "the history of the bloody siege, lengthened resistance, and final reduction of the place, furnishes *The ruins of San Felipe, on the Rio Grande, correspond very nearly in position with Acoma. They are situated on the verge of a precipice several hundred feet in height, the base of which is washed by the river. sufficient evidence of its strength. For weeks in succession had they, in former times, resisted the attacks of overwhelming numbers of their wild prairie enemies, and this stronghold had defied all the assaults of the Spaniards. Built of adobes, a material almost impenetrable by shot, having no external entrance except through the roof, which must be reached by movable ladders, each story smaller than the one below, irregular in plan, and the whole judiciously pierced with loopholes for defence, the combination presents a system of fortification peculiarly sui generis.' According to Mr. Gregg there are here two edifices, one on each side of the creek, which formerly communicated by a bridge. The estufa was a spacious hall in the centre of the largest. This is probably the Braba of the Spanish conquerors, as will be seen in a future page. Lieut. Peck also mentions the pueblo of San Juan, which is surrounded by a dry trench, in which a row of palisades six or eight inches in thickness are planted, the interstices being filled with the clayey earth of which the "adobes" used in building are made. "These Indians have very fine fields of corn, and I noticed particularly their orchards of peach and plum trees. They cultivate almost all the fruit that is grown in the country, and an Indian settlement may usually be distinguished by a clump of trees. The Spaniards seldom take the trouble to plant them.' The cut at the head of this article represents a building in the Pueblo of San Domingo. It is copied from Lieut. Abert's Report, and will convey a very correct idea of the style, etc., of the Indian edifices. "The buildings of this Pueblo," says Lieut. Abert, are built in blocks two stories high; the upper story is narrower than the one below, so that there is a platform or landing along the whole length of the buildings. To enter 66 The houses in the Mexican cities were flat roofed,terraced and crowned with battlements. Cortez complains of the annoyance to which his soldiers were subjected from the Mexicans, "who fought from the tops of their houses, and threw missiles from behind the battlements." This would seem to imply that the Aztecs constructed their buildngs somewhat upon the plan of those described in the text. you ascend to the platform by means of ladders, which can be easily removed, and as there is a parapet wall extending along the front of each platform, these houses can be converted into formidable forts." Mr. Each of the Indian Pueblos or villages, is under the control of a cazique chosen from among themselves. When any public business is to be transacted, he collects the principal chiefs in an estufa or cell, usually under ground, when the subjects of debate are discussed and settled. Gregg was told that whenever they return from their belligerent expeditions, they always visit their council cell first. Here they dance and carouse frequently for two days, before seeing their families. The council has charge of the interior police, and keeps a strict eye over the young persons of both sexes of the village. The females, it should be observed, are universally noted for their chastity and modest deportment.* The first aboriginal remains of any kind, noticed by Lieut. Emory, were upon the Pecos river, a tributary of the Rio Grande del Norte, among the mountains, in lat. 35° 40' N., and 105° 45' W., not far to the eastward of Santa Fé. Here are the ruins of an ancient Indian building in close proximity to a dilapidated Catholic church. It was built of adobes, or sun-dried bricks. About a century since the town was sacked by hostile Indians, but amidst the terrors of the assault and subsequent havoc, the Pecos devotees contrived to keep up the eternal fire in the estufa, (vault,) where it continued to burn until within seven years, when the tribe becoming almost extinct, the survivors abandoned the place and joined some of the original race, beyond the mountains, about sixty miles to the southward, where it is said the sacred fire is still kept burning. The ruins are figured by Col. Emory, but no clear idea of their character can be formed from the sketch. Lieut. Abert states that many singular legends still exist relating to the former inhabitants. Among other things, it is said, they kept an immense serpent in their temple, to which they offered human sacrifices. We learn from another source that the buildings of the ancient town, which was * Transactions of American Ethnological Society, vol. ii. p. 81. founded before the conquest, are built of mud intermixed with small stones, and that some of them are still so perfect as to show three full stories. In the large ruined edifices above mentioned, there are four rooms under ground, circular in form, fifteen feet deep, and twenty-five feet across. In these burned the holy fire. In the valley of the Puerco, on the road to Cibolleta, Lieut. Abert found remains of buildings formed of flat stones and plastered with clay. At one point, upon a high bluff, he also discovered some enclosures of stone. One was circular, ten feet in diameter, with walls three feet high, in which an aperture or door had been left. Another was elliptical, and its walls had been quite high. Besides these, there were many rectangular structures, the purposes of which were not apparent. They were more than a mile from water, and the approach upon one side was steep and difficult, while upon the other it was impossible-the rocks presenting a vertical face, one hundred and eighty feet in height. On the east bank of the stream, not far from the bluff just mentioned, Lieut. Abert noticed a collection of stone structures in ruins. They had been arranged so as to form a square enclosure, the sides of which were each six hundred feet long. At the town of Tegique, which is about sixty miles south of Sante Fé, on the branch of a small stream, losing itself in the saline lakes of the Llano Estacado, Lieut. Abert found some ruins, a portion of which are at present covered by the modern town. They consisted in part of mounds, from six to eight feet in height, arranged in lines running due north and south, and east and west. At one place the mounds indicated a building of considerable size, which the Mexicans called "the church." While Lieut. Abert was there, he observed some people digging earth, of which to make adobes. In the course of their labors, they uncovered a wall consisting of sun-dried bricks. The mounds, which proved to be the ruins of buildings, were found upon examination to be divided by partition walls, into chambers not more than five feet square. Lieut. Abert concludes that they formed the lower stories or vaults of edifices, which, judging from the mass of fallen materials, were originally several stories high. Scattered around were frag ments of pottery, similar to that now used in the various pueblos, also arrow-heads of milky quartz. In their excavations, the people said they frequently found "metales," which are probably the stones called "metlatl" by the Aztecs, upon which they ground their corn. Lieut. Abert also visited the ruins of Abo and Quarra, which he found to be precisely such as would result from the abandonment and dilapidation of the present Indian towns. Some of these, as will soon be seen, it is certain, existed previously to the conquest; for, in the accounts of the early writers, we find them referred to by the names which they still bear. Perhaps the most imposing of any of these remains, are those called Gran Quivera," visited and described by Mr. Gregg. There is no doubt that Vasquez Coronado penetrated to this region in 1541. The Spaniards, after the second conquest, established missions and built churches at this and other important places, the ruins of which are easily recognized. Passing now beyond New Mexico, into the territory drained by the Rio Gila, on the great Pacific slope, we find numerous evidences of a remote population, and also remnants of nations still less changed from their original condition than those already noticed on the Rio Grande del Norte. The first remains on the Gila, worthy of remark, were found in lat. 32° 50′ N., long. 109° 30′ West. Lieut. Emory's brief notice is as follows: "To-day we passed one of the long-sought ruins. I examined it, and the only evidences of handcraft remaining were immense quantities of broken pottery, extending for two miles along the river. There were a great many stones, rounded by the attrition of the water, scattered about; but, if they had not occasionally been arranged in lines forming rectangles with each other, the supposition would be that they had been deposited there by natural causes." Two days thereafter, Lieut. Emory passed "the ruins of two more villages, similar to those just mentioned. The foundations of the largest houses first seen were sixty by twenty feet, those found to-day, forty by thirty. About none were found any vestiges of the mechanical arts, except pottery. The stones forming the foundations are round and unhewn; and some cedar logs were observed near them much decayed, but bearing no marks of edge tools." Except these rude remains, which can hardly be supposed to have belonged to the ancient population, the explorer had as yet found nothing to justify the current accounts of vast ancient ruins upon the Gila. Two days later, however, at the mouth of the San Carlos river, he discovered the foundation of a rectangular house composed of rough stones, and upon a mound near by the foundations of a circular structure, a few feet in diameter. Amid these were many fragments of pottery, and upon digging within them to the depth of a few feet, were found solid masses like the dirt floors of the Spaniards. The succeeding day, at the base of Mount Graham, he observed the ruins of a large settlement. Among the remains was one circular enclosure two hundred and seventy feet in circumference, and another twelve. hundred feet in circumference, which Lieut. Emory supposes to have been designed for defence. In one segment of it," he observes, was a triangular shaped indenture, which we supposed to have been a well. Large mezquite trees were growing on it, attesting its antiquity. Most of the houses are rectangular, varying from twenty to one hundred feet front. Many were of the form of the present Spanish houses, thus: 66 COURT FIG. 2. "Red cedar posts were found in many places, which would seem to detract from the antiquity of the other remains, but for the peculiarity of this climate, where vegetable matter appears never to decay. No relics were discovered which enable us to connect the builders of these ancient structures with any other races. No marks of edge tools could be found, nor any utensils, except the fragments of pottery everywhere strewed on the plain, and the rude corn-grinder still used by the Indians." So great was the quantity of this pottery, and the extent of ground covered by it, that Lieut. Emory conjectured it must have been used for pipes to convey water. There were also, scattered about, many fragments of agate and obsidian. The valley was evidently once the abode of a busy people. Tradition both among the Spaniards and Indians fails to reach them. Two days subsequently, Lieut. Emory observed ruins, which so far as he could judge, (the ground being covered with mezquite bushes,) must formerly have been occupied by from five to ten thousand inhabitants. "The outline of the buildings, and the pottery presented no essential differences from those already described. About eleven miles from this point, on a knoll, were found the traces of a solitary house, somewhat resembling a field work, en cremalliere. The enclosure was complete, and the faces varied from twenty to thirty feet. The accompanying cut will convey an accurate idea of the plan." FIG. 3. A few remains similar to those above noticed were observed at various points, as Lieut. Emory's party progressed. At one place, on the summit of a promontory of pitch stone, six or eight symmetrical and well-turned holes, about ten inches deep, and eight inches wide at the top, were found; near one of which, in a secluded spot, was lying a well-turned pestle. It is supposed these were the mortars or corn-mills of the ancient inhabitants. In lat. 33° N., long. 112° W., Lieut. Emory, for the first time, found buildings standing, at all corresponding to the structures he had been led to suppose existed on the Gila, and known as the "Casas Grandes," or "Casas Montezuma." The latter name is the one common among the Indians, with whom Montezuma is the out ward point of their chronology, from which every event is dated. His memory is regarded with the profoundest veneration. "Near our encampment," says Lieut. Emory, "a range of hills draws in from the south-west, giving the river a bend to the north. At the base of this range is a long meadow extending for many miles, in which the Pimos graze their cattle, and over which are scattered zequias, pottery, and other evidences of a once densely populated country. About the time of the noon halt a large building was observed to the left. It was the remains of a three-story mud-house, sixty feet square, and pierced for doors and windows. The walls were four feet thick, and formed of layers of mud, each two feet thick. It is represented in the following sketch, Fig. 4. "A long and careful search was made for objects of household use, or implements of art, but nothing was found except the corn-grinder, always met with among the ruins and on the plains. Marine shells, cut into various ornaments, were also found here, which showed that the builders either came from the sea-coast or trafficked there. No traces of hewn timber were discovered; on the contrary the sleepers of the ground floor were round and unhewn. They were burned out of their seats in the wall to the depth of six inches. The whole interior of the build ing had been burned out, and was much defaced. What was left bore marks of having been glazed, and on the walls of the north room of the second story were a number of rude hieroglyphics." While encamped near this point, Lieut. Emory's party were visited by the Pimos Indians, whose town was a few miles distant. They were frank and unsuspicious, leaving their packs and valuables in the camp with perfect unconcern. Theft seems to be unknown among them. One of them was asked concerning the ruins just described. He replied that all that |