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Papers of the Archæological Institute of America.

_AMERICAN SERIES._

Volume I

[Illustration: PLATE XI. MAPS OF COUNTRY NEAR SANTA FÉ.]




Papers of the Archæological Institute of America.

_AMERICAN SERIES._

I.

       *       *       *       *       *

1. HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION TO STUDIES
AMONG THE SEDENTARY INDIANS OF
NEW MEXICO.

2. REPORT ON THE RUINS OF THE PUEBLO
OF PECOS.

BY
A. F. BANDELIER.


BOSTON:
PUBLISHED BY A. WILLIAMS AND CO.
LONDON: N. TRÜBNER AND CO.
1881.




UNIVERSITY PRESS:

JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE.




ARCHÆOLOGICAL INSTITUTE OF AMERICA.

       *       *       *       *       *

Executive Committee, 1880-81.


CHARLES ELIOT NORTON, _President_.

MARTIN BRIMMER, _Vice-President_.

FRANCIS PARKMAN.

W. W. GOODWIN.

H. W. HAYNES.

ALEXANDER AGASSIZ.

WILLIAM R. WARE.

O. W. PEABODY, _Treasurer_.

E. H. GREENLEAF, _Secretary_.




I.

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION
TO
STUDIES AMONG THE SEDENTARY INDIANS
OF
NEW MEXICO.

PART I.

BY AD. F. BANDELIER.




I.

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.


Part I.

The earliest knowledge of the existence of the sedentary
Indians in New Mexico and Arizona reached Europe
by way of Mexico proper; but it is very doubtful whether or
not the aborigines of Mexico had any _positive_ information to
impart about countries lying north of the present State of
Querétaro. The tribes to the north were, in the language of
the valley-confederates, "Chichimecas,"--a word yet undefined,
but apparently synonymous, in the conceptions of the
"Nahuatl"-speaking natives, with fierce savagery, and ultimately
adopted by them as a warlike title.

Indistinct notions, indeed, of an original residence, during
some very remote period of time, at the distant north, have
been found among nearly all the tribes of Mexico which speak
the Nahuatl language. These notions even assume the form
of tradition in the tale of the _Seven Caves_,[1] whence the Mexicans
and the Tezcucans, as well as the Tlaxcaltecans, are said
to have emigrated to Mexico.[2] Perhaps the earliest mention
of this tradition may be found in the writings of Fray Toribio
de Paredes, surnamed Motolinia. It dates back to 1540 A.D.[3]
But it is not to be overlooked that ten years previously, in
1530, the story of the _Seven Cities_, which was the form in
which the first report concerning New Mexico and its sedentary
Indians came to the Spaniards, had already been told to
Nuño Beltran de Guzman in Sinaloa.[4] The parallelism between
the two stories is striking, although we are not authorized
to infer that the so-called seven _cities_ gave rise to what
appeared as an aboriginal myth of as many _caves_.[5]

The tale of the Seven Caves, as the original home of the
Mexicans and their kindred, prevailed to such an extent that,
as early as 1562, in a collection of picture-sheets executed in
aboriginal style, the so-called "Codex Vaticanus," "Chicomoztoc,"
and the migrations thence, were graphically represented.
All the important Indian writers of Mexico between
1560 and 1600, such as Duráro, Camargo, Tezozomoc, and
Ixtlilxochitl, refer to it as an ancient legend, and they locate
the site of the story, furthermore, very distinctly in New Mexico.
Even the "Popol-Vuh," in its earliest account of the
Quiché tribe of Guatemala, mentions "Tulan-Zuiva, the seven
caves or seven ravines."[6]

While it is impossible as yet to determine whether or not
this legend exercised any direct influence on the extension
of Spanish power into Northern Mexico, another myth, well
known to eastern continents from a remote period, became
directly instrumental in the discovery of New Mexico. This
is the tale of the _Amazons_.

About 1524 A.D., Cortes was informed by one of his officers
(then on an expedition about Michhuacan) that towards
the north there existed a region called Ciguatan ("Cihuatlan"--place
of women), near to which was an island inhabited
by warlike females exclusively.[7] The usual exaggerations
about metallic wealth were added to this report; and when, in
1529, Nuño de Guzman governed Mexico he set out northwards,
first to conquer the sedentary Indians of Michhuacan,
and then to search for the gold and jewels of the Amazons.[8]
It was while on this foray that he heard of the Seven Cities in
connection with Ciguatan. This latter place was reached;
and, while the fancies concerning it were speedily dispelled
by reality, those concerning the Seven Cities flitted further
north.[9] Guzman overran, laid waste, and finally colonized
Sinaloa. He sent parties into Sonora; but, after his recall,
slow colonization superseded military forays on a large scale,
at least for a few years.

During this time, Pamfilo de Narvaez had undertaken the
colonization of Florida.[10] His scheme failed, and cost him
his life. Of the few survivors of his expedition, four only
remained in the American continent, wandering to and fro
among the tribes of the south-west. After nine years of untold
hardships, these four men finally reached Sonora, having
traversed the continent, from the Gulf of Mexico to the
coast of the Pacific. The name of the leader and subsequent
chronicler of their adventures was Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de
Vaca.[11]

It is not possible to follow and to trace, geographically,
the erratic course of Cabeza de Vaca with any degree of certainty.
His own tale, however authentic, is so confused[12] that
it becomes utterly impossible to establish any details of location.
We only know that, in the year A.D. 1536, he and
his associates finally met with their own countrymen about
Culiacan.[13]

They reported that, when their shiftings had cast them far
to the west of the sinister coast of what was then called "Florida,"
settlements of Indians were reached which presented a
high degree of culture.[14] These settlements they described as
having a character of permanence, but we look in vain for any
accurate description of the buildings, or of the material of
which they were composed.[15] For such a report of important
settlements in the north, the mind of the Spanish conquerors
in Mexico was, as we have already intimated, well prepared.

During their stay among the nondescript tribes of South-western
North America, Cabeza de Vaca and his companions
had tried to scatter the seeds of Christianity,--at least, they
claimed to have done so. The monks of the order of St.
Francis then represented the "working church" in Mexico.
One of their number, Fray Marcos de Nizza, who had joined
Pedro de Alvarado upon his return from his adventurous tour
to Quito in Ecuador, and who was well versed in Indian lore,[16]
at once entered upon a voyage of discovery, determining to
go much farther north than any previous expedition from the
colonies in Sinaloa. He took as his companion the negro
Estevanico, who had been with Cabeza de Vaca on his marvellous
journey.

Leaving San Miguel de Culiacan on the 7th of March,
1539,[17] and traversing Petatlan, Father Marcos reached Vacapa.[18]
If we compare his statements about this place with
those contained in the diary of Mateo Mange,[19] who went
there with Father Kino in 1701, we are tempted to locate it
in Southern Arizona, somewhat west from Tucson, in the "Piméria
alta,"[20] at a place now inhabited by the Pima Indians,
whose language is also called "Cora" and "Nevome."[21] Vacapa
was then "a reasonable settlement" of Indians. Thence
he travelled in a northerly direction, probably parallel to the
coast at some distance from it. It is impossible to trace his
route with any degree of certainty: we cannot even determine
whether he crossed the Gila at all; since he does not mention
any considerable river in his report, and fails to give
even the direction in which he travelled, beyond stating at
the outset that he went northward. Still we may suppose,
from other testimony on the subject, that he went beyond
the Rio Gila,[22] and finally he came in sight of a great Indian
pueblo, "more considerable than Mexico,"--the houses
of stone and several stories high. The negro Estevanico had
been killed at this pueblo previous to the arrival of Fray Marcos,
so the latter only gazed at it from a safe distance, and
then hastily retired to Culiacan. While the date of his departure
is known, we are in the dark concerning the date of
his return, except that it occurred some time previous to the
2d of September, 1539.[23]

To this great pueblo, "more considerable than Mexico,"
Fray Marcos was induced to give the name of Cibola.[24] The
comparison with Mexico shows a lively imagination; still, we
must reflect that in 1539 Mexico was not a large town,[25] and
the startling appearance of the many-storied pueblo-houses
should also be taken into account.[26]

With the report about Cibola came the news that the said
pueblo was only one of seven, and the "Seven Cities of Cibola"
became the next object of Spanish conquest.

It is not our purpose here to describe the events of this
conquest, or rather series of conquests, beginning with the
expedition of Francisco Vasquez Coronado in 1540, and
ending in the final occupation of New Mexico by Juan de
Oñate in 1598. For the history of these enterprises, we refer
the reader to the attractive and trustworthy work of Mr.
W. W. H. Davis.[27] But the numerous reports and other documents
concerning the conquest enable us to form an idea
of the ethnography and linguistical distribution of the Indians
of New Mexico in the sixteenth century. Upon this
knowledge alone can a study of the present ethnography
and ethnology of New Mexico rest on a solid historical foundation.

There can be no doubt that Cibola is to be looked for in
New Mexico. From the vague indications of Fray Marcos,
we are at least authorized to place it within the limits of New
Mexico or Arizona, and the subsequent expedition of Coronado
furnishes more positive information.

Coronado marched--"leaving north slightly to the left"[28]--from
Culiacan on. In other words, he marched east of
north. Hence it is to be inferred that Cibola lay nearly north
of Culiacan in Sinaloa. Juan Jaramillo has left the best itinerary
of this expedition. We can easily identify the following
localities: Rio Cinaloa, upper course, Rio Yaquimi, and upper
course of the Rio Sonora.[29] Thence a mountain chain was
crossed called "Chichiltic-Calli,"[30] or "Red-house" (a Mexican
name), and a large ruined structure of the Indians was
found there.

Within the last forty years at least, this "Red house" has
been repeatedly identified with the so-called "Casas Grandes,"
lying to the south of the Rio Gila in Arizona.[31] It should not
be forgotten that from the upper course of the Rio Sonora
_two_ groups of Indian pueblos in ruins were within reach of
the Spaniards. One of these were the ruins on the Gila, the
other lay to the right, across the Sierra Madre, in the present
district of Bravos, State of Chihuahua, Mexico. Jaramillo
states that Coronado crossed the mountains to the _right_.[32] Now,
whether the "Nexpa," whose stream the expedition descended
for two days, is the Rio Santa Cruz or the Rio San Pedro, their
course after they once crossed the Sierra could certainly not
have led them to the "great houses" on the Rio Gila, but
much farther east. The query is therefore permitted, whether
Coronado did not perhaps descend into Chihuahua, and thence
move up due north into South-western New Mexico. In any
case,--whether he crossed the Gila and then turned north-eastward,
as Jaramillo intimates,[33] or whether he perhaps struck
the small "Rio de las Casas Grandes" in Chihuahua, and
then travelled due north to Cibola, according to Pedro de
Castañeda,[34]--the lines of march necessarily met the first sedentary
Indians living in houses of stone or adobe about the
region in which the pueblo of Zuñi exists. It is not to be
wondered at, therefore, if all the writers on New Mexico, from
Antonio de Espejo (1584) down to General J. H. Simpson
(1871), with very few exceptions, have identified Zuñi with
Cibola.


There are numerous other indications in favor of this assumption.

1. Thus Castañeda says: "Twenty leagues to the north-west,
there is another province which contains seven villages.
The inhabitants have the same costumes, the same customs,
and the same religion as those of Cibola."[35] This district is the
one called "Tusayan" by the same author, who places it at
twenty-five leagues also; and "Tucayan" by Jaramillo, "to
the left of Cibola, distant about five days' march."[36] These
seven villages of "Tusayan" were visited by Pedro de Tobar.
West of them is a broad river, which the Spaniards called
"Rio del Tizon."[37]

2. Five days' journey from Cibola to the east, says Castañeda,
there was a village called "Acuco," erected on a rock. "This
village is very strong, because there was but one path leading
to it. It rose upon a precipitous rock on all sides, etc."[38]
Jaramillo mentions, at one or two days' march from Cibola
to the east, "a village in a very strong situation on a precipitous
rock; it is called Tutahaco."[39]

3. According to Jaramillo: "All the water-courses which
we met, whether they were streams or rivers, until that of
Cibola, and I even believe one or two journeyings beyond,
flow in the direction of the South Sea; further on they take
the direction of the Sea of the North."[40]

4. The village called "Acuco," or "Tutahaco," lay between
Cibola and the streams running to the south-east, "entering
the Sea of the North."[41]

It results from points 3 and 4, that the region of Cibola
lay at all events _west of the present grants to the pueblo of
Acoma_. There are watercourses in their north-western corner,
and through the western half thereof, which become
tributaries to the Rio Grande del Norte. The only settled
region, or rather the region containing the remains of large
settlements, lying west of the water-shed between the Colorado
of the West and the Rio Grande, is much farther north.
It is the so-called San Juan district, where extensive ruins are
still found, for the description of which we are indebted to
General Simpson, to Messrs. Jackson and Holmes, and to Mr.
Lewis H. Morgan. To reach this region, Coronado had to
pass either between Acoma and Zuñi, or between the Zuñi
and the Moqui towns. In either case he could not have
failed to notice one or the other of these pueblos; whereas
Nizza, as well as the reports of Coronado's march, particularly
insist upon the fact that Cibola lay on the borders of
a great uninhabited waste.

Our choice is therefore limited between Zuñi and the
Moqui towns themselves; for there can be no doubt as to the
identity of the rock of Acuco or Tutahaco, east of Cibola,
with the pueblo of Acoma, whose remarkable situation, on
the top of a high, isolated rock, has made it the most conspicuous
object in New Mexico for nearly three centuries.[42]

But there can be as little doubt, also, in regard to the identity
of the Moqui district with the "Tusayan" of Castañeda
and of Jaramillo. When the Moqui region first was made
known under that name ("Mohoce," "Mohace") in 1583,
by Antonio de Espejo, it lay westward from Cibola "four
journeys of seven leagues each." One of its pueblos was
called "Aguato" ("Aguatobi").[43] Fifteen years later (1598),
Juan de Oñate found the first pueblo of "Mohóce," twenty
leagues of the first one of "Juñi" ("Zuñi") to the westward.[44]
Besides, the "Rio del Tizon" was, at an early day,
distinctly identified with the Colorado River of the West.[45]

Finally, we must notice here that the text of Hackluyt's
version of Espejo's report is in so far incorrect as it leads to
the inference that Espejo only admitted Cibola to be a
Spanish name for Zuñi, therefore making it doubtful whether
or not it was the original place ("y la llaman los Españoles
Cibola"). The original text of Espejo's report distinctly
says, however, "a province of six pueblos, called Zuñi,
and by another name, Cibola," thus positively identifying
the place.[46]

We cannot, therefore, refuse to adopt the views of General
Simpson and of Mr. W. W. H. Davis, and to look to the
pueblo of Zuñi as occupying, if not the actual site, at least
one of the sites within the tribal area of the "Seven cities of
Cibola." Nor can we refuse to identify Tusayan with the
Moqui district, and Acuco with Acoma.

This investigation has so far enabled us to locate, at the
time of their first discovery, _three_ of the principal pueblos or
groups of pueblos of New Mexico and Arizona. The pueblo
of Acoma appears to have occupied at that time the identical
striking position in which it is found to-day. The pueblo of
Zuñi, while it undoubtedly occupies the ground once claimed
by the cluster to which the name of Cibola was given, is but
the remaining one of six or seven villages then forming that
group, or a recent construction sheltering the remnants of
their former occupants. The Moqui towns appear to be the
same which the Spaniards found three hundred and forty
years ago, though additions from other tribes have, as we
shall subsequently establish, modified the character of their
dwellers.

But the information to be derived from Coronado's march,
on the ethnography of New Mexico, is not confined to the
above. While at Cibola, Indians from a tribe or region called
"Cicuyé," which was said to be found far to the east, came to
see him. They brought with them buffalo-hides, prepared
and manufactured into shields and "helmets." Although
the Spaniards had heard of the buffalo before reaching Zuñi,
the animal itself had not been met with, and accordingly
Coronado sent Hernando de Alvarado to Cicuyé, and in quest
of the "buffalo country."[47]

Cicuyé is the "Cicuique" of Juan Jaramillo, and the "Acuique"
of an anonymous relation of the year 1541: it lay to
the east of Acoma, through which the Spaniards passed.[48]
Between it and Acoma was the pueblo of "Tiguex," at a distance
of three days' march, while Cicuyé was five days from
Tiguex.[49] General Simpson identifies the latter with a point
on the Rio Grande del Norte, "at the foot of the Socorro
Mountains," and then places Cicuyé at "Pecos."[50] Between
Acoma and the Rio Grande there lies the Rio Puerco; and
on its banks other authorities, conspicuous among whom
is Mr. W. W. H. Davis, have located Tiguex, while Cicuyé,
according to them, was on the Rio Grande, somewhere
near the valley of Guadalupe.[51] Both conclusions have their
strong points; but both of them have also their weak sides.

If it took five days of march from Zuñi to Acoma, three
days more, in a north-easterly direction, would have brought
the Spaniards to the Rio Grande, and certainly much beyond
the Rio Puerco; and then Pecos could easily be reached in
five days.[52]

But we are unable to guess, even, at the length of each
journey. From Zuñi to Acoma the country was uninhabited;
therefore the length of each journey may have been great,
because there was nothing to attract the attention of the
Spaniards,--nothing to prevent them from hastening their
progress in order to reach their point of destination. From
Acoma on, the ethnographical character changed. The actual
distance to the Rio Grande may be shorter; but pueblos
sprung up at small intervals of space, which necessitated
greater caution, and therefore greater delay, in the movements
of the advancing party. Still, we have a guide of
great efficiency in another branch of information. The pueblo
of "Tiguex," mentioned as lying three days from Acoma,
indicates, seemingly, a settlement of _Tehua_-speaking Indians.
Now, the "Tehua" idiom is spoken in those pueblos which lie
directly north of Santa Fé. San Ildefonso, San Juan, Santa
Clara, Pohuaque, Nambé, and Tesuque. But it is quite apparent
that, considering the great distance of Santa Fé from
Acoma, the journeys, as indicated in Castañeda, would fall
very short of any of the pueblos mentioned.[53]

The Tehua, like all the tribes along the Rio Grande,
suffered vicissitudes and consequent displacements; and
it might be advanced that one or the other of the Tehua
villages, formerly known as Tiguex, might now be destroyed.

Fortunately, we need not resort to such hypotheses. It appears,
from documentary evidence of the year 1598, that there
was, distinct from the Tehua or Tegua, a tribe of "Chiguas,"
or "Tiguas;"[54] and, from the notes of Father Juan Amando
Niel (written between 1703 and 1710), it results that their
settlements were near Bernalillo, on the Rio Grande; there
being at that time three villages, the most northern of which
was Santiago, the central one Puaray, near Bernalillo, and
the most southern one San Pedro.[55] The distance between the
first two pueblos, according to Fray Zarate Salmeron, in 1626,
was about one and a half leagues, or five and a half English
miles.[56] Tiguex, therefore, must be located on or near the
site of Bernalillo. The "Rio Tiguex" of Castañeda is the
Rio Grande del Norte, and the Indians of Tiguex belonged to
the stock of the "Tanos" language, now spoken still by a
few Indians at Galisteo, and by the inhabitants of the pueblos
of Sandia and Isleta.[57] Even the direction in which the Spaniards
moved from Acoma--that is, to the north-east--perfectly
agrees with that in which Bernalillo lies, whereas the
mouth of the Rio Puerco, below which General Simpson locates
Tiguex, lies south-east of the pueblo of Acoma.

Having thus, as we believe, satisfactorily located Tiguex, it
is easy to locate Cicuyé. It can be nothing else than Pecos,
whose aboriginal Indian name, in the Jemez language, is
"Âgin," whereas Pecos is the "Paego" of the Qq'uêres idiom.
There is no other Indian pueblo answering to its description
and geographical location as given by the chroniclers of
Coronado. The fact that "when the army quitted Cicuyé to
go to Quivira, we entered the mountains, which it was necessary
to cross to reach the plains, and on the fourth day we
arrived at a great river, very deep, which passes also near
Cicuyé,"[58] does not at all militate against it. The easiest passage,
and the most accessible one from Pecos eastward, leads
directly to the slopes between the Rio Gallinas and the Rio
Pecos; and either of these two streams could be, and had to
be, met with very near to the confluence of both.[59] For other
proof, and very conclusive too, I refer to my detailed description
of the Ruins of the Pueblo de Pecos.

I repeat, it is not to our purpose to describe the "faits et
gestes" of Coronado and of his men, but only to discuss the results
of his march for the Ethnography of New Mexico. I even
exclude Ethnology in as far as it does not include language.
The distribution of tribes and stocks of tribes designated by
idioms, as Coronado revealed it in 1540 to 1543, is to be the
final result of the discussion. Therefore, I leave the acts of the
Spaniards aside everywhere, when they are not essential to the
object, and do not even follow a strict chronological sequence.

After Alvarado had left Cibola for Tiguex, Coronado himself
followed him; and, "taking the road to Tiguex," he crossed
a range of mountains where snow impeded his march,--and
during which march he and his men were once two and a half
days without water,--until finally he reached a pueblo called
"Tutahaco."[60] General Simpson has not paid any attention
to this place. Mr. Davis places it near Laguna.[61] This author
has forgotten that Tutahaco was further from Zuñi than
Tiguex itself, since it took Coronado more than eleven days
to reach it.[62] This could not have been the case, had he
passed _north_ of Acoma; he must consequently have passed
_south_ of it, and, while originally following the trail to Tiguex,
deviated in a direction from N.E. to E.S.E., crossing the
mountains, and then finally struck the "Tiguex" pueblos,
but in their southern limits, on the Rio Grande about "Isleta."[63]
Castañeda is very positive in regard to the fact that
"Tutahaco" was on the same river as "Tiguex," and that
from the former Coronado _ascended_ the stream to the latter.[64]
This river was the Rio Grande; and, consequently, "Tutahaco"
was south of "Puaray" or Bernalillo. There, he heard
of other pueblos further south still.[65] "Tutahaco" was "four
leagues to the south of Tiguex."[66]

When Coronado reached "Tiguex" at last, it thereafter
became the centre of his operations. Castañeda very justly
remarks: "Tiguex is the central point;"[67] and a glance at the
map, substituting Bernalillo for it, will at once satisfy the reader
of the accuracy of this statement.

From Tiguex an expedition was sent along the Rio Grande
and west of it. It discovered in succession: Quirix on the
river, with seven villages; Hemes with seven villages; Aguas
Calientes, three; Acha to the north-east; and, furthest in a
north-easterly direction, Braba. Four leagues west of the
river, Cia was met with; and, between Quirix and Cicuyé,
Ximera. Further north of Quirix, Yuque-Yunque was found
on the Rio Grande. An officer was also despatched to the
south beyond Tutahaco, and he indeed discovered "four villages"
at a great distance from the latter, and beyond these a
place where the Rio Grande "disappeared in the ground, like
the Guadiana in Estremadura."[68]

Through our identifications of "Tiguex" with _Bernalillo_,
of "Cicuyé" with _Pecos_, and "Tutahaco" with _near Isleta_, it
becomes now extremely easy to locate all these pueblos in
the most satisfactory manner. "Quirix" is the _Queres_ district
Santo-Domingo, Cochití, etc.[69] "Hemes" and "Aguas
Calientes," together form the _Jemez_ and _San Diego_ clusters
of pueblos,[70] "Acha" is _Picuries_, "Braba," _Taos_.[71] The pueblo
of "Ximera" between Pecos and Queres is the _Tanos_ pueblo of
_San Cristóbal_.[72] "Yuque-Yunque" are the _Tehuas_, north of
Santa Fé,[73] and the four villages on the Rio Grande far south
of Isleta, naturally are found in the now deserted towns of
the "Piros" near Socorro, the most southerly and the least
known of the linguistical stocks of sedentary Indians in New
Mexico.[74]

In sending the officers mentioned along the Rio Grande, as
far south as Mesilla probably, Coronado explored the territory
beyond the range of the pueblos, and he thus secured information
also concerning the roaming tribes. It is essential that
I should touch these here also, because the subsequent history
of the village Indians cannot be understood without connection
with their savage surroundings. I might as well state
here, that west of the Rio Grande and south of Zuñi, the entire
south-west corner of New Mexico, appears to have been uninhabited
in 1540. Stray hunting parties may have visited
it, though there was hardly any inducement, since the buffalo
was found east of the Rio Grande only, as far as New
Mexico is concerned.[75]

The country visited along the Rio Grande, as far as Mesilla,
appears not to have given any occasion for its explorers, to
mention any wild tribes as its occupants. Still we know that,
east of Socorro and south-east, not forty years after Coronado,
the "Jumanas" Indians claimed the Eastern portions of
Valencia and Socorro counties; the regions of Abo, Quarac,
and Gran Quivira.[76] These savages, also called "Rayados"
("Striated" from their custom of painting or cutting their
faces and breasts for the sake of ornament), were reduced to
villages in 1629 only, by the Franciscans; and the ruins which
are now called Gran Quivira date from that time.[77] Dona
Ana county was (from later reports which I shall discuss in
a subsequent paper), roamed over, towards the Rio Grande,
by equally savage hordes, to which Antonio de Espejo and
others give the name of "Tobosas."[78] It is, of course,
impossible to assign boundaries to the Ranges of such
tribes.

Very distinct ethnographic information, however, is given
by Coronado himself, as well as by Castañeda and by Jaramillo,
in regard to north-eastern New Mexico. This information
was secured in the year 1542, during his adventurous expedition
in search of Quivira.

In regard to the route followed by him, I can but, in
a general way, heartily accept the conclusions of General
Simpson.[79] If, in some details, we may have some doubts
yet, I gladly bow to his superior knowledge of the country
and to his experience of travelling in the plains, in the
latter of which I am totally deficient. Coronado started
from Pecos, he crossed, probably, the Tecolote chain, threw
a bridge over the Rio Gallinas, and then moved on to the
north-east at an unknown distance. Although not as yet
satisfied that he reached as far north-east as General Simpson
states, and believing that he moved more in a _circle_ (as
men wandering astray in the plains are apt to do), there is
no doubt but that he went far into the "Indian territory,"
and that Quivira--which, by the way, is plainly described
as an agglomeration of Indian "lodges" inhabited, not by
sedentary Indians of the pueblo type, but by a tribe exactly
similar in culture to the corn-raising aborigines of the Mississippi
valley[80]--was situated at all events somewhere between
the Indian territory and the State of Nebraska. This
is plainly confirmed by the reports of Juan de Oñate's fruitless
search of Quivira in 1599,[81] and principally by the
statements of the Indians of Quivira themselves, when
they visited that governor at Santa Fé thereafter.[82] They
told him that the direct route to Quivira was by the pueblo
of Taos.

The Quivira of Coronado and of Oñate has therefore not
the slightest connection,--and never had, with the Gran
Quivira of this day, situated east of Alamillo, near the
boundaries of Socorro and Lincoln Counties, New Mexico,
and the ruins there;[83] which ruins are those of a Franciscan
mission founded after 1629, around whose church a village of
"Jumanas" and probably "Piros" Indians had been established
under direction of the fathers.

The reports of Coronado, and others, reveal to us the east
and north-east of New Mexico as the "Buffalo Country," and
consequently as inhabited or roamed over by hunting savages.
Of these, two tribes were the immediate neighbors
of the Pueblos,--the "Teyas" to the north-east, and the
"Querechos" more to the east, south of the former probably.
The Ranges intermingled, and both tribes were at
war with each other. The "Teyas" were possibly Yutas,[84]
as these occupied the region latterly held by the Comanches.
About the "Querechos" I have, as yet, and at this distance
from all documentary evidence, not a trace of information.

On the ethnographical map accompanying this sketch, I
have indicated the _Apaches_ as occupying _North-western New
Mexico_. In this locality they were found by Juan de Oñate
in 1598-99.[85]

Coronado's homeward march offering no new points of
interest, I shall, in conclusion, briefly survey the Ethnography
of New Mexico, as it is sketched on the map, and
as established by the preceding investigation of the years
1540-43.

We find the sedentary Indians of New Mexico agglomerated
in the following clusters:--

1. Between the frontier of Arizona and the Rio Grande,
from west to east: _Zuñi_, _Acoma_, with possibly _Laguna_.

2. Along the Rio Grande, from north to south, between
"Sangre de Cristo" and Mesilla: _Taos_, _Picuries_, _Tehua_,
_Queres_, _Tiguas_ (branch of the _Tanos_), _Piros_.

3. West of the Rio Grande valley: _Jemez_, including _San
Diego_ and _Cia_.

4. East of the Rio Grande: _Tanos_, _Pecos_.

Around these "pueblos," then, ranged the following wild
tribes.

1. In the north-west: _Apaches_.

2. In the north-east: _Teyas_.

3. North-east and east: _Querechos_.

4. South-east and south: _Jumanas_, _Tobosas_.

The south-west of the territory appears to have been completely
uninhabited, and also devoid of the buffalo. The
innumerable herds of this quadruped roamed over the plains
occupying the eastern third of New Mexico and extending
into Texas.

The _Moqui_ of Arizona, clearly identified with Coronado's
"Tusayan" are not noticed on the map, of course.

If now we compare these localities in 1540 with the present
sites of the pueblos of New Mexico, it is self-evident that the
Zuñi, Acoma, Tiguas, Queres, Jemez, Tehua, and Taos still
occupy (Acoma excepted), if not the identical houses, at
least the same tribal grounds. The Piros have removed
to the frontier of Mexico, the Pecos are extinct as a tribe;
of the Tanos and Picuries, a few remain on their ancient
soil. Their fate is not a matter of conjecture, but of historical
record.

While this discussion has proved, we believe, the truthfulness
and reliability of the chroniclers of Coronado's expedition,
and their great importance for the history of American
aborigines, it establishes at the same time the superior
advantages of New Mexico as a field for archæological and
ethnological study. It is the only region on the whole continent
where the highest type of culture attained by its aborigines--the
village community in stone or adobe buildings--has
been preserved on the respective territories of the tribes.
These tribes have shrunk, the purity of their stock has been
affected, their customs and beliefs encroached upon by civilization.
Still enough is left to make of New Mexico the objective
point of serious, practical archæologists; for, besides the
living pueblo Indians, besides the numerous ruins of their
past, the very history of the changes they have undergone is
partly in existence, and begins three hundred and forty years
ago, with Coronado's adventurous march.[86]

AD. F. BANDELIER.

SANTA FÉ, N. M., Sept. 19, 1880.




NOTE.

THE GRAND QUIVIRA. See p. 26.

The following extract is from the "General Description" in the
field-notes of the survey in 1872 of the base line of the public surveys
in New Mexico by United States Deputy Surveyor Willison, taken from the
original notes on file at the United States Surveyor General's office at
Santa Fé:--

  "The Gran Quivira, about which so much has been written and
  so many attempts made to reconcile with the city of that
  name spoken of by the early Spanish explorers, and which was
  said by them to be the seat of immense wealth, is passed
  through by the line in Sec. 34, range 8 East. The most
  prominent building is the church, which, as well as all the
  other buildings, is of limestone laid in mortar. The ground
  plan presents the form of a cross. The dimensions of the
  buildings are as follows:--

  "Width of short arm of cross, 33 feet; width of long arm of
  cross, 42 feet. Their axes are respectively 48 feet long and
  140.5 feet long, and their intersection 35 feet from the
  head of the cross. The walls have a thickness of 6 feet, and
  a height of about 30 feet. The main entrance has a height of
  11 feet, an outside width of 11 feet, and an inside width of
  16.5 feet. The church is situated due east and west, having
  its front to the east.

  "Extending south from the church a distance of 160 feet, and
  connected with it by a door in the short arm of the cross,
  is a building containing a number of apartments. On the
  window-frames of this building the mark of the carpenter's
  scribe is still plainly visible, though doubtless exposed to
  the action of the atmosphere for nearly two centuries. The
  carved timbers in the church are still in a good state of
  preservation; a portion of the roof still remains; some of
  the timbers must have weighed 3,000 pounds at the time they
  were brought to this place, and they could not have been
  procured within a less distance than sixteen miles.

  "The site of the ruins is elevated about one hundred feet
  above the surrounding country, and embraces an area of about
  eighteen acres. The town has been well and compactly built,
  and probably contained a population approaching five
  thousand souls. Numerous excavations have been made by the
  Mexicans in search of the treasures said to have been left
  by the Jesuits when they were expelled by the Indians. In
  one of these excavations I found a large quantity of human
  bones, including a skull. From the formation of the latter,
  and its thickness, it was undoubtedly that of an Indian.

  "The questions that arise in contemplating these ruins are,
  how was it possible for such a number of people not only to
  exist, but to build a town of such superior construction at
  a point which is now entirely destitute of water, and to
  which water cannot be brought from any present source, the
  nearest water being fifteen miles distant? what was their
  occupation? and what has become of them?

  "That this town was the abode of Jesuit [Franciscan?]
  priests, and a tribe of Indians under their control, the
  architecture of the buildings conclusively shows.

  "That they were there for agricultural and pastoral purposes
  I consider certain, from the fact that there are no
  evidences of mines, or any mineral indications of any kind
  in the surrounding country, and that the country, with the
  single exception of the absence of water, is well adapted to
  the mode of cultivation pursued and crops raised by the
  Indians.

  "That water was brought there from some distant point--and
  distant it would have been--cannot be the case, as the face
  of the country would have required the construction of
  numerous aqueducts for its conveyance, remains of which
  would be found at the present time; and why would a people
  bring water a long distance for the purpose of working lands
  no more valuable than such as could have been had at the
  water?

  "Where, then, did the inhabitants get the water necessary
  for their subsistence? There are two arroyos between the
  ruins and the Mesa Jumanes, within a mile of the town,
  having well-defined watercourses, which might have
  contained permanent water at the time that the town was
  inhabited. Even at the present time, the drainage from these
  arroyos furnishes water for a laguna some five miles below
  that lasts during about one half the year. Again, springs
  may have existed around the rise upon which the town is
  situated that, from natural causes, have become dry.

  "The phenomenon of the failures of water is no uncommon one
  in this region, as is evidenced by the numerous vents where
  the surrounding rocks show the action of running water.

  "A case directly supporting the assumption of the failure of
  the water is furnished at a place about thirty-five miles
  northerly from the Gran Quivira, known as 'La Cienega.' At
  this point a stream of water, furnished by two springs, and
  running to a distance of about a mile at all seasons of the
  year, which has never been known to be dry within the memory
  of the oldest inhabitant, has, within the last year,
  entirely disappeared; and even digging to a considerable
  depth in the bed of the late springs fails to find the
  stream, or the channel by which it has so mysteriously
  disappeared.

  "To those at all familiar with the cretaceous formation of
  the south-eastern portion of New Mexico, and who have seen
  the numerous rivers that flow hundreds of inches of water
  within a few yards of where they make their first
  appearance, and the total disappearance of these streams
  within a few miles, who have seen the water flowing in caves
  and subterraneous streams, and the fact that the whole
  country is cavernous, can easily imagine the possibility of
  a stream acting upon its cretaceous bed, and eventually
  wearing a channel, to connect with some immense cavern, and
  disappearing at once from the surface beyond all reach of
  human power.

  "To the south of the Gran Quivira, at a distance of about
  twenty miles, commences a _mal pais_, an immense bed of
  lava, sixty miles in length from north to south, and
  covering an area of five hundred square miles. To the
  south-west of this commences a salt marsh, which has an area
  of fifty square miles, and which is fed entirely by
  subterranean streams from the Sacramento and White
  Mountains, receiving without doubt by the same means the
  drainage of this plain for a hundred miles to the north. The
  above facts are, I think, sufficient to account for the
  absence of water at the present time near Gran Quivira.

  "As to what became of the inhabitants of this place, as well
  as those of Abo and Quarrá to the north-west,--towns that
  are coeval with the Gran Quivira,--we can only conjecture.
  The most reasonable conclusion that can be arrived at is
  that they were exterminated by the Spaniards upon their
  reoccupation of the country. Though history is silent as to
  the complete operations of the Spaniards upon their return
  to New Mexico, yet it is a fact established by documentary
  evidence that a relentless war was waged against the
  Indians, and a number of tribes are spoken of as being
  engaged in certain battles, of which tribes we know nothing
  at the present day; and in some instances it is stated that
  some tribes sued for peace, and promised obedience to the
  rule of the conquerors, for which they received grants of
  lands that they at present occupy. The inhabitants of Gran
  Quivira, Abo, and Quarro would be among the first that the
  Spaniards would meet on their reoccupation of the country,
  and there is every reason to believe that they were
  exterminated by the incensed invaders."




[1] _Las siete cuevas_: in Nahuatl _Chicomoztoc_, from _chicome_, seven,
and _oztoc_, cave. Alonzo de Molina, _Vocabulario Mexicano_, 1571, parte
iia. pp. 20 and 78. Fray Juan de Tobar, _Codice Ramirez_, p. 18.

[2] Fray Diego Durán, _Historia de las Yndias de Nueva-España, é Islas
de Tierra Firme_, cap. i. p. 8; _Codex Vaticanus_, Kingsborough, vols.
i., ii., vi.; _Anales de Cuauhtitlan: Anales del Museo Nacional de
México_, tom. i. entrega 7, p. 7 of 2d vol., but incorporated in the
first. "I acatl ipan quizque Chicomoztoc in Chichimeca omitoa moternuh
in imitoloca."

[3] _Historia de los Indios de la Nueva-España, in Coleccion de
Documentos para la Historia de México_, by J. G. Icazbalceta, vol. i. p.
7.

[4] _Segunda Relacion Anónima de la Jornada de Nuño de Guzman, in
Coleccion de Documentos_, etc., vol. ii. p. 303.

[5] The early literature on this subject will only be fully known when
the remarkable collection called _Libro de Oro_ shall have been
published by Señor Icazbalceta, its meritorious owner. This valuable
collection of manuscripts dates from the sixteenth century, and
contains, besides a number of official reports on local matters of
Mexico and districts pertaining to it, the chronicles of the tezcucan
Juan Bautista Pomar, a copy of Motolinia, and a number of MSS. written
between 1529 and 1547 at the instance of the much-abused Bishop
Zumárraga. These MSS. contain the results of the earliest investigations
on Mexican history and tradition.

The natives of Mexico appear to have had no knowledge, nay, not even the
most dim recollection, of the _fauna_ of South-western North America.
While their so-called calendar, in the graphic tokens used to designate
each one of the twenty days of their conventional "month," contains the
forms of all the larger quadrupeds roaming over Mexico and Central
America, the tapir excepted, we look in vain for the coyote, the bear,
the mountain-sheep, and the buffalo.

[6] _Popol Vuh_, part iii. cap. iv. p. 216, cap. vi. pp. 226, 228, cap.
viii. p. 238, etc.

[7] Hernando Cortés, _Carta Quarta_, dated Temixtitan, 15 October, 1524,
Vedia i. p. 102. Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo y Valdés, _Historia General
y Natural de las Indias_, lib. xxxiii. cap. xxxvi. vol. iii. p. 447,
lib. xxxiv. cap. viii. p. 576, Madrid, 1853. The information was derived
from Gonzalo de Sandoval. See Antonio de Herrera, _Historia General de
los Hechos de los Castellanos en las Islas y Tierra Firme del Mar
Oceano_, dec. iii. lib. iii. cap. xvii. p. 106, edition of 1726.

[8] _Relacion de las Ceremonias y Ritos, Poblacion y Gobierno de los
Indios de la Provincia de Mechuacan_, p. 113, from the _Coleccion de
Documentos para la Historia de la España. Tercera Relacion Anónima de la
Jornada de Nuño de Guzman, Coleccion de Documentos_, Icazbalceta, ii.
pp. 443, 449, 451. _Matias de la Mota Padilla, Historia de la
Nueva-Galicia_, published 1870, cap. iii. p. 27. Oviedo, lib. vi. cap.
xxxiii. vol. i. pp. 222, 223.

[9] _Quarta Relacion Anónima de la Jornada de Nuño de Guzman, Coleccion
de Documentos_, Icazbalceta, ii. p. 475. Oviedo, lib. vi. cap. xxxiii.
vol. i. p. 223.

[10] In 1527, Herrera, dec. iv. lib. ii. cap. iv. pp. 26, 27.

[11] He was treasurer of Narvaez' expedition, and subsequently, upon his
return, or rather in 1541, became _adelantado_ of Paraguay.

[12] He wrote all from memory. The title of his work is _Naufragios de
Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca, y Relacion de la Jornada que hizo á la
Florida_. It was first printed in 1555, at Valladolid. My references are
to the reprint in Vedia's _Historiadores Primitivos de Indias_, vol. i.

[13] Cabeza de Vaca, _Naufragios_, etc., cap. xxxvii. p. 548, xxxiv. p.
545. According to Herrera, dec. vi. lib. i. cap. vii. p. 11 and cap.
viii. p. 11, it might be either 1536 or 1534, "el año pasado de 1534."
Oviedo, lib. xxxv. cap. vi. p. 614, intimates as much as 1538. Fray
Antonio Tello, _Historia de la Nueva-Galicia_, fragment preserved in
_Coleccion de Documentos_, Icazbalceta, ii. cap. xii. p. 358, says
"habían llegado ese año de treinta y tres á aquellas tierras," 1533.

[14] Cabeza de Vaca, cap. xxxi. pp. 542, 543.

[15] Id., p. 543.

[16] He was a native of Savoy, Italy, and was with Sebastian de
Belalcazar during the latter's conquest of Quito. Juan de Velasco,
_Histoire du royaume de Quito_, French translation by Ternaux-Compans,
Introd. p. viii. He wrote the following books: _Conquista de la
Provincia del Quito: Ritos y Ceremonias de los Indios_; _Las dos Lineas
de los Incas y de los Scyris en las Provincias del Perú y del Quito_;
_Cartas Informativas de lo Obrado en las Provincias del Perú y del
Cuzco_. These manuscripts may still exist. According to Fray Augustin de
Vetancurt (Menologio Franciscano, ed. of 1871, pp. 117, 118, 119), he
was born at Nizza, and in 1531 came to America, being in Peru in 1532.
Thence he went to Nicaragua and Mexico. He was provincial from 1540 to
1543, and died at Mexico, March 25, 1558.

[17] Fray Marcos Nizza, _Descubrimiento de las Siete Ciudades_, p. 329.

[18] Nizza, p. 332. Herrera, dec. vi. lib. vii. cap. vii. p. 156.

[19] In _Documentos para la Historia de Méjico_, 1856, 4 série, vol. i.
p. 327. The diary has not even a title. Mentioned by Father Jacob
Sedelmair, S. J., _Relacion que hizo ... Misionero de Tubatama_, in
_Documentos para la Historia de Méjico_, 3a série, vol. ii. pp. 846,
848, 857, 859.

[20] On the map of Father Eusebio Francisco Kino, in _Der neue
Weltbott_, by P. Joseph Stöcklein, vol. i. 2d edition, 1728, there
appears St. Ludov. de Bacapa. The diary of Mange, p. 327, is explicit.

[21] Manuel Orozco y Berra, _Geografía de las Lenguas y Carta
Etnográfica de México_, part iii. cap. xxiii. pp. 345-353, etc.
Francisco Pimentel, _Cuadro Descriptivo y Comparativo de las Lenguas
Indígenas de México_, 1865, vol. ii. pp. 91, 92-116.

[22] The fact that he became the guide of Coronado, and led him to
Cibola, indicates that Fray Marcos crossed the Gila, since otherwise the
Spaniards would have traversed the Sierra Madre, and entered New Mexico
from Chihuahua. It is true that the general direction of Coronado's
march from Culiacan was from south to north, inclining to the _east_.

[23] The attest of D. Antonio de Mendoza, concerning Nizza's report,
bears the date, Mexico, 2 Sept., 1539. Consequently, Fray Marcos had
returned previously. See _Relation du Voyage de Cibola_,
Ternaux-Compans, Appendix, p. 282.

[24] This word is said to be now found only in the dialect of the pueblo
of Isleta, south of Santa Fé, under the form _sibúlodá_, buffalo. Albert
S. Gatschet, _Zwölf Sprachen aus dem Südwesten Nord Amerika's_, Weimar,
1876, p. 106.

[25] Herrera, _Descripcion de las Indias_, cap. ix. p. 17, says that
Mexico has 4,000 vecinos. This was in 1610, about.

[26] Lewis H. Morgan, _On the Ruins of a Stone Pueblo on the Animas
River_, in _12th Annual Report of the Peabody Museum of American
Archæology_, etc., 1880, p. 550.

[27] _The Spanish Conquest of New Mexico_, Doylestown, Pa., 1869.

[28] Pedro de Castañeda y Nagera, _Relation du Voyage de Cibola_,
translation of Ternaux-Compans, Paris, 1838, part ii. cap. iii. p. 163.

[29] Juan Jaramillo, _Relation du Voyage fait à la Nouvelle-Terre sous
les Ordres du Général Francisco Vasquez de Coronado_, in _Voyage de
Cibola_, Append. vi. pp. 365, 366, 367.

[30] Castañeda, i. cap. ix. pp. 40, 41, ii. cap. iii. p. 162. The word
is composed of _chichiltic_, a red object, and _calli_, house. Molina,
ii. pp. 11, 19.

[31] General Simpson locates the "Casas Grandes" on the Gila, in lat.
33° 4' 21" and lon. 111° 45' Greenwich. _Coronado's March_, p. 326.

[32] _Relation_, etc., p. 365. "Nous souffrîmes quelques fatigues,
jusqu'à ce que nous eussions atteint une chaîne de montagnes dont
j'avais entendu parler à la Nouvelle-Espagne, à plus de trois-cents
lieues de là. Nous donnâmes à l'endroit où nous passâmes le nom de
Chichiltic-Calli, parce que nous avions su par des Indiens que nous
laissions derrière nous, qu'ils l'appelaient ainsi," etc. Id. "On nous
dit qu'elle se nommait Chichiltic-Calli. Après avoir franchi ces
montagnes." ...

[33] Jaramillo, _Relation_, etc., p. 367. Simpson, p. 325. For
descriptions of the "Casas Grandes," I refer to Castañeda, i. cap. ix.
pp. 40, 41, ii. cap. iii. pp. 161, 162, to be compared with Mateo Mange,
_Documentos para la Historia de México_, série 4, vol. i. cap. v. p.
282, describing Father Kino's visit there in 1697, cap. x. pp. 362, 363.
Cristóbal Martin Bernal, Francisco de Acuña, Eusebio Francisco Kino,
etc., _Relacion_, in _Documentos_, 3 série, vol. ii. p. 884; this bears
date, 4 Dec., 1697. Fray Tomás Ignacio Lizazoin, _Informe sobre las
Provincias de Sonora y Nueva-Vizcaya, Documentos_, 3 série, ii. p. 698.
Segundo Media, _Rudo Ensayo Tentativo de una Prevencional Descripcion de
la Provincia de Sonora, sus Terminos y Confines_, written by a Jesuit
about 1761 or 1762, and published by Buckingham Smith at S. Augustine in
1863, cap. ii. sec. 3, p. 18. Padre Font, in _Relation de Cibola_,
Append, vii. pp. 383-386. Of more recent descriptions, I enumerate
Lieut. W. H. Emory, _Notes of a Military Reconnaissance, etc., Executive
Documents_, 41, pp. 80, 81; Capt. A. R. Johnston, _Journal_, etc., id.
pp. 582, 584, 596, 597; John R. Bartlett, _Personal Narrative of
Explorations and Incidents_, etc., vol. ii. cap. xxxii. pp. 265-280.
While we can easily identify the "Casas Grandes," seen in 1846-47 and
1852, with those described in 1697, 1761, and 1775, in regard to the
earliest description of "Chichilticalli," we are inclined to agree with
Mr. L. H. Morgan, _Seven Cities of Cibola_, that "there is no ruin on
the Gila at the present time that answers the above description."

[34] _Relation de Cibola_, part ii. cap. iii. p. 163, and especially
part iii. cap. ix. p. 243. "On fit d'abord cent dix lieues vers l'ouest,
en partant de Mexico; Ton se dirigea ensuite vers le nord-est pendant
cent lieues; puis pendant six cent cinquante vers le nord, et l'on
n'était encore arrive qu'aux ravins des bisons. De sorte qu'après avoir
fait plus de huit cent cinquante lieues, on n'était pas en définitive à
plus de quatre cents de Mexico."

The "Casas Grandes" in Chihuahua are on the river of the same name,
north-west of the city of Chihuahua, and nearly south of János. I have
been unable as yet to ascertain when they first came to notice.
According to Antonio de Oca Sarmiento, _Letter to the General Francisco
de Gorraez Beaumont_, dated 22 Sept., 1667, in _Mandamiento del Señor
Virey, Marques de Mancora, sobre las Doctrinas de Casas Grandes, que
estaban en las Yumas, Jurisdiccion de San Felipe del Parral_, in
_Documentos_, 4 série, vol. iii. p. 231, etc., the Padre Pedro de
Aparicio died there, and the General Francisco de Gorraez Beaumont, 1
_Letter_, 25 Oct., 1667, p. 234, adds: "Que en este puesto de las Casas
Grandes era parimo de minéria y segun tradicion antigua y ruinas que se
veian que decian ser del tiempo de Moctezuma." A very good description
of the ruins has been given by José Agustin Escudero, _Noticias
Estadísticas del Estado de Chihuahua_, Mexico, 1834, cap. viii. pp. 234,
235, who visited them in 1819. Finally, Mr. J. R. Bartlett, _Personal
Narrative_, etc., vol. ii. cap. xxxv., has furnished excellent
descriptions and plates.

It is hardly possible to determine if these ruins would better
correspond to "Chichilticalli" than those on the Gila. The fact that the
former presented, in 1819, the appearance of one solitary building,
whereas the latter, in 1697, composed a group of _eleven_, is
noteworthy, but far from being a critical point.

[35] _Relation_, etc, ii. cap. iii. p. 165.

[36] _Relation_, etc., p. 370.

[37] Castañeda, i. cap. xi. pp. 58, 63, 64.

[38] _Relation_, i. cap. xii., pp. 69, 70; ii. cap. iii. p. 166.

[39] _Relation_, p. 370. Castañeda, i. cap. xiii. p. 76.

[40] _Relation_, p. 370.

[41] Jaramillo, pp. 370 and 371.

[42] Acoma is always described with particular care by the older Spanish
authors. Antonio de Espejo, Carta, 23 April, 1584, in _Documentos
Inéditos del Archivo de Indias_, vol. xv. p. 179: "Y hallamos un pueblo
que se llama, Acoma, donde nos pareció, habria mas de seis mil ánimas,
el cual está asentado sobre una peña alta que tiene mas de cincuenta
estados en alto," etc. Juan de Oñate, _Discurso de las Jornadas que hizo
el Campo de Su Magestad desde la Nueva-España á la Provincia de la
Nueva-México, Documentos Inéditos_, vol. xvi. pp. 268, 270: "A quatro de
Diciembre [1598?], lo mataron en Acoma, los Indios de aquella fortaleza,
que es la mejor en sitio de toda la cristiandad ..." "dieron el primer
asalto al Peñol de Acóma ..." _Obediencia y Vassalaje á Su Magestad por
los Indios del Pueblo de Acóma, Documentos Inéditos_, xvi. p. 127: "Al
pié de una peña muy grande sobre la qual en lo alto délla está fundado y
poblado el Pueblo que llaman de Acóma, ..." dated 27 October, 1598. Fray
Agustin de Vetancurt, _Crónica de la Provincia del Santo Evangélio de
México_, trat. iii. cap. vi. p. 319. "Al Oriente del Pueblo de Zia está
el Peñol de Acoma, que tiene una legua en Circuito de treinta Estados de
alto." _Menologio Franciscano_, p. 247. Both references are taken from
the edition of 1871. Furthermore, in the anonymous _Relacion del Suceso
de la Jornada que Francisco Vazquez hizo en el Descubrimiento de
Cibola_, año de 1531 (should be 1541), in vol. xiv. of the _Documentos
del Archivo de Indias_, we find Acuco (_east_ of Cibola), "el cual ellos
llaman en su lengua _Acuco_, y el padre Márcos le llamaba _Hacús_:" now
Hacús forcibly recalls the proper name of Acoma, which by the Qq'uêres
Indians, to whose stock its inhabitants belong, is called "Âgo."

[43] _Carta_, 23 April, 1584, _Documentos Inéditos_, vol. xv. p. 182.

[44] _Discurso de las Jornadas, etc., Documentos Inéditos_, vol. xvi. p.
274. _Obediencia y Vassallaje á Su Magestad por los Indios del Pueblo de
San Joan Baptista_, id. vol. xv. p. 115. That the "Mohoces" were the
Moqui is evidenced by Padre Geronimo de Zarate Salmeron, _Relacion de
todas las Provincias que en el Nuevo-México se han visto y sabido así
por Mar como por Tierra, desde el Año de 1538, hasta el Año de 1626.
Documentos para la Historia de México_, série 3, vol. i. p. 30.

[45] Castañeda, i. cap. x. pp. 49, 50. Melchor Diaz reached the Rio del
Tizon, starting from Culhuacan and Sonora. This river emptied into the
Gulf of California, and he found there traces of Fernando de Alarcon.
The latter went up the Rio Colorado, and learned many details about
Cibola from Indians living along the river. _Relation de la Navigation
et de la Découverte faite par le Capitaine Fernando Alarcon, Voyage de
Cibola_, Ternaux-Compans, Append, iv. cap. i. p. 302: "Nous y trouvâmes
un très grand fleuve dont le courant était si rapide, qu'à peine
pouvions nous nous y maintenir," cap. v. pp. 324-326; cap. vi. p. 331.
Herrera, dec. vi. lib. ix. cap. xi. p. 212. Fray Juan de Torquemada,
_Monarchia Indiana_, lib. v. cap. xi. p. 609, ed. of 1723. While Alarcon
was endeavoring to meet Coronado by sailing or boating up the Colorado
from its mouth, the latter sent Garci-Lopez de Cardenas to explore a
river which the Indians of "Tusayan" had mentioned to Pedro de Tobar;
and he reached this river after twenty days' march. It is described as
follows by Castañeda (i. cap. xi. p. 62): "After these twenty days'
marching, they indeed reached this river, whose shores are so high that
they thought themselves at least three or four leagues up in the air.
The country is covered with low and crippled pines; it is exposed to the
north, and the cold is so severe that, although it was summer, it could
hardly be supported. The Spaniards for three days marched along these
mountains, hoping to find a place where they could reach the river,
which, from above, appeared to be about one fathom in width, while the
Indians said it was wider than one-half league; but it was found to be
impossible," etc. This is a fair picture of the cañons of the Colorado
River of the West, the only one emptying into the head of the Gulf of
California; and Castañeda adds (p. 65): "This river was the del Tizon."

[46] _Carta, Documentos Inéditos_, vol. xv. p. 180: "Una provincia, que
son seis pueblos, que la provincia llaman Zuñi, y por otro nombre
Cibola. Richard Hackluyt, _The Third and last Volume of the Voyages,
Navigations, Traffiques, and Discoveries of the English Nation_." _El
Viaie que hizo Antonio de Espeio en el Año de ochenta y tres_, pp.
457-464, has "dieron con una Provincia, que se nombra en lengua de los
naturales Zuny, y la llaman los Españoles Cibola, ay en ella cantidad de
Indios ..."

[47] Castañeda, i. cap. xii. pp. 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73.

[48] Jaramillo, pp. 370, 371. Castañeda, p. 69.

[49] Castañeda, p. 71.

[50] _Coronado's March_, pp. 333-336.

[51] _The Spanish Conquest of New Mexico_, cap. xxiv. p. 185, note I;
cap. xxv. p. 198, note I; also p. 199. I attach particular importance to
the opinions of Mr. Davis. He visited New Mexico at a time when it was
still "undeveloped," and his writings on the country show thorough
knowledge, and much documentary information. It is to be regretted that
he fails absolutely to mention his sources in any satisfactory manner, a
defect which might deprive his valuable book of much of its
unquestionable reliability and importance. The attentive student,
however, finds, after going seriously through the mass of material still
on hand, that Mr. Davis has been so painstaking and honest, that he is
very much inclined to forgive the lack of citations.

[52] From Bernalillo or Sandia, the easiest way, and the one which
Alvarado, by Coronado's order, must certainly have taken, is south of
Galisteo. This would have led him to Pecos, either by the Cañon de San
Cristóbal or, as I presume, to the lower valley, and thence up the river
to the Pueblo. Castañeda (ii. cap. v. p. 176) speaks of abandoned
villages along the route. There is a ruin at the place called "Pueblo,"
one at San José, and another at Kingman; all along the line of the
"Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fé Railroad." I presume, therefore, that he
took this route. At all events, he went _south_ of the Tanos, else he
would have struck the villages called later San Lázaro and San
Cristóbal, both then occupied.

[53] The belief has been expressed to me at Santa Fé, by authority which
I have learned to respect, that on the site of the present city there
stood the old town of Tiguex. This belief has been strengthened by the
popular tale, that the old adobe house, of two low stories, adjoining
the ancient chapel of San Miguel, was an ancient Indian home. Personal
inspection has, however, satisfied me of the fact that this building,
while certainly very old, is certainly not one of an Indian "pueblo." It
forms a rectangle: _Met._ 20.71' from east to west, and 4.80' from north
to south. Its front has five doors, and the upper story as many windows.
It is entirely of adobe, and may indeed have been an Indian house, but
built after their old plan, when Santa Fé had already been founded.
There is no notice of any pueblo on this site. Besides, documentary
evidence regarding the establishment of Santa Fé absolutely ignores the
existence of any Indian settlement at that place in 1598. Juan de Oñate,
_Discurso de las Jornadas que hizo el Capitan de Su Magestad desde la
Nueva-España á la Provincia de la Nuevo-Mexico_, in _Coleccion de
Documentos del Archivo de Indias_, vol. xvi. pp. 263-266. _Obediencia y
Vasallaje á Su Magestad por los Indios de San Joan Baptista._ Id., Sept
9, 1598, pp. 115, 116: "Al Padre Fray Cristóbal de Salazar, la Provincia
de los Tepúas (_Tehuas_) con los pueblos de Triapé, Triáque el de Sant
Yldefonso y Santa Clara, y este pueblo de Sant Joan Batista y el de Sant
Gabriele el de Troomaxiaquino, Xiomato, Axol, Comitría, Quiotracó, y
mas, la Cibdad de Sant Francisco de los Españoles, que al presente se
Edifican."

[54] _Obediencia y Vasallaje á Su Magestad por los Indios de
Santo-Domingo._ Id., p. 102. July 7, 1598. _Obediencia, etc., de S. Joan
Baptista_, pp. 112, 115, "los Chiguas ó Tiguas."

[55] _Apuntamientos que sobre el Terreno hizo el Padre José Amando Niel,
Documentos para la Historia de México_, 3a série, vol. i. pp. 98, 99:
"Estan pobladas junto á la sierra de Puruai que toma el nombre del
principal pueblo que se llama así, y orilla del gran rio." There were
then three pueblos: San-Pedro, "rio abajo de Puruai;" Santiago, "rio
arriba." Puaray was destroyed and in ruins in 1711. It was here that
Father Augustin Ruiz was killed in 1581. Fray Gerónimo de Zarate
Salmeron, _Relacion_, etc., p. 10. Fray Agustin de Vetancurt, _Menologio
Franciscano_, pp. 412, 413. Jean Blaeu, _Douzième livre de la Géographie
Blaviane_, Amsterdam, 1667, p. 62, calls the Tiguas "Tebas," and says
they had "quinze bourgades." Vetancurt, _Menologio_, but principally
_Crónica de la provincia del Santo Evangelio de México_, gives the
Tiguas, before 1680, the following stations and pueblos: Isleta,
Alameda, Puray, and Sandia, pp. 310-313.

[56] _Relacion_, etc., p. 10.

[57] A. S. Gatschet, _Zwölf Sprachen aus dem Südwesten Nord-Amerika's_,
Weímar, 1876, p. 41.

[58] Castañeda, i. cap. xix. p. 116.

[59] Simpson, _Coronadó's March_, pp. 336.

[60] Castañeda, i. cap. xiii. p. 76.

[61] _Spanish Conquest_, cap. xxiii. p. 180, note 5, p. 181, note 6.

[62] Castañeda, p. 76.

[63] Isleta is probably a modern _pueblo_, that is one erected since
1598 and previous to 1680, and I shall treat it as such till I am better
informed. The description by Vetancurt ("_Crónica_," etc., trat. iii.
cap. v. pp. 310 and 311, as in the year 1680) is characteristic:
"Fórmase un rio de la nieve que se derrite, que con el rio Norte cercan
un campo de cinco leguas ... Es el paso para las provincias de Acoma,
Zunias, Moqui ..." In a straight line, the distance from Bernalillo is
about twenty-five miles.

[64] p. 76. "Le général remonta ensuite la rivière, et visita toute la
province jusqu'à ce qu'il fut arrivé à Tiguex."

[65] p. 76. "Ils apprirent qu'en descendant la rivière ils trouveraient
encore d'autres villages."

[66] Castañeda, ii. cap. iv. p. 168.

[67] Cap. vi. p. 182, part ii. In looking at the map, it will be seen
that Bernalillo is, indeed, a central point. Along the Rio Grande it is
almost at equal distances from Taos at the north, and Socorro at the
south, whereas it is little further (in an east-westerly line) from
Bernalillo to Zuñi, than from Bernalillo to the plains. The accuracy of
Castañeda becomes more and more wonderful, the closer his narrative is
studied and compared with the country itself. His distance exceeds the
bee-line regularly almost by one-third; a very natural fact, since he
computes the lengths from the routes taken.

[68] These facts are taken from the following passages of Castañeda: i.
cap. xviii., ii. cap. vi., Quéres; i. cap. xxii, ii. cap. vi., Hemes and
Aguas Calientes; ii. cap. iv., Acha; i. cap. xxii., ii. cap. vi., Braba;
i. cap. xviii., Cia; ii. cap. v., Ximera; and i. cap. xxii., ii. cap.
vi., Yuque-Yunque, perhaps Cuyamunque.

[69] Santo Domingo, Cochiti, San Felipe, Santa-Ana, and Cia are the
Quéres pueblos near the Rio Grande still remaining. They all then
existed in 1598. _Obediencia, etc., á S. Joan Baptista_, p. 113.

[70] The Jemez or Emmes, in 1598, contained nine "pueblos," or rather
places of habitation. _Obediencia, etc., de Santo Domingo_, p. 102.
Niel, p. 99, mentions five.

[71] Castañeda, i. cap. xxii. It is unmistakable. Compare Simpson,
_Coronado's March_, p. 339. Vetancurt, _Crónica_, etc., p. 319. "Este es
el último pueblo hácia el norte." Jean Blaeu, _Géographie_, etc., p. 62.

[72] This is equally definite. Castañeda, ii. cap. v. p. 177. "Between
Cicuyé and the province of Quirix, there exists a small very well
fortified village which the Spaniards have named Ximera, and another one
which appears to have been very large." This shows that the Spaniards
went from Pecos by the San Cristóbal cañon.

[73] To-day Tezuque, Nambé, Santa Clara, San Juan, San Ildefonso,
Pojuaque, and, besides, Cuyamunque in ruins.

[74] The Piros were totally dispersed during the intertribal wars of
1680-89. Niel, p. 104. Senecu, near Mesilla, is a Piros pueblo, founded
by Fray Antonio de Arteaga in 1630. Fray Balthasar de Medina, _Chrónica
de la Provincia de S. Diego de México de Religiosos Descalzos de N. S.
P. S. Francisco de la Nueva-España_, México, 1682, lib. iv. cap. vii.
fol. 168. Vetancurt, _Crónica_, p. 309. It is therefore a Spanish
"colony," and not an original pueblo.

[75] Castañeda, i. cap. ix., ii. cap. iii. iv. p. 183, vii. p. 188. Fray
Marcos de Niza, pp. 274-276, Jaramillo, pp. 368, 369.

[76] Antonio Espejo, _Viaje_, etc. Vetancurt, _Crónica_, etc., pp. 302,
303.

[77] Vetancurt, _Crónica_, etc., trat. iii. cap. iv. pp. 302, 303-305,
cap. vi. pp. 324, 325.

[78] Espejo, _Viaje_, etc.

[79] _Coronado's March_, pp. 336-339. Don José Cortes, _Memorias sobre
las Provincias del Norte de Nueva-España_, 1799. MSS. of the library of
Congress, fol. 87.

[80] Coronado, Letter of Oct. 20, 1541, p. 354. Castañeda, ii. cap.
viii. p. 194, Jaramillo, pp. 376, 377.

[81] He went from Santa Fé N.E. and E.N.E., and struck the
"Escansaques:" might they have been the "Kansas?" Gerónimo de Zarate
Salmeron, _Relacion_, etc., pp. 26, 27.

[82] Zarate Salmeron, p. 29.

[83] I append a valuable description of these ruins from the
Surveyor-General's office at Santa Fé, communicated to me by Mr. D. J.
Miller. (See p. 30.)

[84] This is made probable through the statement of Father José Amando
Niel (p. 108), to the effect that the Yutas warred against the Pananas
and the Jumanas. The latter were about Socorro, therefore the Yutas must
have descended east to below Pecos. Their arrival east of the Sierra
Madre is placed, through the reports of the Pecos, about 1530.
Castañeda, ii. cap. v., p. 178.

[85] _Obediencia, etc., de S. Joan Baptista_, p. 113, "todos los Apaches
desde la Sierra Nevada hacía la parte del Norte y Poniento," p. 114;
speaking of the Jemez, "y mas, todos los Apaches y cocoyes de sus
sierras y comarcas."

[86] In a subsequent paper, I hope to continue this "Historical
Introduction," in the shape of a discussion of the various expeditions
into New Mexico, and from it to other points north-west and north-east,
up to the year 1605.




II.

A VISIT TO THE ABORIGINAL RUINS IN THE VALLEY OF THE RIO PECOS.


About thirty miles to the south-east of the city of Santa Fé, and in the
western sections of the district of San Miguel (New Mexico), the upper
course of the Rio Pecos traverses a broad valley, extending in width
from east to west about six or eight miles, and in length from
north-west to south-east from twenty to twenty-five. Its boundaries
are,--on the north and north-east, the Sierra de Santa Fé, and the
Sierra de Santa Bárbara, or rather their southern spurs; on the west a
high _mesa_ or table land, extending nearly parallel to the river until
opposite or south of the peak of Bernal; on the east, the Sierra de
Tecolote. The altitude of this valley is on an average not less than six
thousand three hundred feet,[87] while the _mesa_ on the right bank of
the river rises abruptly to nearly two thousand feet higher; the
Tecolote chain is certainly not much lower, if any; and the summits of
the high Sierras in the north rise to over ten thousand feet at
least.[88]

The Rio Pecos (which empties into the Rio Grande fully five degrees
more to the south, in the State of Texas) hugs, in the upper part of the
valley, closely to the mountains of Tecolote, and thence runs almost
directly north and south. The high _mesa_ opposite, known as the Mesa de
Pecos, sweeps around in huge semicircles, but in a general direction
from north-west to south-east. The upper part of the valley, therefore,
forms a triangle, whose apex, at the south, would be near San José:
whereas its base-line at the north might be indicated as from the Plaza
de Pecos to Baughl's Sidings; or rather from the Rio Pecos, east of the
town, to the foot of the _mesa_ on the west, a length of over six miles.
Nearly in the centre of this triangle, two miles west of the river, and
one and a half miles from Baughl's, there rises a narrow, semicircular
cliff or _mesilla_, over the bed of a stream known as the Arroyo de
Pecos.[89] The southern end of this tabular cliff (its highest point as
well as its most sunny slope) is covered with very extensive ruins,
representing, as I shall hereafter explain, _three distinct kinds of
occupation of the place by man_. These ruins are known under the name of
the Old Pueblo of Pecos.

The tourist who, in order to reach Santa Fé from the north, takes the
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé Railroad at La Junta, Colorado,--fascinated
as he becomes by the beauty as well as by the novelty of the landscape,
while running parallel with the great Sierra Madre, after he has
traversed the Ratonis at daybreak,--enters a still more weird country in
the afternoon. The Rio Pecos is crossed just beyond Bernal, and thence
on he speeds towards the west and north: to the left, the towering Mesa
de Pecos, dark pines clambering up its steep sides; to the right, the
broad valley, scooped out, so to say, between the _mesa_ and the
Tecolote ridge. It is dotted with green patches and black clusters of
cedar and pine shooting out of the red and rocky soil. Scarcely a house
is visible, for the _casitas_ of adobe and wood nestle mostly in
sheltered nooks. Beyond Baughl's, the ruins first strike his view; the
red walls of the church stand boldly out on the barren _mesilla_; and to
the north of it there are two low brown ridges, the remnants of the
Indian houses. The bleak summits of the high northern chain seem to rise
in height as he advances; even the distant Trout mountains (Sierra de la
Trucha) loom up solemnly towards the head-waters of the Pecos. About
Glorieta the vale disappears, and through the shaggy crests of the Cañon
del Apache, which overlooks the track in awful proximity, he sallies out
upon the central plain of northern New Mexico, six thousand eight
hundred feet above the sea-level. To the south-west the picturesque
Sandia mountains;[90] to the west, far off, the Heights of Jemez and the
Sierra del Valle, bound the level and apparently barren table-land. An
hour more of fearfully rapid transit with astonishing curves, and, at
sunset, he lands at La Villa Real de Santa-Fé.

Starting back from Santa Fé towards Pecos on a dry, sandy wagon-road, we
lose sight of the table-land and its environing mountain-chain, when
turning into the ridges east of Manzanares. Vegetation, which has been
remarkably stunted until now, improves in appearance. However rocky the
slopes are, tall pines grow on them sparsely: the Encina appears in
thickets; _Opuntia arborescens_ bristles dangerously as a large shrub;
mammillary cactuses hide in the sand; even an occasional patch of Indian
corn is found in the valleys. It is stunted in growth,[91] flowering as
late as the last days of the month of August, and poorly cultivated. The
few adobe buildings are mostly recent. Over a high granitic ridge, grown
over with _piñon_ (all the trees inclined towards the north-east by the
fierce winds that blow along its summit), and from which the Sierra de
Sandia for the last time appears, we plunge into a deep valley, emptying
into the Cañoncito, and thence follow the railroad track again through a
deep gorge and pleasant bottom, overgrown with pines and cedars, past
Glorieta to Baughl's.[92] It required all the skill and firmness of my
friend and companion, Mr. J. D. C. Thurston, of the Indian Bureau at
Santa Fé, to pilot our vehicle over the steep and rocky ledges. From
Baughl's, where I took quarters at the temporary boarding-house of Mrs.
Root (to whose kindness and motherly solicitude I owe a tribute of
sincere gratitude), a good road leads to the east and south-east along
the Arroyo de Pecos. In a direct line the distance to the ruins is
but a mile and a half; but after nearing the banks of the stream (which
there are grassy levels), one is kept at a distance from it by deep
parallel gulches. So we have to follow the _arroyo_ downwards, keeping
about a quarter of a mile to the west of it, till, south of the old
church itself, the road at last crosses the wide and gravelly bed, in
which a fillet of clear water is running. Then we ascend a gradual slope
of sandy and micaceous soil, thinly covered by tufts of _grama_; a wide,
circular depression strikes our eye; beyond it flat mounds of scarcely
0.50 m.--20 in.--elevation are covered extensively with scattered and
broken stones. Further on distinct foundations appear, rectangles
enclosed by, or founded originally upon, thick walls of stone, sunk into
the ground and much worn,--sometimes divided into small compartments,
again forming large enclosures. To the south a conspicuous, though
small, mound is visible. Immediately before us, due north, are distinct
though broken walls of stones; and above them, on a broad terrace of red
earth, completely shutting off the _mesilla_ or tabulated cliff, on
which the Indian houses stand, there arises the massive former Catholic
temple of Pecos.

[Illustration: PLATE VI
VIEW OF CHURCH, FROM THE SOUTH.]

The building forms a rectangle, about 46 m.--150 ft.--long, from east to
west, and 18 m.--60 ft.--from north to south. The entrance was to the
west, the eastern wall being still solid and standing. Plate I., Fig. 2,
gives an idea of its form: _á_ _a_ are gateways, each capped by a heavy
lintel of hewn cedar; _b_, carved beam of wood across.

The roof of the building is gone, and on the south side a part of the
walls themselves are reduced to a few metres elevation. The church may
originally have been not less than 10 m.--33 ft.--perhaps higher. It
had, according to tradition, but one belfry and a single bell,--a very
large one at that. The Indians carried it off, it is said, to the top of
the _mesa_, where it broke. It is certain that a very large bell, of
which I saw one fragment, now in possession of Mr. E. K. Walters, of
Pecos, was found on the western slope of the Mesa de Pecos, about three
miles from its eastern rim, in a _cañada_ of the Ojo de Vacas stream,
towards San Cristóbal. Mr. Thomas Munn, of Baughl's, took the pains of
piloting me a whole day (6th of September) through the wilderness of the
_mesa_, and showing me the place where this interesting relic was
finally deposited. I shall return to this by and by.

Mrs. Kozlowski (wife of a Polish gentleman, living two miles south on
the _arroyo_) informed me that in 1858, when she came to her present
home with her husband, the roof of the church was still in existence.
Her husband tore it down, and used it for building out-houses; he also
attempted to dig out the corner-stone, but failed. In general, the
vandalism committed in this venerable relic of antiquity defies all
description. It is only equalled by the foolishness of such as, having
no other means to secure immortality, have cut out the ornaments from
the sculptured beams in order to obtain a surface suitable to carve
their euphonious names. All the beams of the old structure are quaintly,
but still not tastelessly, carved; there was, as is shown in Plate VII.,
much scroll-work terminating them. Most of this was taken away, chipped
into uncouth boxes, and sold, to be scattered everywhere. Not content
with this, treasure-hunters, inconsiderate amateurs, have recklessly and
ruthlessly disturbed the abodes of the dead. "After becoming
Christians," said to me Sr. Mariano Ruiz, the only remaining 'son of the
tribe' of Pecos, still settled near to its site, "they buried their dead
within the church." These dead have been dug out regardless of their
position relative to the walls of the building, and their remains have
been scattered over the surface, to become the prey of relic-hunters.
The Roman Catholic Archbishop of New Mexico has finally stopped such
abuses by asserting his title of ownership; but it was far too late. It
cannot be denied, besides, that his concession to Kozlowski to use some
of the timber for his own purposes was subsequently interpreted by
others in a manner highly prejudicial to the preservation of the
structure.

[Illustration: PLATE VIII
INTERIOR OF BUILDING A, FROM THE SOUTH.]

What alone has saved the old church of Pecos from utter ruin has been
its solid mode of construction. Entirely of adobe, its walls have an
average thickness of 1.5 m.--5 ft. The adobe is made like that now used,
wheat-straw entering into it occasionally; but it also contains small
fragments of obsidian,--minute chips of that material and broken
pottery. This makes it evident that the soil for its construction must
have been gathered somewhere near the _mesilla_; and the suspicion is
very strong on my part that it was the right bank of the _arroyo_ which
furnished the material.[93] It is self-evident that the grounds which
were used for that purpose must have antedated, in point of occupation,
the date of the construction of the church by a very long period. I have
measured all the adobe bricks of the church that are within easy reach,
at various places, and found them alike. They all measure .55 m. × .28
m.--22 in. × 11 in.--and .08 m.--3 in.--in thickness. They are laid as
shown in Plate I., Fig. 4.

The mortar is, as the specimen sent by me will prove, of the same
composition as the brick itself.

The regularity with which these courses are laid is very striking. The
timbers, besides, are all well squared; the ornaments, scrolls, and
friezes are quaint, but not uncouth; there is a deficiency in
workmanship, but great purity in outline and in design.

To the south of the old church, at a distance of 4 m.--13 ft.--there is
another adobe wall, rising in places a few metres above the soil; which
wall, with that of the church, seems to have formed a covered
passage-way. Adjoining it is a rectangular terrace of red earth,
extending out to the west as far as the church front. A valuable record
of the manner in which this terrace was occupied is preserved to us in
the drawing of the Pecos church given by Lieutenant W. H. Emory in 1846.
It appears that south of the church there was a convent;[94] and this is
stated also by Sr. Ruiz. In fact, the walls, whether enclosures or
buildings, which appear to have adjoined the church, extend south from
it 74 m.--250 ft. Plate I., Fig. 2, gives an idea of their relative
position, etc.: _c_ is 4 m.--13 ft.--wide; _d_ is 21 m. × 46 m.--70 ft.
× 156 ft.; _e_ is 25 m. × 46 m.--82 ft. × 150 ft.; _f_ is 24 m. × 46
m.--78 ft. × 150 ft.

The divisions are not strictly marked, and I forbear giving any lengths,
since there is great uncertainty about them.

The foundation walls, where visible, are generally about 0.60 m. to 0.75
m.--23 in. to 30 in.--wide, and composed of three rows of stones, set
lengthwise, selected for size, and probably broken to fit.[95]

[Illustration: PLATE I
GENERAL PLAN OF RUINS OF PECOS.]

Looking northward from the church, a wall of broken stones, similar to
the one we already noticed at the south, meets the eye. The _mesilla_
itself terminates east and west in rocky ledges of inconsiderable
height, and the wall stretches across its entire width of 39 m.--129 ft.
Its distance from the church is 10 m.--33 ft.; and it thus forms, with
the northern church wall, a trapezium of 10 m.--33 ft. This enclosure is
said to have been the church-yard.[96] Beyond it the mesilla and its
ruined structures appear in full view; and from the church to the
northern end, which is also its highest point, it has exactly the form
of an elongated pear or parsnip. Hence the name given to it by Spanish
authors of the eighteenth century, "el Navon de los Pecos."[97] This
fruit-like shape is not limited to the outline: it also extends to the
profile. Starting from the church, there is a curved neck, convex to the
east, and retreating in a semicircle from the stream on the west. At the
end of this neck, about 200 m.--660 ft.--north of the church, there is a
slight depression, terminating in a dry stream-bed emptying into the
bottom of the Arroyo de Pecos south-westward; and beyond this depression
the rocks bulge up to an oblong mound, nearly 280 m.--920 ft.--long from
north to south, and at its greatest width 160 m.--520 ft.--from east to
west. At the northern termination of this mound the _mesilla_ curves to
the north-east, and finally terminates in a long ledge of tumbled rocks,
high and abrupt, which gradually merges into the ridges of sandy soil
towards the little town of Pecos.[98] Pl. I., Fig. 5, gives a tolerably
fair view of the _mesilla_. Pl. I., Fig. 1, is designed to exhibit its
appearance as seen from below, the highest elevation above the stream
being nearly 30 m.--95 ft.

The rock of the _mesilla_ is a compact, brownish-gray limestone. It is
crystalline, but yet fossiliferous, very hard, and not deteriorating
much on exposure. Its strata dip perceptibly to the south-west;
consequently the western rim is comparatively less jagged and rocky than
the eastern, and the slope towards the stream more gentle, except at the
north-western corner, where the rocks appear broken and tumbled down
over the slopes in huge masses.

From the church-yard wall, all along the edge of the _mesilla_,
descending into the depression mentioned, and again rounding the highest
northern point, then crossing over transversely from west to east and
running back south along the opposite edge, there extends a wall of
circumvallation, constructed, as far as may be seen, of rubble and
broken stones, with occasional earth flung in between the blocks. This
wall has, along its periphery, a total length of 983 m.--3,220
ft.--according to Mr. Thurston's measurement.[99] It was, as far as can
be seen, 2 m.--6 ft. 6 in.--high on an average, and about 0.50 m.--20
in.--thick. There is but one entrance to it visible, on the west side,
at its lowest level, where the depression already mentioned runs down
the slope to the south-west as the bed of a rocky streamlet. There a
gateway of 4 m.--13 ft.--in width is left open; the wall itself thickens
on each side to a round tower built of stones, mixed with earthy
fillings. These towers, considerably ruined, are still 2 m.--6 ft. 6
in.--high, and appear to have been at least 4m.--13 ft.--in diameter; at
all events the northern one. At the gateway itself the walls curve
outward,[100] and appear to have terminated in a short passage of
entering and re-entering lines, between which there was a passage, as
well for man as for the waters from the _mesilla_ into the bottom and
the stream below. But these lines can only be surmised from the streaks
of gravel and stones extending beyond the gateway, as no definite
foundations are extant. Pl. I., Fig. 3, is a tolerably correct diagram
of this gateway.

[Illustration: PLATE IX
VIEW OF GATEWAY OF CIRCUMVALLATION, FROM THE EAST.]

The face of the wall at each side of the gate is 1.3 m.--4 ft.--wide.
Whether there was any contrivance to close it or not it is now
impossible to determine; but there are in the northern wall of the gate
pieces of decayed wood embedded in and protruding from the stone-work.
For what purpose they were placed there it is not permitted even to
conjecture.

       *       *       *       *       *

Having thus sketched, as far as I am able, the topography of the
_mesilla_, and described its great wall of circumvallation, I now turn
to the ruins which cover its upper surface, starting for their survey
from the transverse wall of the old church-yard, 10 m.--33 ft.--north of
the church, and proceeding thence northward along the top of the
tabulated bluff.[101]

Sixty-one metres--200 ft.--north of our point of departure we strike
stone foundations running about due east and west and resting almost
directly on the rock, since the soil along the entire plateau which I
have termed the neck is scarce, and has nowhere more than 1 m.--39
in.--in depth. The eastern corner of this wall, as far as it can be made
out, is 12 m.--39 ft.--from the eastern wall of circumvallation. From
this point on there extends one continuous body of ruins, one half of
which at least (the southern half), if not two-thirds, as the ground
plan will show, exhibits nothing else but foundations of small chambers
indicated by shapeless stone-heaps and depressions. The northern part is
in a better state of preservation; a number of chambers are more or less
perfect, the roofs excepted,[102] and we can easily detect several
stories retreating from east to west. About 9 m.--30 ft.--from its
northern limits a double wall intersects the pile for one half of its
width. The ruins beyond it, or rather the addition, is in a state of
decay equal to that of the southern extremity. The western side is,
generally, in a better state of preservation than the eastern,
especially the north-western corner. Along the eastern side upright
posts of wood, protruding from stone-heaps, often are the only
indications for the outline of the structure. Along the north-west,
however, such posts are enclosed in standing walls of stone, at
distances not quite regularly distributed, but still showing plainly
that here, at least, the outer wall presented an appearance similar to
Pl. II., Fig. 4.

At the place where I measured, the upright posts stood at about 1.39
m.--4 ft. 6 in.--from each other; the projecting wall was 2 m.--6 ft. 6
in.--long, and 0.63 m.--2 ft.--thick; the retreating wall 1.40 m.--4 ft.
6 in.--long, and 0.33 m.--13 in.--thick. The posts themselves were
sometimes, but not always, backed, or even encased in adobe sheaths,
built up like little chimneys in the wall itself. This mode of
construction was possibly peculiar to the western side alone, and gives
it a slight appearance of ornamentation, as well as more strength, the
projecting walls acting like buttresses.

The whole structure, taking the sides of the _débris_ as they are now
scattered, extends nearly north and south 140 m.--460 ft.--and east and
west about 16 m. to 26 m.--50 ft. to 80 ft.--thus forming a rectangle of
140 m. × 20 m.--460 ft. × 65 ft. To determine the exact size of the
building I proceeded to measure each compartment for itself, judging
that the total number of these apartments, adding to their sizes the
thicknesses of the walls, would finally give, within a few decimetres,
the exact length and width of the house. On the ground plan I have
numbered this building B.[103]

Beginning at the north-west corner, I ran my line almost due east to
within 10 m.--33 ft.--of the circumvallation, where I found the
north-east corner indicated by a broken post of wood. Along this line I
met the following sections from west to east: 2.92 m.--9 ft. 6 in.; then
a gangway, 1.55 m.--5 ft.; chamber, 3.22 m.--11 ft.; gangway, 1.21 m.--4
ft.; and three chambers, 2.09 m., 2.72 m., and 2.72 m.--7 ft., 9 ft.,
and 9 ft.--respectively, thus giving, adding to it eight walls of a
uniform thickness of 0.33 m.--13 in.,--a total width of 19.07 m.--63 ft.
Its length was easily found to be 8.56 m.--28 ft.; the northern
appendix, therefore, forming a rectangle of 8.5 m. × 19 m.--28 ft. × 63
ft.,--and containing, as the ground-plan shows, ten rooms and two
corridors, the latter running through the structure from north to south.
It will also be noticed that the two middle rooms are the largest,
measuring each 4.28 m. × 3.22 m.--14 ft. × 10 ft. I must also advert,
here, to the fact that this structure is extremely ruined, and that the
east part of it exposes the surveyor to dangerous errors.

The line _a b_, and its continuation eastwardly to _c_, appears to form
the main northern wall of the whole structure. Here the annex, just
described, terminates. This wall is of unequal thickness. In the
north-westerly projection from _a_ to _b_, a length of 8 m.--26
ft.,--its thickness is 0.63 m.--2 ft.; from _b_ to _c_, on the eastern
line, it is only 0.33 m.--13 in.--thick. This inequality indicates also
a division of the structure to the southward, as far as the line _d d
d_, into two longitudinal sections. The western one, whose four corners
are respectively _a_ _b_ _d_ _d_ in the diagram, contains eighteen rooms
of equal size, measuring each 3.71 m. × 2.25 m.--12 ft. × 7 ft.; it is
consequently, inclusive of the rear wall and the sides, 24.24 m. × 8.08
m.--80 ft. × 27 ft. The eastern division, comprised within the area _b_
_c_ _d_ _d_, has fifteen rooms, or five longitudinal rows of three,
whereas the western has six rows of three. The rooms east must therefore
be larger than those west, and we see that they measure from east to
west respectively, 2.25 m., 2.28 m., and 2.28 m.--7 ft., 7 ft. 6 in.,
and 7 ft. 6 in.: from north to south, 3.60 m., 5.07 m., 4.43 m., 4.13
m., and 3.43 m.--12 ft., 17 ft., 15 ft., 14 ft., and 11 ft. It is a
rectangle, or rather trapezium, 22.31 m. × 7.81 m.--70 ft. × 25
ft.,--consequently the width of the building _B_ is somewhat less on the
line _d d d_ than on the line _a b c_. The cause of this singular
contraction I have found, and shall afterwards indicate.

Then follows a transverse section (_d d d e e_), containing two rows of
six rooms each, or twelve in all, of very unequal sizes, as the
ground-plans show. This entire section appears to be trapezoidal. The
line _d d d_ is 15.89 m.--52 ft.--long; the line _e e_ 16.33 m.--53 ft.;
_d e_ measures 7.42 m.--24 ft.--along the west, and 8.04 m.--27
ft.--along the east. Rooms marked _II_ and _III_ are particularly
irregular, having, as the diagram shows, not less than six corners.

From _e e_ to _f f_, another transverse section, this time of four rows
of six each, or twenty-four cells in all, those of each row being of
equal length, to wit 3.65 m.--12 ft.; and in width from east to west,
respectively: 2.25 m., 2.78 m., 3.18 m., 2.63 m., and 4.40 m.--7 ft., 9
ft., 10 ft., 9 ft., and 14 ft. (the last measure being the aggregate of
the two eastern compartments, the longitudinal partition being nearly
obliterated). To the south of _f f_ a further slight change occurs,
inasmuch as the three eastern rooms, instead of being respectively 2.68
m., 2.20 m., and 2.20 m.--9 ft., 7 ft., and 7 ft.,--now become 2.25 m.,
2.33 m., and 2.32 m.--7 ft., 8 ft., and 8 ft. From _f f_ to _g g_, the
southern limits of the structure, the whole structure is badly ruined;
and while the rooms can be counted, measurements are possible only in a
few places. Still I am satisfied that no great error lies in the
assumption that they were, taken longitudinally, all equal to the six
rooms contained in the transverse row south of the line _f f_, that is,
3.65 m.--12 ft.--from north to south; and in width, counting the cells
from west to east, respectively, 2.25 m., 2.78 m., 3.18 m., 2.25 m.,
2.33 m., and 2.32 m.--7 ft., 9 ft., 10 ft., 7 ft., 8 ft., and 8 ft. The
section, _f f g g_, which forms the southern and largest portion of the
house (_B_), contains, therefore, twenty-two transverse rows of six
chambers each, or one hundred and thirty-two apartments on the
ground-plan; and it forms a rectangle running from north to south and
east to west respectively of 80.30 m. × 15.11 m.--260 ft. × 50 ft.

The general dimensions of this building (_B_), therefore appear as
follows:--

Length from north to south, east side         133.81 m.--440 ft.
      "         "           west side         134.92 m.--442 ft.
Width of northern appendix                     19.07 m.-- 63 ft.
Width along line _a b c_                       19.07 m.-- 63 ft.
  "        "     _d d d_                       15.89 m.-- 52 ft.
  "        "     _e e_                         16.33 m.-- 53 ft.
  "        "     _f f_                         15.24 m.-- 50 ft.
Width of line _g g_, approximated              15.70 m.-- 51 ft.

From the appearance of the ground-plan, as I have been compelled to give
it, it would result that the "first floor" contained two hundred and
eleven cells, or rooms. Such is, however, not the case. The builders of
this extensive fabric had not the means of preparing the hard rock
foundation by removing it wherever it protruded over an average level.
While giving a uniform height to their structure, they accommodated its
ground-plan to the sinuosities of the rock. Out of this accommodation
the irregularities noticed in the construction have mainly arisen. Pl.
II., Figs. 1, 2, 3, will illustrate this statement.

Pl. II., Fig. 1.--Cross-section of _B_ along the line a b c, north end;
_a b_, actually visible top-line; _c d e f g h_, rock; _i k_, top of
probable highest story, now destroyed.

I have every reason to assume that this cross-section holds good for the
entire division (_a b c d d_). From _d d_ on to _f f_ the distance
between the rim of the _mesilla_ to the east and the house is greatest;
the top-rock bends also to the west about _e e_, and there the
irregularities noticed on the diagram about the chambers (_II_ and
_III_) come in. They evidently result from an effort to conform the
general plan to both the lateral and vertical deviations of its base.
About the line _f f_, while the same number of chambers (six) remains in
every transverse row, there is but one story below the general surface
to the east. I may safely assume that south of the line _f f_ all the
rooms of the first floor were on the same level. Pl. II., Figs. 2 and 3
will illustrate this point. As far as I could detect, the line _e e_ can
be admitted as the one where one of the two lower stories disappears,
and but one remains on the east side lower than the rest.

[Illustration: PLATE II
PLAN OF SECTIONS OF BUILDING B.]

I have everywhere assumed _four_ stories. It is at least certain that
there were not less than four. When Coronado visited the pueblo in 1540,
he found "the houses with four stories."[104] Sr. Mariano Ruiz told
me that "they all were of three stories;" but then he mentioned, below,
the "casas de comodidad," thus indicating that the lowest story was used
for store-rooms. It is very apparent from the ruins that, as I have
indicated in the cross-sections, the western wall was unbroken, whereas
from the east the stories rose in four retreating terraces. The western
wall already mentioned was given additional strength, by means of the
buttresses, of which I have given a small outline. The winds blow very
fiercely over the _mesilla_, especially from the north-west; there is no
tree to be seen on or about it, not even a cedar-bush, higher than a
couple of feet at most. Against such blasts the solid wall was
necessary, while the many intersecting partitions inside gave additional
strength. It was a very solid structure as against winds,
notwithstanding the comparative thinness of the walls,--0.63 m.--2
ft.--being their greatest width, and 0.33 m.--13 in.--their average.

With reference to the cross-sections, it now becomes possible to
approximate the total number of chambers, apartments, or cells,
contained in the entire building; a point impossible even to estimate
from the ground-plan alone.

Leaving aside the northern appendix, about whose elevation I have not
even means of conjecture, it becomes evident that the section whose four
corners are marked respectively _a_, _c_, _d_, _d_, had the following
number of compartments, starting with the lowest story, and remembering
that, as above stated, one longitudinal row had six, and the other five,
rooms:--

     Lowest story                                    5
     Second story                                    5
     Third story 3 × 6 + 5                          23
     Fourth story 3 × 6                             18
                                                    ---
        Total                                       51 rooms.

_Brought forward_                                      51 rooms.

 The section _d d e e_ had probably the same
      arrangement, and therefore, there being but two
      transverse rows, it contained in all             18

  Section _e e f f_ contained on lower story        4
      Second Story. 5 × 4                          20
      Third story. 4 × 4                           16
      Fourth story. 3 × 4                          12
                                                   --  52

  Section _f f g g_:--
      Lower story. 22 × 6                         132
      Second story. 22 × 5                        110
      Third story. 22 × 4                          88
      Fourth story. 22 × 3                         66
                                                   -- 396
                                                     ----
  Total number of rooms contained in building _B_     517

These rooms are very nearly of equal size, the largest one being _III._
2.85 m. × 4.78 m.--9 ft. × 16 ft.--on one side, and 3.71 m.--12 ft-on
the other, with an entering angle; the smallest room adjoining to it
measuring 2.25 m. × 2.70 m.--7 ft. × 9 ft. The entire structure,
therefore, presents the appearance of a honeycomb, or rather of a
bee-hive, and perfectly illustrates, among the lower degrees of culture
of mankind, the prevailing principle of communism in living, which finds
its parallel in the lower classes of animals. Tradition, historical
relation, and analogy, tell us that this house was used as a
dwelling,[105] and that consequently it was, to all intents and
purposes, a communal house.

The height of the various stories it is almost impossible to determine.
I have measured walls which appeared to be perfect, and they gave me an
average of 2.28 m.--7 ft. 6 in.--elevation. Should such be the rule, the
western wall of the building, at its greatest height south, would have
risen about 11 m.--36 ft.

The northern appendix I have ignored in the above computation, because
its whole appearance gives no ground for definitive statements. It seems
really to be an annex, and in fact the whole building seems to have
progressed, in its construction, from south to north, in point of date
and time.

The southern portion of the building--the one which appears to have been
erected on a plane surface--was, in all probability, the one first
built. The northern portions were added to it gradually as occasion
required. This is further shown by the fact that in these northern
sections, along the line _a, b, c_, parts of the third story wall are
patched with regular adobe bricks, about half as large as those in the
church, but still made by the same process.[106] The rest of the
structure is exclusively composed of stone.

It is to all intents and purposes a stone house. Two kinds of rocks
predominate among the material; a slaty, gray and red,
sandstone,--highly tabular, easily broken into plates of any size,--and
a sandstone conglomerate, containing small pebbles from the size of a
pea up to that of a small hazel-nut,--the whole rock of a gray color.
When freshly broken or wetted, this conglomerate becomes very friable,
and so soft that goats have left the impression of their feet on
scattered fragments. When dry it becomes hard, and is always very heavy.
Both kind of rocks are found in the vicinity of the _mesilla_. Besides
these, loose pieces of stone from the bluff itself, boulders from the
creek, of convenient size, enter into the composition of the walls.
Sometimes the latter consist exclusively of slabs of sandstone
superposed; again there are polygonal fragments of rocks piled upon one
another, with courses of tabular sandstone, forming, so to say, the
basis for further piling; the foundations are usually boulders and the
hardest rocks, also of greater width. There are no walls of dressed
stone, but the rocks are broken to a suitable size, as may be done with
any stone maul or sledge, or even by smashing with the hand and another
rock. In fact the whole stone-work must be termed, not masonry, but
simply judicious and careful piling.[107] In performing it, great
attention has been paid to having the vertical surfaces as nearly as
possible vertical; but this end could be reached without the use of the
plumb-line, and with the aid of mere ordinary eyesight, for the rooms
are so small, and the partitions so thin, that anything not "true"
could, and can yet be, "shoved" into position by a mere steady, slow
push; carefully watched on the opposite side. The same applies to the
angles, although they are tolerably accurate. As a general thing, the
transverse walls appear to be continuous, and the longitudinal
partitions to have been added afterwards, but there are also instances
of the contrary. In this respect the sinuosities of the rocky foundation
seem to have determined the mode of action. To fill up the gaps between
the stones, and to coat them with a smooth surface within the chambers
what appears to be earth from the surrounding bottoms has been flung
into the crevices, thus forming a natural mortar, and at the same time a
"first coat" of plaster of varying thickness. This in turn is covered
with a thin white layer (now of course turning into gray, yellow, and
flesh-red) much resembling our plaster, but whose composition I am
unable to determine. (Specimens of the mud, containing small gravel and
minute particles of mica, are sent with the other collections, also
fragments of the white coating for analysis.[108])

The woodwork proper appears not to have had any connection with the
strength or support of the walls, but simply to have been erected within
and among the walls as a scaffold for the ceilings, which are also the
floors of the higher stories. Upright posts of cedar and pine, stripped
of their bark, but not squared, are, as I have already shown, set inside
of the stone wall, at more or less even distances. As far as I could
ascertain, these distances are regulated by the size of the rooms. These
posts are coarsely hacked off at the upper end, and over them other
similar beams are laid longitudinally, sometimes fitted over the posts
with chips wedged in. Such is the case in a room in the northern wing of
the building marked _A_, of which I shall hereafter speak.[109]

On these longitudinal beams other ones rest, laid transversely, and
imbedded in the wall on the opposite side. On these again longitudinal
poles are placed, also at intervals varying according to the dimensions
of the chambers, and on them transversely, a layer of brush, or
splinters of wood, closely overlapping each other; and the whole is
capped by about .20 m.--8 in.--of common clay or soil. Pl. III., Fig. 1,
is a front view of the wooden scaffold in a lower story room, and of the
ceiling which it supports.

_a_, clay and lower seam of brush or splinters.

_b_, transverse poles or beams, in case the beams are lacking.

_c_, longitudinal beam.

_d_, upright posts.

In most cases, however, the beams are transverse and the poles
longitudinal, and this is where the beam (_c_) is lacking, as in the
interior apartments, where the ceiling appears as in Pl. III., Fig. 2:
_a_, clay; _b_, brush or splinters; _c_, poles; _d_, beams; _e_,
wall.[110]

The diameter of the upright posts is, on an average, 0.28 m.--11
in.,--but even sometimes as great as 0.33 m.--13 in.,--the longitudinal
and transverse beams are scarcely less thick, whereas the poles are
about 0.05 m.--2 in.--across. The splinters seem to have been
obtained by splitting a middle-sized tree, and tearing out thin
segments.

[Illustration: PLATE III
SECTIONS OF BUILDING B.]

Pl. III., Fig. 4, is a ground plan of the floor of room marked _I_ on
the diagram. This room is on the eastern row of the third floor,
therefore an outer room.

_c_, longitudinal poles.

_d_, the end of the transverse beams projecting from the other room.

_e_, the transverse beams, resting in the wall on both sides.

On the latter rested a thin layer of brush and a compact mass of clay,
0.20 m.--8 in.--thick. The clay, or rather soil, is very hard and was
probably stamped or pounded.

As far as I have been able to detect, the upright posts are not found
inside of the house, except, perhaps, on the rear wall of the outer
chamber, as in one room of building _A_, to which I shall hereafter
refer. If this is the room, then the skeleton of the wood-work (upright
and transverse posts and beams) would present nearly the appearance
shown in Pl. III., Fig. 3, when viewed from the side, and admitting the
house to be four stories high.

_a_, horizontal beams.

_b_, upright posts, along the western wall, and in the three upper
stories. These posts are hypothetical, and therefore only indicated by
dotted lines. (It may be also that every cell had its front and its rear
posts, but I have not been able to detect any except in the outer
rooms.)

With the exception of one chamber in building _A_, I nowhere met
anything like a roof. This one appears to be nothing else than a
ceiling-floor, but of nearly 0.75 m.--2 ft. 6 in.--in thickness. It is,
as Pl. VIII. shows, much covered by fallen stones, and its original
height may have been increased by _débris_; but at all events it was
thoroughly impermeable, and such as would be required in a climate
where, indeed, it seldom rains, but "whenever it rains it pours."

There is a certain air of sameness cast over the entire structure which
has strongly impressed me with the thought that not only was it used as
a dwelling for a large number (as the reports, indeed, establish), but
also that all its inhabitants lived on an equal footing,--as far as
accommodations for living were concerned. There are no special quarters,
no spacious halls. The few rooms of somewhat larger size are naturally
explained by the mode of construction, adapting the house to the
configuration of the rock, and not conversely as we do. It was,
therefore, a large joint-tenement structure, harboring, perhaps, when
fully occupied, several hundreds of families.

In regard to ingress and egress, not only have I found no doors in any
fragments of exterior walls, but the many persons I have asked have
always assured me that there had been none, that the house was entered
by means of ladders, ascending to the top of each story in succession,
and descending into the rooms also by ladders and through trap-doors in
the roofs. They have also assured me that each room of each story
communicated with the one above and below, also by means of trap-doors
and ladders. It is quite certain that there are no staircases nor steps,
and that consequently ladders were used, in the same manner as they are
still used by the Indians of the pueblos of Zuñi, Moqui, Acoma, Taos,
and others. Ingress and egress, therefore, must have taken place, not
horizontally "in and out," but vertically "up and down." I have not been
able to identify any one of the trap-doors referred to, but I should not
be surprised to hear that they have been subsequently found in the
north-west corner of each room. By referring to the diagram of the floor
(Pl. III., Fig. 4), it will be seen that the rectangular spaces between
the beams and overlying poles are almost everywhere large enough, if
the superstructure of splinters (or brush) and clay is removed, to give
passage to any man. The ladders themselves have completely disappeared.

On one and the same floor, I found in the side walls at a few places,
the remains of low and narrow openings through which a man might pass in
a stooping position and "sidling." Nowhere could I see the full height
of these small doorways, so that I do not know whether there was a
lintel, or whether they terminated in an open angle, like the doorways
of Yucatan. I have seen openings showing the peculiar so-called
"aboriginal arch" of Yucatan on a small scale, and I also have seen that
an accidental "knocking-out" of one or two stones from the walls
produced a hole or gap very similar in shape to the doorways at Uxmal
and other pueblos of Southern Mexico, though of course on a small scale.
It is self-evident that, the coincidence being accidental, I do not
place any stress upon it in view of "tracing relationships." The
coincidence is of ethnological, and not of ethnographical, value. As far
as I could ascertain, they were certainly 1 m.--3 ft. 3 in.--high,
whereas their average width may have been 0.45 m.--18 in. (Those I
measured averaged between 0.42 m. and 0.48 m.--16 in. and 19 in.) Their
appearance is shown in Pl. II., Fig. 5.

_a_ is what might be termed a door-sill, a smooth oval stone, evidently
from the drift, probably dioritic, at all events a dark-green hornblende
rock. In the present instance one was not long enough to fill the gap
left between the walls, and two were superposed. I saw no traces of
wooden lintels or sills. These doorways appeared to be generally about
0.50 m.--20 in.--above the floor, but if we deduct 0.20 m.--8 in.--for
the clay (measure having been taken from the timbers), 0.30 m.--12
in.--will remain as their approximate height over the chambers.

The few doors that I could observe are all in the longitudinal walls,
and none of them in the transverse; that is, they all open from east to
west. But not all the longitudinal partitions have doorways. It cannot,
therefore, be admitted that every transverse row was occupied by one
family, still less that the family apartments were arranged
longitudinally. I rather suspect that this arrangement was vertical, or
perhaps vertical and transverse. This surmise is given, however, for
what it may be worth. Windows I could not find, although small apertures
undoubtedly existed in all the outer walls, both for light and for air.

The chambers being all very much ruined, the lower ones filled with the
stones and decayed ruins of the superposed stories,--of these stories
themselves but part of the walls, denuded and often twisted,
remaining,--I have not been able, with one single exception, to secure
or even see any of what we would call the "furniture." Small fragments
of grinding-stones (_metates_) are sparsely scattered over the entire
ruins, otherwise the only object of daily use as articles of furniture
met with by me has been a hearth, which I found or dug out _in situ_, in
room _I_, and which, complete, forms part of the collections sent by me
to Cambridge.

The place where this hearth was situated is marked on the diagram in
room _I_. It stood on the floor against the north wall, and is composed
of three plates of stone, originally ground and polished (as the
specimen found in building A will show, which is a fragment only), and,
judging from new fragments found, of diorite or other hornblende rock.
There are three plates,--a basal one, 40 m.--16 in.--long and 20 m.--8
in.--wide, and two sides, placed vertically east and west of the
base,--all three resting against the north wall of the room. Pl. III.,
Fig. 4, is a diagram of the room, the floor timbers, and the hearth.

The basal plate was covered with 0.10 m.--4 in.--of very white ashes,
which I have also secured, and the rear of the hearth, which is formed
by the original "first coat" of earth daubed over the wall, is
thoroughly baked by the heat produced in front of it, as the samples
sent will show.[111]

Of course, I looked at once for an opening where the smoke arising from
the hearth, etc., could have escaped. I am sorry to say, however, that I
utterly failed in finding anything like a chimney,--not only in _B_, but
in all the other buildings. Still, in the ruined condition of the place,
this is no proof of their non-existence.[112]

I will refer to subsequent pages to such articles of mechanical use and
of wearing apparel which I was fortunate enough to meet. I shall also
return hereafter to the almost omnipresent pieces of painted pottery, of
two distinct kinds, and to the very numerous chips of obsidian,
jet-black on the face, but transparent as smoky glass; of black lava;
and to the flint, jasper, and moss-agates, broken mechanically by man,
and scattered over the premises. These premises have been thoroughly
ransacked by visitors, and every striking object has already been
carried off. I had heard mentioned, among such samples, flint, agate,
and obsidian arrow-heads, stone hatchets and hammers, and copper (not
brass or iron) rings used for ornamental purposes,[113] but my luck it
was not to find any. Therefore the harvest is perhaps slim in that
respect. It is beyond all doubt that judicious digging among the lower
stories of the structures will reveal treasures,--not money, as the tale
current among the inhabitants has it, but things of archæological and
ethnological value. For such an undertaking I was, as the Institute well
knows, not prepared. I attempted to dig, indeed, though quite alone, but
soon came to the conclusion that the time consumed in excavating one
metre of decayed and crumbling stones and earth would be more
satisfactorily employed in other directions; paving the way for the
exhaustive labors of better situated archæologists.

I have been very lengthy in my _exposé_ of facts and data regarding this
particular house _B_, for the simple reason that, as far as the
principles of architecture, based upon a knowledge and want of "how to
live," are concerned, it is typical of the rest. Many details become
therefore unnecessary in subsequent descriptions.

To return to the structure itself, its general plan and its mode of
construction in detail more and more forcibly remind me of an
extraordinarily large honeycomb. The various walls, a few of the outer
walls excepted, have little strength in themselves (as the rapid decay
shows), but combined altogether they oppose to any outside pressure an
immense amount of "inertia." There is not in the whole building one
single evidence of any great progress in mechanics. Everything done and
built within it can be built and made with the use of a good or fair
eyesight only, and the implements and arts of what was formerly called
the "stone age." This does not exclude the possibility that they had
made a certain advance in mechanical agencies. They may have had the
plummet, or even the square; but such expedients, applied to their
system of building, might at most have hastened the rapidity of
construction. Necessary they were not at all, still less indispensable.
As the bee builds one cell alongside of the other and above the
other,--the norm of one and the "habitat" impelling the norm of those
above and alongside,--so the Indians of Pecos aggregated their cells
according to their wants and the increase of their numbers; their inside
accommodations, the wood-work, bearing the last trace of the frail
"lodge" of a former shifting condition.

Leaving _B_ for the present, I turn to the other ruins on the so-called
"neck" of the _mesilla_.

4 m.--13 ft.--west of the N.W. corner of the northern annex, I struck
stone foundations indicating a structure (whether enclosure or building
I do not venture to tell) 10.21 m.--33 ft.--from E. to W., and 6.60
m.--22 ft.--from N. to S.[114], 49 m.--160 ft.--to the north-west of its
north-easterly angle there is a mound about 2 m. or 6 ft. in diameter,
thence 20 m.--65 ft.--further N.W. or N.N.W. the southern ruins of the
east wing of _A_ are reached.

Parallel to _B_, longitudinally, and at an average distance of 28 m.--90
ft--to the west from it, there is a row of detached buildings or
structures, of which only the foundations and shapeless stone heaps
indicating the corners remain. Pl. I., Fig. 8, conveys an idea of their
position and size. The walls are reduced to mere foundations, or to
heaps in the corners; but these remnants indicate that the rocks used
were similar in kind and shape to those composing the walls of all the
other kinds of construction in the _mesilla_ north of the church.

For what purpose these buildings were erected, and in what relation they
stood to _B_, I am unable to determine. Some of them appeared to have
doors opening to the east.[115] Beyond _f_ the ground rises suddenly.
The floor of those structures is, in some instances, formed of a black
or red loam. I excavated one of those, or, rather, dug into it, to the
depth of one metre. The surface had shown traces of a fire built in the
centre, and I found also, at the depth of nearly two feet, that the dark
soil was traversed by a band of charcoal, fragments of burnt and
blackened pottery, and some splinters of bone. Below it the soil was
dark red. Whether there was a buried hearth at that depth, or whether
the traces of fire were due to an original destruction of woodwork
through combustion, the _débris_ subsequently covering them with clay, I
am unable to judge.[116] In all of them, of course, pottery and obsidian
were found.

I have already stated that the _mesilla_ dips to the south-west; that
there is a depression along the northern end of its "neck;" and that
from _f_ the rocks bulge upwards again. All this contributes to
concentrate the drainage of the entire cliff-top, as far north of the
church as it was inhabited, in the hollow where the gate of the general
enclosure is placed. This gate was therefore not only a passage-way, but
also the water-gap or channel through which the _mesilla_ was finally
drained into the bottoms of the Arroyo de Pecos.

[Illustration: PLATE IV
PLAN OF BUILDING A.]

20 m.--65 ft.--to the N.N.W. of the mound i, there rises before us the
huge pile of ruins which, on the plat as well as on the diagram, I have
designated by _A_. It crowns the highest point of the entire _mesilla_,
and covers the greatest portion of its top. In ruins like _B_, its
general aspect is yet somewhat different Instead of forming, like the
latter, a narrow, solid rectangle of 140 m. × 20 m.--460 ft. × 65 ft.--,
the building _A_ is (taking, of course, the outlines of the entire
_débris_) a broad hollow rectangle of 150 m. × 75 m.--490 ft. × 245 ft.
Its interior is occupied by a vast court or square, containing three
circular depressions, and surrounded on all four sides by the broad
ruined heaps of the former dwellings. On the east side, between the
circumvallation and the eastern line of the structure, there are two
more circular depressions similar to those within the court. The latter
is entered by four passageways,--one on the S.E. corner, 4 m.--13
ft.--wide and about 12 m.--40 ft.--long from S. to N.; one through the
eastern wing, 3.40 m.--11 ft.--wide and about 14 m.--46 ft.--long from
E. to W.; one in the N.W. corner and another from the S.W., both 2 m.--6
ft. 6 in.--across. I have designated these four gateways respectively as
_R_, _E_, _G_, and _N_. _R_ and _E_ enter straight through the wall; _G_
forms a semicircle almost from W. through N. to S.; _N_ describes a
right angle from S. by N. to E. The distribution of decay in this house
is the same as in _B_,--the southern parts are on all sides almost
totally obliterated; the N.W. corner is very nearly perfect; the
northern and western walls are tolerably fairly preserved; but the
eastern outline of the east wing, the southern outline of the south
wing, and the southern ends of both east and west have almost completely
disappeared under hills of rubbish, a few posts alone assisting the
explorer. The path of destruction has in both buildings lain in the same
direction,--from S.S.E. to N.N.W.,--and across both its effects have
decreased from south to north. Still, while the similarity in that
respect is astonishing, and while there are apparently more walls in _A_
standing than in _B_, there is, owing to the very uneven surface of the
rock upon which it is built, much more confusion among the ruins of the
former than among those of the latter. _B_ is built on a gradual slope
or ridge; _A_ caps a generally convex surface, scooped out in the
middle, and sloping eastward.[117] Hence comes the division of the whole
structure into four separate and distinct buildings, and hence, also,
the complicated manner in which the whole or each part is ruined, even
walls still standing being twisted out of shape and out of position.
Actual measurements were much less efficacious here than in _B_; and,
although I have worked with not less zeal and conscientiousness, the
result in neatness and precision is certainly less satisfactory. This
explanation will, I hope, induce subsequent explorers to look up my
inaccuracies and correct them.

It is needless, of course, to detail the methods of work. They are on a
larger scale, and in more tedious ways, a repetition of the proceedings
in the case of _B_. The results are as follows, starting from the line
_f f_ northwards: The space comprised between the corners (_e_, _e_,
_f_, _f_) forms a rectangle, containing 18 longitudinal rows of 6 rooms
each. These rows are all on the same level, except the most easterly
one, which lies on the slope. The cells, as far as measured and still
measurable, appear to be of the same size in length, namely, 2.87 m.--9
ft. 6 in.,--and their widths are respectively from W. to E., or 2.83 m.,
2.00 m., 3.14 m., 2.70 m., 2.53 m., and 2.53 m.--9 ft., 6 ft. 6 in., 10
ft., 9 ft., 8 ft., and 8 ft. The whole area is therefore 51.66 m. ×
15.73 m.--170 ft. × 51 ft. Still, I believe that a sensible narrowing
(possibly of nearly 2.0 m.--6 ft. 6 in.--) may have taken place up to
_ee_; but this is compensated by the strengthening of the corners,
which there are rounded outwards, so that the line _e e_ presents about
the same length as _f f_. Thereupon follows the open passage _E_, which
is 3.40 m.--11 ft. wide, and north of it a rectangle of 3 longitudinal
rows of 3 apartments, _two_ of which rows are on the eastern slope. The
width of the rooms appears to be the same as that in the former section,
whereas their length from N. to S. is respectively 6.10 m., 4.27 m., and
5.44 m.--20 ft., 14 ft., and 18 ft. It is therefore a rectangle of 15.81
m. × 15.73 m.--51 ft. × 51 ft. North of it is an open space marked C,
3.13 m.--10 ft.--wide, in which I could detect no longitudinal
partition, except one closing its western outlet towards the court. I
have therefore left it an open question, and marked it as an alley or
corridor. It may yet prove to have contained six rooms on the ground;
but, as this is uncertain, the rooms that may have existed are not
included in the computation of cells. North of the line _b b_ begins the
section _a B b b_, which is very badly ruined. This forms also the
north-east angle of the whole building, and whose northern line (_a B_)
shows the partitions of six chambers, each 2 m.--6 ft. 6 in. wide, each
one indicating a longitudinal row of 4 rooms, respectively 2.83 m.--9
ft.--each from N. to S. It would indicate a rectangle of 11.32 m. ×
12.00 m.--37 ft. × 40 ft. Of its six rows of rooms, three are on the
slope.

From _a_ to A extends the main northern wall of the structure. It is
very strong, .78 m.--2 ft. 6 in.--wide, and constructed as follows, Pl.
V., Fig. IX.:--

_a_, the outer wall, is 0.33 m.--13 in.--wide.

_b_, filling of mud, is 0.17 m.--6 in.--wide (this filling is both earth
and gravel).

_c_, inner wall, is 0.28 m.--11 in.--wide.

The width of the inner wall being the average thickness of all the other
walls in the whole house, the suggestion is not improbable that it was
built first, and the outer one, which is made of larger stones, added
subsequently for additional strength, and the interstice filled up as
the work rose.

The line _a A_ is 17.28 m.--56 ft.--long. From _A_ it runs down to the
south for 8.10 m.--27 ft.--, thence east, 17.28 m.--56 ft.--, to connect
with the north-east corner of the eastern wing. It thus forms an aisle,
and at the same time closes the court to the north. A rectangle of 8.10
m. × 17.28--27 ft. × 56 ft.--consists of 4 longitudinal sections of 3
rooms each, which, while their length is uniformly 2.70 m.--9 ft.--(from
N. to S.), have widths from W. to E. of 5.46 m., 3.18 m., and 3.62
m.--18 ft., 10 ft., and 12 ft. All the rooms are on the same level, and
they are the largest and best preserved of any in the entire area of
ruins. Room _I_ has even an unimpaired roof.

The north wall of _a A_ stands out boldly on the highest crest of the
_mesilla_. Below it northwards, a small hill of stones, from which
timbers occasionally protrude, forms a tumbled and confused slope of
inextricable ruin; and beyond this slope there extend the foundations of
walls on the level _mesilla_ up to 10 m.--33 ft.--from the northern
transverse part of the general circumvallation, which there is 45
m.--148 ft.--from _a A_, and 30 m.--100 ft.--long from W. to E. It thus
appears that the building _A_ had its northern annex as well as the
house _B_. To this annex I shall hereafter return.

West of line _A n_ there runs alongside of it the interesting gateway
_G_, 2 m.--6 ft. 6 in.--wide, its bottom somewhat higher than the floor
of the adjoining rooms,[118] and forming, as before stated, the
north-westerly entrance to the great inner court. It is perfectly
straight on the east as far as _r_; but then a heavy bank of stones and
gravel starts out like a lower continuation of the wall _a A_, and winds
down, curving, till close to the western circumvallation on the edge of
the _mesilla_. It thus forms a northern embankment to the gateway.
Almost parallel to it, on the opposite side of _n r_, the conical
mound or tower H constitutes the western and southern wall of the
passage _G_. This passage is therefore nearly semicircular. It is level
from _n_ to _r_, and thence descends steeply towards the edge of the
_mesilla_.

[Illustration: PLATE X
VIEW OF PASSAGE G, BUILDING A, FROM THE NORTH.]

The mound _H_ describes about two-thirds of a circle. Its base at the
south is 6 m.--20 ft.--from E. to W.; its diameter, 6.85 m.--23 ft; its
actual height, about 1.5 m.--5 ft. It is conical, and appears to be a
round heap of earth and rocks encased with neat and judicious piling of
well-selected stones. This naturally gave the stone-work a slanting
surface; the higher it reaches, however, the more it becomes vertical,
until at last it juts out above the surface of the mound like a circular
breastwork, or a hollow round tower on a conical base. I refer to Pl. X.
for an excellent view of its vertical aspect and structure. This mound,
or tower, while it commands an extensive view to the west, north, and
even north-east, is also the most northerly "spur" of the western wing
of the great house _A_. This wing extends in an unbroken length of 62
m.--203 ft.--from the base line of _H_ to the entrance _N_, and is
divided into 3 transverse sections, all connected, and all having 3
longitudinal rows of rooms or cells. The width of each cell is the same
in every section, to wit, from E. to W. 2.58 m., 2.58 m., and 3.22 m.--8
ft. 6 in., 8 ft. 6 in., and 10 ft. 6 in., respectively.

Section _k l l m_ has 3 × 5 apartments; in length from N. to S., 2.51
m., 3.86 m., 2.35 m., 3.71 m., and 3.72 m.--8 ft., 13 ft., 8 ft., 12
ft., and 12 ft. It was therefore 16.15 m. × 8.38 m.--53 ft. × 27 ft.
Probably all the ground-floor cells were on the same level.

Section _l l h h_ has 3 × 12 apartments, each 2.53 m.--8 ft.--long.
Consequently, it was a rectangle of 30.36 m. x 8.38 m.--100 ft. × 27 ft.
The eastern row of chambers was on the slope.

Section _h h N_ 3 × 4 long, respectively 2.77 m.--9 ft. each, therefore
10.98 m. × 8.38 m.--36 ft. × 27 ft. There were two eastern rows on the
slope.

This entire wing (forming a rectangle of 62 m. × 8.38 m.--203 ft. × 27
ft., if we add to the spaces given the thicknesses of the transverse
partitions, this time not included in the measures) has given me more
trouble than the rest of _A_ and _B_ combined. Nowhere are the walls so
twisted and out of range as here. Besides, there is an unfinished air
about it that is almost bewildering. The height of the stories does not
agree with that of the other sections,--the western wing would be one
story lower. Furthermore, it contains in several places squared beams of
wood inserted in the stone-work lengthwise. These beams (of which there
is also one in the opposite wing similarly embedded) are identical and
apparently of the same age with the (not sculptured) beams still found
in and about the old church. Entire walls of chambers, or rather sides,
appear to be new; the mud or adobe is fresh, whereas almost everywhere
else it has disappeared, out of the crevices even; the stones are almost
laid in courses. As I shall hereafter relate, there are at several
places adobe walls, the adobe containing wheat-straw! And all this right
among chambers showing sides as uncouth and old as any of the pueblo,
though still as high as their more recent and better preserved
neighbors. Here there is evidently patchwork of later date, and
patchwork executed with material unknown to the Indians previous to the
advent of the Spaniards. I am even convinced that it was done after
1680; for the beams evidently came from the church or the convent, which
buildings we know were sacked and fired by the Indians in the month of
August of that year. If this conclusion be correct, the south-western
part of _A_, its entire westerly wall, was somehow destroyed after 1680,
and partly rebuilt with materials unknown to the Indians at the time
when Pecos was first erected.

I say partly, because there is evidence that the western wing, from _H_
to _N_, was originally much broader. As it now appears, the wall _m h_
presents itself as the western line of the structure. But there are,
still further out, although distinctly connected with it, remains of
buildings which were at least attached to it. These are the ruined
enclosures designated on the ground-plan by _I_, _K_, and _L_.

Nothing besides foundations, heaps of stones defining corners, and
upright posts protruding along the western limits of _L_ and _K_ inside,
remain of these structures. _L L_ are of the size of the ordinary
chambers; _K K_ are four times larger. Their interior shows no partition
whatever: the soil is level, somewhat depressed in the centre of each
apartment; and on the whole they present very much the same appearance
as those structures on the "neck," which lie to the west of B, but are
not connected with the latter. Besides, the enclosures are on a lower
level than the two rows of rooms immediately east of the wall _m N_.
This wall itself is a double wall, each single one being of the size of
the ordinary partition; the total width is therefore 0.56 m.--22
in.,--as proven by actual measurement. The idea is therefore
suggested--very naturally--that the entire western wing of the building
_A_ was originally a double house,[119] terraced both towards the east
and the west. In sketching the cross-sections, I have taken due notice
of this very probable, if not positive, fact.

The double wall _m N_ shows no trace of lateral passages. It therefore
divides the whole structure from _H_ to _N_ into two longitudinal
sections. The western one, from _o_ to _p_, consisted of but one row of
5 rooms; from _p_ to _N_ it had two rows of 16 chambers each. The
ground slopes still further to the S. and S.W. outside of the
trapezoidal enclosures, _I I_, and is covered with _débris_; so that I
presume that, from _ll_ to _N_, there was an additional row of 3 rooms
on the outside. The entire division was at one time very completely
razed to the ground, so that its owners never attempted to rebuild it
after the original plan.

The western division was also badly damaged in its southern half, but
the damage was subsequently repaired with the aid of material and
mechanical arts postdating the Spanish conquest of New Mexico. Pl. V.,
Fig. 3, gives a view of the western end, along the line _h h_.

I would recall here the fact already noticed, that the northern part of
building _B_ is also mended in places with adobes of the same make as
those used in repairing the western wing of _A_, and that, while the
squared beams are wanting, the stone-work there in places appears also
of a more recent date. The suggestion may therefore not be uncalled for,
that the same destroying power which spent its main force on _A_,
distinct from the general decay, and moving in a direction from S.W. to
N. E., reflected or glanced off upon the northern portions of _B_. This
question will, however, be discussed hereafter.

The annexes _I I_ are trapezoidal enclosures of stone-work as high as a
man's breast, and respectively of the sizes indicated on the
ground-plan. The northern one is divided lengthwise into two
compartments; the southern is open to the south. Both appear to be new
and unfinished. From the centre of the last one protrude two
well-squared heavy timbers. These timbers are in a singularly unfit
position; they cannot be accounted for, and convey the impression that
they were carried hither from some other totally different construction.
They look almost forlorn. Whence they came, and for what purpose they
were brought,--what was the object in erecting the enclosures _I I_,--I
do not intend to speculate upon, unless they are recently constructed
store-rooms ("Almacenas").

Across the passage-way _N_, both southward from the line _g g_ and
eastward from _I_, fitting into it to the east and barring access to the
great court from the "neck," lies the south wing of _A_,--a rectangle of
27.25 m.--90 ft.--from W. to E., and 13 m.--43 ft.--from N. to S.,
including the walls. It is much decayed and overturned; the northern
side is far less so than the southern; nowhere are there any signs of
repairs. Here the rows of rooms must be taken transversely (from W. to
E.). There are 5, each with 7 chambers, measuring in succession from N.
to S. 2.00 m., 2.00 m., 3.09 m., 2.40 m., and 2.00 m.--6 ft. 6 in., 6
ft. 6 in., 10 ft., 8 ft., and 6 ft. 6 in; and from W. to E. 3.61 m.--12
ft. each. Two of these transverse rows appear to be on the southern
slope, and three on the upper level towards the court.

Here I have again reached the passage-way _R_, my original point of
departure. Before entering into an examination of the other particulars
of the building, as well as of its annexes and surroundings, I shall
make once more a rapid circuit, to give an idea of its size, and also
attempt a rude computation of the number of rooms it contained.

Lengths of the eastern
wing from _f_ to
_B_ (E. side N. and
S.)                              51.66 m.--170 ft.
                                  3.40 m.-- 12 ft.
                                 15.81 m.-- 52 ft.
                                  3.13 m.-- 10 ft.
                                 11.32 m.-- 37 ft.
                                  7.84 m.-- 25 ft.
                                 -----------------
Adding 28 walls à 0.28
m.--11 in., total                                  93.16 m.--306 ft.

_Brought forward_                                  93.16 m.--306 ft.

Lengths of the north
side from _B_ to _a_             12.00 m.-- 40 ft.
from _a_ to _A_                  17.28 m.-- 57 ft.
6 transverse walls à .28
m.--11 in.                        1.68 m.--  6 ft.
                                  ----------------
                                                   30.96 m.--102 ft.

Length from _A_ to _n_            8.10 m.-- 27 ft.
_n_ to _m_                        8.38 m.-- 27 ft.
_m_ to _o_                        2.51 m.--  8 ft.
_o_ to W. corner of _L_
(estimated)                       5.00 m.-- 16 ft.
W. corner of _L_. to _p_         16.17 m.-- 53 ft.
_p_ to _y_                        2.10 m.--  7 ft.
_y_, southward, to line
_g g_                            33.44 m.--110 ft.
passage-way N                      .00 m.--  6 ft. 6 in.

Width of western section
of W. wing
(about)                           7.48 m.-- 25 ft.
Length of south wing             13.00 m.-- 43 ft.
28 transverse walls à
.28 m.--11 in.                    7.84 m.-- 26 ft.
                                 ----------------
                                                  106.02 m.--348 ft. 6 in.

Width of S. wing                 27.25 m.-- 90 ft.
Passage _R_                       4.00 m.-- 13 ft.
From _R_ to _f_ (about)           4.00 m.-- 13 ft.
Line _f f_                       15.73 m.-- 52 ft.
8 longitudinal walls à
.28 m.--11 in.                    2.24 m.--  7 ft.
                                 ----------------
Total length to _f_, my
point of departure                                 53.22 m.--175 ft.
                                                  ------------------
Entire length of circuit
of building _A_                                   283.36 m.--928 ft.

Adding to this 15 m.--49 ft.--for the probable periphery of mound _H_,
and 64 m.--210 ft.--for the perimeter of a southern annex to the south
wing, which I have not yet described, we reach a perimeter of 362
m.--1,190 ft.--in all. Comparing these figures with those given about
the great ruins of the Rio Chaco by Dr. W. H. Jackson,[120] and of the
pueblo of Las Animas River by my friend the Hon. L. H. Morgan,[121] it
will be seen that this building, _A_, at Pecos is probably the largest
aboriginal structure of stone within the United States so far described,
and that it will even bear comparison with many of the aboriginal ruins
of Mexico and Central America.[122]

The size of the interior court can now be easily determined. It is 64
m.--210 ft.--from N. to S., and 19.28 m.--63 ft.--from E. to W. Its area
covers therefore 1,235 sq. m.--13,230 sq. ft.,--or about one fourth of
an acre; whereas the entire _débris_, measured as well as possible,
scatter over more than two acres of ground.

For the computation of the number of rooms in the whole pile,
cross-sections are necessary. (Pl. V., Figs. 1-8.) The height of each
story is about the same as in _B_, to wit, 2.28 m.--7 ft. 6 in.

Fig. 1, section of west wing about _l l_, from west to east.

Fig. 2, lines _b b_ and _a B_.

Fig. 3, section of west wing along _h h_.

Fig. 4, line _d d_, north, up to south line of _C_.

Fig. 5, section of west wing along line _g g_.

Fig. 6, line _f f_, southern boundary of east wing, and for the
entire rectangle up to _E_.

Fig. 7, cross-section of north wing, line _A n_, from north to
south.

Fig. 8, south wing, from north to south.

It is possible that the second row, from S. to N., had two superposed
chambers, but I am not positive of it, and therefore do not include it
in the computation of rooms which will follow.

[Illustration: PLATE V
SECTIONS OF BUILDING A.]

It will be seen that, according to the ground plan and sections, the
east wing had five stories, the north wing two, the west wing
successively two, three, and four, and the south wing four. Looking at
the buildings from the great court, the south presented an unbroken
front of a two-story wall, the east successively walls of four,
three, and two stories; the north side formed two, and the west side,
from north to south, in succession, two, three, and four terraces. In
this manner, not only was the building remarkably well accommodated to
the great irregularities of the surface, but even a tolerably uniform
height was attained, well agreeing, therefore, with the description of
"Cicuyé," as Castañeda saw it in 1540. "The houses have four stories,
terraced roofs all of the same height, along which one can make the
circuit of the entire village without meeting any street to intercept
the passage.[123] Here we must remember that the widest gateway is 4
m.--13 ft.--wide,--an expanse easily spanned by common beams used by the
Indians in their house architecture.

An attempt to compute the number of rooms in _A_ results as follows:--

Rectangle _f f e e_, 18 longitudinal rows of 6 rooms and 5 stories.
     1st story                                        18
      2d story  5 × 18                                90
      3d story  4 × 18                                72
     4th story  3 × 18                                54
     5th story  2 × 18                                36
                                                     ---    270 rooms.

(_d d c c_) 1st story and 2d story on the slope,
and 3 rooms per row.
     1st story                                         3
      2d story                                         3
      3d story 4 × 3                                  12
     4th story 3 × 3                                   9
     5th story 2 × 3                                   6
                                                      --     33    "
                                                            ---------
_Carried forward_                                           303 rooms.

_Brought forward_                                           303 rooms.

(_b b a B_) 6 rows of 4 rooms, and 3 stories on
the slope.
     1st, 2d, and 3d story, each 4                    12
     4th story 3 × 4                                  12
     5th story 2 × 4                                   8
                                                      --     32    "

(North wing) 2 stories, easily computed as                   20    "
(_k m l l_) 1st story 5 × 4                           20
     2d story 5 × 2                                   10
                                                      --     30    "

(_l l h h K_) Lowest story                            12
     2d story 12 × 4                                  48
     3d story 12 × 2                                  24
                                                      --     84    "

(_h h K g g I_) Lowest story                           4
     2d story                                          4
     3d story 4 × 4                                   16
    4th story 4 × 2                                    8
                                                      --     32    "

(South wing) From E. to W.
    Lowest story                                       7
     2d story                                          7
     3d story 7 × 3                                   21
    4th story 7 × 2                                   14
                                                      --     49    "
Adding for the southern annex a probable number of           35    "
                                                            ---------
Building _A_ contained in all not less than                585 cells.

Turning now to the inside of the building itself, I am compelled to
acknowledge here an important omission in my survey of _B_. It relates
to the vertical connection of the walls. They are all, with few
exceptions, as far as their dilapidated condition admits of observation,
continuous from bottom to top; that is, the sides were everywhere
carried up above the ceiling (or floor), and then, after the beams had
been embedded in the stones, another wall was piled up on it as
straight as possible. In this manner it became possible to add each
cell separately.

There are several doors visible in _A_, as marked on the ground-plan.
Those in the eastern and western wings open from east to west, those in
the northern wing from north to south; therefore transversely to the
length of each structure. But I have also seen longitudinal walls
without passages. The tops of the doors are all gone; the rest is
everywhere similar to the sample found in _B_, and already figured. In
some cases even the sills are gone. Windows I could not find, nor
trap-doors or ladders; there was no trace of steps, and, unfortunately,
no clew to any chimney or vent. Of furniture I secured pieces of new
hearth-stones; of other articles, broken "metates," part of a fine maul
of stone, flint chips, celts, stone skin-scrapers, and, of course,
painted pottery and obsidian. But not one specimen is entire; every
striking implement, etc., has been carried off by amateurs, of whose
presence besides broken beer bottles, with the inscription
"Anheuser-Busch Brewing Co., St. Louis, Mo.," give occasional notice.

Room _I_, in the S.W. corner of the north wing is very well preserved:
so well, indeed, that it is nearly certain that there was no entrance to
it from above. On the contrary, the entrance appears to have been from
the front, as shown in Pl. VIII., where this room stands in full view.
It is perfectly plain inside; eight posts of wood, round, and stripped
of all bark, support the ceiling and roof, whose composition I have
elsewhere described. These posts (which are also shown in Pl. VIII.) are
so distributed as to have one in each corner, and two between, on each
longer side of the room. In the S.E. quarter of the ceiling the
splinters covering the rafters or poles are removed, and fresh straw (or
rather very well preserved) protrudes, as having formed a layer with the
brush. I was at first inclined to take it for wheat-straw, but other
parties insisted that it was mountain grass. For the latter it appears
to be very long, and it has a marked head. I have not, as yet, seen any
wheat-plants grown at these elevations.[124]

Otherwise this chamber appears nearly perfect. In the middle of the
north wall a hole is knocked out, but the two coats of plaster (dark and
white) are almost everywhere preserved. Great interest attaches to this
apartment, from the fact that, according to Sr. Mariano Ruiz, the sacred
embers ("braza") were kept here until 1840, in which year the five last
remaining families of Pecos Indians removed to their cognates at Jemez,
and the "sacred fire" disappeared with them. Sr. Ruiz is good authority
on that point, since, as a member of the tribe[125] ("hijo del pueblo"),
he was asked to perform his duty by attending to the embers one year. He
refused, for reasons which I shall hereafter state. The facts--that the
fire was kept in a sort of closed oven, and that the front opening
existed--made it unnecessary to search for any other conduit for smoke
and ventilation. The fire was kept covered, and not permitted to flame.

I now come to one of the most interesting features of the court,--the
three circular depressions marked _P_ on the diagram. Two of them are in
the N. E. corner,--the northern one close to the northern wing, and the
other 2.65 m.--9 ft.--to the S. S. E. of it. Both are perfect circles,
and each has a diameter of 7.70 m.--25 ft. In the S.W. corner, near to
the passage _N_, is the third, with a diameter of only 6 m.--20 ft. They
look like shallow basins, encased by a rim of stone-work piled up in the
usual way, and forming a wall of nearly 0.35 m.--14 in.--in thickness.
This wall is sunk into the ground, but at the northern basin it
certainly, as former excavations plainly show, did not reach the depth
of 1 metre; and it appears that at about that depth there were flat
stones laid, like a rough stone floor. These basins were the "Estufas,"
or council chambers, where, as late as 1840, the meetings of the poor
remnants of the tribe were still held. Although an adopted son of Pecos,
Sr. Ruiz was never permitted to enter the Estufa. Across the northern
one a very large and very old tree, nearly 0.75 m.--2 ft. 6 in.--in
diameter, is lying obliquely. Its thick end is towards the N.E. wall. It
looks as if uprooted and fallen upon the ruins. But how could a tree of
such dimensions ever have grown there? Again, for what purpose, and how,
could the Indians of Pecos have carried it hither?

Outside of the building _A_, the narrow ledge separating its rubbish
from the eastern wall of circumvallation, a rim 150 m.--192 ft.--long by
32 m.--105 ft.--wide at the south, and 12 m.--40 ft.--at the north,
shows the basins _D_ and _F_, respectively 10 m.--33 ft.--and 8 m.--26
ft.--in diameter. They hug the rock of the _mesilla_ very closely, and
look completely like the estufas in the court. These buildings,
according to Sr. Epifanio Vigil, of Santa Fé, were barns or store-houses
(round towers 10 to 11 feet high), in which the Indians preserved their
gathered crops, forage, etc. Still, it is not unlikely that they were
tanks, built for collecting rain-water.

On the south side of the eastern wing, and so close to it that the heaps
of rubbish touch, are two circular depressions surrounded by large
masses of stones. They are marked S S on the plan. Their shape and size
cannot be accurately determined, and their object is unknown.

[Illustration: PLATE VIII
INTERIOR OF BUILDING A, FROM THE SOUTH.]

Nearly the same must be said of a rectangular space, dotted
and intersected with foundations and upright beams marked _T T_, and
lying out in front of the south wing on the denuded and thinly soiled
apron forming the southern spur of the "body" of the _mesilla_. Its
eastern line, a double stone wall sunk 0.50 m.--20 in.--into the soil,
is 8 m.--26 ft.--long from N. to S. From its southern extremity similar
foundations run to the west 37 m.--120 ft.,--thence 8 m.--26 ft.--north,
and 37 m.--120 ft.--east back to the first line. Thus a rectangle of 8
m. × 37 m.--26 ft. × 120 ft.--is formed, within whose area, especially
in the western portion, upright beams start up in something like a
semicircle, which would indicate that the structure was once a building.
A metre and a half to the north, a foundation wall runs about 20 m.--66
ft.--E. and W.; and at both of its extremities a corridor ascends
towards the south wing of _A_. The nature and object of these fabrics
are equally a mystery to me.

Attached to the S.W. corner of the south wing is the annex of which I
have already spoken. It is an elevated rectangle of 24 m. × 9 m.--80 ft.
× 30 ft., and is clearly divided into compartments of 3-1/2 m. × 3
m.--12 ft. × 11 ft. The whole is not much more than a stone mound of
oblong shape, but it contained on its ground-plan 21 chambers. I
presume, from the mass of _débris_, that it had an upper story. Its
eastern row of cells is a direct continuation of the most westerly row
of the S. wing. Due south of this annex, and almost touching it, there
are two structures marked _O O_ which are very remarkable. They are
octagonal. The most easterly one is best preserved, and appears to be
the largest. Its two lateral walls are each 4 m.--13 ft.--long, the
transverse 5.34 m.--18 ft.,--and the corners are cut off sharply by
intersections of 0.86 m.--3 ft.--in length, so as to give the whole
eight sides. The walls are well defined; the corners sharp and still one
metre high. They are of the usual thickness. The other structure is so
ruined that it appears round. These buildings, according to Sr. Vigil,
were store-houses also; and they favor the suspicion that those marked
_S S_ south of the east wing had the same shape. As they now appear,
they look like the ruins of octagonal towers. The stone-work is like
that of the estufas, but they are erected exclusively above the ground,
and still cannot have been very high.

I have now reached the utmost south-westerly point of ruins on the
"body," where its drainage leads us into the often-mentioned depression
and to the broad gateway of the circumvallation. From this gate the
enclosure-wall creeps up along the edge of the _mesilla_ N.W. and N., in
all 104 m.--340 ft.,--to a point 44 m.--144 ft.--due west of the S. W.
corner of the annex; and here we find a distinct stone enclosure 27
m.--89 ft.--long from N. to S., and 15 m.--50 ft.--wide, with an
entrance of 3 m.--10 ft. wide, and terminating at the circumvallation.
North-east of this, and about 28 m.--92 ft.--west of i on the middle
wall of western wing, another enclosure begins 20 m. × 8 m.--66 ft. × 26
ft.; and 3 m.--10 ft.--south of this a small ruin 10 m. × 8 m.--33 ft. x
26 ft. Adjacent to _L L_, etc., around from o to y, a curved enclosure
of stone extends, 42 m.--140 ft.--long, and thence east 6 m.--20
ft.--back to the N.W. corner of K. It appears like a garden, or corral,
and shows no partitions. These are, as far as I could see, all the
remains west of the building _A_. The edge of the _mesilla_ rounds into
the north-western corner of the latter, almost closing up with it; the
slope is very steep and covered with huge rocks, broken and tumbled down
along the declivity.

The small northern plateau between the transverse circumvallation and
the top-wall of _A_ is therefore nearly shut out from communication to
the S.W. This plateau is a trapezium 45 m.--148 ft.--long from N. to
S.,--50 m.--164 ft.--wide on the S., and 30 m.--98 ft.--on the N. It
holds but few ruins; but, among these, a valuable find was made a short
time ago by Mr. Harry Dent, of Baughls.

These ruins, in the main, can be described as follows: The slope
descending from the top-wall is a heap of rubbish with shrivelled posts
of wood, impossible to disentangle without excavations. North of this
_débris_, and 29 m.--95 ft.--from _A a B_, stands a knoll, or mound,
covered with stones. Looking south from this, I thought I noticed that
it stood in the line of the second row of chambers of the east wing of
_A_, counting from E. to W.; and retracing my steps in that direction I
found, indeed, traces of stone foundations disappearing under the great
_débris_, which indicated a corridor, or perhaps series of rooms, about
2 m.--6 ft. 6 in.--wide. It therefore looked like a northern annex to A.
From the mound, which I have designated by _V_ (Pl. I., Fig. 5), other
foundations radiate to the W. and N.W. Those west soon disappear, but to
the N.W. they are plainly visible for 14 m.--46 ft.--to another mound,
or knoll _T_, similar to the first, whence another line of foundations
vanishes to the west also. This appears to be the utmost limit of
structures north, except the wall of enclosure, from which to T on the
south is about 10 m.--33 ft. About the N.W. corner of A large heaps of
rubbish descend in shapeless terraces outside and merge into the slope
of the _mesilla_. They are, like the entire slope itself, covered with
fragmentary pottery. About their eastern declivity, also, I thought I
saw foundations, but could not be sure whether or not they connected
with those extending westward from the two mounds just mentioned.

In the eastern section of mound _V_, Mr. Dent has, as I was informed and
saw, dug down one metre into the dark loamy clay and stones of which the
knoll is composed, and has thus exposed a small stone chamber, or flue,
walled in to the north, west, and south in the ordinary manner, and
closed with earth, etc., at the east. Whether there was any stone top
other than rocks heaped up above the hillock I could not learn; neither
did I, in digging down further, find any floor. This chimney-like
structure is 1.32 m.--3 ft. 8 in.--wide from E. to W., and 0.70 m.--2
ft. 3 in.--from N. to S. It is therefore too large for a chimney, or
flue, and too small for a room. Out of it Mr. Dent, whom I could not
find personally, as he was absent at the time, extracted a human
skeleton and much fairly preserved pottery. Of course, I was unable to
see what he carried off (among which was the skull), but I saw and dug
further in the same excavation, removing out of it bone splinters and
the best preserved pottery piece of the entire collection. They are, in
part, very similar to the yellow bowls still made by the Indian pueblo
of Nambé (a Tehua tribe); but many of them have been so charred and
blackened that it is impossible to make out their color. The pottery is
all thin. Among it were also bits of charcoal and of rotten wood. The
structure therefore appears to have been a grave, in which the body was
placed in a sitting posture with its face to the east. Subsequent
information and discovery have fully confirmed this view. I shall return
to this on a subsequent page, and only state here that my efforts to
find another skeleton in the same location failed.

The aboriginal remains encircled by the great wall of circumvallation
and north of the old church are now exhausted, so far as my work among
them goes, and the surroundings of the _mesilla_ shall therefore become
the subject of report.

The slope towards the east and south-east is rocky on the top, covered
with sandy soil growing _grama_ and very few cedar bushes, studded with
ant-hills, and devoid of all remains of human structures so far as I
could see. Pottery and obsidian are ever present, but become perceptibly
less and almost disappear further east. The rills which drain the
eastern slope carry much of this broken stuff into a small arroyo that
winds to the left of the _mesilla_. About one quarter of a mile east of
the building _A_, on a bare sunny and grassy level, are, quite alone,
the foundations of a singular ruin. They run N. and S., consist of three
rows of stones laid aside of each other longitudinally, and have the
shape shown in Pl. V., Fig. 10.

Its length from N. to S. is 25 m.--82 ft.,--and its width about 10
m.--33 ft. From its form I suspect it to have been a Christian chapel,
erected, or perhaps only in process of erection, before 1680. Not only
is it completely razed, but even the material of the superstructure
seems to have been carried off. Stones are scattered about the premises,
but I found neither obsidian nor pottery. It stands protected from the
north by the extremely rocky ledge terminating the _mesilla_ towards the
east, and appears without the least connection with the Indian pueblo
proper.

It is the almost circular bottom on the west of the _mesilla_,
encompassed by the north rock of _A_ to the north, by the whole length
of the _mesilla_ to the east, by the gradual expanse below the church on
the south, and by the Arroyo de Pecos on the west, that contains the
aboriginal remains. Much better than a description, a diagram will
illustrate their extent and shape. Pl. I., Fig. 5.

The distances are not very correctly given, and the shape of _F_ is
slightly exaggerated in irregularity.

_A_ and _B_ being the respective large buildings, _C_ the church, _D_
the great gate of the circumvallation; _E_ is a stone or rubble wall of
undeterminable length running along the foot of the mesilla in a slight
curve till near the "wash-out" sallying from the gate, and _F_ is an
irregular lozenge, or trapeze, enclosed by a heavy low stone or rubble
wall which might in some places be called an embankment. The corner _l_
is 50 m.--165 ft.--from the border of the creek-bottom, which there is
cut off abruptly from 1 m. to 3 m.--3 ft. 3 in. to 10 ft.,--presenting a
section of red clay and gravel with pottery fragments. The line _l r m_
runs W.N.W. to E.S.E., and is 138 m.--452 ft.--long; the line _m s n_
measures 121 m.--398 ft.,--_n o p_ 146 m.--480 ft., and _p l_ 100
m.--330 ft. From _r_ to _s_ an embankment of earth and stone runs almost
in a circle, and the whole triangle _r m s_ forms a slightly elevated
platform, in the centre of which is a pond (_estanque_) _t_, which, even
at the present time, is filled with water. Viewed through the gate from
above, this pond appears, with a part of the enclosure, as seen in Pl.
IX. Several gullies (_barrancas_) have cut through the western and
southern parts of the enclosure.

This enclosed area, now covered with tufts of grama, occasional
cactuses, knolls and scattered drift and pottery, was according to Sr.
Ruiz, the former _huerto del pueblo_; that is, the fields of the
inhabitants of the pueblo, where they planted and raised Indian corn,
beans, calabashes, squash, and, after the advent of the Spaniards, also
wheat, melons, and perhaps other fruit. Not a vestige of former
cultivation is left; but the platform _r m s_, with a pond in the
centre, at once explains their mode of securing the water for
irrigation. Through the gateway _D_ the drainage of the _mesilla_ was
conducted directly to the platform _r m s_, where the pond _t_ acted as
a reservoir, out of which the fields themselves could be very easily and
equitably supplied with moisture. Whether this was done by channels
radiating from below the curve _r s_ over the area _F_, or by carrying
the water, I cannot tell, neither my informants nor the appearance of
the area giving any clew. But I could not escape being forcibly struck
by this plain and still very forcible illustration of communal living.
Not only did the Pecos Indians live together, and build their houses
together, but they raised their crops in one common field (though
divided into individual or rather family plots, according to Ruiz),
irrigated from one common water source which gathered its contents of
moisture from the inhabited surface of the pueblo grounds. "The lands,"
said Mariano Ruiz, "belong to the tribe, but each man can sell his own
crops." ("Las tierras son del pueblo, pero cada uno puede vender sus
cosechas.") It forcibly recalls the system of "distribution and tenure
of lands" among the ancient Mexicans.

I now cross the Arroyo de Pecos, and on its western bank, in the
triangle formed by the creek with the military road to Santa Fé, nearly
opposite the site of the old church, I met with a ruined enclosure and
with remains of structures whose purposes are yet unexplained to me.

The distance from _M_ to the arroyo is 40 m.--130 ft. Its E. line is 75
m.--246 ft.,--the S. line 70 m.--230 ft.,--the W., up to where the curve
begins, 55 m.--180 ft. The distance from _M_ to _N_ is 15 m.--50 ft. At
the north end of _N_ is a mound of stone and _débris_, like a conical
tower, 5 m.--16 ft.--in diameter; the other lines are distinct
foundations only. Both _M_ and _N_ are scattered over with broken
pottery, chips of obsidian and flint, and I also found a fragment of a
stone implement.

Mariano Ruiz told me that the enclosure _M_ was the corral of the
pueblo; that is, the enclosure where they kept whatever herds they
possessed. It was at all events but an enclosure, and no building.
Still, why were their herds, their most valuable property, kept on the
opposite side of the creek, so far from the dwellings themselves?

There are other ruins yet further south on the western bank of the
arroyo, which, however, I shall not mention here. They are so important
as to deserve special discussion in a later portion of this report. I
therefore cross the creek back again to its eastern shore, and thence to
the south side of the old church, proceeding thence southwards. From the
church a grassy slope, very gentle and with almost imperceptible
undulations, extends to the road which runs almost due W. and E. from
the creek towards the Rio Pecos. The distance is about 300 m.--1,000
ft.,--of which 74 m.--240 ft.--are taken up by the embankments, walls,
and foundation lines already described as pertaining to the church
building. Plate I. shows the position of this section, its northern
limit being about 34 m.--112 ft.--N. of the southern lines of the church
annexes (or 42 m.--138 ft.--S. of the temple itself) the southern limit
being the road itself, while on the west the creek-bed forms the
boundary.

_H_, Corral-like structure, very plain, about 50 m. × 20 m., or 163 ft.
× 65 ft. I understood Sr. Ruiz to say that it was the garden of the
church ("la huerta de la iglesia"), but believe that he probably meant
_G_, not having my field-notes with me at the time.

_I_, rectangle of foundation lines 30 m.--98 ft.--from _A_; 30 m. × 31
m.--98 ft. × 100 ft.--divided into 2 compartments, the western one 9 m.
× 30 m.--30 ft. × 98 ft.

_J_, trapezium, with mound at S.W. corner 18 m. × 21 m., or 60 ft. × 70
ft.

_K_, rectangle 25 m. × 36 m.--82 ft × 118 ft.--open to the west, and
only recognizable from the semicircular mound of not 0.50 m.--20
in.--elevation, dotted out as leaving a depression in the centre.

_L_, circular depression 36 m.--118 ft.--in diameter; ground always wet.

_O_, circular mound 10 m.--33 ft.--in diameter, 1.5 m.--5 ft.--high.

_k_, shapeless mound, possibly part of a hollow rectangle.

In many cases the foundations (which are the only remains visible) are
themselves obliterated,--or at least overgrown. They are sometimes of
0.27 m.--10 in.--in width; again, two rows, even three rows, of stones
compose them longitudinally. The mound is regular, but the soil is
everywhere so hard and gravelly that I desisted from excavating. The
basin _L_ looks much like an estufa: there are few scattered stones on
its surface, and this surface is moist; but I did not notice any trace
of stone encasement. In general, there is no rubbish at all over the
area. Stones are scattered about, and evidently they were once used for
building purposes; but they nowhere form heaps. Then there is not the
slightest trace of pottery or obsidian. In this respect the area just
described forms a remarkable exception. All around it in every direction
the painted fragments cover the soil; this particular locality, as far
as I could find, has none. It only reappears in _I_, opposite the church
annexes, and also in the enclosure _H_, whereas the church grounds are
again strewn with handsome pieces, and some of the finest obsidian
flakes were found on them.

Across the road to the south, the ground becomes covered with shrubs of
cedar, and the eastern slope hugs the creek-bed. Upon reaching the
creek, the road divides,--one branch crossing over directly to the west,
and the other proceeding along the arroyo about 200 m.--630 ft.--to the
south ere it turns across. The main military line of travel intersects
there-about the one to the Pecos River, and thence, striking almost due
south, forms a very acute angle with the creek. In this angle ledges of
rock protrude, sheltered by a fine group of cedar-shrubs; and here, in
what may be termed a snug little corner, the rocks bear some Indian
carvings.

Expecting daily a supply of paper for "squeezes," I have until now
deferred taking any exact copies of these vestiges. Therefore this
report contains but superficial notice of them. It would have been
useless labor to make sketches and take measurements when I knew that,
within the period of time I shall spend in New Mexico, I should
certainly be able to secure fac-similes. The carvings are certainly old;
they are much worn, and represent mainly so-called footprints (of adults
as well as of children), turkey tracks, a human form, and a circle
formed by small cup-shaped holes, of the patterns about which I hope
that my friend Professor C. C. Rau, of Washington, will by this time
have finished his elaborate and very interesting work. The human figure
is as rude and childlike an effort as any represented on the plates
accompanying the reports of General Simpson and of my friend Mr. W. H.
Holmes; the footmarks are fair, and the circle is rather perfect.
Something like a "diamond" appears within its periphery, but I am not
yet quite certain whether it is a carving or the result of decay. Some
of the tracks seem to point to the high mesa, others to the north.[126]
By the side of these original efforts there are recent additions,
destined, perhaps, to become at some future time as successful
archæological frauds as many of the most interesting products of
excavation in the States of Ohio and Iowa. About the sculptured stones I
again met with fragments of painted pottery. Still further down, on the
east bank of the Arroyo de Pecos, about a mile from the church in a
southerly direction, and on a low promontory of red clay jutting out
into the creek-bed, there are vestiges of other ruins,--a low, flat
mound covered with stones. I saw no pottery about it.

Directly opposite the sculptured rocks, on the other bank of the arroyo
to the west, the cliffs of clay bordering it form a huge cauldron, out
of which the contents seem to have been originally removed, leaving a
semicircle of vertical bluffs of clay and drift about 3 m.--10
ft.--high. It is out of this locality that I suggested the clay for the
adobe of the church might have been secured. The faces of the slope
cannot have been washed out, for the creek runs straight far to the
east, hugging closely that side of its banks; there is no trace of an
old stream-bed winding to the westward, neither is there any sufficient
drainage from the west in the shape of gulches or branches. It appears
as if there had been an original start, at least, given to the present
basin by a removal of earth in a curve, subsequent wearing and weakening
enlarging the cauldron to its actual form and size. This size is
constantly increased by decay and by the work of diggers; for this bluff
has been of late a favorite resort for them, from the fact that in its
face human bones--nay, complete graves--have been found.

I consequently started to examine the bluff, and finally noticed a plain
wall jutting out at about one fourth of the length of the western curve
from N. to S. This wall seemed at first to be a corner. It is well made,
and its stone-work is much like that figured by Mr. Holmes from the
cliff-dwellings on the Rio Mancos in South-western Colorado. Still the
stones are not hewn, but only were carefully broken, the rock itself
having a tabular cleavage. The surface is true. I am unable to say
whether it was a corner or not; the thickness of the side (east) is 0.65
m.--2 ft.,--and it looks like a strong outside line running almost due
N. and S., perhaps a little to the E.

The height of the wall is 0.94 m.--3 ft.; its depth beneath the surface,
0.52 m.--21 in. The sod (covered with grama) looks undisturbed; it is
hard and coarsely sandy on the top, but beneath the clay is softer and
loamy. Under the wall there is red clay to the bottom of the bluff with
bands of drift. Clambering along the cliff to the northward, I soon
perceived, at a depth nearly agreeing with the base of the wall, a layer
of white ashes, similar to those found over the hearthstone in building
_B_, mixed with charcoal and charred pottery. This layer was continuous
along the exposure of the bluff; it formed a regular seam, intersected
horizontally by bands of charcoal, and, at the lower end, a continuous
stratum of pottery totally different from that found hitherto, except
one fragment in the drift of the creek and another one among the adobe
rubbish of the church. Instead of being painted, it was corrugated and
indented, and identical with the corrugated and indented ware from the
Rio Mancos and from South-eastern Utah, so beautifully figured by Mr. W.
H. Holmes. There were also a very few pieces of painted pottery: but
these, which became more numerous towards the top of the bluff, or
cliff, appeared to have been washed in; whereas the corrugated fragments
were a distinct, continuous band, most of the convex surfaces being
downwards; and this band, except where ledges of the cliff projected far
out into the bottom, or where the clay had tumbled down recently in
front of the exposure, was visible from 50 m.--165 ft.--N. of the wall
to 62 m.--203 ft.--S. of it on a line of 110 m.--360 ft. It was
everywhere accompanied by the ashes and charcoal.

_A_, little barranca, exposing ashes, etc., which contained corncobs,
and, in the upper parts of the clay, human bones.

_a_, grave found by Mr. E. K. Walters, of Pecos; obliterated now.

_B_, wall.

_b_, place where skeleton of child was partly secured, five metres S. of
_B_.

_C_, southern barranca; no remains found.

_c_, last sign south of pottery, ashes, and charcoal.

_W_, rock carvings on west bank of the arroyo.

The following are sections at four different places:--

[Illustration: Clay Pit Area]

Specimens of every section have been sent with the collection. It has
struck me that the stratum of ashes, charcoal, and pottery, while
visible always inside,--that is, to the west of a supposed lateral
extension of the wall from _B_,--still appears to run below it. The
human remains, however, protrude about at heights where the wall, if in
existence, might have been in front of them. There were bones lying on
rubbish in front of _C_,--there were also bones within the ashes, even
at _A_; but the action of wear and washing being everywhere visible and
very complicated, I do not venture any surmise in these cases beyond
expressing the conviction that the human remains originally rested above
the layers of charcoal, ashes, corncobs, and corrugated pottery.

While at Sr. Ruiz's, I had diligently inquired of the old gentleman
about the graves of the Pecos Indians. He finally replied (after he had
for a time insisted upon it that they were at the church) that before
they became Christians ("antes que fuéron cristianos") they buried their
dead on the right bank of the Arroyo de Pecos, where he had often seen
the skeletons (las calaveras, the corpses) washed out of the cliffs and
strewn about. At Mrs. Kozlowski's, this also appeared to be a known
fact; but an examination of the creek banks showed no trace of bones,
and showed no other structures except the mound already mentioned on the
left shore. In the cliffs of the basin which I have now described I met
with the first sign of what Sr. Ruiz called "El Campo-Santo de los
Indios, antes que fuéron Cristianos." Still it is not at all positive,
because the surface of the level west of the bluff shows extensive but
flat and low mounds, covered with stones used for building, and with
painted pottery, showing that at least adjoining the human remains a
very large building, if not several, had stood at some very remote time.
The wall would then stand towards that ancient structure in the same
relation as the mound or chamber _V_ stands towards the ruin _A_ on the
_mesilla_; and it would indicate the custom on the part of their
inhabitants of burying their dead around their houses, or at least in
sight of the rising sun, and in little chambers of stone. This view is
corroborated by the statement of Mr. E. K. Walters, of Pecos, that at a
place which I have marked _a_ (therefore to the north of the wall) he
dug out, very near the edge of the bluff, a stone grave, and with it a
human skeleton. The grave was a rectangle, walled up on four sides, with
stones on the top and no floor. The western side was rounded, so as to
present the following plan:--

[Illustration: Grave]

In it lay the skeleton, two feet below the soil, the feet pointing
eastward. The length of the chamber was about one third of a large man's
body; the head lay at the west end, amongst the bones of the chest. It
had therefore been buried in a sitting posture facing the rising
sun.[127] Along with the body arrow-heads were found, and pieces of
tanned deerskin, such as are still worn by the Indians. Of course, all
traces of the skull, etc., have since disappeared.

While this conversation was taking place, the partner of Mr. Walters,
Sr. Juan Basa y Salazar, came in, and the question of the great bell
(which I have already mentioned) came up for discussion. All the parties
assured me that this bell formerly belonged to the church of Pecos, and
that after the outbreak of 1680 the Indians carried it up into their
winter pueblo, on the top of the high mesa, where it broke and they left
it. The positive assertion that the winter pueblo of the Pecos tribe was
about 2,000 feet higher than the great ruins on the _mesilla_--that
these ruins themselves were but their summer houses--was very startling.
It appeared incredible that the Indians should have left their
comfortable quarters in the coldest season to look for shelter in the
highest and coldest places of the whole region. Still, my informants
being old residents and candid men, with certainly no intention to
deceive me, and there being besides confused reports of the existence of
ruins on the mesa current among the people of the valley, I resolved to
devote my last day to a rapid reconnoissance of the elevated plateau.
Therefore, after a visit to the Plaza de Pecos, on the 5th of September,
where the Rev. Father Léon Mailluchet confirmed the reports about the
winter houses on the mesa, I set out (always on foot) on the morning of
the 6th, Mr. Thomas Munn having volunteered to be my guide.

We followed the railroad track downwards, and about a mile and a half
south of Baughl's, east of the track, met a tolerably large mound. At
the station of Kingman, four miles from Baughl's, there is also a ruined
stone house, rectangular, but smaller than any one of those on the
_mesilla_.[128] I had no time to make any survey. We went along the
railroad for one mile farther, then struck to the S. W. across a
recently cultivated but abandoned field, and finally reached the apron
of gravelly clay and locas skirting the high mesa. Here Mr. Munn assured
me were the remains of stone structures all along for miles, and
especially stone graves. Of the latter he had seen "hundreds." He
described them exactly as Mr. Walters had, and as I had found the pit in
mound V, and described the position of the skeleton also as if sitting
with the face to the east. We soon came to a walled ruin 6 m. × 6 m. or
20 ft. × 20 ft., the walls composed of sandstone,--a range of rubble
blocks very much ruined,--a _piñon_ having a diameter of 0.45 m.--18
in.--shooting up from the interior. 50 m.--165 ft.--further north a
clearly defined estufa is seen, 4 m.--13 ft.--across, with stone walls 1
m.--3 ft. 3 in.--in width. The apron of the mesa is overgrown with fine
pines. Thence, following a tie-shoot, we ascended very nearly
vertically, about 1,000 feet at least, to the top. Here already the view
to the E. and S. was magnificent; but the air was light and chilly.
Thunder-clouds were hovering N. and E., rain-streaks pouring down on the
Sierra de Tecolote, and soon a heavy cloud formed south of us, while
others were slowly nearing from the N.E. The mesa dips or slants
decidedly to the W. and S.W.; the strata on its surface are tilted up to
a high pitch, and appear to be almost vertical. The ground is very
rocky, covered with high _piñon_.

Notwithstanding the steadily nearing thunder, we plunged to the S.W.,
past the tie-camp of Mr. Keno, and soon struck the source of an arroyo
in a rocky, desolate hollow, pines shooting up in and around it. There,
on its left bank, were the foundations of a stone structure 11 m. × 3
m.--36 ft. × 10 ft. About three miles from the edge of the mesa, in a
still wilder _cañada_, where there is no space nor site for any abode
around, the bell was found. There is no trace of any "winter house"
here,--not even on the entire mesa; and the bell was left there, not
because its carriers there remained, but because it dropped there and
broke. Who these carriers were I shall discuss further on; at all
events, they were not the Indians of Pecos. This _cañada_ is the
entrance to a gorge descending directly towards the pueblo of
Galisteo.[129] Meanwhile the clouds had accumulated over our heads,
sharp thunder-claps and icy blasts preceding the storm. It was of short
duration, but as the hail fell thickly we were thoroughly pelted and wet
before again reaching the camp, glad to enjoy the hospitality and hot
coffee of its inmates. At one P.M. the sun shone again, and we started
(this time to the north) along the border of the mesa. Vegetation is
here more exuberant than in the valley of Pecos. Not only do tall pines
grow everywhere, but there is a thick undergrowth of _encina_; the Yucca
is large and green, mountain sage covers the soil, and grassy levels are
dotted with flowers. Animal life, also, is more vigorous and more
varied. Whereas in the valley crows and turkey-buzzards alone enliven
the air, and there are scarcely any beetles; up here there is deer and
turkey, and the gray wolf; jays and magpies flutter through the
thickets, and the horned lizard is met with occasionally. The pith of
the pine-trees attracts a large species of buprestis, and lepidopteræ
are quite common. But there is not the least vestige of former human
dwellings, so far as I could see: the top of the mesa of Pecos is, and
was, a wilderness. It may have been the hunting-grounds of the tribe
even in winter, but as for their exchanging their large pueblo at the
bottom for a residence on the top it is very much as if the good people
of New York City should spend Christmas week on the Catskill Range, or
the Bostonians take winter quarters on Mount Monadnock. We followed the
crest of the mesa for nearly four miles, ascending two of its highest
tops. They are steep, denuded, and craggy. Beneath them vertical ledges
descend in amphitheatres. From the highest point the horizon to the
south appears unbounded. Like a small cone, the peak of Bernal seems to
guard the lowest end of the Valley of Pecos. Over this vale rain-clouds
still cast their shadows, and distant thunder muttered behind the Owl
Mountains and the high Sierras in the north. To the west and south-west
are almost unlimited expanses of slope, dark green pineries, and grassy
spots. The bold outline of the Sandia Mountains looms up stately beyond
it. Even the distant Sierra de Jemez protrudes. Between it and the
northern limits of the mesa lies, far off yet, the city of Santa Fé.

The mesa is mostly yellow sandstone, but its highest points are capped
with red; therefore the name of "Cerro amarillo" often applied to it.
Through a gorge worn in the rock, and on an almost perpendicular
"burro-trail," we finally descended to the apron of the plateau,
surrounded during our descent by scenery as weird and wild as any of the
lower Alps of Switzerland. On the lower edge of the apron, a mile and a
half north of Kingman, and half a mile from the railroad track, we
struck again several ruins. They were partitioned rectangles, very
similar in size and in condition to the foundations seen south of the
old church of Pecos, and, like those, utterly devoid of fragments of
pottery. Along their eastern line, and inside of the walls, there
appeared little square heaps of stones. These were the graves of which
my guide had spoken, and their position is exactly similar to that of
those near and at the pueblo itself.[130]

My time was up, however, and I could not stop to explore them. I
therefore returned to Baughl's, and thence to Santa Fé, with the firm
determination to revisit Pecos at a future day, and then do what I was
compelled reluctantly to leave undone this time. Should, in the mean
time, some archæologist explore the same locality, correct my errors,
and unravel the mysteries hovering about the place, I heartily wish him
as much pleasure and quiet enjoyment as I have had during my ten days'
work, in which the dream of a life has at last begun its realization.
Before, however, turning to the close of my report, which will embody
scraps of history gathered about the place, remarks on the customs and
arts of its former inhabitants, and general reflections, I must express
my thanks here to a few gentlemen not yet named in this "personal
narrative." Besides Mr. J. D. C. Thurston, who kindly assisted me for
the first two days, Mr. G. C. Bennet, the skilful photographer, of whose
ability his work is telling, has been for two days a pleasant and
welcome companion. Last, but certainly not least, I thank Mr. John D.
McRae, not only for his assistance free of expense to the Institute in
many important mechanical matters, but especially for the solicitude
with which he has watched my work and looked to my comforts, and for the
great store of information I have gathered from his conversation.


HISTORY.

My survey of the grounds occupied by the aboriginal ruins in the valley
of the Pecos indicates, as I have already stated, three epochs,
successive probably in time, in which they have been occupied by man;
that is, I have noticed these, and beyond these I have not been able to
go as yet. Subsequent explorers may be more fortunate. This distinction,
or rather classification, is very imperfect in the two earlier stages,
and even arbitrary; but between the second and the last there is a
marked break,--not in time, but in ethnological development. I shall
term the three epochs as follows:--

1. Pre-traditional. (Indicated by the presence of the corrugated and
indented pottery as its most conspicuous "land-mark.")

2. Traditional and documentary. (Documents in the sense of written
records.)

3. Documentary period.


THE PRE-TRADITIONAL PERIOD.

I have not been able to detect as yet among the confused traditions
current about the pueblo of Pecos any tale concerning occupation of
their grounds by human beings prior to the settlement of which the ruins
now bear testimony. It is true that the proper traditions of the tribe
of Pecos are now preserved only at the pueblo of Jemez, about eighty
miles N.W. of Pecos and fifty miles W. of Santa Fé, and that I have not
as yet visited that place.[131] But it must be remembered that I now
report "up to date," and that subsequent information will, or at least
should, come in time.

My reason for admitting a pre-traditional period is, then, simply that I
have found human remains at Pecos older than those of the present ruins
and different in kind. These remains, as it may already have been
inferred from the "personal narrative," are those found on the west side
of the arroyo, in the basin (or rather the bank encircling it) opposite
the rock carvings.

One fact is certain, the human bones, the walls protruding from the
banks, and the grave found by Mr. E. K. Walters, are all above the layer
of white ashes, charcoal, corncobs, and corrugated pottery found as a
continuous seam along an extent of over 100 m.--327 ft.--from N. to S.
Consequently, the walls and graves must have been built over these
remains of a people which appears to have made indented and corrugated
pottery alone, and consequently also the latter must be older in time
than the former. It does not appear that the sedentary Indians of New
Mexico ever made, within traditional and documentary times, any other
than the painted pottery in greater or less degree of perfection. Even
Gaspar Castaño de la Sosa, when he made his inroad into New Mexico in
1590, mentions at the first pueblo which he conquered: "They have much
pottery,--red, figured, and black,--platters, caskets, salters,
bowls.... Some of the pottery was glazed."[132] The corrugated and
indented pottery, as I am assured by Sr. Vigil, is rarely met with over
New Mexico, except at old ruined pueblos, and only when digging (en
cavando).[133] I feel, therefore, justified in assuming it to have been
the manufactured ware of a people distinct from the Pecos tribe or the
pueblo Indians of New Mexico in general, and their predecessors in point
of time. This pottery, however, is frequently met with among the cliff
dwellings of the Rio Mancos and in Utah.[134] Its relation, then, to the
painted pottery has, as far as I know, not yet been investigated.

But what could have been the purpose in covering originally a space of
over 100 m.--327 ft.--in length with the products of combustion and
fragments of one and the same industry in such a manner as to form an
uninterrupted layer of 0.45 m.--18 in.--at least in thickness? Those who
subsequently buried their dead over the seam certainly did not collect
these ashes and spread them there as a floor on which they rested their
structures afterwards. The combustion of a large wooden building would
not have given the same uniformity on such a large scale. Sr. Vigil has
suggested to me the following very plausible explanation: In order to
burn or bake their pottery, the present pueblo Indians of New Mexico
build large but low hearths on the ground of small wood, sticks, and
other inflammable rubbish and refuse, on which they place the newly
formed articles, and then set the floor on fire, until the whole is
thoroughly burnt. Fragments of broken objects, etc., are not removed.
The combustible material is thus reduced to ashes, and the broken pieces
remain within them; their convex surfaces, of course, falling outwards,
and thus resting on the floor. In this manner a thick layer of ashes
and charcoal, with pottery, is easily formed. These "hogueras" are still
from 20 to 40 feet in diameter; but, as they accommodate themselves to
the size of the pueblo, it is certain that they were formerly much
larger. The analogy between such a "potters'-field" and the layer in
question is very striking, and the inference appears likely that the
people who made this corrugated and indented pottery made it in the same
manner as the pueblo Indians now make their painted ware, and as they
made it at the time of the conquest.

These very old manufacturers of indented ceramics were also a
horticultural people, for they raised Indian corn. The cob found in the
ashes, or rather cut out with the knife at some distance inside the
bluff, is charred and small. To what variety of Zea it belongs the
specialist must decide.

I hold it to be utterly useless, and even improper, on my part to
speculate any further on these "pre-traditional" people. Perhaps I have
already said too much. Excavations alone can throw further light on the
subject.


THE TRADITIONAL AND DOCUMENTARY PERIOD.

The term "traditional" is applied to this period, because the people
occupying the site of Old Pecos have left some traditions behind them,
and not because we know when it commenced. In fact, I am much inclined
to divide it, for the sake of convenience, into two periods again, one
of which includes the occupation of the area within the circumvallation
and its necessary annexes (field, etc.), whereas the other includes the
area without. Of the former, we have definite knowledge in regard to its
inhabitants; of the latter, we have none whatever. It is therefore also
pre-traditional as yet. Nevertheless, I have included it in the second
epoch, as its ruins indicate that its people possessed arts identical
with those of the present pueblo Indians. Their pottery, wherever
exposed, was painted, figured, and vitrified in places; its
ornamentation is exactly similar to that of the pottery of the interior
area, and different from that of Zuñi. They used flint, but no trace of
obsidian is found. This may be purely accidental; still, why should it
occur at three places so totally different in regard to erosion and
abrasion as the slope south of the church, the west bank of the creek
directly opposite, and, if thorough examination should confirm the
results of my cursory observations, the apron of the high mesa? The
graves, wherever found, are identical with those of the _mesilla_; the
plan of building, and consequently of living,[135] appears similar to
that exhibited in houses _A_ and _B_; the material used is the same, but
the walls are more ruinous, and apparently of a much older date. The
inference is therefore not unreasonable, that the inhabitants of the
three areas named, as outside of the great circumvallation, were of the
kind now called "pueblo Indians," who preceded the tribe of Pecos proper
in point of time. It is not improbable that one or the other of these
ruins may have been erected by the Pecos themselves before they settled
on the mesilla. Still, there is neither proof nor disproval of this
surmise extant.

There appears to be also a slight difference between the different ruins
of this period themselves. The ruins south of the church and those along
the mesa are similar, in that they are more ruined, and not covered with
_débris_, and in that their surfaces are also devoid of pottery. The
space west of the creek has pottery and also heaps of rubbish, and I
therefore conclude that it was the most recent of the three
locations,--or at least the one last abandoned. To it must be added the
small mound or promontory found further south on the east bank of the
arroyo. One fact is certain: all these places were deserted, and perhaps
as badly ruined as now, at the time when Coronado first visited
Pecos.[136] (The partial removal of the surface material may have been
effected by the Pecos Indians themselves in order to build their own
houses.)

Referring now to the inhabitants of the two houses, whose ruins are
situated on the mesilla, north of the church, it is a thoroughly
well-authenticated fact that they spoke the same language as the Indians
of the pueblo of Jemez. Jemez lies 80 miles N.W. of Pecos, beyond the
Rio Grande. It is possible that the Pecos Indians came to the valley
from that direction. But it is singular that, while there are no other
settlements speaking this same idiom but Jemez and Pecos, these two
pueblos should be separated, as early as at Coronado's time (1540), by
three distinct linguistical stocks, different from theirs and lying
across, intervening between them. Directly W. of Pecos the Queres, S.W.
the Tanos, N.W. the Tehuas--all at war with the Jemez and the Pecos, and
often with each other--lay like a barrier between the latter two. The
point is an interesting one, as the pueblo of Pecos defines (together
with Taos at the north) the utmost easterly limit to which the pueblo
Indians seem to have penetrated.

Who were first in the valley of the Rio Grande? Did the Queres, Tanos,
Tehuas, etc., drive out the Pecos, then already settled to the S.W.,
into the Sierra, or did the Pecos, migrating from Jemez, force their
passage through the other tribes? I conjecture that the Jemez, etc.,
were the first; that they migrated down the Rio Grande, and on the same
area, between Sandía to the S. and Santa Fé, were gradually displaced by
the others successively coming in,--one branch, the Jemez, recoiling
into the mountains towards San Diego;[137] the other, the Pecos, driven
up the cañon of San Cristóbal,[138] and finally, when the Tanos moved up
into that valley, crossing over to the valley of Pecos.

This is to a great extent conjecture; still there are other singular
indications. I give them with due reserve, however, formally protesting
against any imputation that they are intended for anything else than to
suggest problems for future study.

According to my friend Mr. A. S. Gatchet, of Washington, D. C., an
excellent linguist, the Tanos and the inhabitants of Isleta, the most
southerly pueblo on the Rio Grande still occupied, speak the same
language.[139] The same is asserted here, as a known fact, to be the
case with the Taos and the Picuries in the north, and the Isletas at the
south. If this be true, then the supposition that the Queres and Tehuas
are the latest intrusive stock would become a certainty. More than that:
the Tanos prior to 1680, had their chief pueblo at San Cristóbal, N. E.
of Galisteo, on the slope of the mesa of Pecos. They also had become
dispossessed of the Rio Grande valley, and divided into (originally)
two branches,--the Picuries and Taos north, and the Tanos, of Galisteo,
east. Isleta itself is a later agglomeration.[140] There being no pueblo
E. and S. E. of Pecos, then it appears that the Jemez, or rather Emmes,
were the first migration, the Tanos the second, and the Queres and
Tehuas the last.

The earliest traditions of the Pecos are preserved to us by Pedro de
Castañeda, one of the eye-witnesses and chroniclers of Coronado's
"march" in 1540. They told him that, five or six years (?) before the
arrival of the Spaniards, a roaming tribe called the "Teyas" (Yutas) had
ravaged the surroundings of their pueblo, and even, though fruitlessly,
attempted to capture it.[141] This tribe was afterwards met by Coronado
in the plains to the N.E. and E.[142]

Another tradition, very well known,--so well, indeed, that it has given
to the name of the unlucky "capitan de la guerra" of the ancient
Mexicans the honorific title of an aboriginal "cultus-hero,"--is that of
Montezuma.

I hope, at some future time, to be able to give some further information
on this Spanish-Mexican importation. Suffice it to say for the present,
that not a single one of the numerous chronicles and reports about New
Mexico, up to the year 1680, mentions the Montezuma story! The word
itself, Mon-te-zuma, is a corruption of the Mexican word
"Mo-tecu-zoma,"--literally, "my wrathy chief,"--which corruption that
eminently "reliable gentleman," Bernal Diez de Castillo, is to be
thanked for. He wrote in 1568.[143]

What the Indians themselves say of this tale I have not as yet
ascertained; but the people of the valley all assert that the people of
the pueblo believe in it,--that they even affirmed that Montezuma was
born at Pecos; that he wore golden shoes, and left for Mexico, where,
for the sake of these valuable brogans, he was ruthlessly slaughtered.
They further say that, when he left Pecos, he commanded that the holy
fire should be kept burning till his return, in testimony whereof the
sacred embers were kept aglow till 1840, and then transferred to Jemez.

There is one serious point in the whole story, and that is the
illustration how an evident mixture of a name with the Christian faith
in a personal redeemer, and dim recollections of Coronado's presence and
promise to return,[144] could finally take the form of a mythological
personage. In this respect, for the study of mythology in general, it is
of great importance. That the sacred fire had, originally, nothing at
all to do with the Montezuma legend is amply proven by the earliest
reports.

It will also become interesting to ascertain in the future how many
pueblos, and which, concede to Pecos the honor of being the birthplace
of that famed individual, and how many, as is the case with other great
folks in more civilized communities, claim the same honor for
themselves.

I cannot, therefore, attach to the Montezuma tale any historical
importance whatever,--not even a traditional value.

Of course, Castañeda reports the story which every Indian tribe tells
of themselves; namely, that the Pecos Indians were the bravest and the
most warlike of the pueblos, and that in every encounter they were
always victorious.[145]

Historical data, founded upon positive written records, begin for Pecos
towards the fall of the year 1540, when Francisco Vasquez de Coronado,
then at Zuñi or Cibola, sent the Captain Hernando de Alvarado with
twenty men to visit a village called "Cicuyé."[146] Indians from that
village, "situated seventy leagues towards the east"[147] from Zuñi, had
visited the latter town, and offered to the Spanish leader "tanned
hides, shields, and helmets." The hides were buffalo-robes, for the
woolly hair was still on them.[148] Alvarado reached Cicuyé, passing, as
I have elsewhere stated, through Acoma and Bernalillo. I have already
identified Cicuyé with Pecos. Besides the proofs already given, a few
descriptive abstracts from the report of Castañeda will add to the
strength of the evidence:--

(p. 71.) "Five days' journeys further, Alvarado reached Cicuyé, a
well-fortified village, whose houses are four stories high."

(p. 176.) "It is built on the summit of a rock. It forms a great square,
in the centre of which are the _estufas_." (Compare general description
and diagrams.)

(p. 177) "The village is surrounded besides by a stone wall of rather
low height. There is a spring which might be cut off."

In regard to the wall, I refer to the plans and descriptions; as for the
spring, it trickles out beneath a massive ledge of rocks on the west
side of the arroyo, nearly opposite to the field. Its water, slightly
alkaline, is still limpid and cool, and a great source of comfort. The
sketch upon the next page will give an idea of its appearance.

[Illustration: Spring]

There is no trace of work about it. At sunset of the 3d of September,
Mr. Bennet and I saw a herd of many hundred sheep and goats driven to
this spring by Mexicans for water, although the creek still had a fillet
of clear water running, and the pond in the old field was filled nearly
to its brim; they still preferred the old source.

Finally, it must be borne in mind, that the name of Pecos, in the
language of its former inhabitants and of those of Jemez, is "Âqiu," and
that, in an anonymous report of the expedition of Coronado from the year
1541, Cicuyé is spelt Acuique.[149]

Castañeda gives some few details concerning the mode of life and the
customs of the inhabitants. Aside from those which I have already
mentioned, he notices the ladders (p. 176); that at night the
inhabitants kept watch on the walls, the guard calling each other by
means of "trumpets" (p. 179); that the unmarried females went naked
until their marriage (p. 177); that the pueblo could muster 500 warriors
(p. 176); and finally, that it was situated in a narrow valley in the
midst of mountains covered with pines, and traversed by a small river
where excellent trout is caught; very large otters, bears, and good
hawks are found there (p. 179). The inhabitants received Alvarado with
the sound of "drums and flutes, similar to fifes, which they use often."
They presented to him a great quantity of cloth and turquoises, which
are common in this province (p. 72). I must here add that the turquoise
mines of "Serrillos" are, in a direct line, only about twenty miles
nearly west of Pecos, in a country between the former pueblos of the
Tanos and those of the Tehuas. I have seen splendid specimens of the
mineral from that locality, and Mr. Thurston found and I have sent on a
perforated bead of bluish color which he picked up among the rubbish of
the house _B_.

When, in 1543, Coronado left Nuevo México with his whole army to return
to Mexico, two ecclesiastics remained there,--Fray Juan de Padilla, who
was subsequently killed by the Indians near Gran Quivira,[150] and a lay
brother called Luis, who took up his abode at Pecos. Before Coronado
left Bernalillo ("Tiguex"), he sent to brother Luis the remainder of the
sheep. He was then of good cheer, but still expected to be killed some
day by the old men of the tribe, who hated him, although the people were
friendly to him in general.[151] Nothing was afterward heard of him.
Thus Pecos was the first "mission" in New Mexico; perhaps, also, the
first place where domestic quadrupeds became introduced.

Forty years elapse before we again hear of Pecos. The unfortunate
father, Augustin Ruiz, who, in 1581, attempted to convert the pueblos,
did not reach further north than Puaray, where the Tiguas killed him,
with his two companions.[152] But Antonio de Espejo, who, with fourteen
soldiers, explored New Mexico in 1582 and 1583, visited Pecos. There can
be no doubt but that the pueblos of the "Hubates"--two journeyings of
six leagues to the east of the "Quires"--are the Pecos and the "Tamos,"
the Tanos.[153] Espejo is very liberal in his estimates: he gives to the
"Hubates" five towns with 25,000 inhabitants, and to the "Tamos" even
40,000 souls. He says they had cotton cloth; he also says there was much
good pine and cedar in their country, and that their houses were four
and five stories high. His visit to the pueblo was of very short
duration.

In 1590, Gaspar Castaño de la Sosa, "being then Lieutenant-Governor and
Captain-General of the kingdom of New Leon," made a raid into New
Mexico. It is possible that the pueblo which he came to on the 11th
January, 1591, may have been Pecos.[154]

The "Spanish conquest of New Mexico" proper took place in the years 1597
and 1598, under Don Juan de Oñate. He met with little opposition, and
his conquest amounted to little else than a military occupation,
followed by the foundation of Santa Fé. On the 25th of July, 1598, he
went to "the great pueblo of Pecos,"[155] and on the 9th of September,
1598, in the "principal _estufa_" of the pueblo of San Juan, the Pecos
pledged fidelity to the crown of Spain. On the same occasion, Fray
Francisco de San Miguel became the first regular priest of the
pueblo.[156] Here terminates the second period of the second epoch; and
the last one begins where the history of the Pecos tribe, whatever is
left of it, becomes almost exclusively documentary.[157]

Before, however, leaving this period, I must recall here two facts
elicited by the reports of the forays and travels above mentioned. One
is, that the Pecos Indians, however warlike they may have been towards
outsiders, still were of an orderly, gentle disposition in every-day
intercourse. This is a natural consequence of their organization and
degree of development. The other and more important one is, that Pecos
was the most easterly pueblo in existence in 1540, and that even at that
time it was quite alone.

Castañeda says (p. 188): "In order to understand how the country is
inhabited in the centre of the mountains, we must remember that from
Chichilticah, where they begin, there are eighty leagues; thence to
Cicuyé, which is the last village, they reckon seventy leagues, and
thirty from Cicuyé to the beginning of the plains."

Juan Jaramillo, another eye-witness of "Coronado's march," intimates a
similar fact.[158]

In regard to Pecos being "quite alone," Castañeda is positive; so is
Juan de Oñate, who received and registered its submission. It is true,
however, that Castañeda mentions a small pueblo as subject to Cicuyé,
which pueblo, however, he says was half destroyed at his time. He
locates it "between the road and the Sierra Nevada."[159] This may have
been the small ruin noticed near Kingman.

These facts are very interesting in their bearings upon the older ruins
of Pecos. It goes far towards furnishing additional proof that they were
indeed abandoned and decayed already in 1540. In regard to building _B_,
it is ignored in the reports, _A_, with its vast court and its
_estufas_, claiming exclusive attention. Still there is no room left for
doubt that _B_ was occupied during this period. But it is evident, from
the statements of the eye-witnesses, that _A_ was the principal abode of
the Pecos tribe in 1540 and afterwards.


THE DOCUMENTARY PERIOD,

commencing in 1598, and running up to the present time. Here we should
be entitled to find, of course, ample and detailed documentary evidence.
Two unfortunate occurrences, however, have contributed to destroy the
records of the territory of New Mexico.

In the month of August, 1680, when the pueblo Indians rose in successful
revolt against the Spanish rule, and captured the "villa" of Santa Fé,
they brought the archives, ecclesiastical and civil, into the plaza, and
made a bonfire of the entire pile. This was an act of barbarous warfare.
But few papers escaped the general destruction; these were saved by
Governor Don Antonio de Otermin, and sent to El Paso del Norte, where
they are still supposed to remain. We are, therefore, as far as the
period of 1598-1680 is concerned, almost exclusively reduced to general
works like the "Teatro Mexicano" of Fray Augustin de Vetancurt, and to
the collections of documents published at Mexico and at Madrid. That,
nevertheless, some documents were saved, and subsequently carried back
to Santa Fé, is proved by the fact that Mr. Louis Felsenthal, of this
city, has recovered one, a copy of which it is hoped will appear in the
Journal of the Institute in time.

Subsequent to the return of the Spaniards, the archives of Santa Fé
were kept in good order by its administrators, the last revision thereof
being made by Governor Donaciano Vigil. In 1870, however, the man who
then acted as Governor of the Territory, although otherwise of
irreproachable character, permitted an act of vandalism almost without
its parallel. The archives had accumulated in the palace to a vast
extent: the original good order in which they were kept had been totally
neglected during and since the war of secession; there was not even a
custodian for them. So the head of the executive of this territory
suffered its archives to be sold as waste paper, even sometimes used as
kindling in the offices. Of the entire carefully nursed documentary
treasures, the accumulation of 190 years, the Hon. Samuel Ellison, of
this city (notwithstanding his feeble health), has been able to register
about fifty bundles (_legajos_), whereas wagon-loads were scattered or
sold for wrapping.

Many of the intelligent inhabitants attempted to save what they could,
and there are some who succeeded to a limited extent; but of what yet
remained in the palace, reduced to a sufficiently small bulk as not to
be "in the way" any longer, even the valuable journals of Otermin and
Vargas were considerably reduced through further decay.

This has been, in times of profound peace and in the nineteenth century,
the fate of the archives of New Mexico.

Ever since, the legislature of the territory has been, in fact, utterly
neglectful of its public documents. Each and every reminder in the shape
of a petition has been disregarded, and only Governor L. Wallace has at
last succeeded in having them overhauled. Hon. W. G. Ritch effected
their removal to a suitable place, and it is to the acts of these
gentlemen, and to the labor of love of Mr. Ellison, that we owe the
preservation of what now remains.

What little documentary evidence has, therefore, been left at my
disposal, contains, as might be supposed, meagre information concerning
the pueblo of Pecos. The older church annals I have not been able to
find, for those at the Plaza de Pecos date back only to 1862. Whither
they have gone I am unable to tell, except that they are not at Santa
Fé.

About the year 1628, through the action of Fray Francisco de
Apodaca,[160] then Commissary-General of the Franciscan order in Mexico,
religious life in this territory obtained a new impulse. Until then the
work performed had been almost exclusively missionary work; the priests
had (and still have) enormous districts to visit. Thus: that of the
first priest of Pecos embraced from N. to S. a country of over 60 miles
long, and 30 to 50 wide from E. to W. However, after Fray Gerónimo de
Zarate Salmeron had addressed to his superior at Mexico his remarkable
report in the year 1626,[161] a new life began. It is therefore after
1629 that the large church at Pecos was erected, but I am as yet unable
to give the exact dates. This church and the "convent" were both built
by Indians, whom the fathers had taught to square timbers, to ornament
them with simple friezes and scroll-work, and to make adobe in the
manner now practised, namely, mixing straw with the clay and moulding it
in boxes. They were also taught to grow wheat and oats, and their flocks
increased. In addition to being a horticultural people they became
herders, and the pueblo was prosperous. Its church was renowned as the
finest in New Mexico.[162] Whereas Santa Fé, in 1667, had but 250
inhabitants,[163] Pecos, as late as 1680, sheltered 2,000 Indians.[164]

Still, during this very time of comparative prosperity, a storm was
brewing in New Mexico, from whose effects its sedentary Indians never
recovered. This was the great rebellion of 1680. The Indians of Pecos
claim to have remained neutral during that bloody massacre, and I am
inclined to believe their statements. Nevertheless, it is a positive
fact that, on the 10th of August of the aforesaid year, their priest,
Fray Fernando de Velasco, was murdered and their church sacked.[165] By
whom, then, was it done? The reply is intimated by the place where the
great bell was found, and by the events intervening between 1680 and
1692, when Diego de Vargas recaptured Santa Fé. It will be remembered
that the bell was left on the slope of the high mesa towards the S.W.,
in the rocky and desolate gorge descending towards the pueblo San
Cristóbal, the old home of the Tanos tribe.[166] Father José Amanda Niel
writes, about twenty-five or thirty years after the rebellion, that the
Tanos secured the greatest part of the booty, among which were bells
(_campanas_).[167] That this bell was not carried to the high _mesa_ by
the Pecos I believe I have proved; its proximity to the Tanos village,
and its actual position in the _cañada_ leading towards the latter,
shows that it was either to be carried down to it or carried up from it.
If it is (as current report has it) the bell of Pecos, then it was a
trophy which the Tanos secured when they, on the 10th of August, 1680,
committed the atrocities at the pueblo of Pecos; and this would make it
extremely probable, also, that the slaughter of Father Velasco was
accompanied by that partial destruction of the buildings _A_ and B_,_
which I have described, and which appears to have been partly repaired
by means of material taken from the church, and of adobe containing
wheat-straw. This is rendered more likely by the events subsequent to
the driving out of the Spaniards, and it does not appear that the Pecos
Indians took any part even in their expulsion.

After the victorious aborigines had returned from their pursuit of
Otermin, dissensions arose among them, and intertribal warfare, in
conformity with their pristine condition, set in. The Pecos, aided by
the Queres, made a violent onslaught on the Tanos, compelling them to
abandon San Cristóbal and San Lázaro.[168] This looks very much like an
act of retaliation. During that time the Spaniards were not idle. In
1682, Governor Otermin penetrated as far as Cochiti,[169] but appears to
have taken no notice of Pecos. In 1689, however, Don Domingo Gironza
Petroz de Cruzate made a successful raid into New Mexico, in which raid
the warriors of Pecos assisted him against the other tribes. In reward
of their services he, on the 25th of September, 1689, after his return
to El Paso del Norte, executed there the document a copy of which is
hereto appended, and for which I am indebted to the kindness of my
friend David J. Miller, Esq., chief clerk of the Surveyor General's
Office at Santa Fé. It is a grant to the tribe of Pecos of all the lands
one league north, south, east, and west from their pueblo ("una legua en
cuadro"), therefore four square leagues, or 18,763-33/100 acres, to be
therefore their joint and common property. When, therefore, in the
afternoon of the 17th of October, 1692, Diego de Vargas Zapata, having
recaptured Santa Fé from the Tanos who then held its ruins,[170] moved
upon Pecos, he was received by the whole tribe with demonstrations of
joy,[171] and the "capitan de la guerra" of the pueblo afterwards
assisted him in subduing a second outbreak in 1694.[172]

The result for the pueblos of the great revolt in New Mexico was a
gradual diminution in the numbers of their inhabitants. It was the
beginning of decline. The Tanos had been in some places nearly
exterminated, and all the others more or less weakened.[173] The distant
Moqui, far off in Arizona, were the sole gainers by the occurrence,
receiving accessions from fugitives of New Mexico.[174] But it would be
incorrect to attribute this weakening of the pueblos during that time to
the warfare with the Spaniards, or to the latter's retaliatory measures
after final triumph. Vargas was energetic in action, but not cruel. A
few of those who had committed peculiar atrocities were executed, but
the remnants of the pueblos were reestablished in their franchises and
privileges as autonomous communities. It is the intertribal warfare,
which commenced again as soon as the aborigines were left to themselves,
and drouth accompanying the bitter and bloody feuds, which destroyed the
pueblos of the Rio Grande Valley.[175] The Pecos, isolated and therefore
less exposed, suffered proportionately less; still, their time was come
also, though in a different way.[176]

I have already stated that, in the beginning of the eighteenth century,
the Utes introduced near the pueblo of Taos another branch of the great
Shoshone stock,--the _Comanches_. This tribe soon expelled the
Apaches,[177] who had not been exceedingly troublesome to the pueblos,
and, a vigorous northern stock, became that fearful scourge of all the
surrounding settlements, which they have continued to be for 150 years.
Their efforts were mainly directed against the pueblo of Pecos, as the
most south-easterly village exposed to their attacks. On one occasion
the Comanches slaughtered all the "young men" of Pecos but one,--a blow
from which the tribe never recovered. Thus, when the Indians of the Rio
Grande rose in arms against the Mexicans in 1837, as has been so ably
described by Mr. D. J. Miller,[178] the Pecos did not take any part, for
there were only eighteen adults left, huddled together in the northern
wing of the huge building _A_, and watching the sacred embers in the
face of slow, inevitable destruction.

Then, in the following year, 1838, an event took place which, simple and
natural as it is, still illustrates forcibly the powerful link which the
bond of language creates between distant Indian communities. The pueblos
of Pecos and Jemez had been almost without intercourse for centuries;
but in the year 1838, says Mariano Ruiz, the principal men of Jemez
appeared in person on the site of Pecos and held a talk with its
occupants. They had heard of the weakness of their brethren, of their
forlorn condition, and now came to offer them a new home within the
walls of their own pueblo. The Pecos took the proposal under
consideration, but were loth to leave the home where they had lived for
so many centuries. In the following year "mountain fever" broke out
among them, and only five adults remained alive. These, by joint
indentures, sold the majority of the lands granted to them in 1689 by
Cruzate.[179] Another portion was left to Ruiz as "son of the tribe." In
1840 these five men, named respectively Antonio (_gobernador_, and still
living at Jemez), Gregorio, Goya, Juan Domingo, and Francisco, appeared
before Don Manuel Armijo, then Mexican governor of the territory, and
declared to him their intention to abandon their home and to seek refuge
among their kindred at Jemez. Soon after, the _gobernador_, the _capitan
de la guerra_ and the _cacique_ of Jemez, with several other Indians of
that tribe, appeared at Pecos. The sacred embers disappeared, tradition
being, according to the Hon. W. G. Ritch, Secretary of the Territory,
that they were returned to Montezuma.[180] The remnants of the tribe
moved on with their chattels, and guided by their friends, to Jemez,
where, in a few months, I hope to visit "the last of the Pecos."


MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS.

About the mythology of the Pecos Indians, aside from the Montezuma story
and the sacred embers, the tale of the _Great Snake_ ("la vívora
grande") appears to be widely circulated. It is positively asserted[181]
that the Pecos adored, and the Jemez and Taos still adore, an enormous
rattlesnake, which they keep alive in some inaccessible and hidden
mountain recess. It is even dimly hinted at that human sacrifices might
be associated with this already sufficiently hideous cult. I give these
facts as they were given to me, and shall not believe them until I am
compelled. It has always been the natural tendency in everything which
(like the idolatrous practices still existing among the pueblos, of
which there is no doubt) we do not positively know, to make bad look
worse and good better than it actually is. The prospect of securing a
knowledge of it is, however, not very good. The Indians themselves
appear to deny it, and are generally very reticent about their
aboriginal beliefs.

I have previously mentioned that Ruiz had been called upon by the
Indians of Pecos to do his duty by attending to the sacred fire for one
year, and that he refused. The reason for his refusal appears to have
been that there was a belief to the effect that any one who had ever
attended to the embers would, if he left the tribe, die without fail,
and he did not wish to expose himself to such a fate.

About the social organization of the Pecos Indians, it has not been
possible, of course, to ascertain anything as yet. That they lived on
the communal plan is plainly shown by the construction of their houses.
That they were originally, at least, organized into clans or _gentes_,
can be inferred; but here I must remark that it may be difficult to
trace those clusters among the Rio Grande pueblos, on account of their
weakness in numbers, and of the intermixture of the Tehua, Tanos, and
Queres stocks resulting from the convulsion of 1680. It may be possible,
however, to find them at Jemez. They exist at Laguna and among the
Moquis, according to Mr. Morgan, and I do not doubt but that Mr.
Cushing, who is so thoroughly studying the Zuñi Indians, has by this
time settled the question for that tribe. One fact, however, I consider
to be ascertained; namely, that there were neither castes nor classes
among the pueblos, therefore not at Pecos. At the head of their communal
government were the usual three officers,--the _gobernador_, the
_capitan de la guerra_, and the _cacique_. I am not quite clear yet as
to the proper functions of each, except that the first two are both
warriors ("ambos son guerreros," Ruiz); that the _capitan_ has also the
supervision of the lands of the tribe; and that the _cacique_ is more or
less a religious functionary. Mr. D. J. Miller states that the latter
very seldom leaves the pueblo. It was therefore an unusual act when the
_cacique_ of Jemez came to Pecos in 1840, and I presume it was brought
about through his connection with the holy fire. I asked Sr. Ruiz very
distinctly as to whether these three officers were elective or not, and
he promptly affirmed that they were ("son elegidos por el pueblo"). I
then inquired if the sons succeeded to the fathers in office, and his
reply was that there was no objection to their being elected thereto if
they were qualified ("si son buenos"). This disposes of the question of
heredity in office, rank, and title, and it is almost identical with the
customs found by Alonzo de Zuevita among the Indians of Mexico in the
middle of the sixteenth century. How the presumable "gentes" of the
Pecos might have localized for dwelling in the great communal houses I
am, of course, unable to conjecture.

In regard to their marriage customs, their mode of naming children,
etc., I have not been able to gather much information as yet. The old
marriage customs are supplanted by those of the church. Still, they may
be traced up eventually. Every Pecos Indian had, besides his Spanish
name, an Indian name; and there is, according to Mr. Ritch, still a
Pecos Indian at Jemez whose aboriginal appellation is "Huaja-toya"
(Spanish pronunciation). I heard of him this morning (Sept. 17) through
an Indian of Jemez. What I know of their burials is already stated.

Of their agriculture, or rather horticulture, I have also spoken; the
modes of cultivation have not been explained to me as yet. Irrigation is
therefore the only part of their tillage system upon which I have been
able to gather any information. In addition to what the preceding pages
may contain, Sr. Vigil has assured me that they also irrigated their
_huerta_ from the _arroyo_. This thin fillet of clear water, now
scarcely 0.50 m.--20 in.--in width, fills at times its entire gravelly
bed, 100 m. to 150 m.--327 ft. to 490 ft.--from bank to bank. This does
not occur annually, but at irregular intervals. Sr. Ruiz said that while
the Pecos Indians were living at their pueblo the streams were filled
with water ("en ese tiempo, corrieron los arroyos con agua, muy
abundante"). It is further said that the tribe worked other "gardens"
besides, on the banks of the river Pecos, two miles to the east.

For their arts and industry I must refer to the collections, however
meagre and unsatisfactory they are; a condition for which I have already
apologized. Nowhere did I find a trace of iron nor of copper, although
they used the latter for ornaments (bracelets, etc.), and there can be
no doubt that they had the former metal also,--after the Spanish
conquest, of course. The squaring of timbers, the scroll-work and
friezes in the church, could only be done with instruments of iron. But
all traces of these implements have disappeared from the ruins, as far
as the surface is concerned. I cannot refrain, however, from dwelling
at greater length upon two products of industry, so common among the
ruins as hardly to attract the attention of curiosity-hunters any more.
These are the flakes of obsidian and lava and the painted pottery.

I have called these flakes a product of industry; while the material
itself is of course a mineral, the fragments scattered about are
undoubted products of skill. They are chips and splinters. There is
neither lava nor obsidian cropping out in or about the valley,[182] but
highly volcanic formations are abundantly found to the north, within
fifty miles from Pecos, in the high Sierra de Mora; perhaps, also,
nearer yet. At all events, the mineral has been brought to the pueblo
and chipped there. The same is the case with the flint flakes, agates,
jaspers, and moss-agates, with the difference, however, that, in the
case of these, water has done a great part of the carrying, if not all;
whereas the drift of the _arroyo_ contains no obsidian nor lava, except
such as has clearly been washed into it from the ruins. Among the flakes
there will be noticed several which may have been used for knives,
whereas still others approximate to the arrow-head. A small perfect
arrow-head was found and transmitted by me to the Institute,--the only
one I met with on the premises.[183]

The fact that several localities at Pecos are completely devoid of
obsidian has already been mentioned. These are the oldest ruins. In the
case of the ruins along the mesa and those south of the church, I can
only speak of the surface; but where the corrugated pottery was found
the whole section of the bluff was exposed for more than 100 m.--327
ft.,--and still not a trace of the mineral appeared, while flint, agate,
and jasper were rather conspicuous.[184] This may be accidental, but it
is certainly suspicious and suggestive.

The painted pottery is scattered in wagon-loads of fragments over the
ruins. There are two places, however, where, as already stated, the
surface is utterly devoid of them. Whether or not this deficiency
extends to the soil, I cannot tell. I doubt it, however. These
localities are, again, the apron along the _mesa_ and the ruins south of
the church. For the rest, it is very equally distributed everywhere.
Still there are two distinct kinds at least. One is exactly similar to
the kind now made and sold: it is coarse, soft; the ground is painted
gray or yellow; the ornaments show, in few instances, traces of animal
shapes (they are either black or brown); and the vessels must have been
thick, and with a thicker coarse rim. Out of the grave in the mound _V_,
the pottery was more perfect. There are pieces of a _tinaja_ (bowl) with
a vertical rim, yellow outside, white inside, with black geometrical
ornamentation, not vitrified. This kind of pottery is still made by the
Indians of Nambé, of Tezuque, and of Cochiti. (The former two are
Tehuas, the latter is Queres.) But there I also found fragments of a
plain black pottery, of dark red, and of dark red with black ornaments,
which are thinner and much superior in "ring," and therefore in quality,
to any now made. This pottery is older in date, and appears to be almost
a lost art. There was, however, no distinction in distribution. Both
kinds have one point in common, namely, the varnishing of the
ornamental surfaces. I say varnishing,[185] and not "glazing;" for,
although I believe the glassy appearance of the painted lines to be due
to some admixture of the coloring material, and not to a separate glossy
exterior coating, I do not as yet find a reason for admitting that the
Indians knew the process of vitrification.

Of the military manufactures of the Pecos, a small arrow-head of
obsidian found near the church is the only trace. It is even too small
for a war-arrow. They had stone hatchets, and may have had the dart,
and, later on, the spear. Pebbles convenient for hurling are
promiscuously observed on the _mesilla_, but they are not numerous; and
nowhere along the circumvallation did I notice any trace of heaps.[186]
The military constructions, however, become very interesting through
their connection with the system of drainage and a comparison with the
ancient Mexicans. Around the ancient pueblo of Mexico ("Tenuchtitlan")
the water formed the protective circumvallation; at Pecos, the defensive
wall collected the water and conducted it where it was needed for
subsistence for the irrigation of crops.

That this great circumvallation, 983 m.--3,225 ft.--in circuit, was a
wall for protection also there is no doubt, although the main strength
of the pueblo lay in the construction of its houses, where the
inhabitants could simply shut themselves in and await quietly until the
enemy was tired of prowling around it. By Indians it could only be
carried by surprise or treachery.[187] Hence it was customary for the
young men to leave the pueblo at times in a body, abandoning it to the
old men and women, etc., without concern.[188] As long as these kept
good watch they were safe, even if the Comanches should appear. Roaming
Indians cannot break open a pueblo house if well guarded. For that
purpose alone the mounds near the great gate, and the mound _H_, Pl.
IV., were erected. They were watch-towers for special purposes, for
particular sections, where the lookouts from the wall-tops were not
sufficient.[189] These two mounds--one on each side of the
gateway--overlooked the fields and the creek-bank: in the morning, when
the people went out to work, or to carry drinking water from the spring
opposite; during the day, while they attended to their simple labor of
tillage.

The mound and tower _H_ performed a similar office towards the steep
ledge of rocks there descending, among whose fragments Indians could
hide for hours from the scouts on the house tops. Thus the great
enclosure with its details served a triple purpose. It was the reservoir
which held and conducted the waters precipitated on the _mesilla_ to the
useful purpose of irrigation. It was a preliminary defensive line,--a
first obstruction to a storming foe, and a shelter for its defenders.
But it was also in places an admirable post of observation. It formed
the necessary complement to the houses themselves,[190] and both
together composed a system of defences which, inadequate against the
military science of civilization, was still wonderfully adapted for
protection against the stealthy, lurking approach, the impetuous but
"short-winded" dash, of Indian warfare.

In conclusion of this lengthy report, I may be permitted to add a few
lines concerning the great houses themselves. Their mode and manner of
construction and occupation I have already discussed; it is their
abandonment and decay to which I wish to refer. This decay is the same
in both houses; the path of ruin from S.S.E. to N.N.W. indicates its
progress. It shows clearly that, as section after section had been
originally added as the tribe increased in number, so cell after cell
(or section after section) was successively vacated and left to ruin as
their numbers waned, till at last the northern end of the building alone
sheltered the poor survivors. They receded from south to north; for the
church, despoiled and partly destroyed in 1680, was no protection to
them. Its own ruin kept pace with that of the tribe.[191] The northern
extremity of the pueblo was their best stronghold, and thither they
retired step by step in the face of inevitable doom.

A. F. BANDELIER.

SANTA FÉ, Sept. 17, 1880.

To PROFESSOR C. E. NORTON, _President of the Archæological Institute of
America, Cambridge, Mass._




GRANT OF 1689 TO THE PUEBLO OF PECOS.

       *       *       *       *       *

The following is a literal copy of the original grant, now (Sept. 25,
1880) on file at the United States Surveyor-General's office at Santa
Fé, made to the inhabitants of the Indian pueblo of Pecos in New Mexico.
The language of the document is not altogether clear, but the essential
terms are distinct:--

[Sidenote: Año de 1689]

[Sidenote: MERCED CONCEDIDA Á PECOS.]

En el Pueblo de nu. S.^a de Guadalupe del Paso del Rio del Norte en
veinte y cinco dias del mes de Sep.^te de mil seiscientos y ochenta y
nueve años el Señor Gov.^or y Cap.^n Gen.^l D.^a Domingo Jironza Petroz
de Cruzate dijo que por quanto en el alcanze que se dio en los de la
Nueva Mex.^co de los Yndios Queres y los Apostatas y los Teguas y de la
nacion Thanos y despues de haber peleado con todos los demas Yndios de
todos Pueblos un Yndio del Pueblo de Zia llamado Bartolomé de Ojeda que
fue el que mas se señaló en la vatalla acudiendo á todas partes se
rindio viendose herido de un balazo y un flechaso lo cual como dicho es
mando que debajo de juram.^to declare como se halla el Pu.^o de Pecos
aunque queda muy metido á donde el sol sale y fueron unos Yndios
Apostatas de aquel Reyno de la Nueva Mexico.

Preguntado que si este Pu.^o volverá en algun tiempo como ha sido
constumbre en ellos y dice el confesante que no que ya está muy metido
en terror que aunque estaban abilantados con lo que les habia susedido á
los de el Pu.^o de Zia el año pasado juzgaba que era un imposible que
dejaran de dar la obediencia; por lo cual se concedieron por el Señor
Governador y Capitan General D.^a Domingo Jironza Petroz de Cruzate los
linderos que aqui anoto; para el. Norte una legua; y para el Oriente una
legua; y para el Poniente una legua; y para el Sur una legua; y medidas
estas cuatro lineas de las cuatro esquinas del Pu.^o dejando á salvo el
templo que queda al medio dia del Pu.^o y asi lo proveyo mando y firmo
susc^a [?] á mi el presente Secretario de Gov.^on y Guerra que de ello
doy fé.

                          D.^a Domingo Jironza
                               Petroz de Cruzate.

Ante mi
  Don Pedro Ladron de Guitara
     Sc.^o de G.^n y Gu.^a

[TRANSLATION.]

[Sidenote: In the year 1689.]

[Sidenote: GRANT GIVEN TO PECOS.]

In the Pueblo of Our Lady of Guadalupe of El Paso del Rio del Norte, on
the twenty-fifth day of the month of September, in the year sixteen
hundred and eighty nine, the Governor and Captain-General, Don Domingo
Jironza Petroz de Cruzate, said that inasmuch as during the pursuit of
the men of New Mexico, [namely], of the Queres Indians, and the
Renegades, and the Teguas, and those of the Thanos nation, and after the
fight with all the rest of the Indians of all the Pueblos--an Indian of
the Pueblo of Zia, named Bartholomé de Ojeda, who had greatly
distinguished himself in the fight, assisting at every point,
surrendered, having been wounded by a bullet and by an arrow; he [the
Governor] ordered that he should declare, under oath, how the Pueblo of
Pecos is disposed, although it lies far off toward the sunrise, and [its
people] are renegade Indians of that kingdom of New Mexico.

Being asked whether [the inhabitants of] this Pueblo will ever return to
their old ways, he, the deponent, says that they will not, since they
are now in great terror, and though they were very much emboldened by
what had happened to those of the Pueblo of Zia the year before, he
thought it was impossible that they should fail to give in their
submission. Wherefore there were granted by the Governor and
Captain-General, Don Domingo Jironza Petroz de Cruzate, the boundaries
here noted: to the north a league, and to the east a league, and to the
west a league, and to the south a league; and these four lines measured
from the four corners of the Pueblo, reserving the temple, which lies to
the south of the Pueblo; and thus did his Excellency provide, command,
and sign before me, the present Secretary of the Interior and of War,
who attest it.

                      DON DOMINGO JIRONZA
                                PETROZ DE CRUZATE.

Before me,
   Don Pedro Ladron de Guitara,
      Secretary of the Interior and of War.




[87] Lieut.-Col. W. H. Emory, _Notes of a Military Reconnoissance from
Fort Leavenworth, in Missouri, to San Diego, in California, Executive
Document_ 41, Washington, 1848. _Meteorological Observations_, p. 163.
Camp 44, half-mile south of the Pecos, Aug. 17, 1846, altitude six
thousand three hundred and forty-six feet. Camp 45, on the Pecos, near
Pecos village, August 18, six thousand three hundred and sixty-six feet.

[88] This is the lowest height of the peaks seen from the valley. Some
of the other tops are much higher yet. The altitude of Santa Fé Baldy,
for instance, exceeds twelve thousand feet.

[89] Not to be confounded with the Rio de Pecos proper. The _arroyo_ is
not found on most of the maps. Its width is about 100 m.--330 ft.--but
there is scarcely ever more than a mere fillet of very clear, limpid
water in it.

[90] This is, however, only accidental, and exclusively due to nine
months of consecutive drouth. Generally the strips of bottom-land have a
rich soil, and grow fine corn, wheat, and oats.

[91] They are very picturesque objects, and stand out boldly, appearing
to rise directly from the plain. Their height is stated to be about
thirteen thousand feet. In this vicinity are the Placitas, now famous
for mineral wealth (gold and silver), and the Cerrillos, also rich in
ore, and containing beautiful green and blue turquoises, of which I saw
excellent specimens in possession of His Excellency Governor L. Wallace.

[92] Baughl's Sidings is a switch and large storing-place for ties. Even
the Spaniards call it La Switcha. It is about 800 m.--2,620 ft.--from
the foot of the _mesa_, in a belt of fine large pine timber, very high,
and gives glimpses of splendid views over the valley of Pecos to the
Sierras beyond. Climate fine, but nights very cold. The buildings are as
yet nearly all temporary; it is more a camp than a place as is it now. I
spent ten very happy days here, from the 28th of August to the 6th of
September,--or rather nights, since the days were, with two exceptions
(5th and 6th of September, when I visited Pecos town and explored the
high _mesa_), devoted to the study of the ruins. I shall always
gratefully remember the uniform kindness and attention with which its
inhabitants and transient guests have treated me, and assisted me in my
work. Aside of those whom I shall have occasion to name in the body of
my report, I take occasion to express my thanks here to Messrs.
McPherson & Co., and to their obliging manager, Mr. Wright; also to the
station agent.

[93] On the right side of the Arroyo de Pecos, there is a wide
amphitheatre bottom, which was filled with red clay, like that of which
the adobe at the church is made, and which appears to have been partly
dug out. The place is to the right of the road also, which there crosses
the creek. The only objection to the surmise is in the fact that along
this entire bottom I found not the slightest trace of obsidian. Pottery,
however, is scattered everywhere. On the left side of the creek, unless
more than a mile below, there is no place where the soil is sufficiently
thick or sufficiently free from ruins and scattered stones, to permit
the enormous quantity of clay needed for the church to be secured.

[94] Lieut.-Col. Emory, _Notes of a Military Reconnoissance_, p. 30, and
two plates.

[95] The walls, or foundations rather, appear as follows:--The
interstices are often filled with tufts of _grama_, and the stones
themselves look very old and worn, covered with lichens and moss.

[Illustration: Stone Wall]

[96] According to Mariano Ruiz and to Mrs. Kozlowski. The former has
lived in Pecos since 1837. But few, if any, of the dead are buried
there; the majority were entombed within the church itself.

[97] P. José Amando Niel, _Apuntamientos que sobre el Terreno hizo el
... Annotations to the history of_ Fray Géronimo Zarate Salmeron, in
_Documentos para la Historia de México_, 3 series, vol. i. p. 99.

[98] Called by the Spaniards Plaza de Pecos. It is a comparatively new
place, the only church-book still in possession of Rev. Father Léon
Mailluchet, the present priest, commences in 1862. Including the
scattered _casitas_ several miles around, its population is not over
five hundred souls. It is situated in a narrow vale or hollow, not far
west from the Rio Pecos itself, and has a modest but clean and tidy
church, with a small belfry. All the houses are of adobe.
Lieutenant-Colonel Emory (_Notes, Executive Document_ 41, p. 30) speaks
of it in 1846 as "the modern village of Pecos, ... with a very
inconsiderable population." As yet there are but very few Americans in
the plaza. My recollections of Pecos are highly pleasant (5th
September), owing to the friendly reception tendered me by Mr. E. K.
Walters, Sr. Juan Bacay Salazar, and Father L. Mailluchet. According to
Colonel Emory, its altitude is nearly 6,366 ft. (p. 163). Lat. about 35°
30' N.

[99] See Plate I.

[100] See Plate IX.

[101] See Plate I., Fig. 5.

[102] When Mr. Louis Felsenthal of Santa-Fé came to New Mexico in 1855,
and still later, in 1858, the time of the arrival of Mrs. Kozlowski, the
roofs were still perfect in part.

[103] Pl. II., Fig. 6.

[104] Pedro de Castañeda de Nagera, _Relation du Voyage de Cibola_,
French translation, by Ternaux-Compans, 1838. Original written about
1560. Introduction, p. ix; part ii. cap. v. p. 176.

[105] Castañeda, _Relation_, i. cap. xii. p. 71; ii. cap. v. p. 176.
Juan Jaramillo, _Relation du Voyage fait à la Nouvelle Terre_, app. vi.
to _Voyage de Cibola_, p. 371. Fray Agustin de Vetancurt, _Crónica de la
Provincia del Santo Evangelio de México_ (edition of 1871), p. 323.
Gaspar Castaño de la Sosa, _Memoria del Descubrimiento que ... hizo en
el Nuevo México, siendo teniente del Gobernador y Capitan General del
Nuevo-Reino de Leon_, July 27, 1590, in vol. xv. of _Documentos Inéditos
de los Archivos de Indias_, p. 244. The latter though, as well as
Castañeda and Jaramillo, mentions evidently building _A_, but there
cannot be the slightest doubt that _B_ was erected for the same purpose;
to wit, as a dwelling.

[106] They are evidently moulded. Their size is about 0.28 m. × 15
m.--11 in. × 6 in.--and straw is mixed with the soil. The appearance is
very much as if the adobe had been put in as a "mending;" and I am
decidedly of the opinion that the northern section is the latest, and
erected after 1540.

[107] It is very much like the stone-work of the Moqui Pueblos in
Arizona, according to the photographs in possession of the Bureau of
Ethnology at Washington, D. C.; and in some respects to the walls of the
great house described by the Hon. L. H. Morgan, _On the Ruins of an
Ancient Stone Pueblo on the Animas River, Eleventh and Twelfth Reports
of the Peabody Museum of Archæology_, etc.; also to those figured by Dr.
William H. Jackson, _Tenth Annual Report of the United States Geological
and Geographical Survey of the Territories_, 1878, plate lxii. fig. 1,
from the Ruins of the Rio Chaco. Compare photograph No. 6. I am led to
suspect that the greater or less regularity of the courses was entirely
dependent upon the kind of stone on hand, and not upon the mechanical
skill employed.

[108] I am just (Sept. 9) informed by Governor Wallace, that the Sierra
de Tecolote, east of the ruins, contains probably gypsum, even in the
form of alabaster. It is certain that nothing like lime-kilns or places
where lime might have been burnt are found at any moderate distance from
the ruins. The surrounding rocks, up to head of the valley and to the
_mesa_, contain deposits of white, yellow, and red carbonates of lead,
often copper-stained, and very impure, therefore proportionately light
in weight. However, we have very positive information as to how they
made their plaster, etc., in Castañeda, _Voyage de Cibola_, ii. cap. iv.
pp. 168, 169. He says: "They have no lime, but make a mixture of ashes,
soil, and of charcoal, which replace it very well; for although they
raise their houses to four stories, the walls have not more than half an
ell in width. They form great heaps of pine [thym] and reeds, and set
fire to them; whenever this mass is reduced to ashes and charcoal, they
throw over it a large quantity of soil and water, and mix it all
together. They knead it into round blocks, which they dry, and of which
they make use in lieu of stones, coating the whole with the same
mixture." Substituting for the "round blocks" the stones found at Pecos,
we have the whole process thoroughly explained, for indeed the mud
contains bits of charcoal, as the specimens sent prove. The white coat,
however, is not explained. I must state here, however, that I found the
latter only in such parts of _A_, as well as of _B_, as appeared to be
most recent in occupation and in construction. Further investigations at
other pueblos may yet solve the mystery.

[109] See Plate VIII.

[110] Compare, in regard to the outer (western) wall of B, and also in
regard to the inner wall, Lieut. James H. Simpson, _Journal of a
Military Reconnoissance from Santa Fé, New-Mexico, to the Navajo
Country, Executive Document 64_, 31st Congress, 1st section, 1850; plate
41, no. 5. Also, L. H. Morgan, _On an Ancient Stone Pueblo on the Animas
River, Peabody Museum Reports_, 1880. The latter is particularly
suggestive.

[111] Compare Castañeda, _Voyage de Cibola_, ii. cap. iv. pp. 171, 172.
"There is a piece reserved for the kitchen, and another one for to grind
the corn. This last one is apart; in it is found an oven and three
stones sealed in masonry." Simpson, _Journal_, etc, p. 62, description
of a fireplace.

[112] Simpson, p. 62, _Fireplace and Smoke-escape at the Pueblo of Santo
Domingo_. The vent was directly over the hearth. I expect to visit Santo
Domingo shortly.

[113] Mr. Thomas Munn found about the church a stone hatchet, a fragment
of a stone pipe (?), and many arrow-heads. These he kindly promised to
me, even authorizing me to get them at the place where he had deposited
them, and which lay on the line of my daily tramp to the ruins.
Unfortunately, when I reached the place, the objects were already gone.

Mrs. Kozlowski informed me that copper rings (bracelets) were of very
common occurrence among the ruins. Her statement was fully confirmed by
Sr. Baca and others. She also spoke of "the heads of little idols"
having been plentiful at one time. Gaspar Castaño de la Sosa, _Memoria
del Descubrimiento_, etc., _Documentos Inéditos_, vol. xv. p. 244,
speaking of a pueblo which is evidently Pecos, says: "Porque tiene
muchos ídolos que atras nos olvidaba de declarar." Antonio de Espejo,
_El Viaje que hizo_ ... in Hackluyt's _Voyages, Navigations, and
Discoveries of the English Nation_, 1600 A.D., pp. 457-464. A somewhat
abbreviated and frequently unreliable copy of Espejo's letter, dated
"Sant Salvador de la Nueva-España, 23 April, 1584," mentions a district
two days east from Bernalillo, inhabited by pueblo Indians: "Los quales
tienen y adoran ídolos."

[114] On first sight this building appears circular, but I soon became
satisfied that it was a rectangle.

[115] They may have been the "almacenas", or granaries (storage-rooms),
of which I speak further on. "Outhouses" are referred to by Castañeda.
(Part ii. cap. iv. p. 172.)

[116] One or the other may also have been an Estufa, for I saw no round
structures about _B_. Castañeda (part ii. cap. iv. p. 169) says: "There
are square and round ones." It is true that the Estufas are usually in
the courts; but when there was no court, as in this case, there could be
no Estufa inside.

[117] Pl. I., Fig. 5, shows cross-sections of the "body" of the
_mesilla_ on which _A_ stands, along the lines indicated. The surface of
_A_ was therefore very irregular and difficult to build upon for people
who could not remove and fit the hard rock.

[118] This may have been caused, in part, by filling with rubbish from
the surrounding walls.

[119] Such double houses are mentioned by Castañeda (part ii. cap. v. p.
177). Speaking of "Cicuyé," he says: "Those houses fronting outwards
('du coté de la campagne') are backed up ('adossées') against those
which stand towards the court."

[120] The dimensions given by Gen. J. H. Simpson, _Reconnoissance_,
etc., pp. 79-82, of the pueblos--"Pintado," "Bonito," and "Peñasca
blanca"--on the Rio Chaco vary, as far as the circuit is concerned,
between 1,200 and 1,700 feet, "about." Dr. W. H. Jackson, _Geographical
Survey_, etc., 1876, has measured these ruins, and gives the following
dimensions: "Pueblo Bonito," 544 × 314; "Peñasca blanca," 499 × 363
(only 3 sides of the rectangle being built up); "Pueblo Pintado" (2
sides), 238 × 174; "Pueblo Alto" (3 wings), 360 × 200 and 170. "Pueblo
Bonito" therefore alone comes up to the standard of Pecos. The latter,
however, is larger still, as, by adding to the perimeter given that of
the northern annex (about 90 m.--295 ft.), we obtain a total of 450
metres, or 1,480 feet. The difference, if any, is not considerable; and
I merely advert to the fact to show that the old ruins of New Mexico,
comparatively neglected, are fully as important in size as any of those
further north, besides being completely identical in plan, structure,
and material. Furthermore, the pottery is identical. This was already
recognized in 1776 by Father Silvestre Velez Escalante, _Diario y
Derrotero de los Nuevos Descubrimientos de Tierras á Rumbos N. N. Oe.
Oe. del Nuevo México_, MSS. at the Library of Congress, fol. 118, on the
San Buenaventura (Green River), and in his letter, dated Santa Fé, 2
April, 1778, _Documentos para la Historia de México_, 3a série, vol. i.
p. 124.

[121] _On the Ruins of an Ancient Stone Pueblo on the Animas River_,
Peabody Reports, 11 and 12.

[122] I must here call attention to a singular coincidence. Among the
ruins of Uxmal in Yucatan there are, aside from the "Teocalli," or
medicine mound, two general forms of structure,--one narrow rectangle
like _B_, and hollow rectangles like _A_. The "Casa del Gobernador"
would correspond to the former, and the "Casa de las Monjas" to the
latter. Of course, there is dissimilarity between the house of the
"Governor" and _B_, in so far as the former contains halls and the
latter but cells. Still the fact is interesting that, whereas the great
northern pueblos have each but one house alone, here, for the south, we
have already two buildings within one and the same enclosure, similar in
form and size to those of Central America. I call attention to this
fact, though well remembering at the same time the friendly advice of
Major J. W. Powell, the distinguished chief of the Bureau of Ethnology
at Washington, "not to attempt to trace relationships."

[123] _Relation du Voyage de Cibola_, ii. cap. v. p. 176.

[124] I am informed by Governor Wallace, and have permission to quote
him, that these elevated plateaux grow exceedingly tall wheat, rye, and
oats. He has seen oats whose stalks were 6 feet long and 1-3/4 inches in
diameter. The heads were proportionally large.

[125] He became adopted, as I am told, from being, as a boy, assistant
to the sacristan of the church of Pecos.

[126] It was Mr. John D. McRae who, together with Mr. Thomas Munn, led
me to this spot. Subsequently the former, who has been for nearly twenty
years among the northern Indians (in Canada and Oregon), gave me some
valuable information in regard to their sign-language. He affirms that
it is very highly developed and extensively practised by them; that
tribes of entirely different stock-languages can converse with each
other freely; and that he was himself present at one time when the Crees
and the Blackfeet arranged for a pitched fight on the day to follow, the
parley consisting almost exclusively of signs. Thus, killing is
indicated by the spanning of a bow and the motion of throwing down;
walking, by shoving both hands forwards successively, etc.; the time of
day is very correctly given by describing an arc from E. to W. (facing
S.) up to the point where the sun stands at the specified hour. These
signs are not new to my distinguished friend, Lieutenant-Colonel G.
Mallery, to whom science owes the gift of this new branch of inquiry,
but still they are interesting to those who may be less familiar with
it. In regard to connection of this "sign-language" and Indian
"pictography," Mr. McRae has told me the following: Whenever an Indian
breaks up his camp, and wishes to leave behind him information in what
direction and how far he is going, he plants into the ground near the
fire a twig or stick, and breaks it so that it forms an acute angle,
planting the other end in the ground also in the direction in which he
intends to camp the following evening. The following would very well
give the appearance of this little mark, assuming the Indian to travel
from N. to S.:--

[Illustration]

If he intends to go S. for three days it will look thus:--

[Illustration]

Fractional days are indicated by corresponding shorter limbs. If his
direction is first S. and then E., this would be a top view of the bent
twig, assuming that he travels two days S. and three days W.:--

[Illustration]

The connection between this expedient and sign-language, knowing that,
as Dr. W. J. Hoffmann, of Washington City, has informed me, the sign for
"lodge" is an imitation of the tent,--that is, holding both hands up and
the tips of the fingers together at a steep angle,--becomes very
apparent. Through it pictography is easily reached.

[127] Sr. E. Vigil has just informed me that the notion is current that
all the Indians of the New Mexican pueblos buried their dead in this
manner. Among the Mexicans and the Christianized Indians it is the rule
to bury the dead around the church or in sight of it.

[128] There is still another ruin much farther down the railroad, near
to a place called "El Pueblo." I was informed of its existence, but have
not as yet been able to visit it.

[129] Or rather towards the pueblo of San Cristóval. The latter was the
chief place of the Tanos Indians, of which stock there are still a few
left at the town of Galisteo.

[130] The following is an approximate sketch of these structures. This
sketch is made without reference to size or plan, merely in order to
show the relative position of the graves (_a_, _a_, _a_, _a_). It will
be seen that the analogy with the grave of mound _V_, building _A_, is
very striking; also with the grave discovered by Mr. Walters, and the
wall above the corrugated pottery west of the Arroyo de Pecos.

[Illustration: Graves]

[131] To judge from the report of General Simpson (p. 68), these early
traditions must be very meagre. His informant, the celebrated
"Hoosta-Nazlé," is now dead. Of the Pecos adults then living at Santo
Domingo, a daughter is still alive, and married to an Indian of the
latter pueblo. General (then lieutenant) Simpson was at Jemez in 1849.

[132] _Memoria del Descubrimiento_, etc., p. 238. "Tienen mucha loza de
los colorados y pintadas y negras, platos, caxetes, saleros, almoficos,
xicaras muy galanas, alguna de la loza esta vidriada."

[133] W. H. Holmes, _Geographical Survey_, part iii., p. 404, plate
xliv. "This plate is intended to illustrate the corrugated and indented
ware. Heretofore specimens of this class have been quite rare, as it is
not made by any of the modern tribes."

[134] Holmes, pp. 404, 405.

[135] Even the _estufa_ and the _almacena_ are found. The round
depression near the road to the Rio Pecos (marked _L_ on the general
plan) is evidently an Estufa, while the circular ruin which I met upon
the apron of the mesa during my ascent appears very much like a
storehouse.

[136] House _A_ alone appears in these reports; but from the statement
that the tribe mustered 500 warriors, it seems probable that _B_ was
also inhabited. 2,500 souls could hardly have found room in the 585
cells of _A_, The number of warriors given is doubtless a loose
estimate.

[137] San Diego, now in ruins, about 13 miles N. of the pueblo Jemez,
was the old pueblo of that tribe. It was the scene of a bloody struggle
in 1692, according to the story of Hoosta-Nazlé, given to General
Simpson in 1849. _Reconnoissance_, etc., p. 68. Diego de Vargas
(_Carta_, Oct. 16, 1692), _Documentos para la Historia de México_, 3a
séries, i. p. 131. "Los Gemex y los de Santo-Domingo se hallaban en otro
tambien nuevo, dentro de la Sierra, á tres leguas del pueblo antiguo de
Gemex." Nearly all the pueblos, upon the approach of the Spaniards, fled
to steep and high mesas.

[138] This is the same cañon whose source on the "Mesa de Pecos" I have
visited, and where the great bell was found. It is the natural pathway,
from the W. and S. W., up to the heights overlooking the valley of
Pecos.

[139] A. S. Gatchet, _Zwölf Sprachen aus dem Südwesten Nord-Amerika's_,
Weimar, 1876, p. 41.

[140] I infer it from the fact that it is not noticed previous to 1680.
Agustin de Vetancurt, _Crónica de la Provincia del Santo Evangelio en
México_, edition of 1871, pp. 310, 311. It then contained 2,000
"Tiguas;" but the church dedicated to San Antonio de Padua had just been
brought under cover when the rebellion broke out.

[141] Castañeda, ii. cap. v. pp. 178, 179.

[142] Castañeda, pp. 189, 190. Jaramillo, pp. 372-382. Francisco Vasquez
de Coronado, _Letter to Charles V._, dated Tigues, Oct. 20, 1541.
Appendix to _Voyage de Cibola_, pp. 356-359.

[143] _Historia Verdadera de la Conquista de Nueva España_. Very
valuable, but much influenced by personal views and prejudice.

[144] Fray Luis Descalona, a lay brother, who remained at Pecos in 1543,
may have had a hand in this report. Castañeda, iii. cap. iv. pp. 214,
215. Jaramillo, p. 380.

[145] Castañeda, pp. 176, 177.

[146] Id., xii. p. 68.

[147] Id., i. p. 68; ii. cap. vii. p. 188.

[148] Id., i. p. 69.

[149] _Relation del Suceso de la Jornada que Francisco Vazquez hizo en
el Descubrimiento de Cibola_, in vol. xiv. of the Documentos del Archivo
de Indias, p. 325. "De unos Indios que se hallaron en este pueblo de
Acuique" This would make it very important to consult the original
manuscript of Castañeda in order to ascertain if "Cicuyé" is not really
"Acuyé." The latter word would be identical almost with "Âqiu." The name
Pecos itself belongs to the Qq'uêres language of New Mexico, and is
pronounced "Pae-qo." It is applied to the inhabitants of the pueblo, the
place itself being called "Pae-yoq'ona." The first mention of it under
the name of Pecos is found in the documents of the year 1598, after the
general meeting of Juan de Oñate with the pueblo Indians in the _estufa_
of Santo Domingo (a Qq'uêres village).

[150] Castañeda, ii. cap. viii. pp. 194, 195; iii. cap. iv. p. 214.
Jaramillo, p. 380. Vetancurt, _Menologio Franciscano_, Nov. 30, p. 386.
Juan de Torquemada, _Monarchia Indiana_, first edition, 1614, lib. xxi.
p. 689.

[151] Castañeda, ii. pp. 194, 195.

[152] Vetancurt, _Menologio_, pp. 412-422. He calls him Rodriguez.
Espejo, _Viaje_, etc., Hackluyt, iii. Gerónimo de Zarate Salmeron, p. 9.

[153] This is plain from the description, although Juan de Oñate
(_Discurso de la Jornada que hizo el Capitan de su Magestad desde la
Nueva-España á la Provincia de la Nueva-México, Archivos de Indias_,
vol. xvi. p. 258) says of the "gran pueblo de los Peccos, y es el que
Espejo llama la provincia de Tamos."

[154] Castaño, _Descubrimiento_, etc., p. 244. The "vigas grandes," in
the _estufa_, recalls the great tree across the northern _estufa_ in the
court of A.

[155] Oñate, _Jornada_, p. 244.

[156] _Obediencia_, etc., _Archivos_, xvi. p. 113.

[157] pp. 371, 372.

[158] pp. 371, 372.

[159] p. 179.

[160] Fray Francisco de Apodaca, native of Cantabria, was commissary
from 1627 till 1633. Vetancurt, _Menologio_, p. 464. Davis, _Conquest of
New Mexico_, cap. xxxv. p. 278.

[161] Published in vol. i. of 3a séries of _Documentos para la Historia
de México_. In consequence of it, Fray Estiban de Perea came to New
Mexico with thirty priests. Vetancurt, _Crónica_, p. 300. "Con cuyo
ejemplo y enseñanza se poblaron treinta y siete casas de diferentes
naciones," among which the Pecos.

[162] Jean Blaeu, _Douzième Volume de la Géographie Blaviane, contenant
l'Amérique_, etc., Amsterdam, 1667, p. 62. He says Picuries, but it must
be Pecos. "Avec un seul bourg, mais grandement peuplé, où il y a un
temple somptueux." Vetancurt, Crónica, etc., p. 323. "Tenia á nuestra
Señora de los Angeles de Porciúncula un templo magnífico, con seis
torres, tres de cada lado, adornado; las paredes tan anchas que en sus
concavidades estaban hechas oficinas." There are still, in the church of
the plaza of Pecos, three paintings out of that church,--one on
buffalo-hide, representing Nra. Sra. de Guadalupe, and two on cloth,
with Our Lady of the Angels painted on it. The last two are very good.

[163] Blaeu, p. 62.

[164] Vetancurt, _Crónica_, p. 323.

[165] Ibid.

[166] Oñate, p. 258.

[167] _Apuntamientos_, etc., p. 104.

[168] "Este Cuaderno se cree ser de un Religioso de la Provincia del
Santo Evangelio" (_Anonymous Report on New Mexico_), Documentos, 3a
série, vol. i. p. 127.

[169] Davis, cap. xlii. p. 329.

[170] Escalante, _Letter_, p. 123. Diego de Vargas, _Carta á S. E._,
etc., p. 129.

[171] Davis, cap. xlv. pp. 348, 349.

[172] Davis, cap. l. p. 396; cap. li. p. 402.

[173] Niel, p. 104. Escalante, p. 123.

[174] Niel, pp. 104-106. Escalante, p. 122. Gobierno de Don Francisco
Cubero y Valdes, _Documentos_, 3a série, vol. i. p. 194.

[175] Gobierno de Don Francisco Cubero y Valdes, p. 195. In 1712 the
pueblo of Pojuaque (north of Santa Fé) contained but seventy-nine
inhabitants,--all Tehuas.

[176] Niel, p. 104. "De los Pecos quedaron mas."

[177] The Apaches were in intercourse with Taos until 1700 A.D. _Sesto
Cuaderno, Documentos_, 3a série, i. p. 180.

[178] _Historical Sketch of Santa Fé_, pp. 22, 23, in the pamphlet on
_Centennial Celebration_, 1876. It is the only printed report in
existence, except a very short one by Judge K. Benedict, on the revolt
of 1837.

[179] I have not as yet been able to consult the archives of San Miguel
County, at Las Vegas, in regard to the different "Deeds" then executed.
Therefore I forbear mentioning even the names of the grantees of which I
was informed.

[180] The Hon. W. G. Ritch is in possession of a number of highly
interesting data gathered from the Indians in relation to the sacred
fire. All of these he has, in the kindest manner, placed at my disposal.
I, however, defer their mention for a future report, in connection, as I
hope, with the pueblo of Jemez. I shall but refer here to a single one.
There were, formerly, several fires burning. One of these, that of the
_cacique_, was never permitted to go out, so that, in case one of the
others should accidentally become extinguished, it could always be
rekindled from the "extra-holy" one.

[181] Even Ruiz affirmed that the tale, as far as the Pecos were
concerned, was certainly true. He never could get to see the reptile,
however. It is a rattlesnake (_cascabel_).

[182] I am informed by Mr. Miller that blocks or "chunks" of obsidian,
as large as a fist or larger, are found in the Arroyo de Taos. This
would be about 60 miles north of Santa Fé.

[183] In regard to the regular indentation of arrow-heads, I was
informed by Mr. Debrant, then incidentally at Baughl's (on the 4th of
September), that these were produced by contact with fire. Applying a
glowing coal (the end of a burning stick) to the edge of the flint, and
blowing on it steadily, after a few seconds a speck of the mineral will
fly off, leaving a groove or indentation proportionate in size to the
coal used and to the length of time applied. Thus, an arrow-head may be
indented in a very short time, which would be impossible by chipping.

[184] Moss-agate is also found, but rarely.

[185] Compare W. H. Holmes, _U. S. Geographical Survey_, 1876, p. 404.

[186] That stones were used, both in offensive as well as in defensive
warfare, is proven by Castañeda, ii. cap. v. p. 178; i. cap. xii. p. 69.
It is possible that the pebbles used were kept on the roofs, as was the
custom among the ancient Mexicans.

[187] Thus the probability of the destruction of a part of Pecos by the
Tanos, on the 10th of August, 1680, is still further increased.

[188] Therefore the massacre of all their available men by the
Comanches, already mentioned. I could not as yet find the date of the
event. It is a well-known tradition, however. It occurred in the _moro_.

[189] That constant guard was kept on the housetops is stated by
Castañeda, ii. p. 179.

[190] The defensive constructions of the pueblos, as late as 1540, were
the houses. The wall of Pecos is an exception. Castañeda says (i. cap.
xiv. p. 80): "As these villages have no streets, that all the houses are
of the same height and common to all the inhabitants, these large houses
must be captured first, because they are the points of defence."

[191] The church of Pecos, although it had lost all its former splendor,
still was used till about 1840. Afterwards it was abandoned.


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|                      Transcriber’s Note                            |
| Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as |
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