THE OLD SANTA FE TRAIL, COLONEL HENRY INMAN [well read books .txt] 📗
- Author: COLONEL HENRY INMAN
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Road To Mexico, Where Doubtless He Arrived.
Charlevoix,[2] Who Travelled from Quebec To New Orleans In the
Year 1721, Says In one Of His Letters To The Duchess Of Lesdiguieres,
Dated at Kaskaskia, July 21, 1721:
About Two Years Ago Some Spaniards, Coming, As They Say,
From New Mexico, And Intending To Get Into The Country Of
The Illinois And Drive The French From Thence, Whom They
Saw With Extreme Jealousy Approach So Near The Missouri,
Came Down The River And Attacked two Villages Of The
Octoyas,[3] Who Are The Allies Of The Ayouez,[4] And From
Whom It Is Said Also That They Are Derived. As The Savages
Had No Firearms And Were Surprised, The Spaniards Made An
Easy Conquest And Killed a Great Many Of Them. A Third
Village, Which Was Not Far Off From The Other Two, Being
Informed of What Had Passed, And Not Doubting But These
Conquerors Would Attack Them, Laid An Ambush Into Which
The Spaniards Heedlessly Fell. Others Say That The Savages,
Having Heard That The Enemy Were Almost All Drunk And
Fast Asleep, Fell Upon Them In the Night. However It Was,
It Is Certain The Greater Part Of Them Were Killed.
There Were In the Party Two Almoners; One Of Them Was
Killed directly And The Other Got Away To The Missouris,
Who Took Him Prisoner, But He Escaped them Very Dexterously.
He Had A Very Fine Horse And The Missouris Took Pleasure
In seeing Him Ride It, Which He Did Very Skilfully. He Took
Advantage Of Their Curiosity To Get Out Of Their Hands.
One Day As He Was Prancing and Exercising His Horse Before
Them, He Got A Little Distance From Them Insensibly; Then
Suddenly Clapping Spurs To His Horse He Was Soon Out Of Sight.
The Missouri Indians Once Occupied all The Territory Near The Junction
Of The Kaw And Missouri Rivers, But They Were Constantly Decimated
By The Continual Depredations Of Their Warlike And Feudal Enemies,
The Pawnees And Sioux, And At Last Fell A Prey To That Dreadful
Scourge, The Small-Pox, Which Swept Them Off By Thousands.
The Remnant Of The Once Powerful Tribe Then Found Shelter And A Home
With The Otoes, Finally Becoming Merged in that Tribe.
Chapter I (Under The Spaniards)The Santa Fe Of The Purely Mexican Occupation, Long Before The Days
Of New Mexico'S Acquisition By The United states, And The Santa Fe Of
To-Day Are So Widely In contrast That It Is Difficult To Find Language
In Which To Convey To The Reader The Story Of The Phenomenal Change.
To Those Who Are Acquainted with The Charming Place As It Is Now,
With Its Refined and Cultured society, I Cannot Do Better, Perhaps,
In Attempting To Show What It Was Under The Old Regime, Than To Quote
What Some Traveller In the Early 30'S Wrote For A New York Leading
Newspaper, In regard To It. As Far As My Own Observation Of The
Place Is Concerned, When I First Visited it A Great Many Years Ago,
The Writer Of The Communication Whose Views I Now Present Was Not
Incorrect In his Judgment. He Said:--
To Dignify Such A Collection Of Mud Hovels With The Name
Of "City," Would Be A Keen Irony; Not Greater, However,
Than Is The Name With Which Its Padres Have Baptized it.
To Call A Place With Its Moral Character, A Very Sodom
In iniquity, "Holy Faith," Is Scarcely A Venial Sin;
It Deserves Purgatory At Least. Its Health Is The Best
In the Country, Which Is The First, Second And Third
Recommendation Of New Mexico By Its Greatest Admirers.
It Is A Small Town Of About Two Thousand Inhabitants,
Crowded up Against The Mountains, At The End Of A Little
Valley Through Which Runs A Mountain Stream Of The Same
Name Tributary To The Rio Grande. It Has A Public Square
In the Centre, A Palace And An Alameda; As All Spanish
Roman Catholic Towns Have. It Is True Its Plaza, Or
Public Square, Is Unfenced and Uncared for, Without Trees
Or Grass. The Palace Is Nothing More Than The Biggest
Mud-House In the Town, And The Churches, Too, Are Unsightly
Piles Of The Same Material, And The Alameda[5] Is On Top Of
A Sand Hill. Yet They Have In santa Fe All The Parts And
Parcels Of A Regal City And A Bishopric. The Bishop Has A
Palace Also; The Only Two-Storied shingle-Roofed house In
The Place. There Is One Public House Set Apart For Eating,
Drinking and Gambling; For Be It Known That Gambling Is Here
Authorized by Law. Hence It Is As Respectable To Keep A
Gambling House, As It Is To Sell Rum In new Jersey; It Is
A Lawful Business, And Being Lawful, And Consequently
Respectable And A Man'S Right, Why Should Not Men Gamble?
And Gamble They Do. The Generals And The Colonels And
The Majors And The Captains Gamble. The Judges And The
Lawyers And The Doctors And The Priests Gamble; And There
Are Gentlemen Gamblers By Profession! You Will See Squads
Of Poor Peons Daily, Men, Women And Boys, Sitting On The
Ground Around A Deck Of Cards In the Public Square, Gambling
For The Smallest Stakes.
The Stores Of The Town Generally Front On The Public Square.
Of These There Are A Dozen, More Or Less, Of Respectable
Size, And Most Of Them Are Kept By Others Than Mexicans.
The Business Of The Place Is Considerable, Many Of The
Merchants Here Being Wholesale Dealers For The Vast
Territory Tributary. It Is Supposed that About $750,000
Worth Of Goods Will Be Brought To This Place This Year, And
There May Be $250,000 Worth Imported directly From The
United states.
In the Money Market There Is Nothing Less Than A Five-Cent
Piece. You Cannot Purchase Anything For Less Than Five Cents.
In trade They Reckon Ten Cents The Eighth Of A Dollar.
If You Purchase Nominally A Dollar'S Worth Of An Article,
You Can Pay For It In eight Ten-Cent Pieces; And If You
Give A Dollar, You Receive No Change. In changing a Dollar
For You, You Would Get But Eight Ten-Cent Pieces For It.
Yet, Although Dirty And Unkempt, And Swarming With Hungry
Dogs, It Has The Charm Of Foreign Flavour, And Like
San Antonio Retains Some Portion Of The Grace Which Long
Lingered about It, If Indeed it Ever Forsakes The Spot
Where Spain Held Rule For Centuries, And The Soft Syllables
Of The Spanish Language Are Yet Heard.
Such Was A Description Of The "Drowsy Old Town" Of Santa Fe,
Sixty-Five Years Ago. Fifteen Years Later Major W. H. Emory, Of
The United states Army, Writes Of It As Follows:[6]
The Population Of Santa Fe Is From Two To Four Thousand,
And The Inhabitants Are, It Is Said, The Poorest People
Of Any Town In the Province. The Houses Are Mud Bricks,
In the Spanish Style, Generally Of One Story, And Built
On A Square. The Interior Of The Square Is An Open Court,
And The Principal Rooms Open Into It. They Are Forbidding
In appearance From The Outside, But Nothing Can Exceed
The Comfort And Convenience Of The Interior. The Thick
Walls Make Them Cool In summer And Warm In winter.
The Better Class Of People Are Provided with Excellent Beds,
But The Poorer Class Sleep On Untanned skins. The Women
Here, As In many Other Parts Of The World, Appear To Be
Much Before The Men In refinements, Intelligence, And
Knowledge Of The Useful Arts. The Higher Class Dress Like
The American Women, Except, Instead Of A Bonnet, They Wear
A Scarf Over Their Head, Called a Reboso. This They Wear
Asleep Or Awake, In the House Or Abroad. The Dress Of The
Lower Classes Of Women Is A Simple Petticoat, With Arms And
Shoulders Bare, Except What May Chance To Be Covered by
The Reboso.
The Men Who Have Means To Do So Dress After Our Fashion;
But By Far The Greater Number, When They Dress At All,
Wear Leather Breeches, Tight Around The Hips And Open From
The Knee Down; Shirt And Blanket Take The Place Of Our
Coat And Vest.
The City Is Dependent On The Distant Hills For Wood, And
At All Hours Of The Day May Be Seen Jackasses Passing Laden
With Wood, Which Is Sold At Two Bits, Twenty-Five Cents,
The Load. These Are The Most Diminutive Animals, And
Usually Mounted from Behind, After The Fashion Of Leap-Frog.
The Jackass Is The Only Animal That Can Be Subsisted in
This Barren Neighbourhood Without Great Expense; Our Horses
Are All Sent To A Distance Of Twelve, Fifteen, And Thirty
Miles For Grass.
I Have Interpolated these Two Somewhat Similar Descriptions Of
Santa Fe Written In that Long Ago When New Mexico Was Almost As
Little Known As The Topography Of The Planet Mars, So That The
Intelligent Visitor Of To-Day May Appreciate The Wonderful Changes
Which American Thrift, And That Powerful Civilizer, The Locomotive,
Have Wrought In a Very Few Years, Yet It Still, As One Of The
Foregoing Writers Has Well Said, "Has The Charm Of Foreign Flavour,
And The Soft Syllables Of The Spanish Language Are Still Heard."
The Most Positive Exception Must Be Taken To The Statement Of The
First-Quoted writer In relation To The Palace, Of Which He Says
"It Is Nothing More Than The Biggest Mud-House In the Town."
Now This "Palacio Del Gobernador," As The Old Building Was Called
By The Spanish, Was Erected at A Very Early Day. It Was The
Long-Established seat Of Power When Penalosa Confined the Chief
Inquisitor Within Its Walls In 1663, And When The Pueblo Authorities
Took Possession Of It As The Citadel Of Their Central Authority,
In 1681.
The Old Building Cannot Well Be Overlooked by The Most Careless
Visitor To The Quaint Town; It Is A Long, Low Structure, Taking Up
The Greater Part Of One Side Of The Plaza, Round Which Runs A
Colonnade Supported by Pillars Of Rough Pine. In this Once Leaky
Old Palace Were Kept, Or Rather Neglected, The Archives Of The
Territory Until The American Residents, Appreciating The Importance
Of Preserving Precious Documents Containing So Much Of Interest
To The Student Of History And The Antiquarian, Enlisted themselves
Enthusiastically In the Good Cause, And Have Rescued from Oblivion
The Annals Of A Relatively Remote Civilization, Which, But For Their
Forethought, Would Have Perished from The Face Of The Earth As
Completely As Have The Written Records Of That Wonderful Region In
Central America, Whose Gigantic Ruins Alone Remain To Tell Us Of
What Was A Highly Cultured order Of Architecture In past Ages,
And Of A People Whose Intelligence Was Comparable To The Style
Of The Dwellings In which They Lived.
The Old Adobe Palace Is In itself A Volume Whose Pages Are Filled
With Pathos And Stirring Events. It Has Been The Scene And Witness
Of Incidents The Recital Of Which Would To Us To-Day Seem Incredible.
An Old Friend, Once Governor Of New Mexico And Now Dead, Thus
Graphically Spoke Of The Venerable Building:[7]
In it Lived and Ruled the Spanish Captain General, So Remote
And Inaccessible From The Viceroyalty At Mexico That He Was
In effect A King, Nominally Accountable To The Viceroy,
But Practically Beyond His Reach And Control And Wholly
Irresponsible To The People. Equally Independent For The
Same Reason Were The Mexican Governors. Here Met All The
Provincial, Territorial, Departmental, And Other Legislative
Bodies That Have Ever Assembled at The Capital Of New Mexico.
Here Have Been Planned all The Indian Wars And Measures
For Defence
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