Part 4 (2/2)
Starting back from Santa Fe 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 spa.r.s.ely: 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 _pinon_ (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 Canoncito, 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 Fe, 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 grat.i.tude), 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 gra.s.sy 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 ma.s.sive former Catholic temple of Pecos.
[Ill.u.s.tration: 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: _a_ _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 _canada_ of the Ojo de Vacas stream, towards San Cristobal. 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 a.s.serting his t.i.tle of owners.h.i.+p; 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.
[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 workmans.h.i.+p, 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 pa.s.sage-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]
[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 ma.s.ses.
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 circ.u.mvallation, 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 pa.s.sage of entering and re-entering lines, between which there was a pa.s.sage, 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.
[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE IX VIEW OF GATEWAY OF CIRc.u.mVALLATION, 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.
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