Part 11 (1/2)

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 ap.r.o.n 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 coa.r.s.e, 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 coa.r.s.e 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 Nambe, 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 varnis.h.i.+ng of the ornamental surfaces. I say varnis.h.i.+ng,[185] and not ”glazing;” for, although I believe the gla.s.sy 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 circ.u.mvallation 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 (”Tenucht.i.tlan”) the water formed the protective circ.u.mvallation; 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 circ.u.mvallation, 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 Fe, Sept. 17, 1880.

To PROFESSOR C. E. NORTON, _President of the Archaeological Inst.i.tute of America, Cambridge, Ma.s.s._

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 Fe, made to the inhabitants of the Indian pueblo of Pecos in New Mexico.

The language of the doc.u.ment is not altogether clear, but the essential terms are distinct:--

[Sidenote: Ano de 1689]

[Sidenote: MERCED CONCEDIDA a 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 anos el Senor 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 Bartolome de Ojeda que fue el que mas se senalo en la vatalla acudiendo a 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 a donde el sol sale y fueron unos Yndios Apostatas de aquel Reyno de la Nueva Mexico.

Preguntado que si este Pu.^o volvera en algun tiempo como ha sido constumbre en ellos y dice el confesante que no que ya esta muy metido en terror que aunque estaban abilantados con lo que les habia susedido a los de el Pu.^o de Zia el ano pasado juzgaba que era un imposible que dejaran de dar la obediencia; por lo cual se concedieron por el Senor 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 a salvo el templo que queda al medio dia del Pu.^o y asi lo proveyo mando y firmo susc^a [?] a mi el presente Secretario de Gov.^on y Guerra que de ello doy fe.

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 Bartholome de Ojeda, who had greatly distinguished himself in the fight, a.s.sisting 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.