Part 11 (2/2)

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 Doc.u.ment_ 41, Was.h.i.+ngton, 1848. _Meteorological Observations_, p. 163.

Camp 44, half-mile south of the Pecos, Aug. 17, 1846, alt.i.tude 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 alt.i.tude of Santa Fe 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 a.s.sisted 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 quant.i.ty 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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. Jose Amando Niel, _Apuntamientos que sobre el Terreno hizo el ... Annotations to the history of_ Fray Geronimo Zarate Salmeron, in _Doc.u.mentos para la Historia de Mexico_, 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 Leon 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 Doc.u.ment_ 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 alt.i.tude 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-Fe 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 Castaneda 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.

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