Page:All the Year Round - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/551

Charles Dickens] yoke, nor to let the fire burn out in the estufa; for when the time came in when the tree should fall, men with pale faces would pour into the land from the east and overthrow their oppressors, and he himself would return to build up his kingdom; the earth would again become fertile, and the mountains yield abundance of silver and gold. Then Montezuma departed and travelled southward, spreading pueblos far and wide, until he reached the city of Mexico, where he lived until the enemy, in the form of the Spaniards, arrived, when he disappeared." The pueblo Indians say that Montezuma's prophecy has been literally fulfilled. Soon after Montezuma returned to the Great Spirit, the enemy, in the form of Spaniards, came, conquered, and enslaved them. Although they could not shake off the oppressors, still they kept the holy fire burning, and tried to dwell in peace with all men. The Spaniards added many buildings to the town, and lived there amongst them until about the middle of the last century, when the wild Indians of the mountains attacked and desolated Pecos, driving away and murdering its inhabitants. Nevertheless, amidst the havoc and plunder of the place, a faithful few amongst the Indians managed to keep the fire burning in the estufa, until at last the deliverers, with "pale faces, poured in from the east," and the tree at Pecos fell to the ground as the American army entered Santa Fé. Then the remnant of the tribe, which in 1808 only numbered one hundred and thirty-five souls, left the ruined fortress, and brought the sacred fire with them to the pueblo of Jemez, to which place their companions had migrated years before. Here they were kindly received by the Indians of that pueblo, who helped them to build acequias and houses, and to sow and gather in their crops; droughts no longer desolated the land, but copious showers still bring wealth and happiness to the chosen people of the great prince.

The ruins of Quarra consist, like those of Pecos, of a church, a large Aztec building, now a heap of stones and rubbish, and numerous foundations of smaller houses, probably of Spanish or Mexican origin. The church is built of red sandstone, in the form of a cross; the length of nave and chancel is a hundred and forty feet, that of the transept is fifty feet; the widths respectively are thirty-three to eighteen feet; the walls are two feet thick and sixty feet high.

At Abo there is also a ruined church, cruciform in shape, the arms being respectively twenty-seven and a hundred and twenty-nine feet; it is built of small, beautifully cut stones, placed together with the utmost nicety. Other extensive ruins are scattered around it.

At Gran Quivera, there are extensive ruins of Spanish buildings, having the arms of different families; but there are other ruins, undoubtedly of Indian origin, which fully carry out the statement of the historian Venegas and others, that this ancient pueblo was a large fortress, consisting of seven terraces, rising in steps one from the other. The remains of large acequias are to be seen in the vicinity both of Gran Quivera and Quarra. So much for the ruins of the Rio Grande basins.

There are not, to my knowledge, any ruined pueblos as far north as the main valley of the Rio San Juan, but there are several upon its two most southern tributaries, the Rio de Chelly and the Cañon de Chaco. The most remarkable are the Pueblos Pintado, Una Vida, Wegegi, Hungo Pavie, and Bonito—all on the latter stream. Besides these, there are five others in a more ruined state. The Pueblo Pintado has three stories, its whole elevation being about thirty feet. The walls are built of small flat slabs of grey, fine-grained sandstone, two inches and a half thick, and are put together with much art and ingenuity by means of a kind of mortar made without lime. At a distance they have the appearance of mosaic work. The thickness of the outer wall of the first story is one yard at the base, diminishing at each successive story, until the top wall scarcely exceeds one foot. There are, as usual, no external openings in the ground floor. The length of the edifice is three hundred and ninety feet; the ground floor contains fifty-three rooms, which open into each other by means of very small doors, in many instances only thirty-three inches square. The floors are made of rough beams, over which cross-beams are laid, and above all is a coating of bark and brushwood covered over with mortar. The wood appears to have been cut with some blunt instrument.

The ruins of Wegegi are similar to those of Pintado, being six hundred and ninety feet in length, and having ninety-nine rooms on the ground floor. The Pueblo Una Vida is no less than nine hundred and eighty-four feet long, and the Pueblo Bonito is still more extensive. The estufa of the latter is very large, and in a fair state of preservation; it is a hundred and eighty feet in circumference, and the walls are regularly