Page:Memoir of a tour to northern Mexico.djvu/29

Rh Since the commencement of the Santa Fe trade, the Mexicans there have been accustomed to see strangers among them; and the trading companies from the United States are anxiously looked for by the government and people of Santa Fe, because they fill the empty pockets of the one, and provide the other with the necessaries and comforts of life. Santa Fe receives nearly all its goods from the United States, and some foreigners, mostly Americans and Frenchmen, generally reside there for commercial purposes. Among the then foreign residents of Santa Fe, it affords me pleasure to recollect Mr. Houghton, Mr. Alvarez, and others, who gave me in relation to the country all the information in their power to give.

As to the Santa Fe trade carried on between the United States and New Mexico, I cannot add anything to what has been published already by Dr. J. Gregg, in the “Commerce of the Prairies,” to which interesting work I refer the reader, in relation to it. I will mention, only, that on an average the annual amount of merchandise carried there is estimated at half a million of dollars.

After a week, Mr. Speyer had finished his business in Santa Fe, and resolved to go on to Chihuahua. No further news had during that time been received either from below or from the plains. In this state of uncertainty, I thought it best, instead of waiting idle in Santa Fe for the possible arrival of an army over the plains, to spend my time more usefully by extending my excursion as far as Chihuahua, where, according to all accounts, everything was as quiet as in Santa Fe. Besides, I had a passport from Governor Armijo, drawn up in the usual form, and securing my retreat in case of necessity.

Mr. Speyer’s caravan was encamped five miles west of Santa Fe, in Agua Fria, and was ready to start on the 9th.

July 8.–I left. Santa Fe for the camp in Agua Fria.

July 9.–The caravan started on the usual road, by Algodones, for the Rio del Norte. But being anxious myself to examine the celebrated gold mines of New Mexico, the old and new Placer, in a range of mountains southwest from Santa Fe, I intended to make first from here this out of the way excursion, and to join the caravan afterwards on the Rio del Norte, near Albuquerque. I started, therefore, in this direction, riding alone and taking nothing along but my arms and a pair of saddle-bags.

The distance from here to old Placer is about 25 miles; from Santa Fe, 27. In a southern direction I rode through the valley that separates the mountains east of Santa Fe from the chain of the Placers. This valley is about 25 miles broad, very sandy and sterile, covered with artemisia, and nearer the foot of the Placer mountains with dwarfish cedars. Travelling along a low chain of hills that form an outward wall to the mountains of old Placer, I passed by two springs, on the first of which I found sienite; on the other a fresh-water limestone. Ascending afterwards to the hills, I met everywhere with a red and brown sandstone, looser or more compact, and with large masses of petrified wood. From here the ascent to the mountains is rather rapid till a plain is gained, from which a fine retrospective view is enjoyed towards Santa Fe, and over the whole valley. Pine and cedar cover the mountains all around. Slightly ascending from the plain for some miles, a narrow ravine between high walls of mountains suddenly opposes further advance, and about 20 houses are seen hanging on both sides of the narrow valley. This solitary place is el Real de Dolores, or, as