The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1874-11-07
New M exico.


mined on By the gents Sojourning there, and
the Indian town of San Juan On the banks of
the Rio Grandc some thirty miles d,stant,was
selected as the place where they should go to
spend short time seeing tAc sights and en-
j0yiEg themselves.
A team and carriage were hired for the oc.
casion, and equipped with camping utensils,
provisions, photograph outfit, sketch book
and writing materials that we might render
permanent the scenes of beauty and the oddi-
ties, and record passing events which other
wise would be but fading pictures in the
minds album, which in time would leave
place to other scenes and events, or perhaps
painted and touched up from time to time,
by q lively imagi nation, a mud domici! might
turn into palace, or greasy Indian into
proud monarch We started, and for three
miles rode up hill, though the evergreen &C.
dar covered hills which surround Santa Fc
to the divide between the Rio Santa Fe and
the Rio Fosuque. Here broke upon us one of
the many grand views of the great west.
East are the Santa Fe mountains with canon
rent sides and snow covered tops. In one of
the largest canons heads the Rio Fosuquc
and the eye can trace ii, course clear from
the fields of STOW, through the back,Canon
among the Cedarclad hills into the open val,
ley, dotted with farm houses and green fields,
and so on for twenty miles till at the fo,t of
a lone mesa, where stands the Indian Pueblo
of San La.onsa, 1t drops into the Rio Grandc
on the west The horizon is bounded by the
IIemas range of mountains which as they go
north gradually break into stecpsided flat.
topped mesas. In the far north the noun
tains melt into ETHEREAL blue, while far off
among them we can trace the course OF the
Rio Grande del Nortc, where it issues from
the Taos canon and follows il for a hundred
miles till it is los. in another canon at the
base OF the Hcmas mountains. From here
We go down gentle grade into the Fosuque
valley through Mexican settlement leaving
to the left the picturesque. Indian village of
| FoSuquc with its big mud church nestled
among the orchards Another short jaunt
over the hills and we are in Nambay on the
Rio Nambay. Here We stopped few minutes
to see French Boque, not boquct of how-
e-s, but Frenchman by that name. From
here is long road over a range os dreary
hills, which conveys the idea that the allies,
! time and the elements, have had battle with
the hills, and the hills have gotten the worst
of il. They arc scanned into all fantastic
shapes, the fronts Of some are guarded by q
| line Of clay butcs with broad spreading sand
stone caps, reminding one of a platoon of
Cinnamon with their broad brimmed hats.
One grand old castle stands out by Itself,
with walls hundred feet high, towers, para.
pets and loop.holes, and we could almost i'm
agine we saw hosts of armed men passing to
and fro on her walls, so much did she look
| like . work of mans devisng. A little fur
ther on we crossed the Rio Chiquito, and raj.
tied through the Mexican town of Santa Graz
a town where there were more churches than
dwelling houses, and more crosses than peo
pie, where everything looked as If it had seen
its best day. The people looked sleepy and
even the goats and dogs seemed to partake of
the general laziness through here We
were again fairly in the valley OF the Rio
Grandc here seven or eight miles wide and
nearly all under cultivation. Several small
towns were in sight, here and there we would
catch glimpse Of the river as 1t wound
through the valley which was everywhere
dotted with groves Of cotton wood. AS we
approached San Jeau we met Indians on the
road with pack burros returning from mar.
ke or coming from the fields. At the ace.
quias Tie sqUaws were washing or going to
and from the town with huge ear,hen Jars on
their heads, in which they carry water.
We reached Tie town little before dark and |
were kindly received by some Mexican
friend who we're living there. Farmer resi-
dent, of Santa Fee We, however, preferred
camping. and after passing through the town
camped. cooked our meat and boiled our cot. /
fee, Ucguiiing the time by talking bad Span
sh to the Indian children who had gathered |
round our camp 10 learn what they could, 10y |
seeing or perhaps 10 get an invitation to tea.
\ night was pleasantly spent beneath our
blankets and IN the morning we were ready !
to do the town in the most artistic style.
We sailed out early with our camera and
took views of the town in various shapes not
forgetting to take 4 picture of an Indian
Carrelta lcarl with its huge wooden wheels
and the wooden pCw, made according to
King SOlomOn's patent
The town is laid out in regular streets and
the houses built Joining each other two stories |
high the upper story usually smaller than the
low.r, and the lower entered by trap doors on
the roofs. which are reached by ladders from
the ground. The houses are built of adobes |
and pla>tered with mud. In the whole town,
whic.. probably covera twenty acres closely |
built, there is not a tree, a bit ufShrubbery or
blade of grass, and the houses are of precise
La. ihn Snlnn cnlnr a. The Strnnfs Thus these |