New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-07-27
AMONG THE PUEBLOS.
THE ROMANCE OF A FALLEN RACE.

LEW wAILACE--THE CONQUEsTs OF THE PUE-
BLOs-THEIR MANNERS AND CUsTOMs--THE
WORSHIP OF MONTEzUMA-A ROMANTIC STORY
OF PAST AGEs-THE GLORY AND sPIENDoR OF
THE CHILD OF THE SUN.
To the EdftOr Of The Tribune.
SIR: The Casas Grandes on the Laguna de Guzman
in Northwestern chihuahua are similar in every
respect to the ruined fortresses of NewMexico and
Arizona. The points of resemblance are so close
and so numerous as to be decisive, proving them to
be the work of the same people under similar,
though somewhat superior, institutions. On my
table is an unbroken unearthed from this most
venerable ruin of North America veritable
antique, rare and valuable. 1t is of light clay
color, glazed without and within. The shape the
peculiar markings in geometrical lines, white
black and maroon red, prove the hand
of its manufacturer. ! should recognize it
instantly III any collection a Pueblo water jar
of ancient workmanship, better made than any
which we have from the Pueblos now. 1t contains
the following memorandum " This ola tanaja
was excavated from the ruins of the Montezuma
Casas Grandes in the State of chihuahua in the year
1864, and according to Indian tradition is 800 years
old These Casas Grandes great houses) reduced
to ruin, by siege, in 1870" This is signed William
Picrson, American Consul in 1873"
1t is the only whole jar and much the finest speci
men have SEEM Still it is greatly inferior to
the coarsest Wedgwood china in shops. There
has never appeared monument relic
|sproving the existence of a people of moro
advanced culture than the red race with
which the European came in contact. How the Pc
culiar civilization which this represents came
from the North, every tradition declares it did is
question that has been argued many times in many
ways Among vanquishcd, declining people,
without the lowest form of picture-writing
language rapidly alters; and philologsts tell us
that American languages the most changeful
far,nc IF Il,
confused; the links of connection are easily lost
and even in Its best estate tradition is treacherous
as memory. Scholars have held that the adobe
houses traces of the Toltecs the polished pre-
decessors of the fierce and bloody Aztecs under
whose dominion the former broke and scattered
Plausible theories more less conclusive have per-
picked the student of indigenous races. One solu-
ton, as it was suggested, touched me with
the force of absolute conviction, because it was so
| direct and simple an answer to the puzzng ques
tons following animation of the antiquities of
North America.
THE AZTECs AND PUEBLOs
The Pueblo or BODYBUILDING Indians were the
skirmish line of the Aztec nation when the Mexi-
can Empire was in the height of its greatness. The
Aztecs were restless, aggressive, greedy of power
and insatiate iii their lust for dominion. To rove
and to conquer the national pastime. The green
| banners of Anahuae aoated delantly in the tropic
Gulf of Mexico, and dauntless warriors up
held their colors in pristine splendor along the
| extreme coasts of Honduras and Nicaragua. They
formed the unshacked, sovereign nation possessing
the highest civilization in North America speaking
a language by far the most finished and elegant Of
the native tongues said to be of exceeding richness
The Pueblos, whom we believe to be n rough off
shoot of that stock degraded descendants of naughty
princes are yet self-sustaining people, independent
he nh pin
not q curse TO the soil. In old time whereof
history is silent and about which there are no
traditions even the airy hand of misty legend
to bcckon back aud point the way the haf-civil
lied tribes of Mexico must have sought fresh fields
for conquest and occupation. They probably
marched in detached clans, speaking different
dialects but less united under one
central government, and with the arts and means
of instruction brought from Anahuac they set forth
TO COLOMBO outlying countries 10 the north. A
glance at the map shows only route by which
they could advance West Of the Sierra Madre and
up the ella and its tributaries toward the great
canon of the Colorado colonies were planted along
the river banks and possibly the emigrant frater-
niZed with the native. Captain Fernando Alarcon
discovered the Rio Colorado in 1910. and passed
various tribes without being able to communicate
with them, except by signs, until he reached peo-
pie who understood the language Of an Indian whom
he had brought from Mexico. From this tribe he
learned of Il similar people, far TO the eastward
who lived in great houses built of stone.
From Mexico the Southerners brought the art
OF building with adobe and with stones laid in mud
mortar, which alone distinguishes them from the
tribes dwelling in wigwams, shifting tents and
lodges of buffalo skins and boughs. There was svs-
TEN of communication between their fortified towns
worn footpaths betraying constant coming and
going, and deep trails furowed by the tread of busy
feet through centuries
The ancient builders invariably chose command
ing positions overlooking their cultivated fields for
their pueblos, and added story after story TO the
houses usually terraced from without, where a few
defenders could defy almost any number of assal-
ants with savage arms. Apachcs were treated os
barbarian hordes. There is no mention of these
Bedouins until a century after Coronados dav from
which fact we may infer that they were kept at bav
TIE MARCH OF THE INVADER STOPPED
GRADUALLY the tide of emigration pressed up to the
Aztec Mountains and San Francisco Peaks but
there the march of the victorious invader was sud-
denly stopped by a barrier utterly impassable-tbo
canons of the Colorado and Chiquito Rivers which
united form gulf at least 800 miles long and which
In places are mile in depth. 1t lay directly across
their course, stupcnd0us chasm which wings ONLY
would have enabled them to cross No sea or dessert
could effectually have hindered their progress
northward They turned toward the East.
took possession of the rich valleys of the Colorado
and Chquito, where streets of towns and rricating
canals still traceable for miles, and followed its
branches to their sources. All the towns are
along the river. The bottom lands are
fertile with auval deposits There oro
large cotton wood trees and impenetrabIe
tmckets of arrow and crossword among the num
berless lagoons and soughs which, at the annual
rise or the river, are filled to overlooking and irr-