San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1882-12-07
THE CANON OF GOLD.

Theywere talking about old Curtis
find, though as he never could find il
again l dom know why it should
have that name now. 1t is an old
legend. Perhaps 'Corando started'it
on that journey, when after leaving
Cortez he went north into New Mexi-
co and Arizona ON a little tour that
covered o considerable distance after
all, when the means of locomotion
are recoliected. Those old Spaniards
left legendary material in the South
west that. took seed, grew and held on
to life with great tenacity-consider-
ing the soil.
One of the legends is a gold legend,
and not 80 very many years ago thirty
men fitted themselves out in q small
town-now large one-in Arizona
with horses and mules and donkeys,
and saddles and provisions and
whisky, and set out to find that won
derful canon whose sides were gold,
whose very rocks were ofgold, and so
was the sand IN the river thereof. 1t
was an expedition with purpose,
determined to find the source of the
river where this vast wealth was. One
white man, Curtis, had seen it, come
home with brain on fire at the sight
of so much richness, sickened and
died. He told the secret to no one
but stop! Yes, it had been said that
down in the little Indian village
where people had been in that coun-
try perhaps since the world began,
tilling the same soil, living in the
houses for centuries, till from inter
marrying and from smallpox their
members had decreased to a few
score-down there where peace had
been through all the generations, an
old man lived to whom the. white
man, dying, told the secret for a gourd
of the water that cools many a
parched throat to-day. With him the
leaders of the venture had worked for
days and it was work. From English
into Spanish and from that into our
own language was as much of q
transition as even the details of gold
project will bear up under, and the
white men were tired out before any
progress could be reported. At first
when the report reached his inner
consciousness-in what shape Heaven
only knows after SO. many involutions
he did not deign an answer, and
when he did it was hardly encourag-
ing. He did not need gold he said ;
all in the world that he cared for was
around him in plenty-children, even.
for there were (and he named them
over, to say nothing of one little
wonder of Il grandchild with oval face
and eyes-nothing could be blacker,
or deeper, or more beautiful.
There were many reasons why he
should not go. Chief of them was
that there was u legend within a
legend md the white man had
proven ii. What ofthat? said the
white m you have never been to
this cavern of gold, so of course the
idea that you won't come back alive
is nonsense. The Indian replied
calmly that they were mistaken; that
he had been there, and that it had
been his secret years before Curtis
had known it. r
This altered the shape of matters
for days. Not that the white men,
leaders of the expedition, believed
that it was sure death to the Indian
If lac pointed out the canon of gold,
but the Indian himself did.
Nevertheless they overpowered his
objections; he agreed to go. He took
leave OF las family with as little cere-
mony a. ii he had been going to his
irrigating bitches; bestrode his burro,
and was soon ont of sight behind a
projecting mesa.
The caravan, with the old Indian
At its head, travelled for days. 1t
seemed to them that an incredible
distance had been gone over, but their
progress was necessarily aOv be-
4 Il II -. -,,,,r.,,--