Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1883-10-18
THE NORTHWEST.
FROM NEW MEXICO.
Special Correspondence.

Special Correspondence.
SANTA FE, n. NJ, Sept. 30, 1883.
AS elready stated, Santa Fe is one
of the three oldest towns ia America,
if not the very oldes: St. Augustine,
Florida. was settled in 1865, but it is
now known that the Spaniards found
this populous town in 1912. 1t was
old when New York was a swamp,
and hoary when Columbus discovered
America. Just how ola It is no one
knows for it was the home of the
Aztec and his predecessors before the
new world was known. It is interest
ing to look upon crumhIing walls, here
within the borders of our supposed
new country, which were certainly old
when Columbus landed, and old when
Peter the Hermit reused the knightly
men of the middle ages to arm for the
first crusade. The Spaniards who
entered America through Mexico, in
vaded New Mexico at an early date
and made Santa Fe their capital, as it
had been the capital of the Montezumas
before them. What was Santa Fe's
Aztec name is unknown. INT it is sup
posed to have been Cicuye. The in
habitants of the e.Spanlsh towns are
called pueblo Indians. from the fact
that they lived in puebos or towns,
and to distinguish them from the no.
madic tribes which would not settle
in villages. The pueblo Indians were
a peaceful, civilized people. cultiva-
ting fields, living in homes, loving their
families, and observing the laws. The
Spaniards reduce them to servitude,
and treated them with the utmost
harshness, compelling them to work
the mines-whose reported richness
had been the cause of the Spanish in
vasion
The story of Santa Fe from the time
OF its settlement by the spaniards
until the Yankee invasion is the un-
eventful story of people who could
commonly get enough to eat and drink
without any arduous exeltion and
who troubled themselves little about
wherwithal they should be clothed, or
indeed about any thing else except
the day that was passing over them.
If Montesquieu was right in calling
that people happy whose annals were
tiresome, the Santa Feans should have
been supremely happy. According to
all accounts they do derive a vegeta-
BILE felicity from sitting on their heels
in shady place in hot weather, or
sunny place in cold weather. with
sufficient supply Of tobacco. And in
this manner they have beguiled the
time since the day of the Spanish in
vasion, mixing themselves up dread
fully in the meantime from an ethnol-
ogical point of view, and one year has
been much like another. The Spanish
priesthood followed the conquerors, of
course, and there are more than
churches enough in Sata Ife to DO all
the business, according to American
notions, especially as'all Of them are of
one ecclesiastical variety, with no dis,
tinctlon beyond that of heing placed
the special patronage of different
saints. One of these, the Chapel of
San Miguel, is ''the Oldest church in
America having been rebuilt in
LILO.
The city OF Santa Fe is situated in
valley among the mountains of the
Sierra Madre, and. nearly 1000 feet
above the level of the sea, looks down
from its lofty perch upon compara-
lively barren and desert country. 1t
lies on both sides of tiny stream that
empties into the Rio Grande to the
westward, and is called after the name
of the city which contains probably
between 1000 and 5000 inhabitants.
About three -fourths of these are of
Spanish or Mexican descent many pos
sessing a strong admixture OF Indian
blood. Like all Mexican towns, its
buildings are mainly of adobe or sun
dried brick, the mud, mixed with
gravel and chopped grass, being pressd
into large cubes about twice the size
of our ordinary bricks, and then left
to bake in the hot sun In this drv
climate, where so little rain falls
throughout the year, these adobe
structures stand the weather excellent
ly for an indefinite period, many of
the buildings being, according to ira
dition, over 800 years old. At a short
distance from the city the majority of
the houses and churches are undis-
tinguishab.e in color from the bare
hillsides, causing one to instinctively
wonder where the place is until he is
almost upon it.
Starting to make a tour around the
main portion of this old historic city,
which, owing to American enterprise,
is rapidly changing its appearance
every year more and more, we soon
come to the famous plaza, in the heart
OF the business portion of the town,
where the Indians in 1850, after OBJ
tanning possession of the place and de-
atroying the churcnes and other pub