Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1893-09-09
ANCIENT SANTA FE.
A Friend of the New Mexican
Visits and Writes Of the
Original Spanish
City.
Some Comparisons Of Local Interest
The Church Whence Columbus
Left for America.
Special Correspondence New MeNican


For years I used to wonder what the
original town of Santa Fe was like. The
capital city of New Mexico is picturesque,
and an oh iect of much interest not only
to the travellers who have been fortunate
to visit it, but also to thousands, especi-
| ally in the eastern part of our country,
who know of it rs a famous old place far
away in the southwest. After had come
to know it, my thoughts used to go to the
distant, vague and almost unknown Santa
Fe in old Spain and wonder just where ii
was and what it was like. Not many
travellers go there, but being in Spain
last summer l went out of my way to
visit the old town because of our own
well known city of tho same name.
1t Is in the plain of Granada, that beau
tiful plain which lies fertile and bloom
ing under the tall shadows of the Sierra
Nevada mountains, for here too IS the
original range after which our Pacific
| Coast mountains are named. was upln
tho old Moorish place of the Alhambra
one bright, glorious summer day, up
there on horseback, aud as ] sat in the
saddle looking over the low parapet WALL
Git was scarcely three feet high looking
across at the opposite mountains and
then far down on the wide, long valley be-
meath, tried to make out about where
the old town Of Santa Fe must lie. 1t
was out westward on the Vega, that plain
SO famous in history and IN song, filled
now with trees and fields and abundant
irrigating streams all flowing fast and
! full from the near mountains, but years
ago the battle ground for many long
years between the Christians and the
Moors. It is necessary to recall how the
Moors crossed over from Africa into
Spain and held tho country for almost
500 years eight centuries OF protracted
struggle ard warfare--before they we're
finally dislodged and driven back into
Africa. To tho observing eye the trace
of their life and ways is still to be found
all over southern SPAN. The last place
they held was the city and province of
Granada.
THE CITY OF GRANADA
Is at the foot of the mountains and
towering almost over the city, on great
cliff jutting out into the plain, IS the
famous Alhambra with its shady court
yards and tall trees and marble baths and
fountains, delightful retreat during the
heats of summer and which the Moors
held firmly when everything else was
gone, or when Granada and the Alhambra
were tax en- from them they gave up the
fight in des pair. crossed the blue Medi-
terraueau to their own dry, barren coun-
try and never have attacked Spain again
to this day. That was in 1892, and Curl
ousy enough they thus departed from
Europe the very year Columbus was
opening TO Spain and to the world the
distant shores of America.
Alhambra means red, and the palace
took its name from the red stone OF
which it is built. The Moors were far
superior to the people of Spain in archi-
lecture, in carving in stone and wood,
and in masonry, and they lavished on
this place their choicest skill and very
naturally were reluctant to give it up.
The siege of Granada was stu bbornly re-
sisted. The attacking of q walled place was
slow work in those days, and to carry on
the siege to advantage King Ferdinand
and Queen Isabella thought they must have
some established headquarters in the
vicinity, and for this purpose they built
town about ten miles away where they
could themselves reside and from which
their operations of war could be carried
on. It was race war, and after the
fashion of those days the religion
of the other party was made
further ground for attacking him. They
called themselves Christians and the
Moors the infidels, and the Moors in turn
called themselves the Faithful and the
Spauiards the infdels. So Ferdinand
and Isabella called their new head
quarters town the city of the Holy Faith,
OR IN THEIR LANGUAGE, SANTA FE.
Irode over there one fine Sunday morn
ing. 1t was a good road, perfectly level,
of macadam construction, smooth and
hard, aud as l galleped along past the
farmhouses and now and then wayside
inn, the country full of olive trees and
vines, I thought of the countless
forays, the marches and the re-
treats, the victorious bands and the
hard pressed squadrons those plains had
seen, and thought, too, of rides along
that other road, the old Santa Fe trail, in
my own country, and its stories, too, of
travel, pursuits and battles. At times l
passed along the road the high, two
wheeled carts of the farmers going to
Granada with two mules harnessed double,
and curious arrangement they have in
Spain for keeping the pole from fitting
up over and backwards, or else harnessed
two, three and even five mules tandem,
great big fellows, sleek, alert and active,
for their mules are fine. Sometimes The
carts were drawn by oxen, the yoke
fastened to their horns instead of around
their necks, and driven with goad in
place of a whip. People of whom I ask
ed the way were very courteous, and rid
ing pleasantly on my way was not long
in reaching the town. There were few
struggling houses and then came to a