Evening star., 1897-07-26

It was announced two weeks ago that
Professor Libbey of Princeton University
and a party of scientific men had gone to
New Mexico to attempt to scale the mesa.
His dispatch Is the first news that has
come from the party since 1t set out.
The Enchanted Mesa rises abruptly above
the New Mexican desert to height OF 100
feet or more. 1t is situated about seventy
two miles west of Albuquerque, near the
Indian pueblo of Acoma. So far as au-
thentic history goes, neither white man nor
Indian has ever scaled Its summit he1ore.
The Acoma tribe, in all recent years, at
least. has held the spot sacred, and man.
aged to beat off all intruders who nave at
tempted to venture toward the top of the
cliff.
There is legend that the Enchanted Me.
sa is the former home of the ancestors OF
the Acomas According to the tradition
that has drifted down through the ages,
the fiat summit of the towerlike rock was
once thickly set with the pueblos OF tue
Acomas-so thickly, in fact, that there was
no room left to raise the scant crops the
tribe subsisted upon. So during the sum-
mer the able-boded members of the tribe
were wont to go to the bottom lands below
to sow and reap, leaving the decrepit and
the young to care Tor the houses OH tiie
airy summit.
Left to the Dead Alone.
Once, when the bulk of the tribe thus
brought the houses down about the ears of
caretakers, and swept away the rocky
stairway that gave access to the mesa
summit One boy, who had been sent TO
warn the others in the field, escaped and
led the members of his tribe back to the
rock only to find that the summit was 1cf-
ever inaccessible.
Gradually the faces that peered down
from the walls above grew fewer then
faded away utterly. Since then the place
has been sacred to the dead and the AGO.
mas have dwelt on the neighhoring mesa,
mains.
Professor Libbey started out with the
theory that this legend probably had some
basiS in fact. In case he were right i'll this
surmise 1t was reasonable to suppose that
the summit held treasures of the rarest
archa eological value Recent developments
had led Professor Libbey to believe that
traces of the old Aztec civilization. would
be found on the plateau, or, If not that, of
a similar civilized people. Owing to the
fact that the mesa is in the neart of the
gold country, it was thought not lmprob-
able that quantities of the precious metal
would also be found. AS the sound OF
running water was to be plainly heard from
the base of the cliff, it was supposed there
must be a lake of considerable size some
where on the summit.
Honry With Age.
Some idea of the extreme antiquity of
Whatever lie may nave HOurlSneu tHeIe l."
gained from the fact that the founding of
the pueblo now occupied by the Acomas is
lost in tradition. 1t was hoary with age
when the first white men passed through
New Mexico with Coronado's expedition in
1910. A description of the pueblo of Caste
NADIA. one of the members of that party,
establishes that fact beyond all question.
An effort was made to scale the cliff
twelve years ago, but the Indians succeed
ed in driving off the little band of curious
whites who made the attempt. Professor
Libbey's party was prepared to successfully
face the Acomas now reduced to about GT3,
and was looking forward to the real diff
Guilty of the undertaking in the scaling of
the cliff itself.
They had several plans for reaching the
summit. One was to use Eddy's kites and
attempt to carry line over the cliff by
this means. In case that failed, they in
tended to use rockets, such as are employ
ed by the lifc-saving service, to get lire
over the summit Once line was got over
the mesa, stronger lines and eventually a
cable equipped with block and tackle
were to be secured that men and even
hcrses could be hoisted to the summit of
the cliff. This latter method was the one
that proved successful, as the dispatches to
the Herald show.