New Colorado and the Santa Fé trail

Front matter

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(55) WEST BAY CITY, MICH- 5

REGULATIONS.

Preface

fTIHE extraordinary development of the mineral resources of Colorado during the last three years has not only excited great interest throughout the country, and caused hundreds and thousands of persons to journey thither, but it has also rendered most of the books useless which have been previously written about that region. This volume may therefore be held to supply a manifest need. The facts given have been carefully verified ; but discoveries and developments progress with such marvellous rapidity in the Far West, that he would be indeed a bold man who could claim that any descriptions would long hold good. It is hardly necessary to add that the book has been written from an absolutelv independent point of view, and with a sincere intention of stating things as they are, rather than to suit special interests, or to meet the preconceived notions or the "requirements" of any portion of the public. It is entirely natural that men should fiercely champion and loudly exalt the particular points where it has been their lot to fight for fortune or existence, but an entire sympathy with each and all is not inconsistent with a judicial balancing of their claims.

It will be seen that no extended or elaborate account is given of the mines and mining operations, which make up, in the eyes of many people, the sole attraction of Colorado and the adjacent regions. It would have been foolish, for several obvious reasons, to attempt anything of the kind in a book like this.

10 PREFACE.

It would have been proper to sny more about the burning " Indian question ;" but a suitable disquisition thereon would have not only outrun the limits of the book, but cast a sombre tinge over it. It is a wonder that people who profess to regulate their individual lires on the principle of there being a certain and inexorable retribution for wickedness, will not comprehend that they share the responsibility of their country for its shameful, infamous wrong-doing in this regard. Much can be said in justification of the residents of the West in their hatred of the Indian, and the evil lies far back of them. The United States are clearly convicted of the acts of cruelty, perfidy, and dishonour which have had their logical sequence in the smoke and flame of burning houses, and the shrieks of murdered women and children, which have gone up, year after year, on the frontier. Individuals who are guilty of such crimes are warned to expect a "judgment" on them. If ever an aggregation of individuals, called a nation, was in danger of such retribution, the United States are so to-day -

The Colorado hereinafter described is " New T ," because it differs as widely from the one depicted by Bayard Taylor, Ludlow, and Bowles, as does the North America of Mrs. Trollope and Captain Marryat from the one portrayed in Count de Lessep's flowery and diplomatic speeches after his return to Europe. Its renaissance dates but about two years back.

In the portion of the book relating to the Santa Fe Trail only brief allusion is made to subjects which cannot fail to afford a rich field for the antiquarian. The citizens of Kansas claim that Coronado visited a portion of what is now their State, and they have tried to name a county for him. After diligent research, resumed in the West since the article was written, the author can find no authentic record of any travel over that region during the two hundred and sixty-four years which elapsed between Coronado'* supposed eastward and Pike's westward journeys,

PREFACE. 1 1

although it is reported that a Spanish expedition against the Indians was in the Arkansas valley in 1745. There were Jesuit missionaries at Kaskaskia in 1695 ; and it would be most interesting to establish the fact that they had overland communication, even ninety or a hundred years later, with the priests of their Church in New Mexico.

The doings of the Colorado troops in 1862 were narrated for the first time in detail in the International Revieiv, and the account has since been fully confirmed by the highest military authority It is now given in permanent form, as a contribution to the history of the country.

In the protracted personal researches upon which what is here written is founded, the author has met with the most valuable and willing assistance, and the kindest hospitality from all with whom he has been thrown ; and he would fain hope that what has been so grateful and agreeable to him may in some degree inure to the pleasure and benefit of the public.