X. ANTIQUITIES OF THE NORTHERN MEXICAN STATES
THE HOME OF THE CHICHIMECS -- MICHOACAN -- TZINTZUNTZAN, LAKE PATZCUARO, TEREMENDO -- ANICHE AND JIQUILPAN -- COLIMA -- ARMERÍA AND CUYUTLAN -- JALISCO -- TONALA, GUADALAJARA, CHACALA, SAYULA, TEPATITLAN, ZAPOTLAN, NAYARIT, TEPIC, SANTIAGO IXCUINTLA, AND BOLAÑOS -- GUANAJUATO -- SAN GREGORIO AND SANTA CATARINA -- ZACATECAS -- LA QUEMADA AND TEUL -- TAMAULIPAS -- ENCARNACION, SANTA BARBARA, CARMELOTE, TOPILA, TAMPICO, AND BURRITA -- NUEVO LEON AND TEXAS -- COAHUILA -- BOLSON DE MAPIMI, SAN MARTERO -- DURANGO -- ZAPE, SAN AGUSTIN, AND LA BREÑA -- SINALOA AND LOWER CALIFORNIA -- CERRO DE LAS TRINCHERAS IN SONORA -- CASAS GRANDES IN CHIHUAHUA.
A somewhat irregular line extending across the continent from north-east to south-west, terminating at Tampico on the gulf and at the bar of Zacatula on the Pacific, is the limit which the progress northward of our antiquarian exploration has reached, the results having been recorded in the preceding chapters. The region that now remains to be traversed, excepting the single state of Michoacan, the home of the Tarascos, is without the limits that have been assigned to the Civilized Nations, and within the bounds of comparative savagism. The northern states of what is now the Mexican Republic were inhabited at the time of the Conquest by the hundreds of tribes, which, if not all savages, had at least that reputation among their southern brethren. To the proud resident of Anáhuac and the southern plateaux, the northern hordes were Chichimecs, 'dogs,' barbarians. Yet several of these so-called barbarian tribes were probably as far advanced in certain elements of civilization as some of the natives that have been included among the Nahuas. They were tillers of the soil and lived under systematic forms of government, although not apparently much given to the arts of architecture and sculpture. Only one grand pile of stone ruins is known to exist in the whole northern Chichimec region, and the future discovery of others, though possible, is not, I think, very likely to occur. Nor are smaller relics, idols and implements, very numerous, except in a few localities; but this may be attributed perhaps in great degree to the want of thorough exploration. A short chapter will suffice for a description of all the monuments south of United States territory, and in describing them I shall treat of each state separately, proceeding in general terms from south to north. A glance at the map accompanying this volume will show the reader the position of each state, and each group of remains, more clearly than any verbal location could do.
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[Sidenote: TARASCAN MONUMENTS.]
The civilized Tarascos of Michoacan have left but very few traces in the shape of material relics. Their capital and the centre of their civilization was on the shores and islands of Lake Patzcuaro, where the Spaniards at the time of the Conquest found some temples described by them as magnificent.[X-1] Beaumont tells us that the ruins of a 'plaza de armas' belonging traditionally to the Tarascos at Tzintzuntzan, the ancient capital, were still visible in 1776, near the pueblo of Ignatzio, two leagues distant. Five hundred paces west of the pueblo a wall, mostly fallen, encloses a kind of plaza, measuring four hundred and fourteen by nine hundred and thirty feet. The wall was about sixteen feet thick and eighteen in height, with terraces, or steps, on the inside. In the centre were the foundations of what the author supposes to have been a tower, and west of the enclosed area were three heaps of stones, supposed to be burial mounds. Two idols, one in human form, lacking head and feet, the other shaped like an alligator, were found here, carved from a stone called tanamo, much like the tetzontli. The same author says, "respecting the ruins of the palace of the Tarascan kings, according to the examination which I lately made of these curiosities, I may say that eastward of this city of Tzintzuntzan, on the slope of a great hill called Yaguarato, a hundred paces from the settlement, are seen on the surface of the ground some subterranean foundations, which extend from north to south about a hundred and fifty paces, and about fifty from east to west, where there is a tradition that the palace of the ancient kings was situated. In the centre of the foundation-stones are five small mounds, or cuicillos, which are called stone yacatas, and hewn blocks, over which an Indian guardian is never wanting, for even now the natives will not permit these stones to be removed." "On the shores of Lake Siraguen are found ancient monuments of the things which served for the pleasure of the kings and nobles, with other ruined edifices, which occur in various places."[X-2] Tzintzuntzan is on the south-eastern shore of the lake, some leagues northward from the modern Patzcuaro. Lyon in later times was told that the royal palace and other interesting remains were yet to be seen on the lake shores, but he did not visit them.[X-3]
[Sidenote: TEREMENDO AND ANICHE.]
Another early writer, Villa-Señor y Sanchez, says that in 1712 he, with a companion, entered what seemed a cavern in a deep barranca at Teremendo, eight leagues south-west of Valladolid, or Morelia. "There were discovered prodigious aboriginal vaults, bounded by very strong walls, rendered solid by fire. In the centre of the second was a bench like the foot of an altar, where there were many idols, and fresh offerings of copal, and woolen stuffs, and various figures of men and animals." It was found according to this author that the builders had constructed walls of loose stones of a kind easily melted, and then by fire had joined the blocks into a solid mass without the use of mortar, continuing the process to the roof. The outside of the structure was overgrown with shrubs and trees.[X-4]
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At Aniche, an island in Lake Patzcuaro, Mr Beaufoy discovered some hieroglyphic figures cut on a rock; and at Irimbo about fifty miles east of Morelia, he was shown some small mounds which the natives called fortifications, although there was nothing to indicate that such had been their use.[X-5] In the mountains south-east of Lake Chapala, in the region of Jiquilpan, Sr García reports the remains of an ancient town, and says further that opals and other precious stones well worked have been obtained here.[X-6] Humboldt pictures a very beautiful obsidian bracelet or ring, worked very thin and brilliantly polished; and another writer mentions some giants' bones, all found within the limits of Michoacan.[X-7]
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At the time when official explorations were undertaken by Dupaix and Castañeda in the southern parts of New Spain, it seems that officials in some northern regions also were requested by the Spanish government to report upon such remains of antiquity as might be known to exist. The antiquarian genius to whom the matter was referred in Colima, then a department of Michoacan, but now an independent state, made a comprehensive report to the effect that he "had not been able to hear of anything except an infinite number of edifices of ruined towns," and some bones and other remains apparently of little importance, which had been taken from excavations on the hacienda of Armería and Cuyutlan, and which seemed to have been destroyed and covered up by volcanic eruptions. If this archæologist had found more than 'an infinite number' of ruins, it might possibly have occurred to him to describe some of them.[X-8] Nothing more is known of Colima antiquities.
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[Sidenote: PYRAMID OF TEPATITLAN.]
At Tonala, probably just across the Colima line northward in the state of Jalisco, the report sent in reply to the inquiry just spoken of, mentioned a hill which seemed to be for the most part artificial, and in which excavations revealed walls, galleries, and rooms. Similar works were said to be of frequent occurrence in that region. In digging for the foundations of the Royal Hospital at Guadalajara, "there was found a cavity, or subterranean vault, well painted, and several statues, especially one which represents an Indian woman in the act of grinding corn." It was hollow, and probably of clay. Near Autlan, in the south-west, there were said to exist some traces of feet sculptured in the rock, one at the ford called Zopilote, and another on the road between Autlan and Tepanola. Near Chacala, still further south, "there is a tank, and near it a cross well carved, and on its foot certain ancient unknown letters, with points in five lines. On it was seen a most devoted crucifix. Under it are other lines of characters with the said points, which seemed Hebrew or Syriac." This information comes from an old author, and is a specimen of the absurd reports of the Christian gospel having been preached at various points in these regions, which are still believed to a considerable extent by a certain class of the people of Mexico.[X-9]
An author who wrote in 1778 states that between Guadalajara and Sayula, and four leagues north-east of the latter town, "there is a causeway of stone and earth, about half a league long, across the narrowest part of a marsh, or lagoon. There is a tradition that the gentiles built it in ancient times. On most parts of its shores this marsh has little heaps of pottery in fragments, very wide and thick, and there can still be found figures of large vessels, and also foundations and traces of small houses of stone. Tradition relates that the antiguos of different nations came here to make salt, and that they had several bloody fights, of which many traces appear in the shape of black transparent flints worked into arrow-points."[X-10]
Mr Löwenstern discovered near Tepatitlan, some fifty miles north-east of Guadalajara, a pyramid described as somewhat similar to those of Teotihuacan, but smaller, its exact dimensions not being given, but the height being estimated at from ninety to a hundred and thirty feet. It was built in three stories of earth, sand, and pebbles, and bore on its summit a dome-shaped mound. The pyramid at the base was encased with large stones; whether or not they were in hewn blocks is not stated, but the stones lying about indicated that the whole surface had originally borne a stone facing. The form of the base was quadrangular, but time and the cultivation of the whole surface as a cornfield, had modified the original form and given the structure an octagonal conformation with not very clearly defined angles. It requires additional evidence to prove that this supposed pyramid was not a natural hill like Xochicalco with some artificial improvement. The hill is called Cerrito de Montezuma, the custom of applying this monarch's name to every relic of antiquity being even more common in the northern regions than in other parts of the country. The author of Cincinnatus' Travels, mentions a 'mound' at Zapotlan, about fifty miles east of Guadalajara, which is five hundred feet high. He does not expressly state that it is artificial, and a gentleman familiar with the locality tells me that it is not generally so regarded, having the appearance of a natural grass-covered hill.[X-11]
In the northern part of the state, in the region of Tepic, the Spaniards seem to have found grander temples, a more elaborate religious system, and a civilization generally somewhat more advanced than in most other parts of the north or north-west. Still no well-defined architectural monuments are reported on good authority in modern times. It is to the earlier writers that we must go for accounts of any extensive remains, and such accounts in all cases probably refer to the buildings which the Spaniards found still in use among the natives; and the old writers were ready to seize upon every scrap of rumor in this direction, that they might successfully trace the favorite southward course of the Aztecs to Anáhuac. Hervas says that "there have been found and still exist in Nayarit ruins of edifices which by their form seem to be Mexican, and the natives say that the Mexicans built them when they were in Nayarit."[X-12] This was another of the regions where some wandering apostle preached the gospel in aboriginal times, and the 'cross of Tepic' was one of the celebrated Christian relics. Some wonderful foot-prints in the stone are also among the reported relics.[X-13] A temple of hewn stone, situated on a rocky hill, ascended by a winding road, was found at Xuchipiltepetl by the Spanish explorers in 1841; and Villa-Señor describes a cave where the natives were wont to worship the skeleton of an ancient king gaily appareled and seated in state upon a throne.[X-14] Finally Prichard informs us that "near Nayarit are seen earthen mounds and trenches."[X-15]
[Sidenote: SANTIAGO IXCUINTLA.]
A writer in the Boletin of the Mexican Geographical Society describes the temple at Jalisco as it was found by the first Spaniards; and another in the Nouvelles Annales des Voyages states that the village of Jalisco, about a league from Tepic, is built on the ruins of the ancient city, and that "in making excavations there are found utensils of every kind, weapons and idols of the Mexican divinities."[X-16] After all, the only definite account extant of relics found in this part of the state is that by Sr Retes. He says that the northern bank of the Rio Grande, or Tololotlan, contains numerous remains for three or four hundred miles, consisting chiefly of stone and clay images and pottery, and occurring for the most part on the elevated spots out of the reach of inundations. The part of this region that has been most explored, is the vicinity of Santiago Ixcuintla, twenty-five or thirty miles from the mouth of the river. On the slope of a hill four leagues north-west of Santiago, at the foot of Lake San Juan, was found a crocodile of natural size carved from stone, together with several dogs or sphinxes, and some idols, which the author deems similar to those of the Egyptians. Human remains have been found in connection with the other relics, and most of the latter are said to have been sent to enrich European collections by rich foreign residents of Tepic. The objects consist of idols in human and animal forms, axes, and lances, the pottery being in many cases brightly colored. The cut shows six of the thirty-eight relics pictured in the plates given by Retes. Fig. 1, 2, are the heads of small stone idols, the first head being only two inches in height. Fig. 3 is a head of what the author calls a sphinx. Fig. 4 is an earthen-ware mold for stamping designs on cloth or pottery; there are several of these represented in the collection. Fig. 5 is an earthen jar six inches high, of a material nearly as hard as stone. Many of the jars found are very similar to those now made and used in the same region. Fig. 6 is an earthen idol four inches high. Among the other objects is a flint lance-head with notches like saw-teeth on the sides.[X-17] Similar relics, but of somewhat ruder style and coarser material, have been found at a locality called Abrevadero, about eighteen miles south of Santiago towards Tepic.[X-18] At Bolaños, some distance east from Santiago, on a northern branch of the same river, Lyon obtained, by offering rewards to the natives, "three very good stone wedges or axes of basalt." Bones of giants were reported at a distance of a day's journey. At the same distance southward "there is said to be a cave containing several figures or idols in stone."[X-19]
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[Sidenote: ANTIQUITIES OF GUANAJUATO.]
Respecting the antiquities of Guanajuato Sr Bustamante states that the only ones in the state are some natural caves artificially improved, as in the Cerro de San Gregorio, on the hacienda of Tupátaro; and some earthen mounds in the plains of Bajio, proved to be burial mounds. Under the earth and a layer of ashes the skeleton lies with its head covered by a little brazier of baked clay, and accompanied by arrows, fragments of double-edged knives, obsidian fragments, bird-bone necklaces strung on twisted bird-gut, smooth stones, some small semi-spheres of baked clay with a hole in the centre of each, and a few grotesque idols.[X-20]
Castillo describes a small human head, brought from the mines of Guanajuato, the material of which was a "concretion of quartz and chalcedony for the most part, sprinkled with fine grains of gold, and a little pyrites, of a whitish color, but partly stained red by the oxide of iron." This head, it seems, was claimed by some to be a petrifaction, but the author is of a contrary opinion, although he believes there is nothing artificial about it except the mouth.[X-21] Finally Berlandier describes two pyramids near the pueblo of Santa Catarina, in the vicinity of the city of Guanajuato. They are square at the base, face the cardinal points, and are built of pieces of porphyry laid in clayey earth. The eastern pyramid is twenty-three feet high, thirty-seven feet square at the base, with a summit platform fifteen feet square. The corresponding dimensions of the western mound are eighteen, thirty-seven, and fifteen feet. They are only fifteen or twenty feet apart, and are joined by an embankment about five feet high.[X-22]
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[Sidenote: RUINS OF QUEMADA.]
The most important and famous ruins of the whole northern region are those known to the world under the name of Quemada, in southern Zacatecas. The ruins are barely mentioned by the early writers as one of the probable stations of the migrating Aztecs; and the modern explorations which have resulted in published descriptions were made between 1826 and 1831, although Manuel Gutierrez, parish priest of the locality in 1805, wrote a slight account which has been recently published.[X-23] Capt. G. F. Lyon visited Quemada in 1826, and published a full description, illustrated with three small cuts, in his journal.[X-24] Gov. García of Zacatecas ordered Sr Esparza in 1830 to explore the ruins. The latter, however, by reason of other duties and a fear of snakes, was not able to make a personal visit, but obtained a report from Pedro Rivera who had made such a visit. The report was published in the same year.[X-25]
Mr Berghes, a German mining engineer, connected with the famous Veta Grande silver mines, made a survey of the ruins in 1831, for Gov. García, and from the survey prepared a detailed and presumably accurate plan of the works, which was afterwards published by Nebel, and which I shall copy in this chapter. Mr Burkart, another engineer, was the companion of Berghes, and also visited Quemada on several other occasions. His published account is accompanied by a plan agreeing very well with that of Berghes, but containing fewer details.[X-26] Nebel visited Quemada about the same time.[X-27] His plates are two in number, a general view of the ruins from the south-west, and an interior view of one of the structures, besides Berghes' plan. His views, so far as I know, are the only ones ever published.[X-28]
The location is about thirty miles southward of the capital city of Zacatecas, and six miles northward of Villanueva. The stream on which the ruins stand is spoken of by Burkart as Rio de Villanueva, and by Lyon as the Rio del Partido. The name Quemada, 'burnt,' is that of a neighboring hacienda, about a league distant towards the south-west. I do not know the origin of the name as applied to the hacienda, but there is no evidence that it has any connection with the ruins. The local name of the latter is Los Edificios. The only other name which I have found applied to the place is Tuitlan. Fr Tello, in an unpublished history of Nueva Galicia written about 1650, tells us that the Spaniards under Capt. Chirinos "found a great city in ruins and abandoned; but it was known to have had most sumptuous edifices, with grand streets and plazas well arranged, and within a distance of a quarter of a league four towers, with causeways of stone leading from one to another; and this city was the great Tuitlan, where the Mexican Indians remained many years when they were journeying from the north."[X-29] This ruined city was in the region of the modern town of Jerez, and without much doubt was identical with Quemada. Sr Gil applies the same name to the ruins. Others without any known authority attempt to identify Quemada with Chicomoztoc, 'the seven caves' whence the Aztecs set out on their migrations; or with Amaquemecan, the ancient Chichimec capital of the traditions. Gil rather extravagantly says, "these ruins are the grandest which exist among us after those of Palenque; and on examining them, it is seen that they were the fruit of a civilization more advanced than that which was found in Peru at the time of the Incas, or in Mexico at the time of Montezuma."[X-30]
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[Sidenote: LOS EDIFICIOS OF QUEMADA.]
The Cerro de los Edificios is a long narrow isolated hill, the summit of which forms an irregular broken plateau over half a mile in length from north to south, and from one hundred to two hundred yards wide, except at the northern end, where it widens to about five hundred yards. The height of the hill is given by Lyon as from two to three hundred feet, but by Burkart at eight to nine hundred feet above the level of the plain. In the central part is a cliff rising about thirty feet above the rest of the plateau. From the brow the hill descends more or less precipitously on different sides for about a hundred and fifty feet, and then stretches in a gentler slope of from two to four hundred yards to the surrounding plain. On the slope and skirting the whole circumference of the hill, except on the north and north-east, are traces of ancient roads crossing each other at different angles, and connected by cross roads running up the slope with the works on the summit. Berghes' plan of Quemada is given on the following page, on which the roads spoken of are indicated by the dotted lines marked H, H, H, etc. This plan and Burkart's plan and description are the only authorities for the existence of the roads running round the hill, Lyon and other visitors speaking only of those that diverge from it; but it is probable that Berghes' survey was more careful and thorough than that of the others, and his plan should be accepted as good authority, especially as the other accounts agree with it so far as they go.[X-31]
One of the roads, which turns at a right angle round the south-western slope, has traces of having been enclosed or raised by walls whose foundations yet remain; and from it at a point near the angle a raised causeway ninety-three feet wide extends straight up the slope north-eastward to the foot of the bluff. The walls supposed to have raised those south-western roads are not spoken of by Burkart or shown on his plan; Lyon speaks of certain walls here which he considers those of an enclosed area of some six acres. From a point near the junction of the road and causeway three raised roads, paved with rough stones extend, according to Lyon, in perfectly straight lines S.W., S.S.W., and S.W. by S. The first terminates in an artificial mound across the river towards the hacienda of Quemada;[X-32] the second extends four miles to the Coyote Rancho; and the third is said by the natives to terminate at a mountain six miles distant. Two similar roads thirteen or fourteen feet wide extend from the eastern slope of the hill, one of them crossing a stream and terminating at a distance of two miles in a cuicillo, or heap of stones. Burkart found some evidence that the heap constituted the ruins of a regular structure or pyramid; and Rivera locates the cuicillo on the summit of the Sierra de Palomas. He also speaks of a road running west from the north-western part of the hill to the small hills of San Juan, on the Zacatecas road. Of the other roads radiating from the hill I have no farther information than the fact that they are laid down in the plan.[X-33]
At all points in the whole circumference where the natural condition of the slope is not in itself a sufficient barrier to those seeking access to the summit plateau, the brow of the hill is guarded by walls of stone, marked B on the plan for the northern portions, and indicated generally by the black lines in the south. Indeed the northern end of the mesa, where the approach is somewhat less precipitous than elsewhere, is continuously guarded by such a wall, from nine to twelve feet thick and high, enclosing an irregular triangular area with sides of about four hundred and fifty yards: this area being divided by another wall into two unequal portions.
The most numerous and extensive ruins are on the southern portion of the hill, where a larger part of the uneven surface is formed into platforms or terraces by means of walls of solid masonry. One of these supporting walls is double--that is, composed of two walls placed in contact side by side, one having been completed and plastered before the other was begun, the whole structure being twenty-one feet high and of the same thickness.[X-34] On the platforms thus formed are a great number of edifices in different degrees of dilapidation. Any attempt on my part to describe these edifices in detail from the information afforded by the authorities available could not be otherwise than confusing and unsatisfactory. There is probably no ruin in our territory, the verbal description of which would present so great difficulties, even if the accounts of the original explorers were perfectly comprehensive, as they are not; for perhaps more than three fourths of the structures shown on the plan are not definitely spoken of by any author. I will, however, give as clear a description as possible, referring the reader to the plan and to one view which I shall copy, the only satisfactory one ever published.
Near each end of the wide causeway already mentioned are two comparatively small masses of ruins. One of them appears to have been a square stone building thirty-one feet square at the base and of the same height; the others, now completely in ruins, may perhaps have been of similar dimensions, so far as may be judged by the débris. In the centre of the causeway, perhaps at F of the plan, although described as nearer the bluff, is a heap of stone over a star-shaped border or pavement. On the lower part of the mesa, at the extreme southern end and also near the head of the causeway, at A iv of the plan, is a quadrangular space measuring two hundred by two hundred and forty feet,[X-35] and bounded, at least on the north and east, by a stone terrace or embankment four or five feet high and twenty feet wide, the width of which is probably to be included in the dimensions given.[X-36] Mr Burkart states that near the inner edge of this terrace is a canal a foot deep and wide, covered with stone flags. On the outer edge of the terrace, on the eastern side, stands a wall eight feet thick and eighteen feet high. Mr Lyon thinks the other sides were always open, but Burkart speaks of the wall as having originally enclosed the square, and having been torn down on three sides, which seems much more probable. At one point on the eastern terrace stands a round pillar nineteen feet in circumference and of the same height as the wall, or eighteen feet. There are visible traces of nine other similar pillars, seemingly indicating the former presence of a massive column-supported portico.
Adjoining this enclosure on the east, with only a narrow passage intervening, is another, R of the plan, measuring according to Burkart's measurement, which agrees very nearly with that of Berghes, one hundred by one hundred and thirty-eight feet,[X-37] with walls still perfect, eighteen feet high and eight feet thick, in connection with which no terraces are mentioned, although Rivera speaks of steps on the west. Within the walls, twenty-three feet from the sides and nineteen and a half from the ends, is a line of eleven pillars--Lyon says fourteen, and Rivera ten--each seventeen feet in circumference and of the same height as the walls. There can be little doubt that these columns once sustained a roof. Mr Berghes in one of his excavations in 1831 is said, by Nebel, to have found an ancient roof supported by a column, and showing exactly the method followed by the builders. The roof was made of large flat stones, covered with mortar and supported by beams. It is not quite clear how an excavation on the hill could show such a room, but there is little room to doubt that the roof-structure was similar to that described. Near this second enclosure--and west of it, as is said, but that would be hardly possible--Rivera speaks of a circular ruin sixteen and a half feet in diameter, with five steps leading up to the summit, on which some apartments were still traceable.
From the level platform in front of the two main structures described, a causeway, beginning with a stairway and guarded at the sides by walls for much of its length, leads northward up the slope. About three hundred yards in this direction, possibly at the point marked F on this causeway, is a pyramid in perfect preservation, about fifty feet square at the base, also fifty feet high, with a flat summit. Near this is another pyramid, only twelve feet square and eighteen feet high, but standing on a terrace fifty by one hundred feet. Two bowl-shaped circular pits, eight feet in diameter, with fragments of pottery and traces of fire; a square building ten by eight feet on the inside, with walls ten feet high; and a simple mound of stones eight feet high, are the miscellaneous remains noted in this part of the hill.
The most extensive and complicated ruins are found between the steep central height and the western brow of the hill, where there is a perpendicular descent of a hundred and fifty feet. On this central height itself there are no ruins, but passing nearly round its base are terraced roads twenty-five feet wide, with perpendicular walls only partially artificial. Of the extensive group of monuments on the platform of the south-western base of the central height, only the portion about A ii, of the plan, has been definitely described, and the description, although clear enough in itself, does not altogether agree with the plan. Here we have a square enclosure similar to the one already described in the south at A iv. Its sides are one hundred and fifty feet, bounded by a terrace three feet high and twelve feet wide, with steps in the centre of each side. Back of the terrace on the east, west, and south sides stand walls eight or nine feet in thickness and twenty feet high. The north side of the square is bounded by the steep side of the central cliff, in which steps or seats are cut in some parts in the solid rock, and in others built up with rough stones. In the centre of this side, and partially on the terrace, is a truncated pyramid, with a base of thirty-eight by thirty-five feet, and nineteen feet high, divided into several stories--five according to Nebel's drawing, seven according to Lyon's statement.[X-38]
In front of the pyramid, and nearly in the centre of the square, stands a kind of altar or small pyramid seven feet square and five feet high. A very clear idea of this square is given in the following cut from Nebel's drawing. It presents an interior view from a point on the southern terrace. The pyramid in five stories, the central altar, the eastern terrace with its steps, and standing portions of the walls are all clearly portrayed. The view, however, disagrees very essentially with the plan in representing extensive remains northward from the enclosure on the upper slope, where, according to Berghes' plan, no ruins exist. There is an entrance in the centre of the eastern wall, another in the western, and two on the south. These entrances do not seem to be in the form of doorways, but extend, according to the drawing, to the full height of the walls. That on the east is thirty feet wide and leads to an adjoining square with sides of two hundred feet and walls still perfect. The arrangement of these two adjoining squares is much like that of those at A iv in the south, but in the northern structures there are no pillars to be seen.
The opening through the western wall leads to the entrance to a cave, reported to be of great extent, but not explored by any visitor on account of the ruined condition of the passage leading to it--or, as Gutierrez says, because the wind issues constantly from the entrance with such force that no one can enter with lights. The mouth of the subterranean passage is on the brink of the western precipice; the walls were plastered, and the top supported by cedar beams. Strangely enough the structure at A iii, so clearly defined on the plan, is not described at all. It seems to be very similar to the enclosures described.
The ruins on the northern part of the plateau are similar in character to those in the south, but fewer in number. Among them are square terraced enclosures like those already mentioned; a pyramid with sloping sides, and eighteen feet square at the summit; a square building sixteen feet square at the base and sixteen feet high; and two parallel stone mounds thirty feet long.
On the lower southern slopes the foundation-stones of numerous buildings are found, and many parts of the adjoining plain are strewn with stones similar to those employed in the construction of the edifices above. There is now no water on the hill, but there are several tolerably perfect tanks, with a well, and what seem to be the remains of aqueducts.
The material of which all the works described are built is the gray porphyry of this and the neighboring hills, and Burkart states that the building-stone of Los Edificios was not quarried in the hill on which they stand, but brought from another across the valley. The nature of the stone permits it to be very easily fractured into slabs, and those employed in the buildings are of different sizes, but rarely exceeding two or three inches in thickness and not hewn. They are laid in a mortar of reddish clay mixed with straw, in which one visitor found a corn-husk. The mortar, according to Burkart, is of an inferior quality,--although others represent it as very good--and on the outer walls and in all exposed situations is almost entirely washed out. Except this washing-out of the mortar, time and the elements have committed but slight ravages at Quemada, the dilapidation of the buildings being due for the most part to man's agency, since most of the buildings of the neighboring hacienda have been constructed of blocks taken from Los Edificios. Lyon found some evidence that the walls were originally plastered and whitened.
A large circular stone from ten to thirteen feet in diameter and from one to three in thickness, according to different observers, on the surface of which were sculptured representations of a hand and foot, was found at the western base of the hill, or as Burkart says, at the eastern base. The editor of the Museo Mexicano also speaks of a sculptured turtle bearing the figure of a reed, the Aztec acatl. No other miscellaneous relics whatever have been found. Nothing resembling inscriptions, hieroglyphics, or even architectural decorations, is found in any part of the ruins. Obsidian fragments, arrow and spear heads, knives, ornaments, heads and idols of terra cotta and stone, pottery whole or in fragments, human remains and burial deposits, some or all of which are strewn in so great abundance in the vicinity of most other American ruins, are here utterly wanting; or at least the only exceptions are a few bits of porphyry somewhat resembling arrow-heads, and some small bits of pottery found by Lyon in the circular pit on the summit.
* * * * *
The works which have been described naturally imply the existence in this spot at some time in the past of a great city of the plain, of which the Cerro de los Edificios was at once the fortified citadel and temple. The paved causeways may be regarded as the principal streets of the ancient city, on which the habitations of the people were built of perishable material, or as constructed for some purely religious purpose not now understood. Mr Burkart suggests that the land in the vicinity was once swampy, and the causeways were raised to ensure a dry road. An examination of their foundation should settle that point, as a simple pavement of flat stones on the surface of a marsh would not remain permanently in place. As simple roads, such structures were hardly needed by barefooted or sandaled natives, having no carriages or beasts of burden; and it seems most reasonable to believe that they had a connection with religious rites and processions, serving at the same time as main streets of a city.
The ruins of Quemada show but few analogies to any of the southern remains, and none whatever to any that we shall find further north. As a strongly fortified hill, bearing also temples, Quemada bears considerable resemblance to Quiotepec in Oajaca; and possibly the likeness would be still stronger if a plan of the Quiotepec fortifications were extant. The massive character, number, and extent of the monuments show the builders to have been a powerful and in some respects an advanced people, hardly less so, it would seem at first thought, than the peoples of Central America; but the absence of narrow buildings covered by arches of overlapping stones, and of all decorative sculpture and painting, make the contrast very striking. The pyramids, so far as they are described, do not differ very materially from some in other parts of the country, but the location of the pyramids shown in the drawing and plan within the enclosed and terraced squares seems unique. The pillars recall the roof structures of Mitla, but it is quite possible that the pillars at Quemada supported balconies instead of roofs; indeed, it seems improbable that these large squares were ever entirely covered. The walls of Los Edificios are higher as a rule than those of other American ruins, and the absence of windows and regular doorways is noticeable. The total want of idols in structures so evidently built, at least partially, for religious purposes, is also a remarkable feature, as is the absence of the usual pottery, implements, and weapons. The peculiar structure, several times repeated, of two adjoining quadrangular spaces enclosed, or partially so, by high walls, and one of them formed by a low terrace into a kind of square basin, containing something like an altar in its centre, is a feature not elsewhere noted. There can hardly be any doubt that these and other portions of the Edificios were devoted to religious rites.
While Quemada does not compare as a specimen of advanced art with Uxmal and Palenque, and is inferior so far as sculpture and decoration are concerned to most other Nahua architectural monuments, it is yet one of the most remarkable of American ruins, presenting strong contrasts to all the rest, and is well worthy of a more careful examination than it has ever yet received. Such an examination is rendered comparatively easy by the accessibility of the locality, and would, I have no doubt, be far from unprofitable in an antiquarian point of view. Los Edificios, like Copan and Palenque, have, so far as has yet been ascertained, no place in the traditional annals of the country, yet they bear no marks of very great antiquity; that is, there is more reason to class them with Xochicalco, Quiotepec, Monte Alban, and the fortified towns of Vera Cruz, than with the cities of Yucatan and Chiapas, or even the pyramids of Teotihuacan and Cholula.
* * * * *
At San Juan Teul, nearly a hundred miles southward from Quemada, the Spaniards found a grand aboriginal temple when they first came to this part of the country; and Frejes, an early writer, says, "there are ruins of a temple and of dwellings not far from the present pueblo." There is, however, no later information respecting this group of remains. At a place called Tabasco, about fifty miles from Quemada, Esparza mentions the discovery of some stone axes. No other antiquities have been definitely reported in the state of Zacatecas, although Arlegui tells us that the early missionaries were much troubled, and hindered in their work of conversion by the constant discovery of idols and temples concealed in the mountains.[X-39]
* * * * *
[Sidenote: AGUASCALIENTES AND SAN LUIS POTOSÍ.]
I have no record of any relics of antiquity in the state of Aguascalientes: San Luis Potosí has hardly proved a more fruitful field of archæological research. Mayer gives a cut representing a stone axe from this state; Cabrera reports some ancient tombs, or cuicillos,--which he calls cuiztillos; the word being written differently by different authors, and as applied to different states--in the suburbs of the city of San Luis Potosí; and according to a newspaper report two idols and a sacrificial basin, cut from a concrete sandstone, were found in the sierra near the city and brought to New Orleans. One of the idols was of life size, had two faces and a hole for the insertion of a torch in its right hand; the basin was two feet in diameter, and held by intertwined serpents.[X-40]
* * * * *
In southern Tamaulipas relics are quite abundant and of a nature very much the same as that of those which have already been described south of the Rio Pánuco, the boundary line between Tamaulipas and Vera Cruz. At Encarnacion, in the vicinity of Tampico, Mr Furber reports the stone idol shown in front and profile view in the cut. The sculpture is described as rude, and with the idol, three feet high, were dug up several implements and utensils.[X-41] Near a small salt lake between Tula and Santa Barbara, Mr Lyon found a ruined pyramidal mound of hard earth or clay, faced with flat unhewn stones, with similar stones projecting and forming steps leading up the slope on one side. This pyramid is thirty paces in circumference at the base, and is divided by a terrace into two stories, the lower of which is twenty feet high, and the upper in its present state ten feet. Some stone and terra-cotta images have been taken from this mound, and another much smaller but similar structure is reported to exist somewhere in the same vicinity.[X-42]
On the Tamissee River, which flows into Tampico Bay, traces of ancient towns have been found in two localities near the Carmelote Creek. They consist of scattered hewn blocks of stone, covered with vegetable mold and overgrown with immense trees and rank vegetation. At one of these localities the remains include seventeen large earthen mounds, with traces of a layer of mortar at the bottom. In them have been found broken pottery, rudely carved images of natural size in sandstone, and idols and heads in terra cotta. Mr Norman gives cuts representing two of these heads.[X-43]
[Sidenote: TOPILA REMAINS.]
In the south-western part of the state, in the Topila hills, near a creek of the same name, is a large group of remains at a locality known as Rancho de las Piedras. Mr Norman, who spent a week in their examination, is the only authority for these remains, and as he was obliged to work alone and unaided, his examination was necessarily superficial. Over an area several miles square the ground is strewn with hewn blocks of stone and fragments of pottery and obsidian. Many of the blocks bear decorative sculptured figures. A female face carved from a block of fine dark reddish sandstone, was brought away by Mr Norman and presented to the New York Historical Society. It is shown in the cut. The face is of life size, very symmetrical in its form, and of a Grecian type. Another monument sketched by the explorer was a stone turtle, six feet long, with a human head. The sculpture, especially of the turtle's shell, is described as very fine; the whole rests on a large block of concrete sandstone, and is called by the finder the American Sphinx. This relic was somewhat damaged, but the features of the human face seemed of a Caucasian rather than a native type.
The Topila ruins include twenty mounds, both circular and square, from six to twenty-five feet in height, built of earth and faced with uniform blocks of sandstone, eighteen inches square and six inches thick. The facings had for the most part fallen, and that invariably inward in the smaller mounds, indicating perhaps their original use as tombs. Many of the blocks are scattered through the forest in places where the mounds had entirely disappeared. Of all the mounds only one has any trace of a terrace, and in that one it is very faint; and there is no evidence that mortar was employed in laying the stones. The largest covered about two acres, and bore on its summit a wild fig-tree one hundred feet high. At its base is a circular wall of stone, the top of which is even with the surface of the ground--perhaps a well--and which is filled with stones and broken pottery. Its top is covered with a circular stone four feet and nine inches in diameter and seven inches thick, with a hole in its centre and some ornamental lines sculptured on its upper surface. Another round stone, twelve feet in diameter and three feet thick, on the front of which is carved a colossal human head, is shown in the cut. The author speaks vaguely of "vast piles of broken and crumbling stones, the ruins of dilapidated buildings, which were strewed over a vast space;" and his cuts of the relics which I have copied show in the background, not included in my copies, regular walls of hewn stone. Mr Norman regards this group as the remains of a great city, the site of which is now covered by a heavy forest. In another locality, seven miles further north-west on the Topila Creek, and a few miles from the Pánuco River, is another group of circular mounds, one of them twenty-five feet high, and the lower portions faced with flat hewn stones. Hewn blocks of various forms and sizes are also scattered about the locality, but none of them are sculptured.[X-44] Lyon tells us that "remains of utensils, statues, weapons, and even skeletons," have been often found in digging for the foundations of new buildings in the vicinity of Tampico, or Tamaulipas. He made drawings, which he did not publish, of two very perfect basalt idols, and mentioned also some bone carvings and terra-cotta idols found in this region.[X-45] In northern Tamaulipas I find only one mention of aboriginal monuments, and that at Burrita, about twenty miles east from Matamoras, respecting which locality Berlandier says, "on a small hill which is seen two or three hundred paces from the rancho of Burrita are found in abundance (as the rancheros say) the bones of ancient peoples."[X-46]
[Sidenote: BOLSON DE MAPIMI.]
[Sidenote: BURIAL CAVES.]
Nuevo Leon, adjoining Tamaulipas on the west, is another of the states within whose limits no antiquities have been reported; and in Texas on the north almost the same absence of aboriginal remains is to be remarked, although one group of rock-inscriptions will be noted in a future chapter at Rocky Dell creek, in the north-western part of the state bordering on New Mexico. In the region bordering on the valley known as the Bolson de Mapimi, comprising parts of the states of Coahuila, Durango, and Chihuahua, the natives at some time in the past seem to have deposited their dead in natural caves, and several of these burial deposits of great extent have been discovered and reported. None of them are accurately located by any traveler or writer, nor is it possible to tell in which of the three states any one of them should be described. As antiquities, however, these burial caves do not require a long notice. The one of which most has been written is that discovered by Juan Flores in 1838. The entrance to the cave was at the foot of a hill, and within were seated round the walls over a thousand mummies "dressed in fine blankets, made of the fibres of lechuguilla, with sandals, made of a species of liana, on their feet, and ornamented with colored scarfs, with beads of seeds of fruits, polished bones, &c.," as Wizlizenus says. Mühlenpfordt tells us that Flores to find this cave traveled eastward from the Rancho San Juan de Casta, which is eighty-six leagues northward from Durango. Another traveler heard of several of these caves, and that the remains found were of gigantic size. Mayer gives a report that in latitude 27° 28´ there are a multitude of caverns excavated from solid rock, bearing inscribed figures of animals and men, the latter dressed like the ancient Mexicans. Some of them were described by Fr Rotéa as fifteen by thirty feet, and identical probably with Chicomoztoc, the famous 'seven caves.' A writer in Silliman's Journal, referring perhaps to the same cave, extends the number of mummies from a thousand to millions, and speaks of necklaces of marine shells. Mr Wilson locates one of these mummy-deposits on the western slope of a high mountain overlooking the ancient pueblo of Chiricahui, in Chihuahua probably. Several rows of bodies, dried and shrunken but not decayed, were exposed by an excavation for saltpetre. Each body sewn up in a strong well-woven cloth, and covered again with sewn palm-leaves, lay on its back on two sticks, with knees drawn up to chin, and feet toward the mouth of the cavern. The cave was a hundred feet in circumference and thirty or forty feet high, and the bottom for a depth of twenty feet, at least, was composed of alternate layers of bodies, and of earth and pebbles. The preservation is thought to be attributable to the dryness of the air and the presence of saltpetre. Parts of the mummies, of the wrapping-cloths, bone beads and beads of blue stone, with parts of a belt and tassels, were presented to the California Academy of Natural Sciences in July, 1864. Sr Avila describes two of these caves situated in the vicinity of San Lorenzo, about thirty-five leagues west of Parras, in Coahuila. One had to be entered from the top by means of ropes, and the other had some of its rocks artificially cut and painted. In both of these deposits bones were found instead of mummies, but they were as in the other cases wrapped in cloth and gaily decked with beads, sticks, and tassels. Hair was found on some of the heads, and a white hand was noticed frequently painted on the walls. Padre Alegre speaks of the existence of caves in this region, with human remains, and painted characters on the cliffs. Respecting the latter, Padre Ribas says "the cliffs of that hill and of the caves were marked with characters and a kind of letters, formed with blood, and in some places so high that nobody but the devil could have put them there, and so permanent that neither the rains nor winds had erased or diminished them."[X-47]
Besides the burial caves, the only account I find of any antiquities in the state of Coahuila, is contained in the following quotation, of rather doubtful authenticity, perhaps, respecting some remains on the hacienda of San Martero, about twenty-six miles from Monclova. "The spot bears every appearance of having once been a populous city. Stone foundations are to be seen, covering many acres. Innumerable columns and walls rise up in every direction, composed of both limestone and sandstone. The columns are built in a variety of shapes, some round, others square, and bear every imprint of the work of human hands.... For miles in the vicinity, the basin is covered with broken pottery of burnt clay, fantastically painted and ornamented with a variety of inexplicable designs."[X-48]
* * * * *
[Sidenote: REMAINS IN LA BREÑA.]
In Durango, besides the sepulchral deposits alluded to, Ribas in his standard and very rare work on the 'triumphs of the faith' in the northern regions, mentions the existence of idols, columns, and the ruins of habitations at Zape, in the central part of the state; and Larios tells us that in the vicinity of the church which was being built in his time, there were found at every step burial vases, containing ashes and human bones, stones of various colors, and, most wonderful of all, statues or images of men and animals, one resembling a priest.[X-49] At San Agustin, between the city of Durango and San Juan del Rio, Arlegui notes the existence of some bones of giants. The good padre did not rely in making his statement on mere reports, but saw with his own eyes a jaw-tooth which measured over eight inches square, and belonged to a jaw which must, according to his calculations, have measured nine feet and a half in the semicircle.[X-50] In the volcanic region extending south-eastward from the city of Durango, known as La Breña, there are large numbers of very curious natural caves, the bottoms of which are covered with a thick layer of fine dust, containing much saltpetre. In this dust, Sr José Fernando Ramirez discovered various antiquarian relics, which he deposited in the National Museum of Mexico. The only one specially mentioned was a very small stone turtle, not over half an inch in diameter, very perfectly carved from a hard material. The region of La Breña has always been a land of mystery popularly supposed to contain immense concealed treasure, the localities of the deposits being marked by small heaps of stones which occurred frequently in out-of-the-way places not covered by the torrent of lava. Most of these stone heaps, perhaps altars or burial places of the ancient inhabitants, have been destroyed by the treasure-seekers, always without yielding the sought-for deposits of gold or silver. The only other relics of aboriginal times in La Breña are certain small cup-shaped excavations in the living rock, supposed to have been used originally for offerings to the deities worshiped by the natives.[X-51]
* * * * *
I find no record of any ancient monuments in Sinaloa, and across the gulf in the state of Lower California, with the exception of some idols, said to have been brought to the priests by the natives they were attempting to convert, and a smooth stone about six feet long, bearing a kind of coat of arms and some inscribed characters,[X-52] the only accounts of antiquities relate to cave and cliff paintings and inscriptions, which have never been copied, and concerning which consequently not much can be said. Clavigero says that the Jesuits found, between latitude 27° and 28°, "several great caves excavated in living rock, and painted with figures of men and women decently clad, and of several kinds of animals. These pictures, though rude, represented distinctly the objects. The colors employed in them were obtained, as may be plainly seen, from the mineral earths which are found about the volcano of Virgenes." The paintings were not the work of the natives found in possession of the country, at least so the Spaniards decided, and it was considered remarkable that they had remained through so many centuries fresh and uninjured by time. The colors were yellow, red, green, and black, and many designs were placed so high on cliffs that it seemed necessary to some of the missionaries to suppose the agency of the giants that were in 'those days.' Indeed, giants' bones were found on the peninsula, as in all other parts of the country, and the natives are said to have had a tradition that the paintings were the work of giants who came from the north. Clavigero mentions one cave whose walls and roof formed an arch resting on the floor. It was about fifteen by eighty feet, and the pictures on its walls represented men and women dressed like Mexicans, but barefooted. The men had their arms raised and spread apart, and one woman wore her hair loose and flowing down her back, and also had a plume. Some animals were noted both native and foreign. One author says they bore no resemblance to Mexican paintings. A series of red hands are reported on a cliff near Santiago mission in the south, and also, towards the sea, some painted fishes, bows, arrows, and obscure characters. A rock-inscription near Purmo, thirty leagues from Santiago, seemed to the Spanish observer to contain Gothic, Hebrew, and Chaldean letters. From all that is known of the Lower California rock-paintings and inscriptions, there is no reason to suppose that they differ much from, or at least are superior to, those in the New Mexican region, of which we shall find so many specimens in the next chapter. It is not improbable that these ruder inscriptions and pictures exist in the southern country already passed over, to a much greater extent than appears in the preceding pages, but have remained comparatively unnoticed by travelers in search of more wonderful or perfect relics of antiquity.[X-53]
[Sidenote: CERRO DE LAS TRINCHERAS.]
Only one monument is known in Sonora, and that only through newspaper reports. It is known as the Cerro de las Trincheras, and is situated about fifty miles south-east of Altar. An isolated conical hill has a spring of water on its summit, also some heaps of loose stones. The sides of the cerro are encircled by fifty or sixty walls of rough stones; each about nine feet high and from three to six feet thick, occurring at irregular intervals of fifty to a hundred feet. Each wall, except that at the base of the hill, has a gateway, but these entrances occur alternately on opposite sides of the hill, so that to reach the summit an enemy would have to fight his way about twenty-five times round the circumference. One writer tells us that Las Trincheras were first found--probably by the Spaniards--in 1650; according to another, the natives say that the fortifications existed in their present state long before the Spaniards came; and finally Sr C. M. Galan, ex-governor of Sinaloa and Lower California, a gentleman well acquainted with all the north-western region, informs me that there is much doubt among the inhabitants of the locality whether the walls have not been built since the Spanish Conquest. Sonora also furnished its quota of giants' bones.[X-54]
* * * * *
There are three or four localities in the state of Chihuahua where miscellaneous remains are vaguely mentioned in addition to the burial caves already referred to in the extreme south-east. Hardy reports a cave near the presidio of San Buenaventura, from which saltpetre is taken for the manufacture of powder, and in which some arrows have been found, with some curious shoes intended for the hoof of an animal, arranged to be tied on heel in front, with a view of misleading pursuers. The cave is very large, and the natives have a tradition of a subterranean passage leading northward to the Casas Grandes, over twenty miles.[X-55] Lamberg mentions the existence of some remains at Corralitos, and announces his intention to explore them.[X-56] García Conde says that ancient works are found at various points in the state, specifying, however, only one of them, which consists of a spiral parapet wall encircling the sides of a hill from top to bottom, near the cañon of Bachimba.[X-57]
* * * * *
[Sidenote: CASAS GRANDES OF CHIHUAHUA.]
One celebrated group of ruins remains to be described in this chapter--the Casas Grandes of northern Chihuahua. These ruins are situated on the Casas Grandes River,--which, flowing northward, empties into a lake near the United States boundary,--about midway between the towns of Janos and Galeana, and one hundred and fifty miles north-west of the city of Chihuahua. They are frequently mentioned by the early writers as a probable station of the migrating Aztecs, but these early accounts are more than usually inaccurate in this case. Robertson found in a manuscript work a mention of the Casas Grandes as "the remains of a paltry building of turf and stone, plastered over with white earth or lime."[X-58] Arlegui, in his Chrónica, speaks of them as "grand edifices all of stone well-hewn and polished from time immemorial." So nicely joined were the blocks of stone that they seemed to have been 'born so,' without the slightest trace of mortar; but the author adds that they might have been joined with the juice of some herbs or roots.[X-59] Clavigero, who claims to have derived his information from parties who had visited the ruins,--since the hostile attitude of the Apaches at the time of his own residence in the country made a visit impracticable--was the first to give any definite idea of these monuments, although he also falls into several errors. He says: "This place is known by the name of Casas Grandes on account of a vast edifice still standing, which according to the universal tradition of the people was built by the Mexicans in their pilgrimage. This edifice is constructed according to the plan of those in New Mexico, that is composed of three stories and a terrace above them, without doors in the lower story. The entrance to the edifice is in the second story; so that a ladder is required."[X-60]
Sr Escudero examined the ruins in 1819, and describes them as "a group of rooms built with mud walls, exactly oriented according to the four cardinal points. The blocks of earth are of unequal size, but placed with symmetry, and the perfection with which they have lasted during a period which cannot be less than three hundred years shows great skill in the art of building. It is seen that the edifice had three stories and a roof, with exterior stairways probably of wood. The same class of construction is found still in all the independent Indian towns of Moqui, north-east from the state of Chihuahua. Most of the rooms are very small with doors so small and narrow that they seem like the cells of a prison."[X-61] A writer in the Album Mexicano, who visited the Casas Grandes in 1842, wrote a description which is far superior to anything that preceded it.[X-62] Mr Hardy visited the place, but his account affords very little information;[X-63] and Mr Wizlizenus gives a brief description evidently drawn from some of the earlier authorities and consequently faulty.[X-64] Finally Mr Bartlett explored the locality in 1851, and his description illustrated with cuts is by far the most satisfactory extant. From his account and that in the Album most of the following information is derived.[X-65]
The ruined casas are about half a mile from the modern Mexican town of the same name, located in a finely chosen site, commanding a broad view over the fertile valley of the Casas Grandes or San Miguel river, which valley--or at least the river bottom--is here two miles wide. This bottom is bounded by a plateau about twenty-five feet higher, and the ruins are found partly on the bottom and partly on the more sterile plateau above. They consist of walls, generally fallen and crumbled into heaps of rubbish, but at some points, as at the corners and where supported by partition walls, still standing to a height of from five to thirty feet above the heaps of débris, and some of them as high as fifty feet, if reckoned from the level of the ground. The cuts on this and the opposite pages represent views of the ruins from three different standpoints, as sketched by Mr Bartlett.
[Sidenote: CASAS GRANDES.]
The material of the walls is sun-dried blocks of mud and gravel, about twenty-two inches thick, and of irregular length, generally about three feet, probably formed and dried in situ. Of this material and method of construction more details will be given in the following chapter on the New Mexican region, where the buildings are of a similar nature. The walls are in some parts five feet thick, but were so much damaged at the time of Mr Bartlett's visit that nothing could be ascertained, at least without excavation, respecting their finish on either surface. The author of the account in the Album states that the plaster which covers the blocks is of powdered stone, but this may be doubted. There is no doubt, however, that they were plastered on both interior and exterior, with a composition much like that of which the blocks were made; Escudero found some portions of the plaster still in place, but does not state what was its composition. The remains of the main structure, which was rectangular in its plan, extend over an area measuring about eight hundred feet from north to south, and two hundred and fifty from east to west.[X-66] Within this area are three great heaps of ruined walls, but low connecting lines of débris indicate that all formed one edifice, or were at least connected by corridors. On the south the wall, or the heaps indicating its existence, is continuous and regular; of the northern side nothing is said; but on the east and west the walls are very irregular, with many angles and projections.
* * * * *
The ground plan of the whole structure could not be made out, at least in the limited time at Mr Bartlett's disposal. He found, however, one row of apartments whose plan is shown in the cut. Each of the six shown is ten by twenty feet, and the small structure in the corner of each is a pen rather than a room, being only three or four feet high. In the Album, the usual dimensions of the rooms are given as about twelve and a half by sixteen and a half feet; one very perfect room, however, being a little over four feet square. Bartlett found many rooms altogether too small for sleeping apartments, some of great size, whose dimensions are not given, and several enclosures too large to have been covered by a roof, doubtless enclosed courtyards. One portion of standing wall in the interior had a doorway narrower at the top than at the bottom, and two circular openings or windows above it. The explorer of 1842 speaks of doorways long, square, and round, some of them being walled up at the bottom so as to form windows.
* * * * *
Not a fragment of wood or stone remained in 1851; nor could any holes in the walls be found which seemed to have held the original floor-timbers; and consequently there was no way of determining the number of stories. In 1842, however, a piece of rotten wood was found, over a window as it seems; and the people in the vicinity said they had found many beams. No traces of any stairway was, however, visible. No doubt the earlier accounts spoke of wooden stairways, or ladders, because such means of entrance were commonly used in similar and more modern buildings in New Mexico; later writers converted the conjectures of the first visitors into actual fact; hence the galleries of wood and exterior stairways spoken of by Wizlizenus and others.
It is difficult to determine where the idea originated that the structure had three stories; for the walls still standing in places to a height of fifty feet, notwithstanding the wear of three centuries at least, would certainly indicate six or seven stories rather than three. These high walls are always in the interior, and the outer walls are in no part of a sufficient height to indicate more than one story. The general idea of the structure in its original condition, formed from the descriptions and views, is that of an immense central pile--similar to some of the Pueblo towns of New Mexico, and particularly that of Taos, of which a cut will be given in the following chapter--rising to a height of six or seven stories, and surrounded by lower houses built about several courtyards, and presenting on the exterior a rectangular form. Notwithstanding the imperfect exploration of this ruin and its advanced state of dilapidation, the reader of the following chapter will not fail to understand clearly what this Casa Grande was like when still inhabited; for there is no doubt that this building was used for a dwelling as well as for other purposes, and this may be regarded as the first instance in the northward progress of our investigation where any remains of authentic aboriginal dwellings have been met.
[Sidenote: BROKEN POTTERY.]
About one hundred and fifty yards west of the main building and somewhat higher on the plateau, are seen the foundations of another structure of similar nature and material, indicating a line of small apartments built round an interior court, according to the ground plan shown in the cut, the whole forming a square with sides of about one hundred and fifty feet. There are some other heaps in the vicinity which may very likely represent buildings, of whose original forms, however, they convey no idea, besides some remains of what seemed to Mr Bartlett to be very evidently those of modern Spanish buildings. Between the two buildings described there are three mounds or heaps of loose stones each about fifteen feet high, which have not been opened. Escudero, followed by García Conde, states that throughout an extent of twenty leagues in length and ten leagues in width in the valleys of the Casas Grandes and Janos, mounds are found in great numbers--over two thousand, as estimated in the Album--and that such as have been opened have furnished painted pottery, metates, stone axes, and other utensils. One visitor thought that one of the mounds presented great regularity in its form and had a summit platform.
Escudero and Hardy report the existence of an aqueduct or canal which formerly brought water from a spring to the town. The following cut shows specimens of broken pottery found in connection with the ruins. The ornamentation is in black, red, or brown, on a white or reddish ground. The material is said to be superior in texture to any manufactured in later times by the natives of this region. The whole valley for miles around is strewn with such fragments. Unbroken specimens of pottery are not abundant, as is naturally the case in a country traversed continually by roving bands of natives to whom it is easier to pick up or dig out earthen utensils than to manufacture or buy them. Three specimens were however found by Mr Bartlett, and are shown in the cut. Mr Hardy also sketched a vase very similar to the first figure of the cut, and he speaks of "good specimens of earthen images in the Egyptian style, which are, to me at least, so perfectly uninteresting, that I was at no pains to procure any of them." According to the Album, some idols had been found by the inhabitants among other relics, and the women claimed to have discovered a monument of antiquity which was of practical utility to themselves, as well as of interest to archæologists--namely, a jar filled with bear's grease! The pipe shown in the cut, has a suspiciously modern look, although included in Bartlett's plate of Chihuahuan antiquities.
[Sidenote: FORTRESS AT CASAS GRANDES.]
The inhabitants pointed out to Bartlett, on the top of a high mountain, some ten miles south-west of the ruins described, what they said was a stone fortress of two or three stories. Escudero describes this monument, which he locates at a distance of only two leagues, as a watch-tower or sentry-station on the top of a high cliff; and says that the southern slope of the hill has many lines of stones at irregular intervals, with heaps of loose stones at their extremities. This is probably, in the absence of more definite information the more credible account. The Album represents this monument as a fortress built of great stones very perfectly joined, though without the aid of mortar. The wall is said to be eighteen or twenty feet thick, and a road cut in the rock leads to the summit. At this time, 1842, the works were being destroyed for the stone they contained. Clavigero speaks of the hill works as "a fortress defended on one side by a high mountain, and on other sides by a wall about seven feet thick, the foundations of which yet remain. There are seen in this fortress stones as large as millstones; the beams of the roofs are of pine, and well worked. In the centre of the vast edifice is a mound, built as it seems, for the purpose of keeping guard and watching the enemy." Clavigero evidently confounds the two groups of ruins, and from his error, and a similar one by others, come the accounts which represent the Casas Grandes as built of stone. He mentions obsidian mirrors among the relics dug up here, probably without any authority. The cut from Bartlett shows a stone metate found among the ruins.
So far as any conclusions or comparisons suggested by this Chihuahuan ruin are concerned, they may best be deferred to the end of the following chapter. The Casas Grandes, and the ruins of the northern or New Mexican group, should be classed together. They were the work of the same people, at about the same epoch.
FOOTNOTES:
[X-1] Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. iv., p. 58.
[X-2] Beaumont, Crón. Mechoacan, MS., pp. 45-6. Ihuatzio, probably the true name of the town called by Beaumont Ignatzio, 'recuerda por sus antiguedades (la Pirámide aun no destruida, que les servia de plaza de armas: otras Yácatas, ó sepulcros de sus Reyes: las reliquias de una torre que fabricó su primer fundador antes venir los Españoles, y la via, calle ó camino de Queréndaro, que comunicaba con la Capital) tristes memorias de la grandeza michuacana.' Michuacan, Análisis Estad., por J. J. L., p. 166.
[X-3] Lyon's Journal, vol. ii., pp. 71-2. 'Some relics of the Tarascan architecture are said to be found at this place, but we do not possess any authentic accounts or drawings of them.' Mayer's Mex. Aztec, etc., vol. ii., p. 291. Mention in Mühlenpfordt, Mejico, tom. ii., pt. ii., p. 369; Wappäus, Geog. u. Stat., p. 167.
[X-4] Villa-Señor y Sanchez, Theatro, tom. ii., pp. 70-1; mention in Hassel, Mex. Guat., p. 154.
[X-5] Beaufoy's Mex. Illustr., p. 199.
[X-6] Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin, 2da época, tom. iv., p. 559.
[X-7] Humboldt, in Antiq. Mex., tom. i., div. ii., p. 30, suppl., pl. vii., fig. 13; Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin, tom. viii., p. 558.
[X-8] Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin, 2da época, tom. iii., p. 277.
[X-9] Gutierrez, in Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin, 2da época, tom. iii., pp. 277-80.
[X-10] Rico, in Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin, 2da época, tom. iii., p. 183.
[X-11] Löwenstern, Mexique, pp. 265-7, 280, 344; Id., in Nouvelles Annales des Voy., 1840, tom. lxxxvi., pp. 119-20; Id., in Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour., vol. xi., p. 104; Cincinnatus' Travels, p. 259.
[X-12] Hervás, Catálogo, tom. i., p. 311.
[X-13] Florencia, Origen de los Santuarios, p. 8; Padilla, Conq. N. Galicia, MS., pp. 217-19.
[X-14] Acazitli, in Icazbalceta, Col. de Doc., tom. ii., pp. 313-14; Villa-Señor y Sanchez, Theatro, tom. ii., pp. 269-70.
[X-15] Nat. Hist. Man, vol. ii., p. 515.
[X-16] Gil, in Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin, tom. viii., p. 496; Ternaux-Compans, in Nouvelles Annales des Voy., 1842, tom. xcv., p. 295; same account in Mofras, Explor., tom. i., p. 161.
[X-17] Retes, in Museo Mex., 2da época, tom. i., pp. 3-6.
[X-18] Id., p. 6.
[X-19] Lyon's Journal, vol. i., pp. 322-3.
[X-20] Bustamante, in Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin, tom. i., pp. 56-7.
[X-21] Castillo, in Id., 2da época, tom. iv., pp. 107-8.
[X-22] Berlandier and Thovel, Diario, p. 25.
[X-23] Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin, 2da época, tom. iii., pp. 278-9, preceded by an account quoted from Torquemada.
[X-24] Lyon's Journal, vol. i., pp. 225-44.
[X-25] Esparza, Informe, pp. 56-8. The same report also published in 1843, in the Museo Mex., tom. i., p. 185, et seq., with some remarks by the editor, who saw the ruins in 1831. The article also includes a quotation from Frejes, Conquista de Zacatecas, an attempt to clear up the origin and history of the ruined city, and a plate reduced from Nebel.
[X-26] Burkart, Aufenthalt, tom. ii., pp. 97-105.
[X-27] Viaje. His Mexican trip began in 1831, Soc. Géog., Bulletin, tom. xv., No. 95, p. 141, and Burkart met him in Zacatecas some time before 1834.
[X-28] Other accounts containing no additional information, and made up, except one or two, from the authorities already mentioned:--Gil, in Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin, tom. viii., pp. 441-2; Mayer's Mex. as it Was, pp. 240-6; Id., Mex. Aztec, etc., vol. ii., pp. 317-23, Lyon's description and Nebel's plate; Id., in Schoolcraft's Arch., vol. vi., p. 581; Bradford's Amer. Antiq., pp. 90-5; Mühlenpfordt, Mejico, tom. ii., pt. ii., p. 492; Wappäus, Geog. u. Stat., p. 204; Frost's Pict. Hist. Mex., pp. 58-66; Id., Great Cities, pp. 304-12, cuts; Rio, Beschreib. einer alt. Stadt, appendix, pp. 70-5.
[X-29] Tello, Fragmentos, in Icazbalceta, Col. de Doc., tom. ii., p. 344.
[X-30] Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin, tom. viii., pp. 441-2, 496; Frejes, in Museo Mex., tom. i., pp. 186-9; Lyon's Journal, vol. i., p. 243.
[X-31] The explanation of the plan by the lettering given in Nebel's work is as follows: A i., A ii., A iii., A iv. Temples and structures connected therewith. B. Enclosing walls. C. Walls supporting terraces. D. Pyramids in the interior of temples. E. Isolated Pyramids. F. Ruins of dwellings. G. Stairways. H. Ancient roads. J. Kind of a 'plaza de armas.' K. Fortifications. L. Small stairways leading to the court of the temple. M. A small altar. N. Ancient foundations. O. Batteries in the form of flat roofs (azotéas). P. Modern cross on the summit of the hill. Q. Well. R. Large hall with 11 columns to support the roof. S. Two columns. T. Rock. U. Stream.
[X-32] Rivera, pp. 56-8, says that the causeway leading toward the hacienda runs S.E.
[X-33] Frejes, in Museo Mex., tom. i., p. 186, speaks of 'tres calzadas de seis varas de ancho que por líneas divergentes corren al mediodía algunas leguas hasta perderse de vista.'
[X-34] Lyon. According to the Museo Mex., tom. i., p. 187, it is 5 or 6 varas high and 10 thick.
[X-35] Burkart gives the dimensions as 194 by 232 Rhenish feet, somewhat larger than English feet; Rivera says 35 or 40 varas square. This author also noticed on the slope of the hill before reaching the steepest part, a pyramid about 20 feet high and 11 feet square, now truncated but apparently pointed in its original condition. This was probably the heap of stones mentioned above.
[X-36] Burkart implies that the terrace extends entirely round the square, forming a sunken basin 4 or 5 feet deep; and this is probably the case, as it agrees with the plan of some other structures on the hill.
[X-37] Lyon says 137 by 154 feet; Rivera, 50 to 60 varas, with walls 8 to 9 varas high.
[X-38] Burkart gives the dimensions of the pyramid as 30 feet square and 30 feet high; and of the altar in front as 6 feet square and 6 feet high.
[X-39] 'Tiene este pueblo [Teul] por cabeza un cerro al principio cuadrado como de peña tajada, y arriba otro cerro redondo, y encima del primero hay tanta capacidad que caben mas de veinte mil indios.... En este monte estaba una sala, en donde estaba su ídolo, que llamaban el Teotl ... tiene más una pila de losas de junturas de cinco varas de largo y tres de ancho, y mas ancha de arriba que de abajo.... Esta pila tiene dos entradas; la una en la esquina que mira al Norte, con cinco gradas, y la otra que mira en esquina al Sur, con otras cinco: no lejos de esta pila, como dos tiros de arcabuz, están dos montecillos que eran los osarios de los indios que sacrificaban.' Tello, in Icazbalceta, Col. de Doc., tom. ii., pp. 362-4; Id., in Beaumont, Crón. Mechoacan, MS., p. 300; description of the temple, Gil, in Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin, tom. viii., p. 497; mention of ruins, Frejes, in Museo Mex., tom. i., p. 186; stone axes, Esparza, Informe, p. 7; concealed temples and idols, Arlegui, Chrón. Zacatecas, p. 95.
[X-40] Mayer's Mex. as it Was, p. 98; Cabrera, in _Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin_, 2da época, tom. iv., p. 24; Annual Scien. Discov., 1850, p. 361.
[X-41] Furber's Twelve Months Volunteer, pp. 387-8.
[X-42] Lyon's Journal, vol. i., pp. 141-2.
[X-43] Norman's Rambles by Land and Water, pp. 169-70.
[X-44] Norman's Rambles by Land and Water, pp. 121-37.
[X-45] Lyon's Journal, vol. i., pp. 21, 28, 114. Mention of Tamaulipas antiquities from Norman and Lyon, in Mayer's Mex. Aztec, etc., vol. ii., pp. 207-9; Id., in Schoolcraft's Arch., vol. vi., p. 581. Newspaper account of some relics of Christianity, in Cronise's California, p. 30.
[X-46] Berlandier and Thovel, Diario, p. 151.
[X-47] Wizlizenus' Tour, pp. 69, 70. This author says the bodies are supposed to belong to the Lipans. Mühlenpfordt, Mejico, tom. ii., pt. ii., p. 518; Severn's Journal, vol. xxx., p. 38; Mayer's Mex. as it Was, pp. 239-40; Id., Mex. Aztec, etc., vol. ii., p. 333; Silliman's Jour., vol. xxxvi., p. 200; Cal. Acad. Nat. Sciences, vol. iii., pp. 160-1; Pac. Monthly, vol. xi., p. 783; Nouvelles Annales des Voy., 1839, tom. lxxxi., pp. 126-7; Lemprière's Notes in Mex., p. 135; Avila, in Album Mex., tom. i., pp. 465-8; Alegre, Hist. Comp. de Jesus, tom. i., p. 418; Ribas, Hist. de los Triumphos, p. 685.
[X-48] Donnavan's Adven., pp. 30-1.
[X-49] Larios, in Alegre, Hist. Comp. de Jesus, tom. ii., pp. 54-5; Ribas, Hist. de los Triumphos, p. 583; Orozco y Berra, Geografía, p. 318.
[X-50] Arlegui, Chrón. Zacatecas, pp. 6, 67.
[X-51] Ramirez, Noticias Hist. de Durango, pp. 6-9; Id., in Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin, tom. v., pp. 10-11.
[X-52] Doc. Hist. Mex., série iv., tom. v., pp. 213, 254.
[X-53] Clavigero, Storia della Cal., tom. i., pp. 107-9; Doc. Hist. Mex., série iv., tom. v., pp. 213, 254; Taylor, in Cal. Farmer, Dec. 21, 1860, Nov. 22, 1861, Jan. 10, 1862; Hesperian, vol. iii., p. 530.
[X-54] San Francisco Evening Bulletin, July 16, 1864; Cal. Farmer, March 20, 1863, April 4, 1862; Doc. Hist. Mex., série iii., tom. iv., pp. 626-7.
[X-55] Hardy's Trav., p. 467.
[X-56] Lamberg, in Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin, tom. iii., p. 25.
[X-57] García Conde, Ensayo sobre Chihuahua, p. 74.
[X-58] Robertson's Hist. Amer., vol. i., p. 269.
[X-59] Arlegui, Chrón. Zacatecas, pp. 104-5. Same in Padilla, Conq. N. Galicia, MS., pp. 484-5.
[X-60] Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. i., p. 159; Heredia y Sarmiento, Sermon, pp. 89-90.
[X-61] Escudero, Noticias Estad. del Estado de Chihuahua, pp. 234-5; repeated in García Conde, Ensayo sobre Chihuahua, p. 74; Orozco y Berra, Geografía, pp. 110-11.
[X-62] Album Mex., tom. i., pp. 374-5.
[X-63] Hardy's Trav., pp. 465-6.
[X-64] Wizlizenus' Tour, pp. 59-60.
[X-65] Bartlett's Pers. Nar., vol. ii., pp. 347-64. Other compiled accounts may be found in Mayer's Mex. Aztec, etc., vol. ii., p. 339; Armin, Das Heutige Mex., pp. 269-70; Möllhausen, Tagebuch, pp. 312-13; Mühlenpfordt, Mejico, tom. ii., pt. ii., p. 525; Thümmel, Mexiko, p. 347; Ranking's Hist. Researches, pp. 282-3; Wappäus, Geog. u. Stat., p. 216; Willson's Amer. Hist., p. 561; Gordon's Ancient Mex., vol. i., p. 105; Gregory's Hist. Mex., p. 71.
[X-66] Although the dimensions in the Album are given as 414 by 1380 feet, probably including some structures reckoned by Bartlett as detached.
XI. ANTIQUITIES OF ARIZONA AND NEW MEXICO
AREA ENCLOSED BY THE GILA, RIO GRANDE DEL NORTE, AND COLORADO -- A LAND OF MYSTERY -- WONDERFUL REPORTS AND ADVENTURES OF MISSIONARIES, SOLDIERS, HUNTERS, MINERS, AND PIONEERS -- EXPLORATION -- RAILROAD SURVEYS -- CLASSIFICATION OF REMAINS -- MONUMENTS OF THE GILA VALLEY -- BOULDER-INSCRIPTIONS -- THE CASA GRANDE OF ARIZONA -- EARLY ACCOUNTS AND MODERN EXPLORATION -- ADOBE BUILDINGS -- VIEW AND PLANS -- MISCELLANEOUS REMAINS, ACEQUIAS, AND POTTERY -- OTHER RUINS ON THE GILA -- VALLEY OF THE RIO SALADO -- RIO VERDE -- PUEBLO CREEK -- UPPER GILA -- TRIBUTARIES OF THE COLORADO -- ROCK-INSCRIPTIONS, BILL WILLIAMS FORK -- RUINED CITIES OF THE COLORADO CHIQUITO -- RIO PUERCO -- LITHODENDRON CREEK -- NAVARRO SPRING -- ZUÑI VALLEY -- ARCH SPRING -- ZUÑI -- OJO DEL PESCADO -- INSCRIPTION ROCK -- RIO SAN JUAN -- RUINS OF THE CHELLY AND CHACO CAÑONS -- VALLEY OF THE RIO GRANDE -- PUEBLO TOWNS, INHABITED AND IN RUINS -- THE MOQUI TOWNS -- THE SEVEN CITIES OF CÍBOLA -- RÉSUMÉ, COMPARISONS, AND CONCLUSIONS.
Crossing the boundary line between the northern and southern republics, and entering the territory of the Pacific United States, I shall present in the present chapter all that is known of antiquities in Arizona and New Mexico. An area approximating somewhat the form of a right-angle triangle, with a base of four hundred miles and a perpendicular of three hundred, includes all the remains in this region. The valley of the Rio Gila, with those of its tributary streams, is the southern boundary, or base, stretching along the thirty-third parallel of latitude; the Rio Grande del Norte, flowing southward between the one hundred and sixth and one hundred and seventh meridians, forms with its valley the eastern limit or perpendicular; while on the north and west the region is bounded by the Rio Colorado as a hypothenuse, albeit a very winding one. The latter river might, however, be straightened, thus improving materially the geometrical symmetry of my triangle, without interfering much with ancient remains, as will be seen when the relics of the Colorado section are described.
* * * * *
The face of the country is made up of fertile valleys, precipitous cañons, rugged mountains, and desert table-lands, the latter predominating and constituting a very large portion of the area. Arizona and New Mexico since first they became known to the outside world, have always had, as they still have, more or less of the mysterious connected with them. Here have been located for over three hundred years the wonderful peoples, marvelous cities, extensive ruins, mines of untold wealth, unparalleled natural phenomena, savages of the most bloodthirsty and merciless character, and other marvels, that from the narratives of adventurers and missionaries have found their way into romance and history. This was in a certain sense the last American stronghold of the mysterious as connected with the aborigines, where the native races yet dispute the progress of a foreign civilization.
And the wondrous tales of this border land between civilization and savagism, always exaggerated, had nevertheless much foundation in fact. The Pueblo tribes of New Mexico and the Moquis of Arizona are a wonderful people when we consider the wall of savagism which envelopes them; their towns of many-storied structures are better foundations than usually exist for travelers' tales of magnificent cities; ruins are abundant, showing that the pueblo nations were in the past more numerous, powerful, and cultured, than Europeans have found them; rich mines are now worked, and yet richer ones are awaiting development; few greater natural curiosities have been seen in America than the cañon of the Colorado, with perpendicular sides in some places a mile in height; and the Apaches are yet on the war-path, making a trip through the country much more dangerous now than at the time when the Spaniards first visited it.
Although a large part of these states is still in the possession of the natives, and no official or scientific commission has made explorations which were especially directed to its antiquarian treasures, yet the labors of the priest, hunter, immigrant, Indian fighter, railroad surveyor, and prospector, have left few valleys, hills, or cañons, mountain passes or desert plains unvisited. While it is not probable that all even of the more important ruins have been seen, or described, we may feel very sure, here as in Yucatan, from the uniformity of such monuments as have been brought to light, that no very important developments remain to be made respecting the character, or type, of the New Mexican remains.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: EXPLORATION OF NEW MEXICO.]
This country was first visited by the Spaniards in the middle of the sixteenth century. The part known to them as New Mexico, and to which their efforts as conquistadores and missionaries were particularly directed, was the valley of the Rio Grande and its tributary streams, but the whole district was frequently crossed and recrossed by the padres down to the latter part of the seventeenth century. Reports of large cities and powerful nations far in the north reached Mexico through the natives as early as 1530; Cabeza de Vaca, ship-wrecked on the coast of the Mexican gulf, wandered through the regions south of and near New Mexico, in 1535-6; roused by the shipwrecked soldier's tale, Fr Marco de Niza penetrated at least into Arizona from Sinaloa in 1539, and was followed by Vasquez de Coronado, who reached the Pueblo towns on the Rio Grande in 1540; Antonio de Espejo followed the course of the great river northward to the Pueblos in 1583, and in 1598 New Mexico was brought altogether under Spanish rule by Juan de Oñate. In 1680 the natives threw off the yoke by revolt, but were again subdued fifteen years later, and the Spaniards retained the power, though not always without difficulty until 1848, when the territory came into the possession of the United States. The archives of the missions are said to have been for the most part destroyed in the revolt of 1680, and consequently their history previous to that date is only known in outline; since 1680 the annals are tolerably clear and complete. The diaries of the Spanish pioneers have been, most of them, preserved in one form or another, and show that the authors visited many of the ruins that have attracted the attention of later explorers, and also that they found many of the towns inhabited that now exist only as ruins. Their accurate accounts of towns still standing and inhabited attest, moreover, their general veracity as explorers.
It is, however, to the explorations undertaken under the authority of the United States government, for the purpose of surveying a practicable route for an interoceanic railroad, and also to establish a boundary line between American and Mexican territory, that we owe nearly all our accurate descriptions of the ancient monuments of this group. These exploring parties, as well as the military expeditions during the war with Mexico, were accompanied by scientific men and artists, whose observations were made public in their official reports, together with illustrative plates. They generally followed the course of the larger rivers, but the ruins discovered by them show a remarkable similarity one to another, and consequently the reports of trappers and guides respecting remains of similar type on the smaller streams, may be generally accepted as worthy of more implicit confidence than can generally be accorded to such reports.
In this division of Pacific States antiquities, which may be spoken of as the New Mexican group, we shall find, 1st, the remains of ancient stone and adobe buildings in all stages of disintegration, from standing walls with roofs and floors to shapeless heaps of débris or simple lines of foundation-stones; 2d, anomalous structures of stone or earth, the purpose of which, either by reason of their advanced state of ruin or of the slight attention given them by travelers, is not apparent; 3d, traces of aboriginal agriculture in the shape of acequias and zanjas, or irrigating canals and ditches; 4th, pottery, always in fragments; 5th, implements and ornaments of stone and shell, not numerous; and 6th, painted or engraved figures on cliffs, boulders, and the sides of natural caverns.
[Sidenote: MOUTH OF THE COLORADO.]
About the mouth of the Colorado there are no authentic remains of aboriginal work dating back beyond the coming of the Spaniards, although Mr Bartlett found just below the mouth of the Gila traces of cultivation, which seemed to him, judging from the growth of trees that covered them, not to be the work of the present tribes in the vicinity. I find also an absurd newspaper report--and no part of the Pacific States has been more prolific of such reports than that now under consideration--of a wonderful ruined city of hewn stone somewhere about the head of the Gulf of California. This city included numerous dwellings, circular walls of granite, sculptured hieroglyphics, and seven great pyramids, not unlike the famous Central American cities of Palenque and Copan. Some rude figures scratched or painted on the surface of a boulder, seen by a traveler, have been proved by experience to be ample foundation for such a rumor.[XI-1]
[Sidenote: ROCK-INSCRIPTIONS OF THE GILA.]
Ascending the Rio Gila eastward from its junction with the Colorado, for some two hundred miles we find nothing that can be classed with ancient monuments except natural heaps of large boulders at two points, the flat sides of which are "covered with rude figures of men, animals, and other objects of grotesque forms, all pecked in with a sharp instrument." The accompanying cut shows some of these boulder-sculptures as they were sketched by Bartlett in 1852. Some of them seemed of recent origin, while many were much defaced by exposure, and apparently of great age. The newer carvings in some cases extend over the older ones, and many are found on the under side of the rocks, where they must have been executed before they fell to their present position. The locality of the sculptured rocks is shown on the map; the first is about fifty miles east of Fort Yuma, and the second twenty miles west of the big bend of the Gila, both on the south bank. Two additional incised figures are given in the following cut from Froebel's sketches, since the author thinks that Bartlett may have selected his specimens with a view to strengthen his theory that the figures are not hieroglyphics with a definite meaning.[XI-2]
Between the Pima villages and the junction of the San Pedro with the Gila, stands the most famous ruin of the whole region--the Casa Grande, or Casa de Montezuma, which it is safe to say has been mentioned by every writer on American antiquity. Coronado during his trip from Culiacan to the 'seven cities' in 1540, visited a building called Chichilticale, or 'red house,' which is supposed with much reason to have been the Casa Grande. The only account of Coronado's trip which gives any description of the building is that of Castañeda, who says, "Chichilticale of which so much had been said [probably by the guides or natives] proved to be a house in ruins and without a roof; which seemed, however, to have been fortified. It was clear that this house, built of red earth, was the work of civilized people who had come from far away." "A house which had long been inhabited by a people who came from Cíbola. The earth in this country is red. The house was large; it seemed to have served as a fortress."[XI-3]
Father Kino heard of the ruin while visiting the northern missions of Sonora in the early part of 1694. He was at first incredulous, but the information having been confirmed by other reports of the natives, he visited the Casa Grande later in the same year, and said mass within its walls. Since Kino was not accompanied at the time by Padre Mange, his secretary, who usually kept the diary of his expeditions, no definite account resulted from this first visit.[XI-4]
In 1697, however, Padre Kino revisited the place, in company this time with Mange, who in his diary of the trip wrote what may be regarded as the first definite description.[XI-5]
[Sidenote: CASA GRANDE OF THE GILA.]
Padre Jacobo Sedelmair visited the Casa Grande in 1744, but in his narrative he copies Mange's account. He went further, however, and discovered other ruins.[XI-6]
[Sidenote: AUTHORITIES ON THE CASA GRANDE.]
Lieut C. M. Bernal seems to have been military commandant in Kino's expedition, and he also describes the ruin in his report.[XI-7] Padres Garcés and Font made a journey in 1775-6, under Capt. Anza, to the Gila and Colorado valleys, and thence to the missions of Alta California and the Moqui towns. Both mention the ruin in their diaries, the latter giving quite a full account. I know not if Padre Font's diary has ever been printed, but I have in my collection an English manuscript translation from the original in the archives at Guadalajara,--perhaps the same copy from which Mr Bartlett made the extracts which he printed in his work.[XI-8] Font's plan is not given with the translation, but in Beaumont's Crónica de Mechoacan, a very important work never published, of which I have a copy made from the original for the Mexican Imperial Library of Maximilian, I find a description of the Casa Grande, which appears to have been quoted literally from Font's diary, and which also contains the ground plan of the ruined edifice. I shall notice hereafter its variations from the plan which I shall copy.[XI-9] A brief account was given in the Rudo Ensayo, written about 1761, and by Velarde in his notice of the Pimería, written probably toward the close of the eighteenth century; but neither of these descriptions contained any additional information, having been made up probably from the preceding.[XI-10]
Finally the Casa Grande has been visited, sketched, and described by Emory and Johnston, connected with Gen. Kearny's military expedition to California in 1846; by Bartlett with the Mexican Boundary Commission in 1852; and by Ross Browne in 1863.[XI-11]
The descriptions of different writers do not differ very materially one from another, Bartlett's among the later, and Font's of the earlier accounts being the most complete. From all the authorities I make up the following description, although the extracts which I have already given include nearly all that can be said on the subject. The Casa Grande stands about two miles and a half south of the bank of the Gila;--that is all the early writers call the distance about a league; Bartlett and Emory say nothing of the distance, and Ross Browne says it is half an hour's ride. The Gila valley in this region is a level bottom of varying width, with nearly perpendicular banks of earth. Opposite the ruin the bottom is about a mile wide on the southern bank of the river, and the ruin itself stands on the raised plateau beyond, surrounded by a thick growth of mesquite with an occasional pitahaya. The height and nature of the ascent from the bottom to the plateau at this particular point are not stated; but from the fact that acequias are reported leading from the river to the buildings, it would seem that the ascent must be very slight and gradual.
The appearance of the ruins in 1863 is shown in the cut as sketched by Ross Browne. Other sketches by Bartlett, Emory, and Johnston, agree very well with the one given, but none of them indicate the presence of the mesquite forest mentioned in Mr Bartlett's text. The material of the buildings is adobe,[XI-12] that is, the ordinary mud of the locality mixed with gravel. Most writers say nothing of its color, although Bernal in 1697 pronounced it 'white clay,' and Johnston also says it is white, probably with an admixture of lime, which, as he states, is abundant in the vicinity. Mr Hutton, a civil engineer well acquainted with the ruins, assured Mr Simpson that the surrounding earth is of a reddish color, although by reason of the pebbles the Casa has a whitish appearance in certain reflections. This matter of color is of no great importance except to prove the identity of the building with Castañeda's Chichilticale, which he expressly states to have been built of red earth.[XI-13] The material instead of being formed into small rectangular or brick-shaped blocks, as is customary in all Spanish American countries to this day, seems in this aboriginal structure to have been molded--perhaps by means of wooden boxes--and dried where it was to remain in the walls, in blocks of varying size, but generally four feet long by two feet in width and thickness. The outer surface of the walls was plastered with the same material which constituted the blocks, and the inner walls were hard-finished with a finer composition of the same nature, which in many parts has retained its smooth and even polished surface. Adobe is a very durable building-material, so long as a little attention is given to repairs, but it is really wonderful that the walls of the Casa Grande have resisted, uncared for, the ravages of time and the elements for over three hundred years of known age, and of certainly a century--perhaps much more--of pre-Spanish existence.
The buildings that still have upright walls are three in number, and in the largest of these both the exterior and interior walls are so nearly perfect as to show accurately not only the original form and size, but the division of the interior into apartments. Its dimensions on the ground are fifty feet from north to south, by forty feet from east to west. The outer wall is about five feet thick at the base, diminishing slightly towards the top, in a curved line on the exterior, but perpendicular on the inside.[XI-14] The interior is divided by partition walls, slightly thinner than the others, into five apartments, as shown in the accompanying ground plan taken from Bartlett. Font's plan given by Beaumont agrees with this, except that additional doors are represented at the points marked with a dot, and no doorway is indicated at a. The three central rooms are each about eight by fourteen feet, and the others ten by thirty-two feet, as nearly as may be estimated from Bartlett's plan and the statements of other writers.[XI-15] The doors in the centre of each façade are three feet wide and five feet high, and somewhat narrower at the top than at the bottom, except that on the western front, which is two by seven or eight feet. There are some small windows, both square and circular in the outer and inner walls. The following cut shows an elevation of the side and end, also from Bartlett.[XI-16]
Remains of floor timbers show that the main walls were three stories high, or, as the lower rooms are represented by Font as about ten English feet high, about thirty feet in height; while the central portion is eight or ten feet--probably one story--higher. Mr Bartlett judged from the mass of débris within that the main building had originally four stories; but as the earliest visitors speak of three and four stories--some referring to the central, others apparently to the outer portions--there would seem to be no satisfactory evidence that the building was over forty feet high, although it is possible that the outer and inner walls were originally of the same height. Respecting the arrangement of apartments in the upper stories, there is of course no means of judging, all the floors having fallen. There may, however, have been additional partition walls resting on the floors, and these may have helped to make up the débris noticed by Mr Bartlett. The floors were evidently supported by round timbers four or five inches in diameter, inserted in the walls and stretching across the rooms at regular intervals. The holes where the beams were placed, and in many cases the ends of the beams themselves are still visible. At the time of Padre Kino's visit one floor in an adjoining ruin was still perfect, and was formed by cross-sticks placed upon the round floor-timbers and covered with a thick cake of mud, or adobe.[XI-17] No marks of any cutting instrument were noticed by any visitor except Mr Browne, who says "the ends show very plainly marks of the blunt instrument with which they were cut--probably a stone hatchet."[XI-18] The timbers, of cedar, or sabino, show by their charred ends that the interior was ruined by fire; and Johnston found other evidences that the walls had been exposed to great heat.[XI-19] Nothing seems more natural than that the building should have been burned by some band of Apaches. No traces of stairways have been found even by the earliest visitors; so that the original means of communication with the upper stories may be reasonably supposed to have been wooden ladders, still used by the Pueblo natives in buildings not very unlike what this must originally have been. Mr Bartlett and also Johnston found and sketched some rude figures painted in red lines on the smooth wall of one apartment, but which had disappeared at the time of Mr Browne's visit.
The descriptions of successive explorers show clearly the gradually increasing effects of time and the elements on this ruin; from Browne's sketch it would seem that the walls, undermined at the base by the yearly rains, as is always the case with neglected adobe structures, must soon fall; although I learned from a band of Arizona natives who visited San Francisco in 1873 that the Casa was still standing. When the adobe walls have once fallen, they will require but one or two seasons to crumble and become reduced to a shapeless mound of mud and gravel; as has been the case with most of the eleven other buildings reported here by the first comers, and the existence of which there is no reason to doubt.
Of the additional casas seen by Kino and others no particular description was given, save that Font describes one of them as measuring twenty-six by eighteen feet on the ground. Only two of them show any remains of standing walls, one on the south-west and the other on the north-east of the Casa Grande. The standing portions of the former seemed to indicate a structure similar in plan to the chief edifice, although much smaller; the latter is of still smaller dimensions and its remains convey no idea of its original form. "In every direction," says Mr Bartlett, "as far as the eye can reach, are seen heaps of ruined edifices, with no portions of their walls standing," and Mange, Kino, and Font observed also shapeless heaps covering the plain for a distance of two leagues.
Father Font found "ruins indicating a fence or wall which surrounded the house and other buildings," mentioning a ruin in the south-west angle which had divisions and an upper story. This corner structure may be the same that has been mentioned as standing south-west of the Casa Grande, and Font very likely mistook the heaps of fallen houses for the remains of a wall, since no such wall was seen by Kino and Mange. The dimensions of this supposed wall, four hundred and twenty feet from north to south, and two hundred and sixty feet from east to west, were erroneously applied by Arricivita and Humboldt, followed by others, to the Casa Grande itself, an error which has given a very exaggerated idea of the size of that edifice.[XI-20]
Traces of acequias are mentioned by all as occurring frequently in the vicinity, especially in the Gila bottom between the ruins and the Pima villages. No plan or accurate description of these irrigating works has been given. Probably they were simple shallow ditches in the ground, still traceable at some points. Mange describes the main canal as twenty-seven feet wide, ten feet deep, capable of carrying half the water of the Gila, and extending from the river for a circuit of three leagues round the ruins. Considering the general conformation of the bottom and plateau in this part of the Gila valley, it seems impossible that a canal ten, or even twenty, feet deep could have reached the level of the river, or that so grand an acequia should have escaped the notice of later explorers.
[Sidenote: MISCELLANEOUS REMAINS.]
The miscellaneous remains near the Casa Grande, besides the mounds formed by fallen houses, the irrigating ditches, and the fragments of pottery strewn over the adjacent country in the greatest profusion, are two in number. The first is a circular embankment, three hundred feet in circumference, situated about six hundred feet north-west from the chief ruin. Its height and material are not stated, but it is undoubtedly of the surrounding earth. Johnston considers it a filled-up well; while Bartlett pronounces the circle a simple corral, or enclosure for stock, although of course it could not have been built in aboriginal times for such a purpose. The second monument is only a few yards north of the circle, and is described by Johnston, the only one who mentions its existence, as a terrace measuring about three hundred by two hundred feet and five feet high. Resting on the terrace is a pyramid only eight feet high, but having a summit platform seventy-five feet square, affording from the top a broad view up and down the valley. A more complete survey of this pyramid would be very desirable, not that there is any reason to question Mr Johnston's reliability as an explorer, but because, as will be seen, this mound, if it be not like the rest, formed by fallen adobe walls, together with the circular embankment, present a marked contrast to all other monuments of the New Mexican group.[XI-21]
Sedelmair and Velarde speak rather vaguely of a reservoir, or tank, six leagues southward of the Gila, which was one hundred and ten by one hundred and sixty-five feet, with walls of adobe 'or of masonry.'[XI-22]
A few miles further up the river, westward from the Casa Grande, and on the opposite or northern side Padre Kino's party saw a ruined edifice, and three men were sent across to examine it. They found some walls over three feet thick still standing, and other heaps of ruins in the vicinity showing that a large town had once stood on the site. Emory found there only a "pile of broken pottery and foundation stones of the black basalt, making a mound about ten feet" high.[XI-23] Still farther west, near the Pima villages, Johnston found another circular enclosure, and also what he calls a mound, ninety by a hundred and fifty feet, and six feet high, having a low terrace of sixty by three hundred feet on the eastern side, all covered with loose basaltic rocks, dirt, and pottery. I consider it not impossible that this mound was formed by the walls of a building which assumed a symmetrical shape in falling.[XI-24] Sedelmair speaks of a group of ruins on the southern bank of the river, twelve leagues below the Casa Grande; but no later writer mentions such remains.[XI-25]
* * * * *
[Sidenote: REMAINS IN THE SALADO VALLEY.]
The principal tributary of the Gila from the north is the Rio Salado, or Salinas, the mouth of which is below the Casa Grande, and into which, near its mouth, flows the Rio Verde, or San Francisco. The Spaniards seem not to have ascended these streams; or at least not to have discovered any ruins in their valleys. The guides, however, reported to the missionaries the existence of ruins on the Rio Verde, in the north, similar to those on the Gila.[XI-26] Sedelmair also discovered in 1744, the ruins of a large edifice and several smaller ones in the space between the Gila and Salado.[XI-27] Velarde speaks of ruined buildings of three stories at the junction of the rivers Salado and Gila, and other remains at the junction of the Salado and Verde.[XI-28]
A guide reported to Emory a casa in the Salado valley, complete except the floors and roof, of large dimensions, with glazed walls, and the imprint of a naked foot in the adobe.[XI-29] One of four stone axes shown in a cut to be given later, was found in this valley and sketched by Whipple.[XI-30] The Salado ruins between the Gila and Verde, on the south bank, about thirty-five miles from the mouth, were examined by Mr Bartlett. They are built on the plateau beyond the river bottom, and are exclusively of adobe. They are very numerous, but consist for the most part of shapeless heaps indicating the location of buildings and long lines of walls. In only two instances did portions of standing walls remain; being in one case the ruins of an adobe building over two hundred feet long and from sixty to eighty feet wide, facing the cardinal points, and, so far as could be judged by the débris, three or four stories high; the others were about two hundred yards distant, and represented a smaller structure. There are traces of a wall which appears to have surrounded the larger building. From the top of the principal pile, similar heaps of ruins may be seen in all directions, including a range of them running north and south at a distance of about a mile eastward. The latter were not visited, but were said by the natives to be similar in every respect to the others. A small circular enclosure, whose dimensions are not given, was seen among the ruins, and there were also excavations along the sides of some of the heaps, as if they had furnished the material for the original structures. In the river bottom irrigating canals are of frequent occurrence, one of them from twenty to twenty-five feet wide and four to five feet deep, formed by cutting down the bank of the plateau, along which it extends for many miles. The whole vicinity of the ruins, as in the Gila Valley, is strewn with fragments of earthen ware. These earthen ware fragments are of a very uniform character throughout the New Mexican region, and will be illustrated in another part of this chapter.[XI-31]
Trappers and natives report that these remains continue indefinitely up the valleys of both the Salado and Verde. Mr Leroux, who served as guide to several of the United States military expeditions, passed up the Verde valley in 1854 on his way from the Gila to the Colorado Chiquito, keeping a diary, a part of which has been printed.[XI-32] He claims to have found the river banks covered in many places with ruins of stone buildings and broken pottery. The walls were of solid masonry still standing from ten to twenty feet high in two stories, three feet thick and from fifty to seventy-five feet long. Except in material the structures were not unlike the Casa Grande of the Gila, and were generally situated in the most fertile parts of the valley, surrounded by traces of acequias; although in one instance the ruins of a town were ten miles from the nearest water. A complete change of building material within so short a distance is somewhat extraordinary, but there is no other reason to doubt the accuracy of this report. These ruins are not very far from Prescott in the north, and Fort McDowell in the south, and I regret not having been able to obtain from officers in the Arizona service the information which they must have acquired respecting those remains, if they actually exist, during the past ten or fifteen years.[XI-33]
[Sidenote: PUEBLO CREEK AND THE UPPER GILA.]
Whipple describes some ruins discovered by him in 1854 on Pueblo Creek and other small streams which form the head waters of the Verde. They consist of what seem to have been two fortified settlements, and a third separate fortification. The first was an irregular stone enclosure on the top of a hill three or four hundred feet high. The walls were from eight to ten feet high, and the interior was divided by partition walls five feet thick into different compartments. On the slopes of the hill were traces of adobe walls with the usual abundance of broken pottery. The second was located in a fertile spot on a fork of the Pueblo Creek, and consisted of a mass of stones, six feet thick and several feet high, forming a square enclosure "five paces in the clear." The third work is situated about eight miles further west, and commands what is known as Aztec Pass. It is an enclosure one hundred feet long, twenty-five feet wide at one end and twenty at the other, the walls being four feet thick and five feet in height. In the absence of any definite statement on the subject these northern fortifications are presumed to be of rough, or unhewn, stones without mortar.[XI-34]
[Sidenote: LABYRINTH ON THE GILA.]
From the mouth of the San Pedro, which joins the Gila about forty miles eastward of the Casa Grande, up the Gila valley eastward, ruins of ancient edifices are frequently found on both banks of the river. Emory says "wherever the mountains did not impinge too close on the river and shut out the valley, they were seen in great abundance, enough, I should think, to indicate a former population of at least one hundred thousand; and in one place there is a long wide valley, twenty miles in length, much of which is covered with the ruins of buildings and broken pottery." The remains consist uniformly of lines of rough amygdaloid stones rounded by attrition, no one of which remains upon another, apparently the foundations upon which were erected adobe walls that have altogether disappeared. The plan of the buildings as indicated by their foundations was generally rectangular; many of them were very similar to the modern Spanish dwellings, as shown in the accompanying cut; but a few were circular or of irregular form. One of them just below the junction of the Santo Domingo, on an isolated knoll, was shaped as in the following cut, with faces of from ten to thirty feet. Besides the traces of what seem to be dwellings, there were also observed, an enclosure or circular line of stones, four hundred yards in circumference; a similar circle ninety yards in circumference with a house in the centre; an estufa with an entrance at the top; some well-preserved cedar posts; and some inscribed figures on the cliffs of an arroyo, similar to those lower down the river, of which cuts have been given. The native Pimas reported to the Spaniards in early times the existence of a building far up the Gila, the labyrinthine plan of which they traced on the sand, as shown in the cut. Emory and Johnston found these traces of aboriginal towns in at least twelve places on the Gila above the San Pedro, the largest being at the mouth of a stream flowing from the south-east, probably the Santo Domingo. I find no mention of ruins on any of the smaller tributaries of the Gila above the Casa Grande, though it seems very probable that such ruins may exist, similar to those on the main stream. A painted stone, a beaver-tooth, and marine shells were the miscellaneous relics found by Johnston among the ruins, besides the usual large quantities of broken pottery. Emory speaks of a few ornaments, principally immense well-turned beads of the size of hens' eggs, also fragments of agate and obsidian. The latter explorer gives a plate of rock-hieroglyphics of doubtful antiquity, and Froebel also sketched certain inscriptions on an isolated rock. Six or eight perfectly symmetrical and well-turned holes about ten inches deep and six or eight inches wide at the top were noticed, and supposed to have served for grinding corn.[XI-35]
Having presented all that is known of antiquities upon the Gila and its tributaries, I pass to the Colorado, the western and northern boundary of the New Mexican territory. The banks of the Colorado Cañon, for the river forms no valley proper, are for the most part unexplored, and no relics of antiquity are reported by reliable authorities; indeed, from the peculiar nature of this region, it is not likely that any ruins ever, will be found in the immediate vicinity of the river.[XI-36]
On Bill Williams' Fork there is a newspaper report, resting on no known authority, of walls enclosing an area some eight hundred feet in circumference, still perfect to the height of six or eight feet.[XI-37] The only other traces of the former inhabitants found on this stream are painted cave and cliff pictures or hieroglyphics. Two caves have their walls and the surrounding rocks thus decorated; they are about a mile apart, near the junction of the Santa María, and one of them is near a spring. Many of the inscriptions appear very ancient, and some were painted on cliffs very difficult of access. The cut shows a specimen from the sketches made by Möllhausen. The streak which crosses the cut in the centre, extends to the left beyond the other figures, and only half its length is shown. This streak is red with white borders; the other figures are red, purple, and white.[XI-38]
[Sidenote: TRIBUTARIES OF THE COLORADO.]
Leaving Bill Williams' Fork, and passing the Pueblo Creek ruins already described, which are not far distant, I follow the routes of Sitgreaves, Ives, and Whipple, north-westward to the Colorado Chiquito, a distance of about one hundred miles, striking the river at a point a hundred miles above its supposed junction with the main Colorado. In this region we again find numerous ruined buildings with the usual scattered pottery, respecting which our knowledge is derived from the explorers just named. The ruins occur at all prominent points, both near the river and away from it towards the west, at intervals of eight or nine miles, the exact location not being definitely fixed. The material employed here is stone, and some of the houses were three stories high. A view of one ruin as sketched by Sitgreaves is shown in the cut. On a rocky eminence were found by Whipple stone enclosures, apparently for defense. According to Mr Sitgreaves the houses resembled in every particular, save that no adobe was used, the inhabited Pueblo towns of New Mexico. His description, like that of Möllhausen and Whipple, would doubtless be much more complete and satisfactory, had they not previously seen the Pueblo towns and other ruins further east. Some of the ruins are far from water, and Sitgreaves suggests that the lava sand blown from the neighboring mountains may have filled up the springs which originally furnished a supply.
The cut from Whipple shows two vases found here, restored from fragments. This is one of the rarest kinds of pottery found in the region, and is said by Whipple not to be manufactured by any North American Indians of modern times. It is seldom colored, the ornamentation being raised or indented, somewhat like that on molded glassware, and of excellent workmanship. The material is light-colored and porous, and the vases are not glazed. The ordinary fragments of earthen ware found on this river will be represented in another part of this chapter. Some very rude and simple rock-inscriptions were noticed, and a newspaper writer states that the names of Jesuit priests who visited the place in the sixteenth century are inscribed on the rocks. Some additional and not very well-founded reports of antiquities are given in a note.[XI-39]
* * * * *
[Sidenote: REMAINS ON THE COLORADO CHIQUITO.]
At a bend in the river, about forty miles above the ruins last mentioned, are the remains of a rectangular stone building, measuring one hundred and twenty by three hundred and sixty feet, and standing on an isolated sandstone hill. The walls are mostly fallen, but some of the standing portions are ten feet thick, and seem to contain small apartments. Many pine timbers are scattered about in good preservation, and two posts twelve feet in height still remain standing.[XI-40]
Some twenty-five miles still farther up the Rio Puerco flows into the Colorado Chiquito from the north-east, and at the junction of the two streams Möllhausen noticed some remains which he does not describe.[XI-41] Twelve miles up the Puerco valley, on the banks of a small tributary, called Lithodendron Creek, were scattered fragments of pottery, and remains of stone houses, one of the walls extending several feet below the present surface of the ground. Still farther up the Puerco and five miles south of the river, at Navajo Spring, scattered pottery and arrow-heads are the only remaining trace of an aboriginal settlement, no walls being visible. On a neighboring hill, however, was noticed a circular depression in the earth forty paces in diameter. The cut from Möllhausen represents some of the aboriginal inscriptions on Puerco River.[XI-42]
[Sidenote: REMAINS ON THE RIO ZUÑI.]
Forty or fifty miles farther south-east, the Colorado Chiquito receives the waters of the Rio Zuñi, flowing from the north-east in a course nearly parallel to that of the Puerco. Aboriginal inscriptions and pictures are found on the sandstone cliffs which border on the stream wherever a smooth surface is presented, but no buildings occur for a distance of about fifty miles, until we come to within eight miles of the Pueblo town of Zuñi, where the table-lands about Arch Spring are covered with ruins, which were seen, although not described, by Sitgreaves and Whipple. All the ruins of the Zuñi valley seem, however, to be of the same nature--stone walls laid in mud mortar, and in a very dilapidated condition. The cut from Whipple shows also a sample of the rock-inscriptions about Arch Spring.[XI-43] Zuñi is a Pueblo town still inhabited, and I shall have something further to say of it in connection with the Pueblo towns of the Rio Grande and its tributaries, for the purpose of comparing the inhabited with the ruined structures.
Two or three miles south-east of Zuñi, on the south side of the river, is an elevated level mesa, about a mile in width, bounded on every side by a precipitous descent of over a thousand feet to the plain below. The mesa is covered with a growth of cedar, and in one part are two sandstone pillars of natural formation, which from certain points of view seem to assume human forms. Among the cedars on the mesa, "crumbling walls, from two to twelve feet high, were crowded together in confused heaps over several acres of ground." The walls were constructed of small sandstone blocks laid in mud mortar, and were about eighteen inches thick. They seemed, however, to rest on more ancient ruins, the walls of which were six feet in thickness. At various points on the winding path, by which only the top can be reached, there are stone battlements which guard the passage. A supposed altar was found in a secluded nook near the ruins, consisting of an oval excavation seven feet long, with a vertical shaft two feet high at one end, a flat rock, and a complicated arrangement of posts, cords, feathers, marine shells, beads, and sticks, only to be understood from a drawing, which I do not reproduce because the whole altar so-called is so evidently of modern origin and use. These ruins are commonly called Old Zuñi, and were doubtless inhabited when the Spaniards first came to the country.[XI-44] The cut from Whipple shows two vases found at what is called a sacred spring near Zuñi. Of the first the discoverer says: "the material is a light-colored clay, tolerably well burnt, and ornamented with lines and figures of a dark brown or chocolate color. A vast amount of labor has been spent on decorating the unique lip. A fine borderline has been drawn along the edge and on both sides of the deep embattled rim. Horned frogs and tadpoles alternate on the inner surface of the turrets, while one of the latter is represented on the outside of each. Larger frogs or toads are portrayed within the body of the vessel." One of these figures is presented in the cut enlarged. The second vase is five inches deep, ten inches in diameter at the widest part, and eight inches at the lips. Both outer and inner surface bear a white glazing, and there are four projections of unknown use, one on each side. The decorations are in amber color, and the horned or tufted snakes, shown above the vase, are said to be almost unique in America.[XI-45]
* * * * *
[Sidenote: OJO DEL PESCADO.]
At and near some springs called Ojo del Pescado, on the head-waters of this stream, some twelve miles above Zuñi, there are at least four or five ruined structures, or towns. They are similar in character to the other ruins. Two of them near the spring have an elliptical shape, as shown by the lines of foundation-stones, and are from eight hundred to a thousand feet in circumference. The houses seem to have been built around the periphery, forming a large interior court. These towns are so completely in ruins that nothing can be ascertained of the details of their construction, except their general form, and the fact that they were built of stones and mud. About a thousand yards down the river from the springs are ruins covering a space one hundred and fifty by two hundred yards, and in much better preservation than those mentioned, though of the same nature. The material was flat stones and cement, and the walls are standing in places to the height of two stories. Möllhausen tells us that the roofs and fire-places were still standing at the time of his visit. Simpson describes a ruin as being two miles below the spring, and which may possibly be the same last mentioned. The buildings were originally two stories high and built continuously about a rectangular area three hundred by four hundred feet. In the interior of the enclosed court was seen a square estufa, twelve by eighteen feet, and ten feet high, with the roof still perfect. The cut shows some of the rock-inscriptions at Ojo del Pescado.[XI-46]
[Sidenote: EL MORO, OR INSCRIPTION ROCK.]
About eighteen miles south-east of the sources of the Zuñi River, but belonging as properly in this valley as any other, is a sandstone rock known as Inscription Rock, or to the Spaniards as El Moro, from its form. It is between two and three hundred feet high, with steep sides, which on the north and east are perpendicular, smooth, white, and covered near the base with both Spanish and native inscriptions. Specimens of the latter, as copied by Simpson, are shown in the cut. The former were all copied by the same explorer, but of course have no connection with the subject of this volume: they date back to 1606, but make no reference to any town or ruins upon or about the rock. The ascent to the summit is on the south and is a difficult one. The cut shows a plan of El Moro made by Möllhausen, the locality of the inscriptions being at a and b. The summit area is divided by a deep ravine into two parts, on each of which are found ruins of large edifices. Those on the southern--or, according to Simpson, on the eastern--division, B of the plan, form a rectangle measuring two hundred and six by three hundred and seven feet, standing in some places from six to eight feet high. According to Simpson the walls agree with the cardinal points, but Whipple states the contrary. The walls are faced with sandstone blocks six by fourteen inches and from three to eight inches thick, laid in mud-mortar so as to break joints; but the bulk of the wall is a rubble of rough stones and mud. Two ranges of rooms may be traced on the north and west sides, and the rubbish indicates that there were also some apartments in the interior court. Two rooms measured each about seven by eight feet. A circular estufa thirty-one feet in diameter was also noticed, and there were cedar timbers found in connection with the ruined walls; one piece, fifteen inches long and four inches in diameter was found still in place, and bore, according to Whipple, no signs of cutting tools. The remains across the ravine, A of the plan, are of similar nature and material, and the north wall stands directly on the brink of a precipice, being complete to a height of eight feet. There is a spring furnishing but a small amount of water at the foot of the cliff at d. Fragments of pottery are abundant here as elsewhere.[XI-47]
* * * * *
[Sidenote: RUINS OF CHELLY CAÑON.]
This completes my account of remains on the Colorado Chiquito, and I pass to the next and last tributary of the Colorado within the territory covered by this chapter--the San Juan, which flows in an eastwardly course along the boundary line between Arizona and New Mexico on the south, and Utah and Colorado on the north. The valley of the main San Juan has been but very slightly explored, but probably contains extensive remains, judging from what have been found on some of its tributaries. Padres Dominguez and Escalante went in 1776 from Santa Fé north-westward to Utah Lake, and noticed several ruins which it is impossible to locate, before crossing the Colorado. I shall have occasion in the following chapter to notice some important ruins lately discovered on the northern tributaries of the San Juan, in the southern part of Colorado and Utah.[XI-48]
The two chief tributaries of the San Juan from the south are the Chelly and Chaco, flowing through deep cañons in the heart of the Navajo country. On both of these streams, particularly the latter, very important ruins have been discovered and described by Mr Simpson, who explored this region in 1849.
The Chelly cañon for a distance of about twenty-five miles is from one hundred and fifty to nine hundred feet wide, from three hundred to five hundred feet deep, and its sides are almost perpendicular. Simpson explored the cañon for eight miles from its mouth, which does not correspond with the mouth of the river. In a branch cañon of a character similar to that of the main stream he found several small habitations formed by building walls of stone and mortar in front of overhanging rocks. Some four miles up the main cañon he saw on a shelf fifty feet high and only accessible by means of ladders a small ruin of stone, much like those on the Chaco yet to be described. Seven miles from the mouth another ruin was discovered on the north side as shown in the cut. It was built partly on the bottom of the cañon, and partly like the one last mentioned, on a shelf fifty feet high with perpendicular sides. The walls measure forty-five by a hundred and forty-five feet, are about eighteen feet high in their present state, and are built of sandstone and mortar, having square openings or windows. A circular estufa was also found in connection with these cliff-dwellings. Fragments of pottery were not lacking, and specimens were sketched by Mr Simpson.[XI-49]
Eastward from the Chelly, at a distance of about a hundred miles, is the Chaco, a parallel tributary of the San Juan, on which are found ruins perhaps the most remarkable in the New Mexican group. Lieut. Simpson is the only one who has explored this valley, or at least who has left a record of his exploration. The ruins are eleven in number, situated with one exception on the north bank of the stream, within a distance of twenty-five miles in latitude 36° and longitude 108°.
[Sidenote: RUINS OF THE CHACO.]
The cut shows a general view of the ruin called by the guide Pueblo Pintado, the first one discovered in coming from the south. The name of this ruin, like those of the others, is doubtless of modern origin, being Spanish, and there is little reason to believe that the native names of some of the others are those originally applied to the inhabited towns. The material of all the buildings is a fine hard gray sandstone, to which in some instances exposure to the air has imparted a reddish hue. The blocks are cut very thin, rarely exceeding three inches in thickness. They are laid without mortar very carefully, so as to break joints, and the chinks between the larger blocks are filled with stone plates, sometimes not over one fourth of an inch thick. In one instance, the Pueblo Peñasco Blanco, stones of different thickness are laid, in alternate layers, producing the appearance of a kind of mosaic work, executed with great care and skill, and forming a very smooth surface. The backing and filling of the walls are of irregular and various sized blocks laid in mud, no trace of lime being discoverable. The wall of the Pueblo Pintado was found by excavation to extend at least two feet below the surface of the ground. The walls are between two and three feet thick at the base, but diminish towards the top by a jog of a few inches on the inside at each successive story. The walls of the Pueblo Pintado are still standing in some parts to the height of twenty-five to thirty feet, and are shown by the marks of floor timbers to have had at least three stories. The flooring was supported by unhewn beams from six to eleven inches in diameter--but uniform in the same room--stretching across from wall to wall as in the Gila ruins. Over these beams were placed smaller transverse sticks, which in the Pueblo Pintado seem to have been placed some little distance apart; but in some other ruins where the flooring remained perfect, the transverse sticks were laid close together, the chinks were filled with small stones, and the whole covered with cedar strips, although there was evidence that a coating of mud or mortar was used in some instances; and there was one room where the floor was of smooth cedar boards seven inches wide and three fourths of an inch thick, squarely cut at the sides and ends, and apparently worn smooth by the friction of flat stones. The beams generally bore marks of having been cut off by the use of some blunt instrument. The cut illustrates the manner in which the walls diminish in thickness from story to story, a, a, a; the position of the beams, b, b, b; the transverse poles, c, c, c; and the flooring above, d, d, d.
[Sidenote: RUINS OF THE CHACO CAÑON.]
[Sidenote: THE PUEBLO BONITO.]
The ground plan of the Chaco structures shows three tiers--but in one case at least four tiers--of apartments built round three sides of a courtyard, which is generally rectangular, in some cases has curved corners, and in one building--the Peñasco Blanco--approximates to the form of a circle. The fourth side of the court is in some ruins open, and in others enclosed by a wall extending in a curve from one extremity of the building to the other. The following cuts show the ground plans of two of the ruins, the Pueblo Hungo Pavie, 'crooked nose,' and Pueblo Bonito. The circumference of five of these buildings is respectively eight hundred and seventy-two, seven hundred, seventeen hundred, thirteen hundred, and thirteen hundred feet; the number of rooms still traceable on the ground floor of the same buildings is seventy-two, ninety-nine, one hundred and twelve, one hundred and twenty-four, and one hundred and thirty-nine. These apartments are from five feet square to eight by fourteen feet. A room in the Pueblo Chettro Kettle was seven and a half by fourteen feet, and ten feet high. The walls were plastered with a red mud, and several square or rectangular niches of unknown use were noticed. The supporting beams of the ceiling were two in number, and the transverse poles were tied at their ends with some wooden fibre, and covered with a kind of cedar lathing. Ropes hung from the timbers. A room in the Pueblo Bonito is shown in the cut.
This room is unplastered, and the sides are constructed in the same style as the outer walls. The transverse poles are very small, about an inch in diameter, laid close together, very regular, and resemble barked willow. It was another room in this ruin which had the smooth boards in connection with its ceiling.[XI-50]
The doors by which the rooms communicate with each other and with the courtyard are very small, many of them not exceeding two and a half feet square. There are no doors whatever in the outer walls, and no windows except in the upper stories. The larger size of the windows and of the inner doors indicate that the rooms of the upper stories were larger than below. In some cases the walls corresponding to the second or third stories had no windows. In one case lower story windows were found walled up. The tops, or lintels, of the doors and windows were in some cases stone slabs, in others small timbers bound together with withes, and in a few they are reported to have been formed by overlapping stones very much like the Yucatan arch; a specimen is shown in the cut.
The highest walls still standing at the time of Simpson's visit had floor-timbers, or their marks, for four stories, but it is not impossible that some of the buildings may have had originally five or six stories. The outer walls were in every case perpendicular to their full height, showing that the houses were not built in receding terraces, or stories, on the outside, as is the case with many of the inhabited Pueblo towns, and with the Casa Grande on the Gila. There can be no doubt that they were so terraced on the interior or court; at least in no instance were the inner walls sufficiently high to indicate a different arrangement, and it is hardly possible that all the ranges were of the same height, leaving without light most of the thousand rooms which they would contain if built on such a plan. There were no traces of stairways or chimneys seen. The whole number of apartments in the Pueblo Bonito, supposing it to have been built on the terrace plan, must have been six hundred and forty-one. The cut on the next page shows a restoration of one of the Chaco ruins, taken from Mr Baldwin's work, and modeled after a similar one by Mr Kern, a companion of Simpson, although Mr Kern made an error of one story in the height. I have no doubt of the general accuracy of this restoration, and it may be regarded as nearly certain that access to the upper rooms was gained from the court by means of ladders, each story forming a platform before the doors of the one next above.
Each ruin has from one to seven circular structures, called estufas in the inhabited Pueblo towns, sunk in the ground and walled with stone. Several of these are shown in the two ground plans that have been given. They occur both in the courtyards and underneath the rooms. Some were divided into compartments, and one, in the Pueblo Bonito, was sixty feet in diameter and twelve feet deep, being built in two, and possibly three, stories.
Near some of the larger buildings are smaller detached ruins, of which no particular description is given. In one place there is an excavation in the side of a cliff, enclosed by a front wall of stone and mortar. In another locality there is an isolated elliptical enclosure of stone and mortar, eight by sixteen feet, and divided into two compartments. Near one of the ruins, in the northern wall of the cañon, about twelve feet from the base, are three circular holes two feet in diameter, with smaller ones between them, all in a horizontal line, with a vertical line of still smaller holes leading up the cliff to one of the larger ones. Mr Simpson was unable to explore this singular excavation, and its use is unknown; it may be a room or fortress excavated from the solid rock. There are also some hieroglyphics on the face of the cliff under the holes. The quarries which furnished the stone for some of the buildings were found, but no description of them is given. Hieroglyphics on boulders were found at a few points. The pottery found among the Chaco ruins is illustrated by the cut. Black and red seem to be the only colors employed. The Chaco cañon, although wider than that of the Chelly, is bounded by precipitous sides, and the ruins are generally near the base of the cliff. The Pueblo Pintado is built on a knoll twenty or thirty feet high, about three hundred yards from the river. The buildings do not exactly face the cardinal points.[XI-51]
[Sidenote: PUEBLO REMAINS ON THE RIO GRANDE.]
I now come to the last division of the present group, the perpendicular of our triangle, the Rio Grande del Norte and its tributaries. This valley, the New Mexico proper of the Spaniards, when first visited in the sixteenth century, was thickly inhabited by an agricultural semi-civilized people, dwelling in towns of stone and mud houses several stories in height. Respecting the number, names, and exact locality of these towns the early accounts are somewhat vague, but many of them can be accurately traced by means of an examination of authorities which would be out of place here. From the first discovery by Cabeza de Vaca, Marco de Niza, and Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, the general history of the country is clear; and we still find the same semi-civilized people living in similar towns under similar institutions, although they, like the towns in which they live, are greatly reduced in number. Some of the inhabited Pueblo towns are known by name, location, and history, to be identical with those which so excited the admiration of the Spaniards; and there is every reason to believe that all are so, except a few that may have been built during the Spanish domination. The inhabited Pueblo towns, or those inhabited during the nineteenth century, are about twenty in number, although authors disagree on this point, some calling Pueblos what others say are merely Mexican towns; but the distinction is not important for my present purpose.[XI-52] The important fact is, that the Spaniard found no race of people in New Mexico which has since become extinct, nor any class of towns or buildings that differed from the Pueblo towns still inhabited.
Besides the towns still inhabited there are many of precisely the same materials and architecture, which are in ruins. Such are Pecos, Quivira, Valverde, San Lázaro, San Marcos, San Cristóbal, Socorro, Senacu, Abó, Quarra, Rita, Poblazon, old San Felipe, and old Zuñi. Some of these were abandoned by the natives at a very recent date; some have ruined Spanish buildings among the aboriginal structures; some may be historically identified with the towns conquered by the first European visitors. These facts, together with the absence of any mention of ruins by the first explorers, and the well-known diminution of the Pueblos in numbers and power, make it perfectly safe to affirm that the ruins all belong to the same class, the same people, and about the same epoch as the inhabited towns. This conclusion is of some importance since it renders it useless to examine carefully each ruin, and the documents bearing on its individual history, and enables the reader to form a perfectly clear idea of all the many structures by carefully studying a few.
While the Pueblo towns cannot be regarded as objects of great mystery, as the work of a race that has disappeared, or as a station of the Aztecs while on their way southward, yet they are properly treated as antiquities, since they were doubtless built by the native races before they come in contact with the Spaniards. They occupy the same position with respect to the subject of this volume as the remains in Anáhuac, excepting perhaps Cholula and Teotihuacan; or rather they have the same importance that the city of Tlacopan would have, had the Spaniards permitted that city to stand in possession of its native inhabitants.
[Sidenote: PUEBLO TOWNS OF NEW MEXICO.]
An account of the Pueblo buildings has been given in another volume of this work,[XI-53] and I cannot do better here than to quote from good authorities a description of the principal towns, both inhabited and in ruins. Of Taos Mr Abert says, "One of the northern forks of the Taos river, on issuing from the mountains, forms a delightful nook, which the Indians early selected as a permanent residence. By gradual improvement, from year to year, it has finally become one of the most formidable of the artificial strongholds of New Mexico. On each side of the little mountain stream is one of those immense 'adobe' structures, which rises by successive steps until an irregular pyramidal building, seven stories high, presents an almost impregnable tower. These, with the church and some few scattering houses, make up the village. The whole is surrounded by an adobe wall, strengthened in some places by rough palisades, the different parts so arranged, for mutual defence, as to have elicited much admiration for the skill of the untaught engineers." Of the same town Davis says, "It is the best sample of the ancient mode of building. Here there are two large houses three hundred or four hundred feet in length, and about one hundred and fifty feet wide at the base. They are situated upon opposite sides of a small creek, and in ancient times are said to have been connected by a bridge. They are five and six stories high, each story receding from the one below it, and thus forming a structure terraced from top to bottom. Each story is divided into numerous little compartments, the outer tiers of rooms being lighted by small windows in the sides, while those in the interior of the building are dark, and are principally used as store-rooms.... The only means of entrance is through a trap-door in the roof, and you ascend, from story to story, by means of ladders upon the outside, which are drawn up at night." The same writer gives the following cut of Taos.[XI-54]
The houses of Laguna are "built of stone, roughly laid in mortar, and, on account of the color of the mortar, with which they are also faced, they present a dirty yellowish clay aspect. They have windows in the basement as well as upper stories; selenite, as usual, answers the purpose of window-lights."[XI-55]
"High on a lofty rock of sandstone ... sits the city of Acoma. On the northern side of the rock, the rude boreas blasts have heaped up the sand, so as to form a practical ascent for some distance; the rest of the way is through solid rock. At one place a singular opening, or narrow way, is formed between a huge square tower of rock and the perpendicular face of the cliff. Then the road winds round like a spiral stair way, and the Indians have, in some way, fixed logs of wood in the rock, radiating from a vertical axis, like steps.... At last we reached the top of the rock, which was nearly level, and contains about sixty acres. Here we saw a large church, and several continuous blocks of buildings, containing sixty or seventy houses in each block, (the wall at the side that faced outwards was unbroken, and had no windows until near the top: the houses were three stories high). In front each story retreated back as it ascended, so as to leave a platform along the whole front of the story: these platforms are guarded by parapet walls about three feet high." Ladders are used for first and second stories but there are steps in the wall to reach the roof.[XI-56] Mr Gregg tells us that San Felipe is on "the very verge of a precipice several hundred feet high," but Simpson states that "neither it nor Sandia is as purely Indian in the style of its buildings as the other pueblos."[XI-57]
Santo Domingo "is laid out in streets running perpendicularly to the Rio Grande. The houses are constructed of adobes, (blocks of mud, of greater or less dimensions, sun-dried;) are two stories in height, the upper one set retreatingly on the lower, so as to make the superior covering of the lower answer for a terrace or platform for the upper; and have roofs which are nearly flat. These roofs are made first of transverse logs which pitch very slightly outward, and are sustained at their ends by the side walls of the building; on these, a layer of slabs or brush is laid; a layer of bark or straw is then laid on these; and covering the whole is a layer of mud of six or more inches in thickness. The height of the stories is about eight or nine feet."[XI-58]
"On my visit to the pueblo of Tesuque we entered a large square, around which the dwellings are erected close together, so as to present outwardly an unbroken line of wall to the height of three stories. Viewed from the inner square it presents the appearance of a succession of terraces with doors and windows opening upon them.... This general description is applicable to all the Pueblo villages, however they may differ in size, position, and nature of the ground--some being on bluffs, some on mesas, and most of those in the valley of the Rio Grande on level ground."[XI-59]
Zuñi, "like Santo Domingo, is built terrace-shaped--each story, of which there are generally three, being smaller, laterally, so that one story answers in part for the platform of the one above it. It, however, is far more compact than Santo Domingo--its streets being narrow, and in places presenting the appearance of tunnels, or covered ways, on account of the houses extending at these places over them. The houses are generally built of stone, plastered with mud,"--has an adobe Catholic church.[XI-60]
* * * * *
[Sidenote: THE MOQUI TOWNS.]
The seven Moqui towns in Arizona, situated in an isolated mountainous region about midway between the Colorado Chiquito and the Chelly cañon, in latitude 35° 50´, and longitude 110° 30´, are very similar to the Pueblo towns of the Rio Grande. They were probably visited by the earliest Spanish explorers, and have a claim to as great an antiquity as any in the whole region. Lieut. Ives visited the Moquis in 1858, and his description is the best extant; from it I quote as follows: "I discovered with a spy-glass two of the Moqui towns, eight or ten miles distant, upon the summit of a high bluff overhanging the opposite side of the valley. They were built close to the edge of the precipice.... The outlines of the closely-packed structures looked in the distance like the towers and battlements of a castle." "The face of the bluff, upon the summit of which the town was perched, was cut up and irregular. We were led through a passage that wound among some low hillocks of sand and rock that extended half-way to the top.... A small plateau, in the centre of which was a circular reservoir, fifty feet in diameter, lined with masonry, and filled with pure cold water. The basin was fed from a pipe connecting with some source of supply upon the summit of the mesa.... Continuing to ascend we came to another reservoir, smaller, but of more elaborate construction and finish.... Between the two the face of the bluff had been ingeniously converted into terraces. These were faced with neat masonry, and contained gardens, each surrounded with a raised edge so as to retain water upon the surface. Pipes from the reservoirs permitted them at any time to be irrigated. Peach trees were growing upon the terraces and in the hollows below. A long flight of stone steps, with sharp turns that could easily be defended, was built into the face of the precipice, and led from the upper reservoir to the foot of the town." "The town is nearly square, and surrounded by a stone wall fifteen feet high, the top of which forms a landing extending around the whole. Flights of stone steps led from the first to a second landing, upon which the doors of the house open." "The room was fifteen feet by ten; the walls were made of adobes; the partitions of substantial beams; the floor laid with clay. In one corner were a fireplace and chimney. Everything was clean and tidy. Skins, bows and arrows, quivers, antlers, blankets, articles of clothing and ornament, were hanging from the walls or arranged upon shelves. Vases, flat dishes, and gourds filled with meal or water were standing along one side of the room. At the other end was a trough divided into compartments, in each of which was a sloping stone slab two or three feet square for grinding corn upon. In a recess of an inner room was piled a goodly store of corn in the ear."
"We learned that there were seven towns; that the name of that which we were visiting was Mooshahneh. A second smaller town was half a mile distant; two miles westward was a third.... Five or six miles to the north-east a bluff was pointed out as the location of three others, and we were informed that the last of the seven, Oraybe, was still further distant, on the trail towards the great river." "Each pueblo is built around a rectangular court, in which we suppose are the springs that furnish the supply to the reservoirs. The exterior walls, which are of stone, have no openings, and would have to be scaled or battered down before access could be gained to the interior. The successive stories are set back, one behind the other. The lower rooms are reached through trap-doors from the first landing. The houses are three rooms deep, and open upon the interior court." "He led the way to the east of the bluff on which Oraybe stands. Eight or nine miles brought the train to an angle formed by two faces of the precipice. At the foot was a reservoir, and a broad road winding up the steep ascent. On either side the bluffs were cut into terraces, and laid out into gardens similar to those seen at Mooshahneh, and, like them, irrigated from an upper reservoir. The whole reflected great credit upon Moquis ingenuity and skill in the department of engineering. The walls of the terraces and reservoirs were of partially dressed stone, well and strongly built, and the irrigating pipes conveniently arranged. The little gardens were neatly laid out."[XI-61]
* * * * *
Thus we see that a universal peculiarity of the Pueblo towns is that the lower stories are entered by ladders by way of the roof. Their location varies from the low valley to the elevated mesa and precipitous cliff; their height from one to seven stories, two stories and one terrace being a common form. Most of them recede in successive terraces at each story from the outside, but Tesuque, and perhaps a few others, are terraced from the interior court. The building material is sometimes adobe, but generally stone plastered with mud. The exact construction of the walls is nowhere stated, but they are presumably built of roughly squared blocks of the stone most accessible, laid in mud. With each town is connected an estufa, or public council-chamber and place of worship. This is in some cases partly subterranean, and its walls are covered with rude paintings in bright colors.[XI-62]
* * * * *
[Sidenote: PUEBLO OF PECOS.]
Of the ruined Pueblo towns no extended description is necessary, since they present no contrasts with those still inhabited which have been described. Pecos was formerly one of the most important, and was still inhabited in the early part of the present century. The cut copied from Emory for Mr Baldwin's work, represents a portion of the ruins, which include Spanish and aboriginal structures, both of adobe. Emory noticed large well-hewn timbers. Davis says the ruins of the village cover two or three hundred yards, and include large blocks of stone, square and oblong, weighing over a ton, with marks of having been laid in mortar. Hughes speaks of the traces of a stone wall eight feet high, which once surrounded this Pueblo town. Kit Carson told Mr Meline that he found the town still inhabited in 1826. It was here that in former times was kept burning the everlasting fire which formed part of the religious rites in honor of their deity, or, according to the modern account, of Montezuma. There is no evidence, however, that the aborigines in ancient times had any deity, or monarch of that name; it is quite certain that they did not hear of the Aztec monarch Montezuma many centuries before he began to reign; just possible that they did hear of his fame a few years before the Spaniards came to New Mexico; but altogether probable that they first heard the name of Montezuma, of the Aztec people, and of their former migration southward, from the Spaniards themselves, or their native companions.[XI-63]
With the Quivira located by Thomas Gage and other early writers and map-makers, "on the most Western part of America just over against Tartary," as with the great city of Quivira which Francisco Vasquez de Coronado sought and has been popularly supposed to have found, I have at present nothing to do. It should be noted, however, that the latter Quivira was not one of the Pueblo towns of the Rio Grande, but a town of wigwams on the plains in the far north-east. The ruined town of Quivira or Gran Quivira, east of the Rio Grande, entirely distinct from that of Coronado, includes, like Pecos, a Spanish church among its ruins. The buildings are of hewn stone and of great extent. Gregg speaks of an aqueduct leading to the mountains eight or ten miles distant, the nearest water. This town was very likely, like many others, ruined at the revolt of 1680. Abó, Quarra, Laguna, and the rest, present no new features. There are, moreover, on the Puerco River--a tributary of the Rio Grande, and not that of the Colorado Chiquito already mentioned--many traces of Pueblo buildings which have no definite names.[XI-64]
[Sidenote: SEVEN CITIES OF CÍBOLA.]
The cut shows some rock-inscriptions copied by Froebel in the valley of the Rio Grande. In the Sierra de los Mimbres, towards the source of the Gila, are some old copper mines, and connected with them an adobe fort with round towers at the corners, but I do not know that these works have ever been considered of aboriginal origin. In a newspaper I find the remarkable statement that "from the volcanic cones of the Cerrillos was furnished, a great part, if not all, the Chalchiuite, so much worn for ornament, and so highly prized by the ancient Mexicans.... The ancient excavations made in search of it are now distinctly visible, and seem to have been carried to the depth of two hundred feet or more."[XI-65]
The ruins of Old Zuñi have already been described, and there is no reason to doubt that both these and the other remains on the Zuñi River, represent towns that were inhabited when the Spaniards first came northward. Indeed it is almost certain that they, together with the Pueblo town of Zuñi, represent Coronado's famous 'seven cities' of Cíbola. Most writers have so decided, as Gallatin, Squier, Whipple, Turner, Kern, and Simpson.[XI-66] The course and distance of Coronado's march from the Gila agrees more exactly with Zuñi than with any other town; the location of the 'seven cities' within four leagues together, in a very narrow valley between steep banks, as also their position with respect to the Rio del Lino, Colorado Chiquito, correspond very well with the Zuñi ruins; Coronado's Granada, on a high bluff, with a "narrow winding way," was quite probably Old Zuñi; Cíbola is said to have been the first town reached in coming across the desert from the south-west, and the last left in returning; the positions of Tusayan, a province of seven villages, five days' journey north-west from Cíbola, and of Acuco, five days eastward, agree very well with the location of the Moqui towns and of Acoma with respect to Zuñi. Finally we have Espejo's statement that he visited the province of Zuñi, twenty-five leagues west of Acoma; that it was called Zuñi by the natives and Cíbola by the Spaniards; that Coronado had been there; and that he found there not only crosses and other emblems of Christianity, but three Christians even. Coronado left three men at Cíbola, and their statements to Espejo respecting the identity of Cíbola and Zuñi, must be regarded as conclusive.[XI-67]
[Sidenote: GENERAL RÉSUMÉ.]
New Mexican antiquities, divided as at the beginning of the chapter into six classes, may be briefly considered, en résumé, as follows: 1st. "Remains of ancient stone and adobe buildings in all stages of disintegration, from standing walls with roofs and floors, to shapeless heaps of débris, or simple lines of foundation-stones." This first class of remains has received most attention in the preceding pages, and little need be said in addition. It has been noted that adobe is the material used almost exclusively in the Gila and other southern valleys, as in Chihuahua, while further north stone is preferred. The most important fact to be noted is that all the ruins, without exception, are precisely identical in plan, architecture, and material with the Pueblo towns now inhabited or known to have been inhabited since the coming of the Spaniards. Many of them, particularly those of the Chaco cañon, may have been much grander structures and have displayed a higher degree of art than the modern towns, but they all belong to the same class of buildings.
2d. "Anomalous structures of stone or earth, the purpose of which, either by reason of their advanced state of ruin, or of the comparatively slight attention given them by travelers, is not apparent." Such remains, which have been described as far as possible wherever they have appeared, are: I. Fortifications, like the stone enclosures on the Pueblo Creek and head-waters of the Rio Verde; and the battlements guarding the path of ascent to Old Zuñi. Many of the ruined towns were, moreover, effectually fortified by the natural position in which they were built. II. Mound-like structures and elevations. These include the low terraced pyramid reported on the Gila near the Casa Grande, and another of like nature on the north side of the river; the shapeless heaps of earth and stones in the Gila and Salinas valleys, most of which are doubtless the remains of fallen walls, but some of which may possibly have a different origin and design; and some small heaps of loose stones on the Gila at the mouth of the Santo Domingo. It is noticeable that no burial mounds, of so common occurrence in many parts of America, have been found here; and no pyramids or mounds presumably connected in any way with religious rites, indeed, nothing of the nature of temples or altars, save the estufas still in common use. III. Excavations. These are, a reservoir with stone walls measuring forty by sixty yards, reported by the early writers near the Casa Grande on the Gila; a circular depression forty paces in diameter on the north bank of the Gila, and a similar one at Navajo Spring near the Rio Puerco of the West; a triangular depression at the mouth of the Santo Domingo; quarries of sandstone near some of the Chaco ruins, and pits in the Salinas, whence the earth for building is supposed to have been taken; and the circular holes that penetrate the cañon walls of the Chaco. IV. Enclosures for various or unknown purposes. Such is the circular enclosure a hundred yards in circumference near the Casa Grande, and another north of the river; the structure indefinitely reported as a labyrinth up the Gila from the Casa Grande; a small round enclosure on the Salado; an elliptical enclosure of stone and mortar, eight by sixteen feet, and divided into two compartments, in the Chaco cañon; and the large and irregular lines of foundation-stones in the Gila Valley above the San Pedro. It will be observed that there is very little of the mysterious connected with these remains of the second class, and a great part of that little would probably disappear as a result of a more careful exploration.
3d. "Traces of aboriginal agriculture, in the shape of acequias and zanjas, or irrigating canals and ditches." Such remains have been noticed in connection with many of the ruins, particularly in the south, and require no further remarks. So far as described, they are nothing but simple ditches dug in the surface of the ground, of varying depth and length. The earlier reports of canals with walled sides are very probably unfounded.
4th. "Implements and ornaments." These are not numerous, include no articles of any metal whatever, and do not differ materially from articles now in use among the Pueblo Indians. Such relics have been found scattered among the débris of the fallen walls, and not taken from regular excavations; consequently no absolute proof exists that they are the work of the builders, though there can be little room for doubt on that point. The wandering tribes that have occupied the country in modern times are much more likely to have sought for and carried away relics of the original inhabitants, than to have deposited among the ruins articles made by the modern Pueblo Indians. A detailed account of each relic would be useless, but among the articles that have been found are included,--I. Implements of stone. Metates, or corn-grinders, generally broken, were found at various points on the Gila, Salado, and among the ruins near Pecos. Stone axes, are shown in the cut from Whipple, of which No. 4 was found on the Salado, where implements called hoes, and a stone pestle, are also reported. A stone axe was also found on the Colorado Chiquito. Arrow-heads of obsidian were picked up at Old Zuñi, on the Colorado Chiquito, on the Rio Puerco of the west, and at Inscription Rock; of carnelian on the Colorado Chiquito; of agate and jasper on the Rio Puerco; and of quartz near Pecos and on Pueblo Creek. Ross Browne heard of bone awls having been dug up at the Casa Grande. II. Ornaments. Sea-shells were found at the Casa Grande, on the north bank of the Gila, and in the Salado valley; also on the Gila, a bead of blue marble finely turned, an inch and a quarter long; and another bead of the size of a hen's egg; also a painted stone not described, and a beaver's tooth. Several green stones, like amethysts, were found on the Salado; fragments of quartz crystal at the Casa Grande; of agate and obsidian among the Gila mines; and of obsidian on Pueblo Creek. Clay balls from the size of bullets to grape-shot, many of them stuck together, are reported on doubtful authority.[XI-68]
5th. Pottery, the most abundant class of relics, found strewn over the ground in the vicinity of every ruin in this group. It is always in fragments, no whole article of undoubted antiquity having ever been found. This is natural enough, perhaps, since only the surface has been examined, and the roaming tribes of Indians would not be likely to leave anything of use or value; excavation may in the future bring to light whole specimens. But although the absence of whole vessels is not strange, the presence of fragments in so great abundance is very remarkable, since no such tendency to their accumulation is noticed about the inhabited Pueblo towns. It would seem as if the inhabitants, forced to abandon their houses in haste, had deliberately broken all their very large stock of earthen ware, either to prevent its falling into the hands of enemies, or from some superstitious custom. The fragments are very like one to another in all parts of the New Mexican region, and in quality and ornamentation nearly identical with the ware still manufactured and used by the Pueblos. It has been noticed, however, that the older pottery is superior generally in material and workmanship to the modern; and also in the southern valleys it is found painted on the inside as well as outside, contrary as is said to the present usage. Very few fragments show anything like glazing. The painted ornamentation consists in most instances of stripes or angular, more rarely of curved, lines, in black, white, and red. Painted representations of any definite objects, animate or inanimate, are of very rare occurrence. Some specimens are, however, not painted, but decorated with considerable skill by means of raised or indented figures. I have given cuts of many specimens, and the thirty-five figures on the next page from different localities will suffice to explain the nature and uniformity of New Mexican pottery.[XI-69]
6th. "Painted or engraved figures on cliffs, boulders, and the sides of natural caverns." These figures have been mentioned whenever they occurred, and some of them illustrated. There are additional paintings in a rocky pass between Albuquerque and Laguna, mentioned and copied by Möllhausen, and both paintings and sculptures in Texas at Sierra Waco, thirty miles east of El Paso, and at Rocky Dell Creek, in lat. 35°, 30´, long. 102°, 30´.[XI-70] In another volume of this work,[XI-71] something has been said of hieroglyphic development, of the different classes of picture-records, and their respective value. The New Mexican rock-inscriptions and paintings, such of them as are not mere idle sketches executed without purpose by the natives to while away the time, belong to the lower classes of representative and symbolic picture-writing, and are utterly inadequate to preserve any definite record far beyond the generation that executed them. Most of them had a meaning to the artist and his tribe at the time they were made; it is safe to suppose that no living being to-day can interpret their meaning, and that they never will be understood. The similar figures painted on the walls of modern estufas,[XI-72] the natives will not, probably cannot, explain. Mr Froebel, in opposition to Mr Bartlett's theory that the figures are meaningless, very justly says: "Many circumstances tend to disprove that these characters were originally nothing but the results of an early attempt at art. In the first place, the similarity of the style, in localities a thousand miles apart, and its extreme peculiarity, preclude every idea of an accidental similarity. One cannot imagine how the same recurring figures should have been used over and over again, unless they had a conventional character, and were intended to express something."[XI-73]
* * * * *
[Sidenote: CONCLUSIONS.]
I conclude this division of my work by a few general remarks, embodying such conclusions respecting the New Mexican ruins as may be drawn from the ruins themselves, without reference to the mass of speculation, tradition, and so-called history, that has confused the whole subject since first the missionary padres visited and wrote of this region, and sought diligently, and of course successfully, for traditions respecting the Asiatic origin of the Americans, and the southern migration of the Aztecs from the mysterious regions of the Californias to Anáhuac. These conclusions are not lengthy or numerous, and apply with equal force to the Casas Grandes of Chihuahua, outside of the geographical limits of this chapter.
1. The ruined structures offer but little internal evidence of their age. There is not even the slight aid of forest growth found in nearly all other parts of America. The different buildings show very different degrees of dilapidation it is true, but to what extent in each case the ravages of time have been assisted by the roaming Apaches and other savages, it is impossible to decide. The Casas Grandes of Chihuahua are much more dilapidated than the similar Casa Grande of the Gila; but, although both are built of mud, a slight difference in the quality of the mud employed, with the more abundant rains of Chihuahua, would account for the better condition of the Gila remains, and prevent us from assigning necessarily a greater antiquity to those of Chihuahua. It is known as a historical fact that the southern buildings were not only in ruins at the coming of the Spaniards in the middle of the sixteenth century, but had been so long in that condition that the native knowledge respecting them had passed into the state of a tradition and a superstition. Certainly not less than a century would suffice for this. Of the northern ruins very many are known to have been inhabited and flourishing towns when the Spaniards came. That any were at that time in ruins is not proven, though possible.
2. The material relics of the New Mexican group bear no resemblance whatever to either Nahua or Maya relics in the south. It has been constantly stated and repeated by most writers, that all American aboriginal monuments, the works of the Mound-Builders of the Mississippi, the ruins of New Mexico and Arizona, the Casas Grandes of Chihuahua, the Edificios of Zacatecas, the pyramids of Anáhuac and the central plateaux, Mitla, Palenque, the cities of Yucatan, and finally Copan, all belong evidently to one class and present one type; that all are such as might reasonably be attributed to the same people in different periods of their civilization. It is even customary for travelers and writers to speak without hesitation of Aztec ruins and relics in Arizona, as if there were no longer any doubt on the subject. So far as the New Mexican link in the chain is concerned, I most emphatically deny the resemblance, on grounds which the reader of the preceding pages already fully understands. I can hardly conceive of structures reared by human hands differing more essentially than the two classes in question. In the common use of adobes for building-material; in the plain walls rising to a height of several stories; in the terrace structure, absence of doors in the lower story, and the entrance by ladders; in the absence of arched ceilings of overlapping blocks, of all pyramidal structures, of sculptured blocks, of all architectural decorations, of idols, temples, and every trace of buildings evidently designed for religious rites, of burial mounds and human remains; and in the character of the rock-inscriptions and miscellaneous relics, not to go farther into details, the New Mexican monuments present no analogies to any of the southern remains. I do not mean to express a decided opinion that the Aztecs were not, some hundreds or thousands of centuries ago, or even at a somewhat less remote period, identical with the natives of New Mexico, for I have great faith in the power of time and environment to work unlimited changes in any people; I simply claim that it is a manifest absurdity to suppose that the monuments described were the work of the Aztecs during a migration southward, since the eleventh century, or of any people nearly allied in blood and institutions to the Aztecs as they were found in Anáhuac.
3. Not only do the ruins of this group bear no resemblance to those of the south, but they represent in all respects buildings like those still inhabited by the Pueblo tribes and the Moquis, and do not differ more among themselves than do the dwellings of the peoples mentioned. Every one of them may be most reasonably regarded as the work of the direct ancestors of the present inhabitants of the Pueblo towns, who did not differ to any great extent in civilization or institutions from their descendants, though they may very likely have been vastly superior to them in power and wealth. Consequently there is not a single relic in the whole region that requires the agency of any extinct race of people, or any other nations--using the word in a somewhat wider signification than has sometimes been given to it in the preceding volumes--than those now living in the country. Not only do the remains not point in themselves to any extinct race, but if there were any traditional or other evidence indicating the past agency of such a race, it would be impossible to reconcile the traditional with the monumental evidence except by the supposition that the Pueblos are a foreign people who took possession of the abandoned dwellings of another race, whose institutions they imitated to the best of their ability; but I do not know that such a theory has ever been advanced. I am aware that this conclusion is sadly at variance with the newspaper reports in constant circulation, of marvelous cities, the remnants of an advanced but extinct civilization, discovered by some trapper, miner, or exploring expedition. I am also aware of the probability that many ruins in addition to those I have been able to describe, have been found by military officials, government explorers, and private individuals during the past ten years; and I hope that the appearance of this volume may cause the publication of much additional information on the subject,--but that any of the newly discovered monuments differ in type from those previously known, there is much reason to doubt. Very many of the newspaper accounts referred to relate to discoveries made by Lieut. Wheeler's exploring party during the past two or three years. Lieut. Wheeler informs me that the reports, so far as they refer to the remains of an extinct people, are without foundation, and that his observations have led him to a conclusion practically the same as my own respecting the builders of the ruined Pueblo towns.
[Sidenote: THE ANCIENT PUEBLO TOWNS.]
4. It follows that New Mexico, Arizona, and northern Chihuahua were once inhabited by agricultural semi-civilized tribes, not differing more among themselves than do the Pueblo tribes of the present time; the most fertile valleys of the region were cultivated by them, and were dotted by fine town-dwellings of stone and adobe, occupied in common by many families, similar but superior to the present Pueblo towns. At least a century, probably much longer, before the Spaniards made their appearance, the decline of this numerous and powerful people began, and it has continued uninterruptedly down to the present time, until only a mere remnant in the Rio Grande and Moqui towns is left. Before the Spaniards came all the southern towns, on the Gila and its tributaries, had been abandoned; since that time the decline of the northern nations, which the Spaniards found in a tolerably flourishing condition, is a matter of history. The reason of the decline this is hardly the place to consider, but it is doubtless to the inroads of outside warlike and predatory tribes like the Apaches that we must look for the chief cause. It is not impossible that natural changes in the surface of the region, such as the drying-up of springs, streams, or lakes, may have also contributed to the same effect. These changes, however, if such took place, were probably gradual in their operation; for the location of the ruins in what are still in most cases among the most fertile valleys, either in the vicinity of water, or at least of a dried-up stream, and their absence in every instance in the absolutely desert tracts, show pretty conclusively that the towns were not destroyed suddenly by any natural convulsion which radically changed the face of the country. It is not difficult to imagine how the agricultural Pueblo communities, weakened perhaps at first by some international strife which forced them to neglect the tillage of their land, and hard pressed by more than usually persistent inroads from bands of Apaches who plundered their crops and destroyed their irrigation-works, visited perchance by pestilence, or by earthquakes sent by some irate deity to dry up their springs, were forced year by year to yield their fair fields to the drifting sands, to abandon their southern homes and unite their forces with kindred northern tribes; till at last came the crowning blow of a foreign invasion, which has well nigh extinguished an aboriginal culture more interesting and admirable, if not in all respects more advanced, than any other in North America.
FOOTNOTES:
[XI-1] Cal., Past, Pres. and Future, p. 145.
[XI-2] Bartlett's Pers. Nar., vol. ii., pp. 195, 206; Froebel, Aus Amer., tom. ii., p. 468; Id., Cent. Amer., pp. 519-24; Emory's Reconnoissance, pp. 82, 89-91, with plate.
[XI-3] Castañeda, in Ternaux-Compans, Voy., série i., tom. ix., pp. 40-1, 161-2. Two other accounts of the trip were written--one by Juan Jaramillo, which may be found in the same volume of Ternaux-Compans' work; and the second by Coronado himself, an Italian translation of which appeared in Ramusio, Navigationi, tom. iii., fol. 359, et seq., and an English translation in Hakluyt's Voy., vol. iii., p. 373, et seq. For an abstract of the trip and discussion about the location of the route, see Gallatin, in Amer. Ethno. Soc., Transact., vol. ii.; Squier, in American Review for November, 1848; Whipple, et al., in Pac. R. R. Repts, vol. iii.; and Simpson, in Smithsonian Rept., 1859, p. 309, et seq. The last is the best article on the subject, and is accompanied by a map. All the accounts mention the fact that the expedition passed through Chichilticale, but only the one quoted describes the building.
[XI-4] "Lo apuntó en embrion por no haber ido yo á este descubrimento." Mange, in Doc. Hist. Mex., série iv., tom. i., pp. 259, 253, 362-4.
[XI-5] In Doc. Hist. Mex., série iv., tom. i., pp. 282-3. Mange's description is as follows:--'One of them is a large edifice, the principal room in the centre being four stories high, and those adjoining it on its four sides, three stories; with walls two varas thick, of strong argamasa y barro [that is, the material of which adobes are made] so smooth on the inside that they resemble planed boards, and so polished that they shine like Puebla pottery. The corners of the windows, which are square, are very straight and without supports or crosspieces of wood, as if made with a mold; the doors are the same, though, narrow, and by this it is known to be the work of Indians; it is 36 paces long by 21 wide, and is well built. At the distance of an arquebuse-shot are seen twelve other buildings half fallen, also with thick walls; and all the roofs burned out except one low room, which has round beams apparently of cedar, or sabino, small and smooth, and over them otates (reeds) of equal size, and a layer of hard mud and mortar, forming a very curious roof or floor. In the vicinity are seen many other ruins and stories, and heaps of rubbish which cover the ground for two leagues; with much broken pottery, plates, and ollas of fine clay painted in various colors and resembling the Guadalajara pottery of New Spain; hence it is inferred that the city was very large and the work of a civilized people under a government. This is verified by a canal which runs from the river over the plain, encircling the settlement, which is in the centre, three leagues in circumference, ten varas wide and four deep, carrying perhaps half the river, and thus serving as a defensive ditch as well as to supply water for the houses and to irrigate the surrounding fields.'
[XI-6] Sedelmair, Relacion, in Doc. Hist. Mex., série iii., tom. iv., p. 847. Orozco y Berra, Geografía, pp. 108-10, takes this description from Sedelmair's MS. in the Mexican archives, as being written by one who was 'almost the discoverer,' but it is a literal copy of Mange's diary. Mange's diary, so far as it relates to the Casa Grande, is translated in Schoolcraft's Arch., vol. iii., p. 301; and Bartlett's Pers. Nar., vol. ii., pp. 281-2.
[XI-7] 'Y vimos toda la vivienda del edificio que es muy grande de quatro altos, cuadradas las paredes y muy gruesas como de dos varas de ancho del dicho barro blanco, y aunque estos jentiles lo han quemado distintas veces, se ven los quatro altos, con buenas salas, aposentos y ventanas curiosamente embarradas por dentro y fuera de manera que están las paredes encaladas y lisas con un barro algo colorado, las puertas muy parejas. Tambien hay inmediatas por fuera once casas algo menores fabricadas con la propia curiosidad de la grande y altas ... y en largo distrito se ve mucha losa quebrada y pintada; tambien se vé una sequia maestra de diez varas de ancho y quatro de alto, y un bordo muy grueso hecho de la misma tierra que va á la casa por un llano.' Bernal, in Doc. Hist. Mex., série iii., tom. iv., p. 804.
[XI-8] Padre Garcés says, 'on this river is situated the house which they call Moctezuma's, and many other ruins of other edifices with very many fragments of pottery both painted and plain. From what I afterwards saw of the Moqui, I have formed a very different idea from that which I before entertained respecting these buildings,' referring to Padre Font for more details. Doc. Hist. Mex., série ii., tom. i., p. 242. Font's account is substantially as follows:--'We carefully examined this edifice and its ruins; the echnographical plan of which I here lay down [The plan does not accompany the translation, but I have the same plan in another MS. which I shall presently mention] and the better to understand it I give the following description and explanation. [Here follows an account of the building of the Casa by the Aztecs when the Devil led them through these regions on their way to Anáhuac]. The site on which this house is built is flat on all sides and at the distance of about one league from the river Gila, and the ruins of the houses which composed the town extend more than a league towards the East and the Cardinal points; and all this land is partially covered with pieces of pots, jugs, plates, &c., some common and others painted of different colours, white, blue, red,' &c., very different from the work of the Pimas. A careful measurement made with a lance showed that 'the house forms an oblong square, facing exactly the four Cardinal points ... and round about it there are ruins indicating a fence or wall which surrounded the house and other buildings, particularly in the corners, where it appears that there has been some edifice like an interior castle or watch-tower, for in the angle which faces towards the S.W. there stands a ruin with its divisions and an upper story. The exterior place [plaza] extends from N. to S. 420 feet and from E. to W. 260 feet. The interior of the house consists of five halls, the three middle ones being of one size and the two extreme ones longer.' The three middle ones are 26 by 10 feet, and the others 38 by 12 feet, and all 11 feet high. The inner doors are of equal size, two by five feet, the outer ones being of double width. The inner walls are four feet thick and well plastered, and the outer walls six feet thick. The house is 70 by 50 feet, the walls sloping somewhat on the outside. 'Before the Eastern doorway, separate from the house there is another building,' 26 by 18 feet, 'without counting the thickness of the walls. The timber, it appears, was of pine, and the nearest mountain bearing pine is at the distance of 25 leagues; it likewise bears some mezquite. All the building is of earth, and according to appearances the walls are built in boxes [moldes] of different sizes. A trench leads from the river at a great distance, by which the town was supplied with water; it is now nearly buried up. Finally, it is perceptible that the Edifice had three stories, and if it be true what the Indians say it had 4, the last being a kind of subterranean vault. For the purpose of giving light to the rooms, nothing is seen but the doors and some round holes in the middle of the walls which face to the East and West, and the Indians said that the Prince whom they call the "bitter man" used to salute the sun through these holes (which are pretty large) at its rising and setting. No signs of stairs remain, and we therefore suppose that they must have been of wood, and that they were destroyed when the building was burnt by the Apaches.' Font's Journal, MS., pp. 8-10; also quoted in Bartlett's Pers. Nar., vol. ii., pp. 278-80; also French translation in Ternaux-Compans, Voy., série i., tom. ix., pp. 383-6.
[XI-9] Beaumont, Crón. Mechoacan, MS., pp. 504-8. See an abridged account from the same source in Padilla, Conq. N. Galicia, MS., p. 125; Arricivita, Crónica Seráfica, pp. 462-3.
[XI-10] Sonora, Rudo Ensayo, pp. 18-9; same also in Doc. Hist. Mex., série iii., tom. iv., pp. 503-4; Velarde, Descrip. de la Pimería, in Doc. Hist. Mex., série iv., tom. i., pp. 362-3. This author speaks of 'algunas paredes de un gran estanque, hecho á mano de cal y canto.' Similar account in Alegre, Hist. Comp. de Jesus, tom. ii., pp. 211-12.
[XI-11] Emory's Reconnoissance, pp. 81-3; Johnston's Journal, in Id., pp. 567-600; Browne's Apache Country, pp. 114-24; Bartlett's Pers. Nar., vol. ii., pp. 271-84. Other authorities, containing, I believe, no original information, are as follows: Humboldt, Essai Pol., pp. 297-8; Baldwin's Anc. Amer., p. 82; Mofras, Explor., tom. ii., p. 361; Gondra, in Prescott, Hist. Conq. Mex., tom. iii., p. 19; Mayer's Mex. Aztec, etc., vol. ii., p. 396, with cut; Id., Observations, p. 15; Id., Mex. as it Was, p. 239; Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. ii., p. 197; Conder's Mex. Guat., vol. ii., pp. 68-9; Buschmann, Spuren der Aztek. Spr., p. 297; Cutts' Conq. of Cal., pp. 186-8; Domenech's Deserts, vol. i., pp. 381-4; Möllhausen, Tagebuch, pp. 309-14; Lafond, Voyages, tom. i., p. 135; Larenaudière, Mex. et Guat., p. 12; Long's Amer. and W. I., pp. 180-1; Malte-Brun, Précis de la Géog., tom. vi., pp. 453; Mill's Hist. Mex., pp. 192-3; Monglave, Résumé, p. 176; Mühlenpfordt, Mejico, tom. ii., pt. ii., pp. 435-6; Müller, Amerikanische Urreligionen, p. 532; Gallatin, in Nouvelles Annales des Voy., 1851, tom. cxxxi., pp. 284-6, 261; Froebel, Aus Amer., tom. ii., pp. 451-2; Gordon's Hist. and Geog. Mem., pp. 86-7; Id., Ancient Mex., vol. i., p. 104; Shuck's Cal. Scrap-Book, p. 669; Robinson's Cal., pp. 93-4; Velasco, in Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin, tom. xi., p. 96; Thümmel, Mexiko, p. 347; DeBercy, L'Europe et L'Amér., pp. 238-9; Ruxton, in Nouvelles Annales des Voy., 1850, tom. cxxvi., pp. 40, 46, 52; San Francisco Chronicle, Jan. 15, 1875; Schoolcraft's Arch., vol. iii., pp. 299-300; Hughes' Doniphan's Ex., p. 219.
[XI-12] Adobes are properly sun-dried bricks without any particular reference to the exact quality or proportions of the ingredients, many varieties of earth or clay being employed, according to the locality and the nature of the structure, with or without a mixture of straw or pebbles. But adobe is a very convenient word to indicate the material itself without reference to the form and size of its blocks or the exact nature of its ingredients; and such a use of the word seems allowable.
[XI-13] Smithsonian Rept., 1869, p. 326; Castañeda, in Ternaux-Compans, Voy., série i., tom. ix., pp. 41, 161-2.
[XI-14] 36 by 21 paces, Mange, in Doc. Hist. Mex., série iv., tom. i., p. 283; 70 by 50 feet, outer walls 6 feet thick, inner 4 feet, Font's Journal, MS., pp. 8-9; walls between 4 and 5 feet thick, Bartlett's Pers. Nar., vol. ii., p. 272; 60 feet square, Emory's Reconnoissance, p. 81.
[XI-15] Central rooms, 26 by 10 feet; the others 38 by 12 feet. Font's Journal, MS., p. 9.
[XI-16] It will be noticed that although Mr Bartlett speaks of an entrance in the centre of each side, his plan shows none in the south. 'Il n'existe point de portes au rez-de-chaussée.' Mofras, Explor., tom. ii., p. 361.
[XI-17] Mange, Itinerario, in Doc. Hist. Mex., série iv., tom. i., pp. 282-3.
[XI-18] Browne's Apache Country, p. 118.
[XI-19] Johnston, in Emory's Reconnoissance, p. 598.
[XI-20] Arricivita, Crónica Seráfica, pp. 462-3; Humboldt, Essai Pol., tom. i., p. 297.
[XI-21] Johnston, in Emory's Reconnoissance, p. 598.
[XI-22] 'Habia tambien seis leguas distante del rio hácia el Sur, un algive de agua hecho á mano mas que cuadrado ó paralelo, grande de sesenta varas de largo y cuarenta de ancho; sus bordos parecian paredes ó pretil de argamasa ó cal y canto, segun lo fuerte y duro del material, y por sus cuatro ángulos tiene sus puertas por donde se conduce y se recoge el agua llovediza.' Sedelmair, Relacion, in Doc. Hist. Mex., série iii., tom. iv., p. 848. 'Se ven algunas paredes de un gran estanque, hecho á mano de cal y canto, y una acequia de los mismos materiales.' Velarde, in Id., série iv., tom. i., p. 362.
[XI-23] 'Paredes muy altas y anchas de mas de una vara, de un género de barro blanco muy fuerte, cuadrada, y muy grande.' Bernal, in Doc. Hist. Mex., série iii., tom. iv., p. 801. 'Paredes de dos varas de grueso, como un castillo y otras á sus contornos, pero todo de fábrica antigua.' Mange, Itinerario, in Id., série iv., tom. i., p. 282; Sonora, Rudo Ensayo, p. 19; Emory's Reconnoissance, p. 83. Whipple, in Pac. R. R. Rept., vol. iii., p. 73, speaks of a circular depression in the earth at this point.
[XI-24] Johnston, in Emory's Reconnoissance, p. 600.
[XI-25] Sedelmair, Relacion, in Doc. Hist. Mex., série iii., tom. iv., p. 847. There is no foundation whatever for the statement of Mofras that in this region 'en faisant des fouilles on trouve encore des idoles, des poteries, des armes, et des miroirs en pierre poli nommées itzli.' Explor., tom. ii., p. 361.
[XI-26] Velarde, in Doc. Hist. Mex., série iv., tom. i., p. 363.
[XI-27] Sedelmair, Relacion, in Doc. Hist. Mex., série iii., tom. iv. p. 847.
[XI-28] Velarde, in Doc. Hist. Mex., série iv., tom. i., pp. 348, 363. 'De otros edificios de mas extencion, arte y simetria, he oido referir al Padre Ygnacio Xavier Keller, aunque no tengo presente en que paraje de sus Apostolicas carreras.' Sonora, Rudo Ensayo, pp. 19-20.
[XI-29] Emory's Reconnoissance, pp. 87-8, 134; Johnston, in Id., p. 600; Cincinnatus' Travels, p. 356.
[XI-30] Whipple, Ewbank, and Turner, in Pac. R. R. Rept., vol. iii., pp. 45, 47.
[XI-31] Bartlett's Pers. Nar., vol. ii., pp. 242-8, with a cut of one of the heaps of ruins. Möllhausen, Tagebuch, pp. 308-9. Cuts of many specimens of pottery from the Gila Valley, in Johnston, in Emory's Reconnoissance, pp. 596, 600.
[XI-32] Whipple, Ewbank, and Turner, in Pac. R. R. Rept., vol. iii., pp. 14-15.
[XI-33] Mr Leroux also reported to Bartlett the existence in the Verde valley of heaps of débris like those on the Salado. Bartlett's Pers. Nar., vol. ii., p. 247. Mention of Verde remains. Warden, Recherches, p. 79; Möllhausen, Reisen in die Felsengeb., tom. ii., pp. 140-2; Mühlenpfordt, Mejico, tom. ii., pt. ii., p. 538. Pike, Explor. Trav., p. 336, says very absurdly, "Those walls are of a black cement which encreases in stability with age, and bids defiance to the war of time; the secret of its composition is now entirely lost."
[XI-34] Whipple, in Pac. R. R. Rept., vol. iii., pp. 91-4; Möllhausen, Tagebuch, pp. 348-9. Möllhausen was the artist connected with Whipple's expedition.
[XI-35] Emory's Reconnoissance, pp. 63-9, 80, 133-4, with cuts and plates; Johnston, in Id., pp. 581-96; Whipple, Ewbank, and Turner, in Pac. R. R. Rept., vol. iii., p. 23, with cut illustrating the lines of foundation-stones. Froebel, Aus Amer., tom. ii., p. 421; Id., Cent. Amer., p. 488, with cut of hieroglyphics. Two plates of colored fragments of pottery, in Schoolcraft's Arch., vol. iii., pp. 82-5, vol. vi., p. 68. Respecting the builders of the ruined structures, see Garcés, Diario, in Doc. Hist. Mex., série ii., tom. i., pp. 320, 329; Castañeda, in Ternaux-Compans, Voy., série i., tom. ix., pp. 161-2; Sedelmair, Relacion, in Doc. Hist. Mex., série iii., tom. iv., p. 847. Other references on Gila remains are: Sonora, Rudo Ensayo, p. 19, with cut of labyrinth; Villa-Señor y Sanchez, Theatro, tom. ii., pp. 375-6; Fremont, in Cal., Past, Pres. and Future, p. 144; Fremont and Emory's Notes of Trav., p. 46; Prichard's Researches, vol. v., pp. 422-3; Id., Nat. Hist. Man, vol. ii., pp. 514-15, 568; Domenech's Deserts, vol. i., pp. 382-3; Cal. Farmer, Feb. 28, 1862; Cincinnatus' Travels, pp. 355-7; Gallatin, in Nouvelles Annales des Voy., 1851, tom. cxxxi., pp. 293-4. I find an account going the rounds of the newspapers of a wonderful group of ruins 'on the Gila some miles east of Florence,' discovered by Lieut. Ward. They consist of very extensive fortifications, and other structures built of hewn stone, the walls being yet twelve feet high, and two towers standing 26 and 31 feet respectively. Copper and stone implements, golden ornaments and stone vases were found here. Finally, the whole account is doubtless a hoax.
[XI-36] A writer in the N. Y. Tribune,--see Hist. Mag., vol. x., suppl., p. 95--describes a pyramid on the Colorado River, without giving the locality. It is 104 feet square, 20 feet high, and has at present a summit platform. It seems, however, to have been originally pointed, judging from the débris. The material is hewn stone in blocks from 18 to 36 inches thick, those of the outer facing being out at an angle. This report is perhaps founded on some of the ruins on the Colorado Chiquito yet to be mentioned, or quite as probably it has no foundation whatever. 'Upon the lower part of the Rio Colorado no traces of permanent dwellings have been discovered.' Whipple, Ewbank, and Turner, in Pac. R. R. Rept., vol. iii., p. 15. Arizona miners occasionally refer to the ruins of old Indian buildings on the Colorado, 40 miles above La Paz, on the eastern side, similar in character to those of the Gila. On Ehrenberg's Map of Arizona, 1858, they are so located, and that is all that is known of them. San Francisco Evening Bulletin, July 14, 1864.
[XI-37] Cal. Farmer, March 27, 1863.
[XI-38] Möllhausen, Tagebuch, p. 376; Whipple, in Pac. R. R. Rept., vol. iii., pp. 106-7.
[XI-39] Sitgreaves' Report, Zuñi and Colorado Rivers, 1853, pp. 8-9; Whipple, in Pac. R. R. Rept., vol. iii., pp. 81, 46-50; Ives' Colorado Riv., p. 117, no details; Möllhausen, Tagebuch, pp. 306-8; Id., Reisen in die Felsengeb., tom. ii., pp. 148-50, 164-5, 399-401; Schoolcraft's Arch., vol. iv., pp. 253, vol. vi., p. 68, plates of inscriptions; Hay, in Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin, 2da época, tom. i., p. 29; Foster's Pre-Hist. Races, pp. 146-7. A writer in the San Francisco Evening Bulletin, July 3, 1868, says that the most extensive ruins in Arizona or New Mexico are situated above the high falls of the Little Colorado, 20 miles north of the San Francisco Mountains. They extend for miles along the river, and include well-made walls of hewn stone now standing to the height of six or eight feet. Both streets and irrigating canals may be traced for miles. This writer speaks of the Jesuit inscriptions. According to an article in the San Francisco Herald of 1853, quoted in the Cal. Farmer of June 22, 1860, Capt. Joseph Walker found some remarkable ruins on the Colorado Chiquito in 1850. He speaks of 'a kind of a citadel, around which lay the ruins of a city more than a mile in length.' The streets were still traceable, running at right angles. The buildings were all of stone 'reduced to ruins by the action of some great heat which had evidently passed over the whole country.... All the stones were burnt, some of them almost cindered, others glazed as if melted. This appearance was visible in every ruin he met with. A storm of fire seemed to have swept over the whole country and the inhabitants must have fallen before it.' The central building with walls 15 or 18 feet long and 10 feet high, of hewn stone, stood on a rock 20 or 30 feet high, itself fused by the heat. The ruins seen by Walker were in all probability similar to those described by Sitgreaves, and the Captain, or the writer of this article, drew heavily on his imagination for many of his facts.
[XI-40] Whipple, in Pac. R. R. Rept., vol. iii., p. 76.
[XI-41] Möllhausen's Journey, vol. ii., p. 121.
[XI-42] Whipple, in Pac. R. R. Rept., vol. iii., pp. 73-4; Möllhausen, Tagebuch, p. 255.
[XI-43] Sitgreaves' Zuñi Ex., p. 6; Whipple, Ewbank, and Turner, in Pac. R. R. Repts, vol. pp. 71, 39.
[XI-44] Whipple, et al., in Pac. R. R. Repts, vol. iii., pp. 69, 39-41, 45-6, with view of ruins; Möllhausen's Journey, vol. ii., p. 96, cut of altar; Id., Reisen, tom. ii., pp. 196, 402; Id., Tagebuch, pp. 283-4, 278, with cut of altar; Simpson, in Smithsonian Rept., 1869, pp. 329-32; Davis' El Gringo, p. 128; Domenech's Deserts, vol. i., pp. 211-13; Barber and Howe's Western States, p. 553; Shuck's Cal. Scrap-Book, pp. 310-12.
[XI-45] Whipple, Ewbank, and Turner, in Pac. R. R. Rept., vol. iii., pp. 45-6.
[XI-46] Simpson's Jour. Mil. Recon., pp. 95-7; Möllhausen's Journey, vol. ii., p. 82; Id., Tagebuch, pp. 275-7; Whipple, Ewbank, and Turner, in Pac. R. R. Rept., vol. iii., p. 39. Col. Doniphan found in 1846 on the head-waters of the Piscao (Pescado, Zuñi?) the ruins of an ancient city, which formed a square surrounded by double walls of stone 14 feet apart. The space between the walls was divided into compartments 14 feet square, opening into the interior. The houses were three stories high, the lower story being partially subterranean. Large quantities of red cedar, apparently cut for firewood, were found in connection with the buildings. Hughes' Doniphan's Ex., pp. 197-8. Simpson explored the stream to its source, and found no ruins except three at Ojo del Pescado, which were probably the same on which Doniphan's report was founded, although there is no resemblance in the descriptions.
[XI-47] Simpson's Jour. Mil. Recon., pp. 93-109, pl. 60-1, views of cliff; pl. 65-74, inscriptions; pl. 63, ground plan of building; pl. 64, pottery; cut p. 100, plan of rock. Whipple, et al., in Pac. R. R. Repts, vol. iii., pp. 22, 52, 63-4, with plates; Möllhausen, Tagebuch, pp. 266-72, pl. of plan and pottery; Id., Journey, vol. ii., pp. 68-79, 52, pl.; Domenech's Deserts, vol. i., pp. 208-9, 415-18; Davis' El Gringo, pp. 422-3; Foster's Pre-Hist. Races, p. 147; Barber and Howe's Western States, p. 561.
[XI-48] Dominguez and Escalante, Diario, in Doc. Hist. Mex., série ii., tom. i., pp. 400-2. A correspondent of the San Francisco Evening Bulletin, July 8, 1864, says that the San Juan valley is strewn with ruins for hundreds of miles, some buildings three stories high of solid masonry still standing. Davis, El Gringo, p. 417, had heard of some ruins on the northern bank of the San Juan, but none further north. 'The valleys of the Rio de las Animas and San Juan are strewn with the ruins of cities, many of them of solid masonry. Stone buildings, three stories high, are yet standing, of Aztec architecture.' Baker, in Cal. Farmer, June 19, 1863.
[XI-49] Simpson's Jour. Mil. Recon., pp. 74-5, pl. 53-4. Other slight accounts made up from Simpson: Domenech's Deserts, vol. i., p. 201; Annual Scien. Discov., 1850, p. 362; Barber and Howe's Western States, pp. 559-60, with cut.
[XI-50] Dr Hammond, a companion of Simpson, describes this room as follows: 'It was in the second of three ranges of rooms, on the north side of the ruins. The door opened at the base of the wall, towards the interior of the building; it had never been more than two feet and a half high, and was filled two-thirds with rubbish. The lintels were of natural sticks of wood, one and a half to two and a half inches in diameter, deprived of the bark, and placed at distances of two or three inches apart; yet their ends were attached to each other by withes of oak with its bark well preserved. The room was in the form of a parallelogram, about twelve feet in length, eight feet high, and the walls, as they stood at the time of observation, seven feet high. The floor was of earth, and the surface irregular. The walls were about two feet thick, and plastered within with a layer of red mud one fourth of an inch thick. The latter, having fallen off in places, showed the material of the wall to be sandstone. The stone was ground into pieces the size of our ordinary bricks, the angles not as perfectly formed, though nearly so, and put up in break-joints, having intervals between them, on every side, of about two inches. The intervals were filled with laminæ of a dense sandstone, about three lines in thickness, driven firmly in, and broken off even with the general plane of the wall--the whole resembling mosaic work. Niches, varying in size from two inches to two feet and a half square, and two inches to one and a half feet in horizontal depth, were scattered irregularly over the walls, at various heights above the floor. Near the place of the ceiling, the walls were penetrated, and the surfaces of them perpendicular to the length of the beam. They had the appearance of having been sawed off originally, except that there were no marks of the saw left on them; time had slightly disintegrated the surfaces, rounding the edges somewhat here and there. Supporting the floor above were six cylindrical beams, about seven inches in diameter, passing transversely of the room, and at distances of less than two feet apart--the branches of the trees having been hewn off by means of a blunt-edged instrument. Above, and resting on these, running longitudinally with the room, were poles of various lengths, about two inches in diameter, irregularly straight, placed in contact with each other, covering all the top of the room, bound together at irregular and various distances, generally at their ends, by slips apparently of palm-leaf or marquez, and the same material converted into cords about one-fourth of an inch in diameter, formed of two strands, hung from the poles at several points. Above, and resting upon the poles, closing all above, passing transversely of the room, were planks of about seven inches wide, and three-fourths of an inch in thickness. The width of the plank was uniform, and so was the thickness. They were in contact, or nearly so, admitting but little more than the passage of a knife blade between them, by the edges, through the whole of their lengths. They were not jointed; all their surfaces were level, and as smooth as if planed, excepting the ends; the angles as regular and perfect as could be retained by such vegetable matter--they are probably of pine or cedar--exposed to the atmosphere for as long a time as it is probable these have been. The ends of the plank, several of which were in view, terminated in lines perpendicular to the length of the plank, and the plank appears to have been severed by a blunt instrument. The planks--I examined them minutely by the eye and the touch, for the marks of the saw and other instruments--were smooth, and colored brown by time or by smoke. Beyond the plank nothing was distinguishable from within. The room was redolent with the perfume of cedar. Externally, upon the top, was a heap of stone and mud, ruins that have fallen from above, immovable by the instruments that we had along. The beams were probably severed by contusions from a dull instrument, and their surfaces ground plain and smooth by a slab of rock; and the planks, split or hewn from the trees, were, no doubt, rendered smooth by the same means.' Hammond, in Simpson's Jour. Mil. Recon., pp. 131-3.
[XI-51] Chaco ruins as discovered by Simpson: Pueblo Pintado, 403 feet circumference, 3 stories, 54 rooms on ground floor, pp. 34-6, pl. 20, 22, 41; view, specimens of masonry, and of pottery. Rock-inscriptions at Camp 9, p. 36, pl. 23-5. Pueblo Weje-gi, 13 miles from Pueblo Pintado, 700 feet in circumference, 99 rooms, walls 25 feet high, pp. 36-7, pl. 26-7; view and ground plan. Pueblo Una Vida, 15½ miles from Pueblo Pintado, circumference 994 feet, height 15 feet, 2 stories, 4 estufas, pp. 37-8, pl. 28-9; view and ground plan. Pueblo Hungo Pavie, 872 feet circumference, 30 feet high, 4 stories, 72 rooms, 1 estufa, p. 38, pl. 30-2; plan, pottery, and restoration (all copied above). Pueblo Chettro Kettle, circumference 1300 feet, 4 stories, 124 rooms, 6 estufas, pp. 38-40, pl. 33-5; plan, interior, hieroglyphics. Pueblo Bonito, circumference 1300 feet, 4 stories, 139 rooms traceable, 4 estufas, pp. 40-2, 131-3, pl. 36-38, 40-41; view, plan, interior, pottery, specimen of masonry. Pueblo Arroyo, 100 feet circumference, 2 undescribed ruins near it, p. 42. Pueblo Peñasco Blanco, on south side of river, 1700 feet circumference, 112 rooms, 3 stories, 7 estufas, pp. 42-3, pl. 41, fig. 2; specimen of masonry. Simpson's Jour. Mil. Recon., pp. 34-43, 131-3. Slight account from Simpson, in Domenech's Deserts, vol. i., pp. 199-200, 379-81, 385; Annual Scien. Discov., 1850, pp. 362-3; Baldwin's Anc. Amer., pp. 86-9, cut; Barber and Howe's Western States, pp. 556-9, cuts; Thümmel, Mexiko, pp. 347-8. A newspaper report of a ruin discovered by one Roberts may be as well mentioned here as elsewhere, although the locality given is 90 miles within the Arizona line, while the Chaco remains are in New Mexico. This city was built on a mesa with precipitous sides, and covered an area of 3 square miles, being enclosed by a wall of hewn sandstone, still standing in places 6 or 8 feet high. No remains of timber were found in the city, which must have contained originally 20,000 inhabitants. It was laid out in plazas and streets, and the walls bore sculptured hieroglyphics. San Francisco Chronicle, Dec. 12, 1872. See also Alta California, June 26, 1874. I give but few of these newspaper reports as specimens; a volume might be filled with them, without much profit.
[XI-52] Davis' list of Pueblo towns is as follows:--Taos, Picoris, Nambé, Tezuque, Pojuaque, San Juan, San Yldefonso, Santo Domingo, San Felipe, Santa Ana, Cochiti, Isleta, Silla, Laguna, Acoma, Jemez, Zuñi, Sandia, Santa Clara. El Gringo, p. 115. Barreiro, Ojeada, p. 15, adds Pecos, and omits San Juan. Simpson, Jour. Mil. Recon., p. 114, says that Cebolleta, Covero, and Moquino, are not properly Indian pueblos, but ordinary Mexican towns.
[XI-53] See vol. i., pp. 533-8.
[XI-54] Abert's New Mex., in Emory's Reconnoissance, p. 457; Davis' El Gringo, pp. 141-2. See also Gregg's Com. Prairies, vol. i., pp. 276-7. This author says there is a similar edifice in the pueblo of Picuris. Edwards' Campaign, pp. 43-4; Domenech's Deserts, vol. i., pp. 191-2. On the Arroyo Hondo 10 miles north of Taos, Mr Peters, Life of Carson, p. 437, speaks of the remains of the largest Aztec settlement in New Mexico, consisting of small cobble-stones in mud, pottery, arrow-heads, stone pipes, and rude tools.
[XI-55] Simpson's Jour. Mil. Recon., p. 114.
[XI-56] Abert's New Mex., in Emory's Reconnoissance, p. 470-1, with 3 views. The most ancient and extraordinary of all the Pueblos, on a table of 60 acres, 360 feet above the plain. Identical with Coronado's Acuco. Domenech's Deserts, vol. i., pp. 202-3; Gregg's Com. Prairies, vol. i., pp. 277-8.
[XI-57] Gregg's Com. Prairies, vol. i., p. 277; Simpson's Jour. Mil. Recon., p. 121; view of San Felipe, in Abert's New Mex., in Emory's Reconnoissance, p. 461.
[XI-58] Simpson's Jour. Mil. Recon., pp. 13-4. 'The houses of this town are built in blocks.' 'To enter, you ascend to this platform by the means of ladders;' windows in the upper part of the lower story. Abert's New Mex., in Emory's Reconnoissance, p. 462, with view; Möllhausen's Journey, p. 231, with view; Domenech's Deserts, vol. i., p. 197.
[XI-59] Meline's Two Thousand Miles, pp. 206-7.
[XI-60] Simpson's Jour. Mil. Recon., pp. 90-3. 'It is divided into four solid squares, having but two streets, crossing its centre at right angles. All the buildings are two stories high, composed of sun-dried brick. The first story presents a solid wall to the street, and is so constructed, that each house joins, until one fourth of the city may be said to be one building. The second stories rise from this vast, solid structure, so as to designate each house, leaving room to walk upon the roof of the first story between each building.' Hughes' Doniphan's Ex., p. 195; see also Whipple, in Pac. R. R. Rept., vol. iii., pp. 67-8, with view; Möllhausen's Journey, p. 97.
[XI-61] Ives' Colorado Riv., pp. 119-24, with plates.
[XI-62] 'Each pueblo contains an estufa, which is used both as a council-chamber and a place of worship, where they practice such of their heathen rites as still exist among them. It is built partly under ground, and is considered a consecrated and holy place. Here they hold all their deliberations upon public affairs, and transact the necessary business of the village.' Davis' El Gringo, p. 142. 'In the west end of the town [S. Domingo] is an estuffa, or public building, in which the people hold their religious and political meetings. The structure, which is built of adobes, is circular in plan, about nine feet in elevation, and thirty-five feet in diameter, and, with no doors or windows laterally, has a small trap-door in the terrace or flat roof by which admission is gained.' Simpson's Jour. Mil. Recon., p. 62. Estufa at Jemez, with plates of paintings. Id., pp. 21-2, pl. 7-11.
[XI-63] Emory's Reconnoissance, p. 30, with plate; Abert's New Mex., in Id., pp. 446-7, 483, with plate; Davis' El Gringo, p. 55; Hughes' Doniphan's Ex., pp. 74-5; Meline's Two Thousand Miles, pp. 255-8; Gregg's Com. Prairies, vol. i., pp. 270-3; Möllhausen, Reisen in die Felsengeb., tom. ii., pp. 293-8; Cutt's Conq. of Cal., p. 79; Domenech's Deserts, vol. i., pp. 164-5, Baldwin's Anc. Amer., p. 79, with cut.
[XI-64] Gage's New Survey, p. 162; Gregg's Com. Prairies, vol. i., pp. 164-5; Davis' El Gringo, pp. 70, 123-7; Abert's New Mex., in Emory's Reconnoissance, pp. 488-9; Domenech's Deserts, vol. i., pp. 182-3; Wizlizenus' Tour, p. 25; Carleton's Ruins of Abó, in Smithsonian Rept., 1854, pp. 300-15; Möllhausen, Flüchtling, tom. i., pp. 718-25, 229, 239, 267-72; Id., Reisen, tom. ii., pp. 296, 405-6; Froebel's Cent. Amer., p. 301; Id., Aus Amer., tom. ii., pp. 150-2; Gallatin, in Nouvelles Annales des Voy., 1851, tom. cxxxi., pp. 298-9. Abert, in Emory's Reconnoissance, pp. 466-7, 484, tells us that at Tezique the ruins of the ancient Indian town are partially covered with the buildings of the modern; also that at Poblazon, on the Puerco River, the principal ruins of stone are arranged in a square with sides of 200 yards, but other remains are scattered in the vicinity, including a circular and one elliptical enclosure. According to Gregg, Com. Prairies, vol. ii., p. 71, the inhabitants were driven from Valverde, on the Rio Grande, by the Navajos. Möllhausen, Journey, vol. ii., p. 55, speaks of ruins on rocky heights two miles from Laguna. 'The ruins of what is usually called Old San Felipe are plainly visible, perched on the edge of the mésa, about a mile above the present town, on the west side of the river.' Simpson's Jour. Mil. Recon., p. 121.
[XI-65] Froebel, Aus Amer., tom. ii., pp. 166, 469; Johnston, in Cutts' Conq. of Cal., p. 183; Newberry, in Cal. Farmer, April 10, 1863.
[XI-66] Abert, New Mex., in Emory's Reconnoissance, pp. 489-92, identifies Cíbola with Acoma and the six adjoining Pueblo towns; and Morgan, in N. Amer. Review, April, 1869, with the Chaco ruins.
[XI-67] See Castañeda, in Ternaux-Compans, Voy., série i., tom. ix., pp. 42, 69-71. 'Veynte y quatro leguas de aqui, hazia el Poniente, dieron con vna Prouincia, que se nombra en lengua de los naturales Zuny, y la llaman los Espannoles Cibola, ay en ella gran cantidad de Indios, en la qual estuuo Francisco Vasquez Coronado, y dexo muchas Cruzes puestas, y otras sennales de Christianidad que siempre se estauan en pie. Hallaron ansi mesmo tres Indios Christianos que se auian quedado de aquella jornada, cuyos nombres eran Andres de Cuyoacan, Gaspar de Mexico, y Antonio de Guadalajara, los quales tenian casi oluidada su mesma lengua, y sabian muy bien la delos naturales, aunque a pocas bueltas que les hablaron se entendieron facilmente.' Espejo, Viaje, in Hakluyt's Voy., vol. iii., p. 387. Hakluyt says the narrative is from Mendoza, Hist. China, Madrid, 1586; but nothing of the kind appears in the Spanish edition of that work, 1596, or in the Italian edition of 1586.
[XI-68] Emory's Reconnoissance, pp. 82, 133; Abert's New Mex., in Id., p. 484; Whipple, Ewbank, and Turner, in Pac. R. R. Rept., vol. iii., pp. 45, 47; Whipple, in Id., pp. 64, 69, 73, 76, 91; Bartlett's Pers. Nar., vol. ii., pp. 245-7; Browne's Apache Country, p. 118; Cal. Farmer, June 22, 1860.
[XI-69] Whipple, Ewbank, and Turner, in Pac. R. R. Rept., vol. iii., pp. 48-9; also Whipple, in Id., pp. 64-5, 69, 73, 76, 81. Of the cut given above, fig. 2, 5, 8, 9, 11, 13-4, 17, 21, 24, 28, 31-2, are from the Colorado Chiquito; fig. 22, 27, are from Zuñi, and modern; fig. 34, from the Cosnino caves, the ornaments having been put on after the vessel had hardened; fig. 25, 29, 30, 35, are not painted, but incrusted or indented. 'It is a singular fact, that, although some of the most time-worn carvings upon rocks are of animals and men, ancient pottery contains no such representations. Upon one fragment, indeed, found upon Rio Gila, was pictured a turtle and a piece of pottery picked up near the same place was moulded into the form of a monkey's head. These appeared to be ancient, and afforded exceptions to the rule.' Id., p. 65. Cut of a fragment and comparison with one found in Indiana. Foster's Pre-Hist. Races, pp. 249-50.
[XI-70] Möllhausen's Journey, vol. i., p. 264, vol. ii., p. 52, with pl.; Id., Tagebuch, pp. 168-70; Bartlett's Pers. Nar., vol. i., pp. 170-6; Domenech's Deserts, vol. i., pp. 161-2, 419-20.
[XI-71] See vol. ii., p. 533, et seq.
[XI-72] See Simpson's Jour. Mil. Recon., pp. 20-2, pl. 7-11.
[XI-73] Froebel's Cent. Amer., p. 521.