arrived at a small town called Vassarac, and remained there one day.
The country in the vicinity is well timbered and very hilly. The woods
are full of wild cattle and horses. On the 13th, I travelled through a
fine rich country, abounding with cattle, and arrived in the evening
at a town called Tepac, {107} situated on a small creek, near a
mountain, in which there is a gold mine worked by the Iago Indians,[80]
a nation formerly under the protection of an old priest. He attempted
to practice some new imposition upon them, and they killed him some
years ago. On this the Spaniards made war upon them, and the conflict
was continued some years. They lost the best and bravest of their men,
and the remnant were obliged to submit to such terms as the Spaniards
saw fit to impose. They were either condemned to the mines, or to raise
food for those who wrought them.
I remained in this town three days, and purchased gold in bars and
lumps of the Indians, at the rate of ten dollars per ounce. The
diggings seldom exceed twenty feet in depth. Most of the gold is found
on the surface after hard rains. Their mode of extracting the gold
from the earth with which it is mixed, or the stone in which it is
imbedded, is this. The stone is pulverised or ground, still keeping
the matter wet. It is carefully mixed with mercury, and kneaded with
the hands, until the water is separated from the mass, and the mercury
is perfectly incorporated with it. This process is repeated, until
the water runs off perfectly clear. They then grind or triturate the
mass anew until all the particles of earthy matter are washed away.
The remaining matter is amalgam, of the color of silver, and the
consistency of mush. They then put it into a wet deer skin, and strain
the mercury by pressure through the pores of the skin. The gold is
left, still retaining enough mercury to give it the color of silver.
The coarse way of managing it afterwards, is to put it in the fire, and
evaporate all the mercury from it, and it is then pure virgin gold.
There is a more artificial way of managing it, by which the mercury is
saved.
This province would be among the richest of the Mexican country, if it
were inhabited by an enlightened, enterprising and industrious people.
Nothing can exceed the indolence of the actual inhabitants. The only
point, in which I ever saw them display any activity, is in throwing
the lasso, and in horsemanship. In this I judge, they surpass all other
people. Their great {108} business and common pursuit, is in noosing
and taming wild horses and cattle.
On the 15th, I left this place and travelled through a country well
timbered and watered, though the land is too broken to be cultivated,
and in the evening arrived in a town called Varguacha. This is a place
miserably poor, the people being both badly fed and clothed. But their
indolence alone is in fault. The land in the immediate vicinity of the
town is good, and the woods teem with wild cattle. But they are too
lazy to provide more meat than will serve them from day to day. On the
17th I continued my course through a beautiful country, thinly settled
by civilized Indians, who raise sugar cane and abundance of stock. They
are obviously more enterprising and industrious than the Spaniards.
Approaching the shore of the great Pacific, I found the country more
level and better settled. Some rich and noble sugar farms lay in my
view.
On the 22d I arrived in Patoka, which is a considerable town, and the
capital of this province.[81] It is two day's travel hence to Ymus. The
people here seemed to me more enlightened, and to have a higher air
of civilization than any I had seen in the whole country. It probably
results from the intercourse they have with foreigners, from their
vicinity to the Pacific. Most of them are dressed in the stile of
the American people. Their houses are much better furnished, and the
farmers are supplied with superior farming utensils, compared with any
thing I saw in the interior. The chief manufactures are soap and sugar,
the latter of an inferior quality, I imagine, in consequence of the
clumsy mode of manufacturing it. From the port of Ymus they also export
considerable quantities of tallow and hides, for which the farmers are
repaid in merchandize at an enormous advance. A great many horses and
mules are driven from the interior to this port. Many also are taken to
the American states. The price of mules in this province is from three
to four dollars a head.
I remained here until I had disposed of all my goods. On the 26th,
I left this town, and travelled on to port Ymus, at which {109} I
arrived on the 28th, and first saw the waters of the vast Pacific.[82]
I spent a day here on board an American ship, the master of which was
surprised at the account I gave of myself, and would hardly believe
that I had travelled to this place from the United States. I was
equally amazed at hearing him relate the disasters which had befallen
him at sea. On the 29th, I left this port, and travelled a N. W.
course, through a country full of inhabitants, and abounding in every
species of fruit. Snow never falls, although the general temperature
is not so warm but that woollen garments may be worn. To add to its
advantages, it is very healthy. On the 7th of October, I arrived at
a town called Oposard. The population amounts to about 8000 souls. I
here became acquainted with one of my own countrymen, married to a
Spanish woman. He informed me, that he had been in this country thirty
years, eight of which he had spent in prison. The sufferings he endured
from the Spaniards were incredible; and I internally shuddered, as he
related, lest I, in travelling through the country might fall into
similar misfortunes. As some palliation of their cruelty, he observed,
that he was made prisoner at the period when the revolution was just
commencing in that country.[83] At that time the Inquisition was still
in force, and committed many a poor mortal to the flames, for his
alleged heresy. He assured me, that he should have met the same fate,
had he not become a member of their church. He afterwards married a
lady, who had gained his affections by being kind to him in prison.
I remained with this man two days, and on the third resumed my journey,
travelling an easterly course, and part of the time over a very
rough country. I met no inhabitants, but Indians, who were uniformly
friendly. On the 10th, I arrived at the mines of Carrocha,[84] which
were in the province of Chihuahua, situated between two mountains, and
considered the richest silver mines in New Mexico. There are about 800
miners working this mine, and they have advanced under ground at least
half a mile. On the 12th, I started for the capital, and reached it on
the 16th, passing over great tracts of good and bad land, all {110}
untilled, and most of it an uninhabited wilderness. This city is the
next largest in New Mexico.[85] It is the largest and handsomest town I
had ever seen, though the buildings are not so neat and well arranged
as in our country. The roofs are flat, the walls well painted, and the
streets kept very clean. Here they smelt and manufacture copper and
silver, and several other metals. They have also a mint. The terms of
their currency are very different from ours. They count eight rials, or
sixteen four pence half pennies, to the dollar. Their merchandize is
packed from Ymus, or Mexico.
I have heard much talk about the Splendid churches in this city. It is
for others, who think much of such immense buildings, wrung from the
labors of the poor, to describe them. For my part, having said it is
a large and clean town, I present a result of their institutions and
manners, which I considered the more important sort of information.
During a stay of only three days here, ten dead bodies were brought
into town, of persons who had been murdered in the night. Part of the
number were supposed to have been killed on account of having been
known to carry a great deal of money with them, and part to have had a
quarrel about some abandoned women. This last is a most common occasion
of night murders, the people being still more addicted to jealousy, and
under still less restraints of law, than in old Spain, in the cities of
which, assassinations from this cause are notoriously frequent.
I asked my informant touching these matters, if there was no police
in the city? He answered, that the forms of the law were complete,
and that they had a numerous guard, and that it was quite as likely
they committed the murders themselves, as not. I came to the same
conclusion, for in a small and regular city like this, it was
impossible that so many guards, parading the streets by night, should
not be aware of the commission of such deeds, and acquainted with the
perpetrators. No inquest of any sort was held over the bodies. They
were, however, paraded through the streets to beg money to pay the
priests for performing funeral rites at their burial. This excited in
me {111} still more disgust, than the murders. I expressed myself in
consequence, with so much freedom, in regard to this sort of miserable
imposition, as to give great offence to my host, who, like most of
the people, was rigidly devoted to the religion of the church. On
the evening of 16th, I left this city, and travelled through a fine
country, thickly inhabited by shepherds, who live in small towns, and
possess a vast abundance of stock. It is well watered, but thinly
timbered. The most magnificent part of the spectacle is presented in
the lofty snow covered mountains, that rise far in the distance, and
have their summits lost in the clouds, glistening in indescribable
brilliance in the rays of the rising and setting sun.
The road at this time was deemed to be full of robbers, and very
dangerous. I was so fortunate as to meet with none. On the 18th,
I arrived at a small town, called San Bueneventura,[86] which is
surrounded with a wall. In fact, most of the considerable villages are
walled. They are called in Spanish, Presidio, the English of which
is, a garrison. In the forenoon, I crossed a small river called Rio
Grande,[87] and travelled down this stream all day, the banks of which
were thickly settled, and in high cultivation, with wheat, corn and
barley. On the 22d, I arrived at a village called Casas Grandes, or the
Great Houses.[88] On the 23d, I pursued an east course towards Passo
del Norte, situated on the banks of the Rio del Norte. I travelled over
a very rough country with some high mountains, inhabited by a wandering
tribe of the Appache Indians, that live by seizing their opportunities
for robbery and murder among the Spaniards, riding off upon the stolen
horses, to the obscure and almost inaccessible fastnesses of their
mountains, where they subsist upon the stolen horseflesh.
I know not, whether to call the Passo del Norte, a settlement or a
town.[89] It is in fact a kind of continued village, extending eight
miles on the river. Fronting this large group of houses, is a nursery
of the fruit trees, of almost all countries and climes. It has a
length of eight miles and a breadth of nearly three. I was struck with
the magnificent vineyards of this place, from {112} which are made
great quantities of delicious wine. The wheat fields were equally
beautiful, and the wheat of a kind I never saw before, the stalks
generally yielding two heads each. The land is exceedingly rich, and
its fertility increased by irrigation.
On the 28th, I started for the Copper mines, wrought by my father.
This day my course led me up the del Norte, the bottoms of which are
exceedingly rich. At a very short distance from the Passo, I began to
come in contact with grey bears, and other wild animals. At a very
little distance on either side are high and ragged mountains, entirely
sterile of all vegetation. I had no encounter with the bears, save in
one instance. A bear exceedingly hungry, as I suppose, came upon my
horses as I was resting them at mid-day, and made at one of them. I
repaid him for his impudence by shooting him through the brain. I made
a most delicious dinner of the choice parts of his flesh. My servant
would not touch it, his repugnance being shared by great numbers in
his condition. It is founded on the notion, that the bear is a sort of
degenerated man, and especially, that the entrails are exactly like
those of human beings.
On the 30th, I struck off from the del Norte, and took my course
for the Copper mines directly over the mountains, among which we
toiled onward, subsisting by what we packed with us, or the product
of the rifle, until the 11th of November, when I had once more the
satisfaction of embracing my father at the Copper mines. He was in
perfect health, and delighted to see me again. He urged me so earnestly
to remain with him, though a stationary life was not exactly to my
taste, that I consented from a sense of filial duty, and to avoid
importunity. I remained here until the first of December, amusing
myself sometimes by hunting, and sometimes by working in the gold
mine, an employment in which I took much pleasure.
In a hunting excursion with a companion who was an American, he one
morning saw fit to start out of bed, and commence his hunt while I
was yet asleep in bed. He had scarcely advanced a league, before he
killed a deer on the top of a high ridge. He was so inadvertent, as to
commence skinning the animal, before {113} he had re-loaded his rifle.
Thus engaged, he did not perceive a bear with her cubs, which had
advanced within a few feet of him. As soon as he saw his approaching
companion, without coveting any farther acquaintance, he left deer and
rifle, and ran for his life. He stopped not, until he arrived at the
mines. The bear fell to work for a meal upon the deer, and did not
pursue him. We immediately started back to have the sport of hunting
this animal. As we approached the ridge, where he had killed the deer,
we discovered the bear descending the ridge towards us. We each of us
chose a position, and his was behind a tree, which he could mount, in
case he wounded, without killing her. This most ferocious and terrible
animal, the grizzly or grey bear, does not climb at all. I chose my
place opposite him, behind a large rock, which happened to be near a
precipice, that I had not observed. Our agreement was to wait until
she came within 30 yards, and then he was to give her the first fire.
He fired, but the powder being damp, his gun made long fire, whence
it happened that he shot her too low, the ball passing through the
belly, and not a mortal part. She made at him in terrible rage. He
sprang up his tree, the bear close at his heels. She commenced biting
and scratching the tree, making, as a Kentuckian would phrase it, _the
lint fly_. But finding that she could not bite the tree down, and being
in an agony of pain, she turned the course of her attack, and came
growling and tearing up the bushes before her, towards me. My companion
bade me lie still, and my own purpose was to wait until I could get a
close fire. So I waited until the horrible animal was within six feet
of me. I took true aim at her head. My gun flashed in the pan. She gave
one growl and sprang at me with her mouth open. At two strides I leapt
down the unperceived precipice. My jaw bone was split on a sharp rock,
on which my chin struck at the bottom. Here I lay senseless. When I
regained recollection, I found my companion had bled me with the point
of his butcher knife, and was sitting beside me with his hat full of
water, bathing my head and face. It was perhaps an hour, before I
gained full recollection, {114} so as to be able to walk. My companion
had cut a considerable orifice in my arm with his knife, which I deemed
rather supererogation; for I judged, that I had bled sufficiently at
the chin.
When I had come entirely to myself, my companion proposed that we
should finish the campaign with the bear. I, for my part, was satisfied
with what had already been done, and proposed to retreat. He was
importunate, however, and I consented. We ascended the ridge to where
he had seen the bear lie down in the bushes. We fixed our guns so that
we thought ourselves sure of their fire. We then climbed two trees,
near where the bear was, and made a noise, that brought her out of her
lair, and caused her to spring fiercely towards our trees. We fired
together, and killed her dead. We then took after the cubs. They were
three in number. My companion soon overtook them. They were of the
size of the largest rackoons. These imps of the devil turned upon him
and made fight. I was in too much pain and weakness to assist him.
They put him to all he could do to clear himself of them. He at length
got away from them, leaving them masters of the field, and having
acquired no more laurels than I, from my combat with my buffaloe calf.
His legs were deeply bit and scratched, and what was worse, such was
the character of the affair, he only got ridicule for his assault of
the cubs. I was several weeks in recovering, during which time, I ate
neither meat nor bread, being able to swallow nothing but liquids.
The country abounds with these fierce and terrible animals, to a
degree, that in some districts they are truly formidable. They get into
the corn fields. The owners hear the noise, which they make among the
corn, and supposing it occasioned by cows and horses that have broken
into the fields, they rise from their beds, and go to drive them out,
when instead of finding retreating domestic animals, they are assailed
by the grizzly bear. I have been acquainted with several fatal cases
of that sort. One of them was a case, that intimately concerned me.
Iago, my servant, went out with a man to get a load of {115} wood.
A bear came upon this man and killed him and his ass in the team. A
slight flight of snow had fallen. Some Spaniards, who had witnessed
the miserable fate of their companion, begged some of us to go and aid
them in killing the bear. Four of us joined them. We trailed the bear
to its den, which was a crevice in the bluff. We came to the mouth and
fired a gun. The animal, confident in his fierceness, came out, and we
instantly killed it. This occurred in New Mexico.
This stationary and unruffled sort of life had become unendurable,
and with fifteen Americans, we arranged a trapping expedition on
the Pacos.[90] My father viewed my rambling propensities with stern
displeasure. He had taken in a Spanish superintendent, who acted as
clerk. This person had lived in the United States from the age of 18
to 30, and spoke English, French and Spanish. This man arranged the
calculations, and kept the accounts of my father's concerns, and had
always acted with intelligence and fidelity. The concern was on the
whole prosperous; and although I felt deep sorrow to leave my father
against his wishes, I had at least the satisfaction to know, that I was
of no other use to him, than giving him the pleasure of my society.
On the 7th, our company arrived on the del Norte, and crossed it in
the evening to the eastern shore. On the evening of the 8th, we struck
the Pacos about twenty miles above its junction with the del Norte.
This day's travel was through a wild and precipitous country, inhabited
by no human being. We killed plenty of bears and deer, and caught
some beavers. On the 9th, we began to ascend the river through a rich
and delightful plain, on which are to be seen abundance of deserted
sheep folds, and horse pens, where the Spanish vachers once kept their
stock. The constant incursions of the Indians compelled this peaceful
people to desert these fair plains. Their deserted cottages inspired a
melancholy feeling. This river runs from N. E. to S. W. and is a clear,
beautiful stream, 20 yards wide, with high and dry bottoms of a black
and rich soil. The mountains run almost parallel to the river, and at
the distance of {116} eight or ten miles. They are thickly covered with
noble pine forests, in which aspen trees are intermixed. From their
foot gush out many beautiful clear springs. On the whole, this is one
of the loveliest regions for farmers that I have ever seen, though no
permanent settlements could be made there, until the murderous Indians,
who live in the mountains, should be subdued.
[Illustration: Mr. Pattie wounded by an Indian Arrow]
We advanced slowly onward, until the 15th, without meeting any Indians.
At day break of this day, our sentinels apprized us, that savages
were at hand. We had just time to take shelter behind the trees,
when they began to let their arrows fly at us. We returned them the
compliment with balls, and at the first shot a number of them fell.
They remained firm and continued to pour in their arrows from
every side. We began to find it exceedingly difficult to dodge them,
though we gave them some rounds before any one of our men was struck.
At length one man was pierced, and they rushed forward to scalp him.
I darted from behind my tree to prevent them. I was assailed by a
perfect shower of arrows, which I dodged for a moment, and was then
struck down by an arrow in the hip. Here I should have been instantly
killed, had not my companions made a joint fire at the Indians, who
were rushing upon me, by which a number of them were laid dead. But
the agony of my pain was insupportable, for the arrow was still fast
in my hip. A momentary cessation of their arrows enabled me to draw
out the arrow from my hip, and to commence re-loading my gun. I had
partly accomplished this, when I received another arrow under my right
breast, between the bone and the flesh. This gave me less pain than the
other shot, and finding I could not by any effort extract the arrow, I
snapped it off, and finished loading my gun. The Indian nearest me fell
dead, and I hobbled off, glad to be once more sheltered by a tree. My
companions were not slow in making their rifles crack, and in raising
mutual cheers of encouragement. The Indians were vastly our superiors
in numbers, and we found it convenient to slip under the river bank.
We were now completely sheltered {117} from their arrows. After we had
gained this security, they stood but a few shots more, before they
fled, leaving their dead and wounded at our mercy. Truth is, we were
too much exasperated to show mercy, and we cut off the heads of all,
indiscriminately.
Our loss was one killed, and two wounded, another beside myself though
neither of us dangerously. The Indians had 28 killed. Luckily our
horses were on an island in the river, or we should have lost every
one of them. Our only loss of property was a few blankets, which they
took, as they fled by our camp. During the 20 minutes that the contest
lasted, I had a fragment of an arrow fast in my breast, and the spike
of the other in my hip. I suffered, it may be imagined, excruciating
pain, and still severer pain during the operation of extraction. This
operation, one of my companions undertook. He was some minutes in
effecting it. The spike could not be entirely extracted from my hip,
for being of flint, it had shivered against the bone.
The Indians that attacked us, were a tribe of the Muscallaros,[91] a
very warlike people, although they have no other arms except bows and
arrows, which are, however, the most powerful weapons of the kind. They
are made of an elastic and flexible wood, backed with the sinews of a
buffaloe or elk. Their arrows are made of a species of reed grass, and
are very light, though easily broken. In the end is stuck a hard piece
of wood, which is pointed by a spike of flint an inch in length, and a
quarter of an inch in width, and ground to the sharpest point. The men,
though not tall, are admirably formed, with fine features and a bright
complexion inclining to yellow. Their dress is a buckskin belt about
the loins, with a shirt and moccasins to match. Their long black hair
hangs in imbraided masses over their shoulders, in some cases almost
extending to the heels. They make a most formidable appearance, when
completely painted, and prepared for battle.