Produced by Michael S. Overton
THE OLD SANTA FE TRAIL
THE STORY OF A GREAT HIGHWAY
By Colonel Henry Inman
Late Assistant Quartermaster, United States Army
With a Preface by W. F. "BUFFALO BILL" CODY
PREFACE.
As we look into the open fire for our fancies, so we are apt to study
the dim past for the wonderful and sublime, forgetful of the fact that
the present is a constant romance, and that the happenings of to-day
which we count of little importance are sure to startle somebody in the
future, and engage the pen of the historian, philosopher, and poet.
Accustomed as we are to think of the vast steppes of Russia and Siberia
as alike strange and boundless, and to deal with the unknown interior of
Africa as an impenetrable mystery, we lose sight of a locality in
our own country that once surpassed all these in virgin grandeur, in
majestic solitude, and in all the attributes of a tremendous wilderness.
The story of the Old Santa Fe Trail, so truthfully recalled by Colonel
Henry Inman, ex-officer of the old Regular Army, in these pages, is a
most thrilling one. The vast area through which the famous highway ran
is still imperfectly known to most people as "The West"; a designation
once appropriate, but hardly applicable now; for in these days of easy
communication the real trail region is not so far removed from New York
as Buffalo was seventy years ago.
At the commencement of the "commerce of the prairies," in the early
portion of the century, the Old Trail was the arena of almost constant
sanguinary struggles between the wily nomads of the desert and the hardy
white pioneers, whose eventful lives made the civilization of the vast
interior region of our continent possible. Their daring compelled its
development, which has resulted in the genesis of great states and large
cities. Their hardships gave birth to the American homestead; their
determined will was the factor of possible achievements, the most
remarkable and important of modern times.
When the famous highway was established across the great plains as a
line of communication to the shores of the blue Pacific, the only method
of travel was by the slow freight caravan drawn by patient oxen, or the
lumbering stage coach with its complement of four or six mules. There
was ever to be feared an attack by those devils of the desert, the
Cheyennes, Comanches, and Kiowas. Along its whole route the remains
of men, animals, and the wrecks of camps and wagons, told a story of
suffering, robbery, and outrage more impressive than any language. Now
the tourist or business man makes the journey in palace cars, and there
is nothing to remind him of the danger or desolation of Border days; on
every hand are the evidences of a powerful and advanced civilization.
It is fortunate that one is left to tell some of its story who was a
living actor and had personal knowledge of many of the thrilling scenes
that were enacted along the line of the great route. He was familiar
with all the famous men, both white and savage, whose lives have made
the story of the Trail, his own sojourn on the plains and in the Rocky
Mountains extending over a period of nearly forty years.
The Old Trail has more than common interest for me, and I gladly record
here my indorsement of the faithful record, compiled by a brave soldier,
old comrade, and friend.
W. F. Cody, "Buffalo Bill."
CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION.
The First Europeans who traversed the Great Highway--Alvar Nunez
Cabeca de Vaca--Hernando de Soto, and Francisco Vasquez de Coronado--
Spanish Expedition from Santa Fe eastwardly--Escape of the Sole Survivors.
CHAPTER I.
UNDER THE SPANIARDS.
Quaint Descriptions of Old Santa Fe--The Famous Adobe Palace--
Santa Fe the Oldest Town in the United States--First Settlement--
Onate's Conquest--Revolt of the Pueblo Indians--Under Pueblo Rule
--Cruelties of the Victors--The Santa Fe of To-day--Arrival of
a Caravan--The Railroad reaches the Town--Amusements--A Fandango.
CHAPTER II.
LA LANDE AND PURSLEY.
The Beginning of the Santa Fe Trade--La Lande and Pursley,
the First Americans to cross the Plains--Pursley's Patriotism--
Captain Ezekiel Williams--A Hungry Bear--A Midnight Alarm.
CHAPTER III.
EARLY TRADERS.
Captain Becknell's Expedition--Sufferings from Thirst--Auguste
Chouteau--Imprisonment of McKnight and Chambers--The Caches--
Stampeding Mules--First Military Escort across the Plains--
Captain Zebulon Pike--Sublette and Smith--Murder of McNess--
Indians not the Aggressors.
CHAPTER IV.
TRAINS AND PACKERS.
The Atajo or Pack-train of Mules--Mexican Nomenclature of
Paraphernalia--Manner of Packing--The "Bell-mare"--Toughness of
Mules among Precipices--The Caravan of Wagons--Largest Wagon-train
ever on the Plains--Stampedes--Duties of Packers en route--Order of
Travelling with Pack-train--Chris. Gilson, the Famous Packer.
CHAPTER V.
FIGHT WITH COMANCHES.
Narrative of Bryant's Party of Santa Fe Traders--The First Wagon
Expedition across the Plains--A Thrilling Story of Hardship and
Physical Suffering--Terrible Fight with the Comanches--Abandonment
of the Wagons--On Foot over the Trail--Burial of their Specie
on an Island in the Arkansas--Narrative of William Y. Hitt,
one of the Party--His Encounter with a Comanche--The First Escort
of United States Troops to the Annual Caravan of Santa Fe Traders,
in 1829--Major Bennett Riley's Official Report to the War Department
--Journal of Captain Cooke.
CHAPTER VI.
A ROMANTIC TRAGEDY.
The Expedition of Texans to the Old Santa Fe Trail for the Purpose
of robbing Mexican Traders--Innocent Citizens of the United States
suspected, arrested, and carried to the Capital of New Mexico--
Colonel Snively's Force--Warfield's Sacking of the Village of Mora
--Attack upon a Mexican Caravan--Kit Carson in the Fight--
A Crime of over Sixty Years Ago--A Romance of the Tragedy.
CHAPTER VII.
MEXICO DECLARES WAR.
Mexico declares War against the United States--Congress authorizes
the President to call for Fifty Thousand Volunteers--Organization of
the Army of the West--Phenomenon seen by Santa Fe Traders in the Sky
--First Death on the March of the Army across the Plains--Men in
a Starving Condition--Another Death--Burial near Pawnee Rock--
Trouble at Pawnee Fork--Major Howard's Report.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE VALLEY OF TAOS.
The Valley of Taos--First White Settler--Rebellion of the Mexicans
--A Woman discovers and informs Colonel Price of the Conspiracy--
Assassination of Governor Bent--Horrible Butcheries by the Pueblos
and Mexicans--Turley's Ranch--Murder of Harwood and Markhead--
Anecdote of Sir William Drummond Stewart--Fight at the Mills--
Battle of the Pueblo of Taos--Trial of the Insurrectionists--
Baptiste, the Juror--Execution of the Rebels.
CHAPTER IX.
FIRST OVERLAND MAIL.
Independence--Opening of Navigation on the Mississippi--Effect of
Water Transportation upon the Trade--Establishment of Trading-forts--
Market for Cattle and Mules--Wages paid Teamsters on the Trail--
An Enterprising Coloured Man--Increase of the Trade at the Close of
the Mexican War--Heavy Emigration to California--First Overland Mail
--How the Guards were armed--Passenger Coaches to Santa Fe--
Stage-coaching Days.
CHAPTER X.
CHARLES BENT.
The Tragedy in the Canyon of the Canadian--Dragoons follow the Trail
of the Savages--Kit Carson, Dick Wooton, and Tom Tobin the Scouts
of the Expedition--More than a Hundred of the Savages killed--
Murder of Mrs. White--White Wolf--Lieutenant Bell's Singular Duel
with the Noted Savage--Old Wolf--Satank--Murder of Peacock--
Satanta made Chief--Kicking Bird--His Tragic Death--Charles Bent,
the Half-breed Renegade--His Terrible Acts--His Death.
CHAPTER XI.
LA GLORIETA.
Neglect of New Mexico by the United States Government--Intended
Conquest of the Province--Conspiracy of Southern Leaders--
Surrender by General Twiggs to the Confederate Government of the
Military Posts and Munitions of War under his Command--Only One
Soldier out of Two Thousand deserts to the Enemy--Organization
of Volunteers for the Defence of Colorado and New Mexico--
Battle of La Glorieta--Rout of the Rebels.
CHAPTER XII.
THE BUFFALO.
The Ancient Range of the Buffalo--Number slaughtered in Thirteen Years
for their Robes alone--Buffalo Bones--Trains stopped by Vast Herds--
Custom of Old Hunters when caught in a Blizzard--Anecdotes of
Buffalo Hunting--Kit Carson's Dilemma--Experience of Two of Fremont's
Hunters--Wounded Buffalo Bull--O'Neil's Laughable Experience--
Organization of a Herd of Buffalo--Stampedes--Thrilling Escapes.
CHAPTER XIII.
INDIAN CUSTOMS AND LEGENDS.
Big Timbers--Winter Camp of the Cheyennes, Kiowas, and Arapahoes--
Savage Amusements--A Cheyenne Lodge--Indian Etiquette--Treatment
of Children--The Pipe of the North American Savage--Dog Feast--
Marriage Ceremony.
CHAPTER XIV.
TRAPPERS.
The Old Pueblo Fort--A Celebrated Rendezvous--Its Inhabitants--
"Fontaine qui Bouille"--The Legend of its Origin--The Trappers
of the Old Santa Fe Trail and the Rocky Mountains--Beaver Trapping--
Habits of the Beaver--Improvidence of the Old Trappers--Trading with
"Poor Lo"--The Strange Experience of a Veteran Trapper on the
Santa Fe Trail--Romantic Marriage of Baptiste Brown.
CHAPTER XV.
UNCLE JOHN SMITH.
Uncle John Smith--A Famous Trapper, Guide, and Interpreter--
His Marriage with a Cheyenne Squaw--An Autocrat among the People
of the Plains and Mountains--The Mexicans held him in Great Dread--
His Wonderful Resemblance to President Andrew Johnson--Interpreter
and Guide on General Sheridan's Winter Expedition against the
Allied Plains Tribes--His Stories around the Camp-fire.
CHAPTER XVI.
KIT CARSON.
Famous Men of the Old Santa Fe Trail--Kit Carson--Jim Bridger--
James P. Beckwourth--Uncle Dick Wooton--Jim Baker--Lucien B.
Maxwell--Old Bill Williams--Tom Tobin--James Hobbs.
CHAPTER XVII.
UNCLE DICK WOOTON.
Uncle Dick Wooton--Lucien B. Maxwell--Old Bill Williams--Tom Tobin--
James Hobbs--William F. Cody (Buffalo Bill).
CHAPTER XVIII.
MAXWELL'S RANCH.
Maxwell's Ranch on the Old Santa Fe Trail--A Picturesque Region--
Maxwell a Trapper and Hunter with the American Fur Company--
Lifelong Comrade of Kit Carson--Sources of Maxwell's Wealth--
Fond of Horse-racing--A Disastrous Fourth-of-July Celebration
--Anecdote of Kit Carson--Discovery of Gold on the Ranch--
The Big Ditch--Issuing Beef to the Ute Indians--Camping out with
Maxwell and Carson--A Story of the Old Santa Fe Trail.
CHAPTER XIX.
BENT'S FORTS.
The Bents' Several Forts--Famous Trading-posts--Rendezvous of the
Rocky Mountain Trappers--Castle William and Incidents connected
with the Noted Place--Bartering with the Indians--Annual Feast
of Arapahoes and Cheyennes--Old Wolf's First Visit to Bent's Fort--
The Surprise of the Savages--Stories told by Celebrated Frontiersmen
around the Camp-fire.
CHAPTER XX.
PAWNEE ROCK.
Pawnee Rock--A Debatable Region of the Indian Tribes--The most
Dangerous Point on the Central Plains in the Days of the Early
Santa Fe Trade--Received its Name in a Baptism of Blood--
Battle-ground of the Pawnees and Cheyennes--Old Graves on the
Summit of the Rock--Kit Carson's First Fight at the Rock with
the Pawnees--Kills his Mule by Mistake--Colonel St. Vrain's
Brilliant Charge--Defeat of the Savages--The Trappers' Terrible
Battle with the Pawnees--The Massacre at Cow Creek.
CHAPTER XXI.
FOOLING STAGE ROBBERS.
Wagon Mound--John L. Hatcher's Thrilling Adventure with Old Wolf,
the War-chief of the Comanches--Incidents on the Trail--A Boy
Bugler's Happy Escape from the Savages at Fort Union--A Drunken
Stage-driver--How an Officer of the Quartermaster's Department
at Washington succeeded in starting the Military Freight Caravans
a Month Earlier than the Usual Time--How John Chisholm fooled
the Stage-robbers--The Story of Half a Plug of Tobacco.
CHAPTER XXII.
A DESPERATE RIDE.
Solitary Graves along the Line of the Old Santa Fe Trail--The Walnut
Crossing--Fort Zarah--The Graves on Hon. D. Heizer's Ranch on
the Walnut--Troops stationed at the Crossing of the Walnut--
A Terrible Five Miles--The Cavalry Recruit's Last Ride.
CHAPTER XXIII.
HANCOCK'S EXPEDITION.
General Hancock's Expedition against the Plains Indians--Terrible
Snow-storm at Fort Larned--Meeting with the Chiefs of the
Dog-Soldiers--Bull Bear's Diplomacy--Meeting of the United States
Troops and the Savages in Line of Battle--Custer's Night Experience--
The Surgeon and Dog Stew--Destruction of the Village by Fire--
General Sully's Fight with the Kiowas, Comanches, and Arapahoes--
Finding the Skeletons of the Unfortunate Men--The Savages' Report
of the Affair.
CHAPTER XXIV.
INVASION OF THE RAILROAD.
Scenery on the Line of the Old Santa Fe Trail--The Great Plains--
The Arkansas Valley--Over the Rocky Mountains into New Mexico--
The Raton Range--The Spanish Peaks--Simpson's Rest--Fisher's Peak
--Raton Peak--Snowy Range--Pike's Peak--Raton Creek--The Invasion
of the Railroad--The Old Santa Fe Trail a Thing of the Past.
FOOTNOTES.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION.
INTRODUCTION.
For more than three centuries, a period extending from 1541 to 1851,
historians believed, and so announced to the literary world, that
Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, the celebrated Spanish explorer, in his
search for the Seven Cities of Cibola and the Kingdom of Quivira, was
the first European to travel over the intra-continent region of North
America. In the last year above referred to, however, Buckingham Smith,
of Florida, an eminent Spanish scholar, and secretary of the American
Legation at Madrid, discovered among the archives of State the
_Narrative of Alvar Nunez Cabeca de Vaca_, where for nearly three
hundred years it had lain, musty and begrimed with the dust of ages, an
unread and forgotten story of suffering that has no parallel in fiction.
The distinguished antiquarian unearthed the valuable manuscript from its
grave of oblivion, translated it into English, and gave it to the world
of letters; conferring honour upon whom honour was due, and tearing the
laurels from such grand voyageurs and discoverers as De Soto, La Salle,
and Coronado, upon whose heads history had erroneously placed them,
through no fault, or arrogance, however, of their own.
Cabeca, beyond any question, travelled the Old Santa Fe Trail for many
miles, crossed it where it intersects the Arkansas River, a little east
of Fort William or Bent's Fort, and went thence on into New Mexico,
following the famous highway as far, at least, as Las Vegas. Cabeca's
march antedated that of Coronado by five years. To this intrepid Spanish
voyageur we are indebted for the first description of the American
bison, or buffalo as the animal is erroneously called. While not so
quaint in its language as that of Coronado's historian, a lustrum later,
the statement cannot be perverted into any other reference than to the
great shaggy monsters of the plains:--
Cattle come as far as this. I have seen them three times
and eaten of their meat. I think they are about the size
of those of Spain. They have small horns like the cows
of Morocco, and the hair very long and flocky, like that
of the merino; some are light brown, others black. To my
judgment the flesh is finer and fatter than that of this
country. The Indians make blankets of the hides of those
not full grown. They range over a district of more than
four hundred leagues, and in the whole extent of plain over
which they run the people that inhabit near there descend
and live on them and scatter a vast many skins throughout
the country.
It will be remembered by the student of the early history of our
country, that when Alvar Nunez Cabeca de Vaca, a follower of the
unfortunate Panphilo de Narvaez, and who had been long thought dead,
landed in Spain, he gave such glowing accounts of Florida[1] and the
neighbouring regions that the whole kingdom was in a ferment, and many a
heart panted to emigrate to a land where the fruits were perennial, and
where it was thought flowed the fabled fountain of youth.
Three expeditions to that country had already been tried: one undertaken
in 1512, by Juan Ponce de Leon, formerly a companion of Columbus;
another in 1520, by Vasquez de Allyon; and another by Panphilo de
Narvaez. All of these had signally failed, the bones of most of the
leaders and their followers having been left to bleach upon the soil
they had come to conquer.
The unfortunate issue of the former expeditions did not operate as a
check upon the aspiring mind of De Soto, but made him the more anxious
to spring as an actor into the arena which had been the scene of the
discomfiture and death of the hardy chivalry of the kingdom. He sought
an audience of the emperor, and the latter, after hearing De Soto's
proposition that, "he could conquer the country known as Florida at
his own expense," conferred upon him the title of "Governor of Cuba and
Florida."
On the 6th of April, 1538, De Soto sailed from Spain with an armament of
ten vessels and a splendidly equipped army of nine hundred chosen men,
amidst the roar of cannons and the inspiring strains of martial music.
It is not within the province of this work to follow De Soto through all
his terrible trials on the North American continent; the wonderful story
may be found in every well-organized library. It is recorded, however,
that some time during the year 1542, his decimated army, then under the
command of Luis de Moscoso, De Soto having died the previous May, was
camped on the Arkansas River, far upward towards what is now Kansas. It
was this command, too, of the unfortunate but cruel De Soto, that saw
the Rocky Mountains from the east. The chronicler of the disastrous
journey towards the mountains says: "The entire route became a trail of
fire and blood," as they had many a desperate struggle with the savages
of the plains, who "were of gigantic structure, and fought with heavy
strong clubs, with the desperation of demons. Such was their tremendous
strength, that one of these warriors was a match for a Spanish soldier,
though mounted on a horse, armed with a sword and cased in armour!"
Moscoso was searching for Coronado, and he was one of the most humane
of all the officers of De Soto's command, for he evidently bent every
energy to extricate his men from the dreadful environments of their
situation; despairing of reaching the Gulf by the Mississippi, he
struck westward, hoping, as Cabeca de Vaca had done, to arrive in Mexico
overland.
A period of six months was consumed in Moscoso's march towards the Rocky
Mountains, but he failed to find Coronado, who at that time was camped
near where Wichita, Kansas, is located; according to his historian,
"at the junction of the St. Peter and St. Paul" (the Big and Little
Arkansas?). That point was the place of separation between Coronado and
a number of his followers; many returning to Mexico, while the undaunted
commander, with as many as he could induce to accompany him, continued
easterly, still in search of the mythical Quivira.
How far westward Moscoso travelled cannot be determined accurately,
but that his route extended up the valley of the Arkansas for more than
three hundred miles, into what is now Kansas, is proved by the statement
of his historian, who says: "They saw great chains of mountains and
forests to the west, which they understood were uninhabited."
Another strong confirmatory fact is, that, in 1884, a group of mounds
was discovered in McPherson County, Kansas, which were thoroughly
explored by the professors of Bethany College, Lindsborg, who found,
among other interesting relics, a piece of chain-mail armour, of hard
steel; undoubtedly part of the equipment of a Spanish soldier either of
the command of Cabeca de Vaca, De Soto, or of Coronado. The probability
is, that it was worn by one of De Soto's unfortunate men, as neither
Panphilo de Narvaez, De Vaca, or Coronado experienced any difficulty
with the savages of the great plains, because those leaders were humane
and treated the Indians kindly, in contradistinction to De Soto, who was
the most inhuman of all the early Spanish explorers. He was of the same
school as Pizarro and Cortez; possessing their daring valour, their
contempt of danger, and their tenacity of purpose, as well as their
cruelty and avarice. De Soto made treaties with the Indians which he
constantly violated, and murdered the misguided creatures without mercy.
During the retreat of Moscoso's weakened command down the Arkansas
River, the Hot Springs of Arkansas were discovered. His historian
writes:
And when they saw the foaming fountain, they thought
it was the long-searched-for "Fountain of Youth," reported
by fame to exist somewhere in the country, but ten of the
soldiers dying from excessive drinking, they were soon
convinced of their error.
After these intrepid explorers the restless Coronado appears on the Old
Trail. In the third volume of Hakluyt's _Voyages_, published in London,
1600, Coronado's historian thus describes the great plains of Kansas and
Colorado, the bison, and a tornado:--
From Cicuye they went to Quivira, which after their account
is almost three hundred leagues distant, through mighty
plains, and sandy heaths so smooth and wearisome, and bare
of wood that they made heaps of ox-dung, for want of stones
and trees, that they might not lose themselves at their
return: for three horses were lost on that plain, and one
Spaniard which went from his company on hunting....
All that way of plains are as full of crooked-back oxen as
the mountain Serrena in Spain is of sheep, but there is
no such people as keep those cattle.... They were a
great succour for the hunger and the want of bread, which
our party stood in need of....
One day it rained in that plain a great shower of hail,
as big as oranges, which caused many tears, weakness
and bowes.
These oxen are of the bigness and colour of our bulls,
but their bones are not so great. They have a great bunch
upon their fore-shoulder, and more hair on their fore part
than on their hinder part, and it is like wool. They have
as it were an horse-mane upon their backbone, and much hair
and very long from their knees downward. They have great
tufts of hair hanging down on their foreheads, and it
seemeth they have beards because of the great store of hair
hanging down at their chins and throats. The males have
very long tails, and a great knob or flock at the end,
so that in some respects they resemble the lion, and in some
other the camel. They push with their horns, they run,
they overtake and kill an horse when they are in their
rage and anger. Finally it is a foul and fierce beast of
countenance and form of body. The horses fled from them,
either because of their deformed shape, or else because
they had never before seen them.
"The number," continues the historian, "was incredible." When the
soldiers, in their excitement for the chase, began to kill them, they
rushed together in such masses that hundreds were literally crushed to
death. At one place there was a great ravine; they jumped into it
in their efforts to escape from the hunters, and so terrible was the
slaughter as they tumbled over the precipice that the depression was
completely filled up, their carcasses forming a bridge, over which the
remainder passed with ease.
The next recorded expedition across the plains via the Old Trail was
also by the Spaniards from Santa Fe, eastwardly, in the year 1716, "for
the purpose of establishing a Military Post in the Upper Mississippi
Valley as a barrier to the further encroachments of the French in
that direction." An account of this expedition is found in _Memoires
Historiques sur La Louisiane_, published in Paris in 1858, but never
translated in its entirety. The author, Lieutenant Dumont of the French
army, was one of a party ascending the Arkansas River in search of a
supposed mass of emeralds. The narrative relates:
There was more than half a league to traverse to gain the
other bank of the river, and our people were no sooner
arrived than they found there a party of Missouris, sent to
M. de la Harpe by M. de Bienville, then commandant general
at Louisiana, to deliver orders to the former. Consequently
they gave the signal order, and our other two canoes having
crossed the river, the savages gave to our commandant the
letters of M. de Bienville, in which he informed him that
the Spaniards had sent out a detachment from New Mexico
to go to the Missouris and to establish a post in that
country.... The success of this expedition was very
calamitous to the Spaniards. Their caravan was composed of
fifteen hundred people, men, women and soldiers, having
with them a Jacobin for a chaplain, and bringing also a
great number of horses and cattle, according to the custom
of that nation to forget nothing that might be necessary for
a settlement. Their design was to destroy the Missouris,
and to seize upon their country, and with this intention
they had resolved to go first to the Osages, a neighbouring
nation, enemies of the Missouris, to form an alliance with
them, and to engage them in their behalf for the execution
of their plan. Perhaps the map which guided them was not
correct, or they had not exactly followed it, for it chanced
that instead of going to the Osages whom they sought, they
fell, without knowing it, into a village of the Missouris,
where the Spanish commander, presenting himself to the great
chief and offering him the calumet, made him understand
through an interpreter, believing himself to be speaking
to the Osage chief, that they were enemies of the Missouris,
that they had come to destroy them, to make their women
and children slaves and to take possession of their country.
He begged the chief to be willing to form an alliance
with them, against a nation whom the Osages regarded as
their enemy, and to second them in this enterprise, promising
to recompense them liberally for the service rendered,
and always to be their friend in the future. Upon this
discourse the Missouri chief understood perfectly well
the mistake. He dissimulated and thanked the Spaniard for
the confidence he had in his nation; he consented to form
an alliance with them against the Missouris, and to join
them with all his forces to destroy them; but he represented
that his people were not armed, and that they dared not
expose themselves without arms in such an enterprise.
Deceived by so favourable a reception, the Spaniards fell
into the trap laid for them. They received with due
ceremony, in the little camp they had formed on their
arrival, the calumet which the great chief of the Missouris
presented to the Spanish commander. The alliance for war
was sworn to by both parties; they agreed upon a day for
the execution of the plan which they meditated, and the
Spaniards furnished the savages with all the munitions which
they thought were needed. After the ceremony both parties
gave themselves up equally to joy and good cheer. At the
end of three days two thousand savages were armed and in
the midst of dances and amusements; each party thought
nothing but the execution of its design. It was the evening
before their departure upon their concerted expedition,
and the Spaniards had retired to their camps as usual,
when the great chief of the Missouris, having assembled
his warriors, declared to them his intentions and exhorted
them to deal treacherously with these strangers who were come
to their home only with the design of destroying them.
At daybreak the savages divided into several bands, fell on
the Spaniards, who expected nothing of the kind, and in
less than a quarter of an hour all the caravan were murdered.
No one escaped from the massacre except the chaplain, whom
the barbarians saved because of his dress; at the same time
they took possession of all the merchandise and other
effects which they found in their camp. The Spaniards had
brought with them, as I have said, a certain number of horses,
and as the savages were ignorant of the use of these animals,
they took pleasure in making the Jacobin whom they had saved,
and who had become their slave, mount them. The priest gave
them this amusement almost every day for the five or six
months that he remained with them in their village, without
any of them daring to imitate him. Tired at last of his
slavery, and regarding the lack of daring in these barbarians
as a means of Providence to regain his liberty, he made
secretly all the provisions possible for him to make,
and which he believed necessary to his plan. At last,
having chosen the best horse and having mounted him,
after performing several of his exploits before the savages,
and while they were all occupied with his manoeuvres,
he spurred up and disappeared from their sight, taking the
road to Mexico, where doubtless he arrived.
Charlevoix,[2] who travelled from Quebec to New Orleans in the year
1721, says in one of his letters to the Duchess of Lesdiguieres, dated
at Kaskaskia, July 21, 1721:
About two years ago some Spaniards, coming, as they say,
from New Mexico, and intending to get into the country of
the Illinois and drive the French from thence, whom they
saw with extreme jealousy approach so near the Missouri,
came down the river and attacked two villages of the
Octoyas,[3] who are the allies of the Ayouez,[4] and from
whom it is said also that they are derived. As the savages
had no firearms and were surprised, the Spaniards made an
easy conquest and killed a great many of them. A third
village, which was not far off from the other two, being
informed of what had passed, and not doubting but these
conquerors would attack them, laid an ambush into which
the Spaniards heedlessly fell. Others say that the savages,
having heard that the enemy were almost all drunk and
fast asleep, fell upon them in the night. However it was,
it is certain the greater part of them were killed.
There were in the party two almoners; one of them was
killed directly and the other got away to the Missouris,
who took him prisoner, but he escaped them very dexterously.
He had a very fine horse and the Missouris took pleasure
in seeing him ride it, which he did very skilfully. He took
advantage of their curiosity to get out of their hands.
One day as he was prancing and exercising his horse before
them, he got a little distance from them insensibly; then
suddenly clapping spurs to his horse he was soon out of sight.
The Missouri Indians once occupied all the territory near the junction
of the Kaw and Missouri rivers, but they were constantly decimated by
the continual depredations of their warlike and feudal enemies, the
Pawnees and Sioux, and at last fell a prey to that dreadful scourge, the
small-pox, which swept them off by thousands. The remnant of the once
powerful tribe then found shelter and a home with the Otoes, finally
becoming merged in that tribe.
CHAPTER I. UNDER THE SPANIARDS.
The Santa Fe of the purely Mexican occupation, long before the days
of New Mexico's acquisition by the United States, and the Santa Fe of
to-day are so widely in contrast that it is difficult to find language
in which to convey to the reader the story of the phenomenal change. To
those who are acquainted with the charming place as it is now, with its
refined and cultured society, I cannot do better, perhaps, in attempting
to show what it was under the old regime, than to quote what some
traveller in the early 30's wrote for a New York leading newspaper, in
regard to it. As far as my own observation of the place is concerned,
when I first visited it a great many years ago, the writer of the
communication whose views I now present was not incorrect in his
judgment. He said:--
To dignify such a collection of mud hovels with the name
of "City," would be a keen irony; not greater, however,
than is the name with which its Padres have baptized it.
To call a place with its moral character, a very Sodom
in iniquity, "Holy Faith," is scarcely a venial sin;
it deserves Purgatory at least. Its health is the best
in the country, which is the first, second and third
recommendation of New Mexico by its greatest admirers.
It is a small town of about two thousand inhabitants,
crowded up against the mountains, at the end of a little
valley through which runs a mountain stream of the same
name tributary to the Rio Grande. It has a public square
in the centre, a Palace and an Alameda; as all Spanish
Roman Catholic towns have. It is true its Plaza, or
Public Square, is unfenced and uncared for, without trees
or grass. The Palace is nothing more than the biggest
mud-house in the town, and the churches, too, are unsightly
piles of the same material, and the Alameda[5] is on top of
a sand hill. Yet they have in Santa Fe all the parts and
parcels of a regal city and a Bishopric. The Bishop has a
palace also; the only two-storied shingle-roofed house in
the place. There is one public house set apart for eating,
drinking and gambling; for be it known that gambling is here
authorized by law. Hence it is as respectable to keep a
gambling house, as it is to sell rum in New Jersey; it is
a lawful business, and being lawful, and consequently
respectable and a man's right, why should not men gamble?
And gamble they do. The Generals and the Colonels and
the Majors and the Captains gamble. The judges and the
lawyers and the doctors and the priests gamble; and there
are gentlemen gamblers by profession! You will see squads
of poor peons daily, men, women and boys, sitting on the
ground around a deck of cards in the Public Square, gambling
for the smallest stakes.
The stores of the town generally front on the Public Square.
Of these there are a dozen, more or less, of respectable
size, and most of them are kept by others than Mexicans.
The business of the place is considerable, many of the
merchants here being wholesale dealers for the vast
territory tributary. It is supposed that about $750,000
worth of goods will be brought to this place this year, and
there may be $250,000 worth imported directly from the
United States.
In the money market there is nothing less than a five-cent
piece. You cannot purchase anything for less than five cents.
In trade they reckon ten cents the eighth of a dollar.
If you purchase nominally a dollar's worth of an article,
you can pay for it in eight ten-cent pieces; and if you
give a dollar, you receive no change. In changing a dollar
for you, you would get but eight ten-cent pieces for it.
Yet, although dirty and unkempt, and swarming with hungry
dogs, it has the charm of foreign flavour, and like
San Antonio retains some portion of the grace which long
lingered about it, if indeed it ever forsakes the spot
where Spain held rule for centuries, and the soft syllables
of the Spanish language are yet heard.
Such was a description of the "drowsy old town" of Santa Fe, sixty-five
years ago. Fifteen years later Major W. H. Emory, of the United States
army, writes of it as follows:[6]
The population of Santa Fe is from two to four thousand,
and the inhabitants are, it is said, the poorest people
of any town in the Province. The houses are mud bricks,
in the Spanish style, generally of one story, and built
on a square. The interior of the square is an open court,
and the principal rooms open into it. They are forbidding
in appearance from the outside, but nothing can exceed
the comfort and convenience of the interior. The thick
walls make them cool in summer and warm in winter.
The better class of people are provided with excellent beds,
but the poorer class sleep on untanned skins. The women
here, as in many other parts of the world, appear to be
much before the men in refinements, intelligence, and
knowledge of the useful arts. The higher class dress like
the American women, except, instead of a bonnet, they wear
a scarf over their head, called a reboso. This they wear
asleep or awake, in the house or abroad. The dress of the
lower classes of women is a simple petticoat, with arms and
shoulders bare, except what may chance to be covered by
the reboso.
The men who have means to do so dress after our fashion;
but by far the greater number, when they dress at all,
wear leather breeches, tight around the hips and open from
the knee down; shirt and blanket take the place of our
coat and vest.
The city is dependent on the distant hills for wood, and
at all hours of the day may be seen jackasses passing laden
with wood, which is sold at two bits, twenty-five cents,
the load. These are the most diminutive animals, and
usually mounted from behind, after the fashion of leap-frog.
The jackass is the only animal that can be subsisted in
this barren neighbourhood without great expense; our horses
are all sent to a distance of twelve, fifteen, and thirty
miles for grass.
I have interpolated these two somewhat similar descriptions of Santa Fe
written in that long ago when New Mexico was almost as little known as
the topography of the planet Mars, so that the intelligent visitor of
to-day may appreciate the wonderful changes which American thrift, and
that powerful civilizer, the locomotive, have wrought in a very few
years, yet it still, as one of the foregoing writers has well said,
"has the charm of foreign flavour, and the soft syllables of the Spanish
language are still heard."
The most positive exception must be taken to the statement of the
first-quoted writer in relation to the Palace, of which he says "It is
nothing more than the biggest mud-house in the town." Now this "Palacio
del Gobernador," as the old building was called by the Spanish, was
erected at a very early day. It was the long-established seat of power
when Penalosa confined the chief inquisitor within its walls in 1663,
and when the Pueblo authorities took possession of it as the citadel of
their central authority, in 1681.
The old building cannot well be overlooked by the most careless visitor
to the quaint town; it is a long, low structure, taking up the greater
part of one side of the Plaza, round which runs a colonnade supported
by pillars of rough pine. In this once leaky old Palace were kept,
or rather neglected, the archives of the Territory until the American
residents, appreciating the importance of preserving precious documents
containing so much of interest to the student of history and the
antiquarian, enlisted themselves enthusiastically in the good cause,
and have rescued from oblivion the annals of a relatively remote
civilization, which, but for their forethought, would have perished from
the face of the earth as completely as have the written records of that
wonderful region in Central America, whose gigantic ruins alone remain
to tell us of what was a highly cultured order of architecture in past
ages, and of a people whose intelligence was comparable to the style of
the dwellings in which they lived.
The old adobe Palace is in itself a volume whose pages are filled
with pathos and stirring events. It has been the scene and witness of
incidents the recital of which would to us to-day seem incredible. An
old friend, once governor of New Mexico and now dead, thus graphically
spoke of the venerable building:[7]
In it lived and ruled the Spanish captain general, so remote
and inaccessible from the viceroyalty at Mexico that he was
in effect a king, nominally accountable to the viceroy,
but practically beyond his reach and control and wholly
irresponsible to the people. Equally independent for the
same reason were the Mexican governors. Here met all the
provincial, territorial, departmental, and other legislative
bodies that have ever assembled at the capital of New Mexico.
Here have been planned all the Indian wars and measures
for defence against foreign invasion, including, as the
most noteworthy, the Navajo war of 1823, the Texan invasion
of 1842, the American of 1846, and the Confederate of 1862.
Within its walls was imprisoned, in 1809, the American
explorer Zebulon M. Pike, and innumerable state prisoners
before and since; and many a sentence of death has been
pronounced therein and the accused forthwith led away and
shot at the dictum of the man at the Palace. It has been
from time immemorial the government house with all its
branches annexed. It was such on the Fourth of July, 1776,
when the American Congress at Independence Hall in
Philadelphia proclaimed liberty throughout all the land,
not then, but now embracing it. Indeed, this old edifice
has a history. And as the history of Santa Fe is the
history of New Mexico, so is the history of the Palace
the history of Santa Fe.
The Palace was the only building having glazed windows. At one end was
the government printing office, and at the other, the guard-house and
prison. Fearful stories were connected with the prison. Edwards[8] says
that he found, on examining the walls of the small rooms, locks of human
hair stuffed into holes, with rude crosses drawn over them.
Fronting the Palace, on the south side of the Plaza, stood the remains
of the Capilla de los Soldados, or Military Chapel. The real name of the
church was "Our Lady of Light." It was said to be the richest church
in the Province, but had not been in use for a number of years, and
the roof had fallen in, allowing the elements to complete the work of
destruction. On each side of the altar was the remains of fine carving,
and a weather-beaten picture above gave evidence of having been a
beautiful painting. Over the door was a large oblong slab of freestone,
elaborately carved, representing "Our Lady of Light" rescuing a human
being from the jaws of Satan. A large tablet, beautifully executed in
relief, stood behind the altar, representing various saints, with an
inscription stating that it was erected by Governor Francisco Antonio
del Valle and his wife in 1761.
Church services were held in the Parroquia, or Parish church, now the
Cathedral, which had two towers or steeples, in which hung four bells.
The music was furnished by a violin and a triangle. The wall back of
the altar was covered with innumerable mirrors, paintings, and
bright-coloured tapestry.
The exact date of the first settlement of Santa Fe is uncertain. One
authority says:
It was a primeval stronghold before the Spanish Conquest,
and a town of some importance to the white race when
Pennsylvania was a wilderness and the first Dutch governor
of New York was slowly drilling the Knickerbocker ancestry
in their difficult evolutions around the town-pump.
It is claimed, on what is deemed very authentic data by some, that
Santa Fe is really the oldest settled town in the United States. St.
Augustine, Florida, was established in 1565 and was unquestionably
conceded the honour of antiquity until the acquisition of New Mexico by
the Guadalupe-Hidalgo treaty. Then, of course, Santa Fe steps into the
arena and carries off the laurels. This claim of precedence for Santa
Fe is based upon the statement (whether historically correct or not is
a question) that when the Spaniards first entered the region from the
southern portion of Mexico, about 1542, they found a very large Pueblo
town on the present site of Santa Fe, and that its prior existence
extended far back into the vanished centuries. This is contradicted
by other historians, who contend that the claim of Santa Fe to be the
oldest town in the United States rests entirely on imaginary annals of
an Indian Pueblo before the Spanish Conquest, and that there are but
slight indications that the town was built on the site of one.[9]
The reader may further satisfy himself on these mooted points by
consulting the mass of historical literature on New Mexico, and the
records of its primitive times are not surpassed in interest by those of
any other part of the continent. It was there the Europeans first made
great conquests, and some years prior to the landing of the Pilgrims, a
history of New Mexico, being the journal of Geronimo de Zarate Salmaron,
was published by the Church in the City of Mexico, early in 1600.
Salmaron was a Franciscan monk; a most zealous and indefatigable worker.
During his eight years' residence at Jemez, near Santa Fe, he claims
to have baptized over eight thousand Indians, converts to the Catholic
faith. His journal gives a description of the country, its mines, etc.,
and was made public in order that other monks reading it might emulate
his pious example.
Between 1605 and 1616 was founded the Villa of Santa Fe, or San
Francisco de la Santa Fe. "Villa," or village, was an honorary title,
always authorized and proclaimed by the king. Bancroft says that it was
first officially mentioned on the 3d of January, 1617.
The first immigration to New Mexico was under Don Juan de Onate about
1597, and in a year afterward, according to some authorities, Santa Fe
was settled. The place, as claimed by some historians, was then named
El Teguayo, a Spanish adaptation of the word "Tegua," the name of the
Pueblo nation, which was quite numerous, and occupied Santa Fe and the
contiguous country. It very soon, from its central position and charming
climate, became the leading Spanish town, and the capital of the
Province. The Spaniards, who came at first into the country as friends,
and were apparently eager to obtain the good-will of the intelligent
natives, shortly began to claim superiority, and to insist on the
performance of services which were originally mere evidences of
hospitality and kindness. Little by little they assumed greater power
and control over the Indians, until in the course of years they had
subjected a large portion of them to servitude little differing from
actual slavery.
The impolitic zeal of the monks gradually invoked the spirit of hatred
and resulted in a rebellion that drove the Spaniards, in 1680, from the
country. The large number of priests who were left in the midst of the
natives met with horrible fates:
Not one escaped martyrdom. At Zuni, three Franciscans
had been stationed, and when the news of the Spanish retreat
reached the town, the people dragged them from their cells,
stripped and stoned them, and afterwards compelled the
servant of one to finish the work by shooting them. Having
thus whetted their appetite for cruelty and vengeance,
the Indians started to carry the news of their independence
to Moqui, and signalized their arrival by the barbarous
murder of the two missionaries who were living there.
Their bodies were left unburied, as a prey for the wild
beasts. At Jemez they indulged in every refinement of
cruelty. The old priest, Jesus Morador, was seized in
his bed at night, stripped naked and mounted on a hog,
and thus paraded through the streets, while the crowd
shouted and yelled around. Not satisfied with this,
they then forced him to carry them as a beast would,
crawling on his hands and feet, until, from repeated beating
and the cruel tortures of sharp spurs, he fell dead in
their midst. A similar chapter of horrors was enacted
at Acoma, where three priests were stripped, tied together
with hair rope, and so driven through the streets, and
finally stoned to death. Not a Christian remained free
within the limits of New Mexico, and those who had been
dominant a few months before were now wretched and
half-starved fugitives, huddled together in the rude huts
of San Lorenzo.
As soon as the Spaniards had retreated from the country,
the Pueblo Indians gave themselves up for a time to
rejoicing, and to the destruction of everything which could
remind them of the Europeans, their religion, and their
domination. The army which had besieged Santa Fe quickly
entered that city, took possession of the Palace as the
seat of government, and commenced the work of demolition.
The churches and the monastery of the Franciscans were
burned with all their contents, amid the almost frantic
acclamations of the natives. The gorgeous vestments of
the priests had been dragged out before the conflagration,
and now were worn in derision by Indians, who rode through
the streets at full speed, shouting for joy. The official
documents and books in the Palace were brought forth,
and made fuel for a bonfire in the centre of the Plaza;
and here also they danced the cachina, with all the
accompanying religious ceremonies of the olden time.
Everything imaginable was done to show their detestation
of the Christian faith and their determination to utterly
eradicate even its memory. Those who had been baptized
were washed with amole in the Rio Chiquito, in order to be
cleansed from the infection of Christianity. All baptismal
names were discarded, marriages celebrated by Christian
priests were annulled, the very mention of the names Jesus
and Mary was made an offence, and estuffas were constructed
to take the place of ruined churches.[10]
For twelve years, although many abortive attempts were made to recapture
the country, the Pueblos were left in possession. On the 16th of
October, 1693, the victorious Spaniards at last entered Santa Fe,
bearing the same banner which had been carried by Onate when he entered
the city just a century before. The conqueror this time was Don Diego
de Vargas Zapata Lujan, whom the viceroy of New Spain had appointed
governor in the spring of 1692, with the avowed purpose of having New
Mexico reconquered as speedily as possible.
Thus it will be seen that the quaint old city has been the scene of many
important historical events, the mere outline of which I have recorded
here, as this book is not devoted to the historical view of the subject.
In contradistinction to the quiet, sleepy old Santa Fe of half a
century ago, it now presents all the vigour, intelligence, and bustling
progressiveness of the average American city of to-day, yet still smacks
of that ancient Spanish regime, which gives it a charm that only its
blended European and Indian civilization could make possible after its
amalgamation with the United States.
The tourist will no longer find a drowsy old town, and the Plaza is no
longer unfenced and uncared for. A beautiful park of trees is surrounded
by low palings, and inside the shady enclosure, under a group of large
cottonwoods, is a cenotaph erected to the memory of the Territory's
gallant soldiers who fell in the shock of battle to save New Mexico
to the Union in 1862, and conspicuous among the names carved on the
enduring native rock is that of Kit Carson--prince of frontiersmen, and
one of Nature's noblemen.
Around the Plaza one sees the American style of architecture and hears
the hum of American civilization; but beyond, and outside this pretty
park, the streets are narrow, crooked, and have an ancient appearance.
There the old Santa Fe confronts the stranger; odd, foreign-looking,
and flavoured with all the peculiarities which marked the era of Mexican
rule. And now, where once was heard the excited shouts of the idle
crowd, of "Los Americanos!" "Los Carros!" "La entrada de la Caravana!"
as the great freight wagons rolled into the streets of the old town
from the Missouri, over the Santa Fe Trail, the shrill whistle of the
locomotive from its trail of steel awakens the echoes of the mighty
hills.
As may be imagined, great excitement always prevailed whenever a caravan
of goods arrived in Santa Fe. Particularly was this the case among the
feminine portion of the community. The quaint old town turned out its
mixed population en masse the moment the shouts went up that the train
was in sight. There is nothing there to-day comparable to the anxious
looks of the masses as they watched the heavily freighted wagons rolling
into the town, the teamsters dust-begrimed, and the mules making the
place hideous with their discordant braying as they knew that their long
journey was ended and rest awaited them. The importing merchants were
obliged to turn over to the custom house officials five hundred dollars
for every wagon-load, great or small; and no matter what the intrinsic
value of the goods might be, salt or silk, velvets or sugar, it was all
the same. The nefarious duty had to be paid before a penny's worth could
be transferred to their counters. Of course, with the end of Mexican
rule and the acquisition of the Province by the United States, all
opposition to the traffic of the Old Santa Fe Trail ended, traders were
assured a profitable market and the people purchased at relatively low
prices.
What a wonderful change has taken place in the traffic with New Mexico
in less than three-quarters of a century! In 1825 it was all carried on
with one single annual caravan of prairie-schooners, and now there are
four railroads running through the Rio Grande Valley, and one daily
freight train of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe into the town
unloads more freight than was taken there in a whole year when the
"commerce of the prairies" was at its height!
Upon the arrival of a caravan in the days of the sleepy regime under
Mexican control, the people did everything in their power to make
the time pass pleasantly for every one connected with it during their
sojourn. Bailes, or fandangoes, as the dancing parties were called by
the natives, were given nightly, and many amusing anecdotes in regard to
them are related by the old-timers.
The New Mexicans, both men and women, had a great fondness for jewelry,
dress, and amusements; of the latter, the fandango was the principal,
which was held in the most fashionable place of resort, where every
belle and beauty in the town presented herself, attired in the most
costly manner, and displaying her jewelled ornaments to the best
advantage. To this place of recreation and pleasure, generally a large,
capacious saloon or interior court, all classes of persons were allowed
to come, without charge and without invitation. The festivities usually
commenced about nine o'clock in the evening, and the tolling of the
church bells was the signal for the ladies to make their entrance, which
they did almost simultaneously.
New Mexican ladies were famous for their gaudy dresses, but it must
be confessed they did not exercise good taste. Their robes were made
without bodies; a skirt only, and a long, loose, flowing scarf or reboso
dexterously thrown about the head and shoulders, so as to supersede both
the use of dress-bodies and bonnets.
There was very little order maintained at these fandangoes, and still
less attention paid to the rules of etiquette. A kind of swinging,
gallopade waltz was the favourite dance, the cotillion not being much in
vogue. Read Byron's graphic description of the waltz, and then stretch
your imagination to its utmost tension, and you will perhaps have some
faint conception of the Mexican fandango. Such familiarity of position
as was indulged in would be repugnant to the refined rules of polite
society in the eastern cities; but with the New Mexicans, in those early
times, nothing was considered to be a greater accomplishment than that
of being able to go handsomely through all the mazes of their peculiar
dance.
There was one republican feature about the New Mexican fandango; it was
that all classes, rich and poor alike, met and intermingled, as did the
Romans at their Saturnalia, upon terms of equality. Sumptuous repasts
or collations were rarely ever prepared for those frolicsome gatherings,
but there was always an abundance of confectionery, sweetmeats,
and native wine. It cost very little for a man to attend one of the
fandangoes in Santa Fe, but not to get away decently and sober. In that
it resembled the descent of Aeneas to Pluto's realms; it was easy enough
to get there, but when it came to return, "revocare gradum, superasque
evadere ad auras, hic labor, hoc opus est."