Santa Fe at that time contained about six thousand inhabitants. After St.
Augustine it was the oldest city within the limits of the United States.
When the Spaniards founded it in 1582, it was built on the site of one of
the old Indian pueblos, whose date went back to the earliest history of
the country. The Spanish town--The Royal City of the Holy Faith, _La Villa
Real del Santa Fe_, as they called it--was also full of the flavor of
antiquity, with its low adobe houses, and its quaint old churches, built
nearly three centuries before. These were of rude architecture and hung
with battered old bells, but they were ornamented with curiously carved
beams of cedar and oak. The residences were as quaint and old-fashioned as
the churches, and the abundant relies of the more ancient Indian
inhabitants gave the charm of a double antiquity to the place.
From Santa Fe as a centre General Kearney sent out expeditions to put down
all reported risings through the province, one of the most important of
these being to the country of the warlike Navajo Indians, who had just
made a raid on New Mexico, driving off ten thousand cattle and taking many
captives. The answer of one of the Navajo chiefs to the officers of the
expedition is interesting.
"Americans, you have a strange cause of war against the Navajos," he said.
"We have waged war against the New Mexicans for several years. You now
turn upon us for attempting to do what you have done yourselves. We cannot
see why you have cause of quarrel with us for fighting the New Mexicans in
the West, while you do the same thing in the East. We have no more right
to complain of you for interfering in our war than you have to quarrel
with us for continuing a war we had begun long before you got here. If you
will act justly, you will allow us to settle our own differences."
The Indians, however, in the end agreed to let the New Mexicans alone, as
American citizens, and the matter was amicably settled. We may briefly
conclude the story of Kearney's expedition, which was but half done when
Santa Fe was reached. He was to continue his march to California, and set
out for this purpose on the 25th of September, on a journey as long and
difficult as that he had already made. He reached the Californian soil
only to find that Colonel Fremont had nearly finished the work set for
him, and a little more fighting added the great province of California to
the American conquests. Thus had a small body of men occupied and
conquered a vast section of northern Mexico and added some of its richest
possessions to the United States.