298 NINTH ANNUAL REPORT OF 



our march, may be stated in a few words. The dirty little villages 

 through which we have passed, as well as those we have seen in the 

 distance, have generally turned out their inhabhants en masse to get a 

 sight at us. This gave us a sight at them. Had we been painters it 

 would doubtless have been an interesting one ; for men, women, 

 children — motley assemblages — exhibited themselves to us in groupes 

 picturesque, as well as in crowds grotesque. Some blanketed, with 

 sombreros and cigarritos ; some with whitewashed and some with scar- 

 let-dyed faces, some with rebosos, some nearly naked, some on house- 

 tops shading their eyes with their hand, and some peering through 

 chinks and crannies in the mud walls of their dwellings; but all 

 curious as to whence we came and whither we were going. The 

 national expression ot" Quie?i sabe appeared deeply written on every 

 face. In no rancho or village have we seen a solitar}" indication of 

 industry, cleanliness, or thrift since we lell Albu(|uerque ; and it may 

 be remarked, parentheticall}^ that we have yet to see, in that town, 

 the first evidence of these cardinal virtues. Indolence, squalid poverty, 

 filth, and utter ignorance of everything beyond their corn-fields and 

 acequias, seem to particularly characterize the inhabitants who are 

 settled along the east bank of the river. We have seen nothing de- 

 noting energy on the part of any one, save that shown by the old man 

 Chavis and his two sons-in-law. On the contrary, we could but ob- 

 serve atnongst them what seemed to be a universal proclivity for rags, 

 dirt, and flllhiness, in all things; with sheer laziness and listlessness 

 marking their ever}'^ movement and all that they do. It may be said 

 that the people whom we saw were of the lower order ; but we were 

 justified in coming to that conclusion from not seeing any of a better 

 class. 



Saturday, December 17, 1853. 



We started this morning at eight o'clock. For about two miles our 

 road lay up a gradually inchned plane, where we found ourselves on 

 an almost level mesa that stretched, uninterruptedly, eastward to the 

 base of those mountains which commence at the Snndia Peak and ex- 

 tend towards the south below El Paso del Norte. 



This plain is sandy and entirely destitute of water. We saw several 

 herds of cattle grazing upon it; but, so far as we could observe, there 

 was very scanty pasture. Our guide, a Mexican, informed us that 

 these herds are driven to the Rio Grande for water only once in two 

 days. We saw but a solitary flock of antelopes, numbering some ten 

 or twelve. Tfiis was midway between the river and the mountains. 



The scenery, viewed from elevated points on this plain, was very 

 beautiful. The Socorro and the Ciboletla ranges of mountains, and 

 the distant peaks of others toward the north, were covered with snow, 

 and gleamed in tlie sun with dazzling splendor. The long Sierras 

 towards which we were now moving were also clothed in a wmter-robe 

 of white. They bounded the whole eastern horizon. Their tall sum- 

 mits and jagged outline, like a fringed edge, standing sharp and cl arly 

 defined against the morning sky, glowed in the light as if burnished 

 with silver. While towards us, along their whole western slope — which 



