8 A GUIDE TO MEXICO. 



that there are more sunny days. From Denver to Santa Fe.at the broad and vague 

 line where mountain and plain meet, there are only three or four days in each year 

 whereon the sun does not shine. The clouds are few and the sun shows himself 

 more than three hundred and sixty days in each year." 



A short branch connects the main line with the Springs, turning off at the thriv- 

 ing town of Las Vegas ; and sixty miles beyond, at Lamy, another branch diverges 

 to the town of Santa Fe, about midway between which points the road passes 

 within sight of the Pueblo of Pecos, the most ancient of Indian villages, and the 

 traditional birthplace of one of the Montezumas. 



Santa Fe is the oldest town within the present limits of the United States, con- 

 taining the "oldest house in the country," "the oldest church," and a "palace," 

 once the abode of Spanish viceroys. One of those sturdy pioneers who visited 

 Santa Fe when under Mexican dominion, when only accessible by the dangerous 

 "Santa Fe trail," declared that it resembled "a fleet of flatboats moored to a moun- 

 tain;" and another has compared the adobe houses to "kilns of unburned bricks." 

 With the exception of the stores around the plaza, and the houses of the wealthy, 

 Santa Fe is mainly composed of mud huts, one-story adobes, built after the Mexican 

 fashion, each around its central square, or flacita, with clay floors, and flat clay 

 roofs. The windows, until recently, — if any existed, — were oftener of mica than 

 glass. There was little furniture : a bench of clay running around one side of 

 the room formed a seat and bed, while the fireplace was in one corner. In fact, the 

 dwellings of the natives of New Mexico are merely improved Indian houses such 

 as are found throughout the border region of Mexico. The food, the religion, and 

 customs of the people, are Mexican, not even excepting the decided preference for 

 the burro, or donkey, as a means of conveyance. 



One redeeming feature of Santa Fe is its large and handsome palace hotel, and 

 another is its climate; while its ancient "cathedral " of San Miguel, a mud church 

 built in 1590, and its other buildings savoring of antiquity, make up its list of 

 attractions. The " tertio-millenial," or 333d anniversary of its first settlement, was 

 most appropriately celebrated in 1883. Santa Fe's history is, however, sufficient 

 of itself to attract hither numerous pilgrims, for its site was visited by Europeans 

 within twenty years after the discovery of Mexico ; and the soldiers of the adven- 

 turous Coronado here found a people quite as civilized as the Aztecs. 



The native races, the Pueblos, — so called because they were found living in pueb- 

 los or villages, — were subjugated, but rebelled in i68o, and drove the Spaniards 

 from the country, though they were again reduced to submission. In the early part 

 of this century it was the objective point of the long caravans that wended their 

 way thither from the far-distant Missouri, making the Santa Fe trail an historic 

 feature of the South-west. 



In 1S48 New Mexico was annexed to the United States, becoming part of that 

 country, though it still retains all the characteristics of a Mexican territory. 



THE RAILROADS OF NEW MEXICO 



at the opening of the year 1884 exceeded a total aggregate length of 1,100 miles, 

 although not a single mile was in operation in 1880. Nearly 800 miles are controlled 

 by the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe, with 5S7 in its main line, and 200 in the 

 Atlantic and Pacific. Nine hundred miles from the Missouri River is the flourishing 

 town of Albuquerque, which, though its first buildings were erected in 1S80, now 



