LIFE IN THE FAR WEST 193 



continues Venabides. " Santa Clara of Carmona is her 

 name, one well known in my native country, who leaves 

 heaven and all its joys, wends her way to the distant 

 wilds of New Spain, and spends years in inducting the 

 savage people to the holy faith. Truly a pious work, 

 and pleasing to God ! " * 



Thus spoke Venabides the Franciscan, and no doubt 

 he believed what he said ; and many others in Old 

 Spain were fools enough to believe it too, for the shaven 

 heads flocked over in greater numbers, and the cry was 

 ever " still they come." 



Along the whole extent of the table-lands, not an 

 Indian tribe but was speedily visited by the preaching 

 friars and monks ; and in less than a century after the 

 conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards, these hardy and 

 enthusiastic frayles had pushed their way into the 

 inhospitable regions of New Mexico, nearly two thou- 

 sand miles distant from the valley of Anahuac. How 

 they succeeded in surmounting the natural obstacles 

 presented by the wild and barren deserts they traversed; 

 how they escaped the infinite peril they encountered at 

 every step, at the hands of the savage inhabitants of 

 the country, with whose language they were totally 

 unacquainted, is sufficient puzzle to those who, in the 

 present day, have attempted a journey in the same 

 regions. 



However, it is impossible not to admire the hardi- 



* From a manuscript obtained in Santa Fe of New Mexico, 

 describing the labours of the missionaries Fray Augustin Ruiz, 

 Venabides, and Marcos, in the year 1585. 



N 



