LIFE IN THE FAR WEST. 101 



now is a bare and sandy desert. Pieces of broken pottery, of 

 domestic utensils, stained with bright colors, every where strewed 

 the ground ; and spear and arrow-heads of stone, and quaintly 

 carved idols, and women's ornaments of agate and obsidian, were 

 picked up often by the wondering trappers, examined with child- 

 like curiosity, and thrown carelessly aside. ^ 



A Taos Indian, who was among the band, was evidently im- 

 pressed with a melancholy awe, as he regarded these ancient mon- 

 uments of his fallen people. At midnight he arose from his blan- 

 ket and left the camp, which was in the vicinity of the ruined 

 city, stealthily picking his way through the line of slumbering 

 forms which lay around ; and the watchful sentinel observed him 

 approach the ruins with a slow and reverential gait. Entering 

 the moldering walls, he gazed silently around, where in ages past 

 his ancestors trod proudly, a civilized race, the tradition of which, 

 well known to his people, served but to make their present de- 

 graded position more galling and apparent. Cowering under the 

 shadow of a crumbling wall, the Indian drew his blanket over his 

 head, and conjured to his mind's eye the former power and gran- 

 deur of his race — that warlike people who, forsaking their own 

 country for causes of which no tradition, however dim, now exists, 

 sought in the fruitful and teeming valleys of tha south a soil and 

 climate which their own lands did not afford ; and, displacing the 

 wild and barbarous hordes inhabiting tlie land, raised there a 

 mighty empire, great in riches and civihzation. 



The Indian bowed his head, and mourned the fallen greatness 

 of his tribe. Rising, he slowly, drew his tattered blanket round 

 his body, and prepared to leave the spot, when the shadow of a 

 moving figure, creeping past a gap in the ruined wall, through 



* Tlie Aztecs are supposed to have built this city during their migration to the 

 south ; there is little doubt, however, but that the region extending from the Gila 

 to the Great Salt Lake, and embracing the province of New^ Mexico, was the 

 locality from which they emigrated. 



