162 LIFE IN THE FAR WEST. 



native countr}'-, 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 I" * 



Thus spoke Venabides the Franciscan, and no doubt he believed 

 what he said ; and many others in old Spain were fools enough to 

 beheve it too, for the shaven heads flocked over in greater num- 

 bers, 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 Span- 

 iards, these hardy and enthusiastic frayles had pushed their way 

 into the inhospitable regions of New Mexico, nearly two thousand 

 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 inhab- 

 itants of the country, with whose language they were totally unac- 

 quainted, 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 hardihood of these 

 holy pioneers of civilization, who, totally unfitted by their former 

 mode of life for undergoing such hardships as they must have an- 

 ticipated, threw themselves into the wilderness with fearless and 

 stubborn zeal. 



For the most part, however, they found the Indians exceedingly 

 hospitable and well disposed ; and it was not until some time after 

 — when, receiving from the missionary monks glowing, and not al- 

 ways very truthful accounts of the riches of the country in which 

 they had located themselves, the governors of Mexico dispatched 



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

 labors of the missionaries Fray Augustin Ruiz, Venabides, and Marcos, in the 

 year 1585. 



