2»i ^ MEXICAI< HOUSES. 



cinti, or neighborhoods, within short distances of each other, among 

 which Arroyo Hondo is the principal. 



This section of country is very romantic, and affords many scenes to 

 excite the admiration of beholders. It is shut in by lofly mountains, 

 upon three sides, that tower to an altitude of several uiousand feet, now 

 presenting their pine-clad summits among the clouds, now with denu- 

 ded crests defying the tempest ; and then peering skyward to hold con- 

 verse with the scathing blasts of unending winter. 



The mountains are rich in minerals of various kinds. Gold is found in 

 considerable qui ntities in their vicinity, and would doubtless yield a large 

 profit to diggers, were they possessed of the requisite enterprise and 

 capital. At present tliese valuable mines are almost entirely neglected 

 — the common people being too ignorant and poor to work them, and 

 the rich too ijidoient and fond of ease. 



The Mexicans possess large raiichos of sheep, horses, mules, and cat- 

 tle among the mountains, which are kept there the entire year, by a 

 degraded set of beings, following no business but that of herdsmen, 

 or rancheros. 



This class of people have no loftier aspirations than to throw the 

 lasso with dexterity, and break wild mules and horses. 



They have scarcely an idea of any other place than the little circle in 

 which they move, nor dream of a more happy state of existence than their 

 own. Halt-naked and scantily fed, they are contented with the miserable 

 pittance doled out to them by the proud lordlings they serve, while their 

 wild songs merrily echo through the hills as they pursue their ceaseless 

 vocations till deatJi drops his dark curtain o'er the scene. 



There are no people on the continent of America, whether civilized or 

 uncivilized, with one or two exceptions, more miserable in condition or des- 

 picable in morals than the mongrel race inhabiting New Mexico. In say- 

 ing this, I deal in generalities ; but were I to particularize the observation 

 would hold good in a large majority of cases. 



Next to the squalid appearance of its inhabitants, the first thing that 

 arrests the attention of the traveller on entering an Mexican settlement, is 

 the uninviting mud walls that form the rude hovels which constitute its 

 dweUings. 



These are one story high and built of adobteSy with small windows, (like 

 the port-holes of a fortification,) generally witliout glass. The entrance is 

 by an opening in the side, very low, and frequently unprotected by a door. 

 The roof is a terrace of sod, reposing upon a layer of email logs, affording 

 but poor protection from the weather. 



The interior presents an aspect quite as forbidding ; — the floors are sim- 

 ply the naked grouijd, — chairs and tables are articles rarely met with. In 

 case of an extra room, it is partitioned off by a thin wall of mud, commu- 

 nicating with its neighbor through a small window-shaped aperture, and 

 serves the double purpose of a chamber and store-house. 



A few rags, tattered blankets, or old robes, furnish beds for its inmates, 

 who, at nightfall, stow themselves away promiscuously upon the ground 

 or in narrow bins, and snooze their rounds despite the swarms of noxious 

 ▼tnnin that infest them, (companions from which tliey are aeldom £reo; 



