THE DESERT AND THE ROSE 189 



industrious nations repelled their foes, cultivated 

 the rich lands below when permitted so to do, and 

 in many instances came off victorious from strug- 

 gles with those original robbers, for the reason that 

 they were fore-handed after the manner of care- 

 ful ranching persons and usually had a supply of 

 food and water laid by for stormy days. And not 

 only were they agriculturists but marvellous weav- 

 ers, and unsurpassed in craftsmanship with gold 

 and silver, which metals, together with precious 

 stones, they knew how to extract from the earth. 

 The Mexican of my ranching days wove ar- 

 tistically attractive rugs, which he brought to my 

 door and sold at a given price per pound. But he 

 was always careful to explain that it was he and 

 not his Indian kinsman who was responsible for 

 the ravishing shades of blue woven into the rugs; 

 for the Indian regards blue as a color of ill omen. 

 The bugbear of American Progress gobbled up this 

 artistic industry long ago. 



I see El Paso del Norte and the Valley as they 

 were late in the eighteenth century and early in the 

 nineteenth — just as Humboldt saw them or as de- 

 scribed by a much more recent writer* — El Paso, a 

 pleasant settlement, from which carriages proceed- 

 ed easily up the Rio Grande Valley to Santa Fe, the 

 capital of the Spanish Province as it is of the 

 American State: 



"The scenery was remarkable for its mountain- 

 ous features and groves of cottonwood, mesquite 

 and fresh poplars along the fertile banks of this 

 river, which assumes great size and volume when 



*Horatio O. Ladd. 



