THE DESERT AND THE ROSE 191 



the country is very dry a canal of irrigation brings 

 the water of the Rio del Norte to the Paso." 



Thus along this broad Vale, finding smooth and 

 easy traveling beside the Great River, the feet of 

 bygone generations "whose bones are dust" have 

 passed and passed again, within sight and sound of 

 my brown ranch house — nay even perhaps through 

 its orchards and meadows, so capricious has been 

 the River's course. 



But a few miles, too, from my ranch did the 

 Texas Invincibles leave their wounded, to be gath- 

 ered up when they returned, a draggled crew, adown 

 the Valley of the Rio Grande. During the Civil 

 War Texas looked confidently to New Mexico to 

 wave the Southern flag, but the sins of her own 

 sons — white adventurers and "bad men" from Texas 

 — made the very name of that State an evil odor 

 in the nostrils of both Indian and Mexican, and a 

 sullen silence answered her appeal. Without en- 

 thusiasm but likewise without wavering the Terri- 

 tory retained her grasp on the skirts of the Union, 

 and Texan dreams of conquest were forever buried 

 in the desert sands. To this hour the New Mexican 

 Mexican is not over fond of the Texan, though the 

 Mexican from Mexico is apt to find himself at ease 

 in the Lone Star State. 



But the distrust of New Mexico dates further 

 back yet — back to 1841, during the Spanish occu- 

 pation when the Texans attempted to annex New 

 Mexico. It gathered strength in the war with 

 Mexico — that war denounced by such men as Web- 

 ster, Grant and their like as "unholy, unjust and 



