240 OBSERVATIONS OF A RANCHWOMAN 



they set forth in small companies, in 

 the bliss of an ignorance which our later 

 wisdom scorns. Torn by thorns of cactus 

 and mesquite, stumbling with bleeding feet 

 over rocky mountains whose summits they 

 must scale ere the path through the unknown 

 could be discovered, ankle-deep in sand or 

 tangled in dense bosks beside streams too 

 often dry, under burning suns, whipped by 

 sand-storms, always hoping for sight of an 

 ocean far beyond their ken, uncertain whether 

 life or death was to be their portion when by 

 chance they lighted on some native settle- 

 ment, they attempted the impossible and 

 succeeded ! 



Six times the banner of Spain was raised, 

 more often than not by devoted friars, only 

 to fall again. Spanish blood was sprinkled 

 freely over valley, mesa, and mountain ; 

 yet finally the sturdy friars and soldiers 

 not only won, but for three centuries with 

 the exception of, in 1680, a ten-year orgie of 

 native freedom kept what they had so dearly 

 bought. 



In 1538 Fray Niza and the negro Estevan 

 and later, Coronado tempted by strange 



