174 MEXICAN HOUSES. 



cints, 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 lofty mountains, 

 upon three sides, that tower to an altitude ofseveral thousand i'eet, now 

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

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

 verse with the scathing blasts of unending winier. 



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

 considerable qumtities in their vicinity, and would doubtless yield a large 

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

 capital. At present these valuable mines are almost entirely neglected, 

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

 the rich too indolent and fond of ease. 



The Mexican:^ possess large ranchos of sheep, horses, mules, and cat- 

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

 detJ-raded set of being.-^, following no business but that of herdsmen, 

 or rancher OS. 



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

 lasso with dexterity, and break wild nmles 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. Half-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 death 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 

 woidd 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 

 dwellings. 



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

 the port-holes of a fortification,) generally without 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 small logs, atfording 

 but poor protection from the weather. 



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

 ply the naked ground, — 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- 

 nicatmg 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 de.^pite the swarms of noxious 

 vermin that infest them, (companions from which they are seldom free, 



