29 [ 26 ] 
~ Since the commencement of the Santa F'e trade, the Mexicans there have 
been decastich ed to see strangers among them; and the trading compa- 
nies from the United States are anxiously looked for by the government and 
people of Santa Fe, because they fill the empty pockets of the one, and pro- 
vide the other with the necessaries and comforts of life. Santa Fe receives 
nearly all its goods from.the United States, aa some foreigners, mostly 
m s and Frenchmen, generally reside there for commercial purposes 
Among the then foreign residents of Santa Fe, it affords me pleasure to 
recollect Mr. Houghton, Mr. Alvarez, and others, who save me in relation 
to the country all the Soe taal in their power to to giv! 
As to the Santa Fe trade carried on between the Gnised States and New 
Mexico, I cannot add gaythine to what has been published already by Dr. 
J. Gregg, in the “Commerce of the Prairies,”’ to which interesting work I 
refer the reader, in relation to it. I will mention, only, that on an average 
the annual amount of merchandise carried there is estimated at half a fae 
lion of dollars 
After a week, Mr. Speier had finished his — in Santa Fe, and ie 
solved tg go on to Chihuahua. No further s had during that tim 
been received either from las or from the ploing. In this state of uncer- 
tainty, 1 thought it best, instead of waiting idle in Santa Fe for the € pos- 
sible arrival of an army over the plains, to spend my time more usefully by 
extending my excursion as far as Chibuahua, where, according to all ac- 
counts, everything wasas quiet as in Sauta Fe. Besides, I h ad a ssport 
from Governor Armijo, drawn up in the usual form, and securing my retreat 
in ease of necessity. 
r. Speyer’s caravan was encamped five miles west of Santa Fe, in 
Agua Fria, and was ready to start on the 9th. 
Tui . —I left Santa Pe for the camp in Agu 
— The caravan started on the usual. rola; oF Resdncen for the 
Rio del “Nore. But being anxious myself to examine the celebrated gold 
mines of New Mexico, the old and new Placer, in a range of mountains 
— from Santa Fe, I intended to make first from here this out a the 
old Placer, L passed by two springs, on the first of which I found sienite; 
on the other a fresh-water limestone. Ase ending afterwards to the hills, i 
met everywhere with a red and brown sandstone, looser or more compact, 
and with large masses of petrified wood. From here the ascent to the 
joyed to ; ‘ine 
and cedar cover the mountains all around. Slightly ascending from the 
some miles, a narrow ravine between high ' walls of mountains sud- 
nd aging on 
