FIRST SETTLEMENT. 109 



a large flock of sheep grazing upon the adja- 

 cent plain ; while a little hovel at the foot of 

 a cliff showed it to be a rancho. A swarthy 

 ramkero soon made his appearance, from 

 whom we procured a treat of goat's milk, 

 with some dirty ewe's milk ' curdle cheese' to 

 supply the place of bread. 



Some twenty miles from this place we en- 

 tered San Miguel, the first settlement of any 

 note upon our route. This consists of irregu- 

 lar clusters of mud- wall huts, and is situated 

 in the fertile valley of Rio Pecos, a silvery lit- 

 tle river which ripples from the snoAvy moun- 

 tains of Santa Fe — from which city this fron- 

 tier village is nearly fifty miles to the south- 

 east The road makes this great southern 

 bend, to find a passway through the broken 

 extremity of the spur of mountains before al- 

 luded to, which from tliis point south is cut up 

 into detached ridges and table plains. This 

 mountain section of the road, even in its pre- 

 sent unimproved condition, presents but few 

 difficult passes, and might, with httle labor, 

 be put in good order. 



A few miles before reaching the city, the 

 road again emerges into an open plain. As- 

 cending a table ridge, we spied in an extend- 

 ed valley to the northwest, occasional groups 

 of trees, skirted with verdant corn and wheat 

 fields, with here and there a square block- 

 hke protuberance reared in the midst. A little 

 further, and just ahead of us to the north, 

 irregular clusters of the same opened to our 

 view. «Oh, we are approaching the sub- 



10 



