146 A EEMINISCENCE. 



may be watered by some constant-flowing 



stream.* 



The first settler of the charming valley of 

 Taos, since the country was reconquered from 

 the Indians, is said to have been a Spaniard 

 named Pando, about the middle of the eight- 

 eenth century. This pioneer of the North, 

 finding himself greatly exposed to the depre- 

 dations of the Comanches, succeeded in gain- 

 ing the friendship of that tribe, by promising 

 his infant daughter, then a beautiful child, to 

 one of their eliiefs in marriage. But the un- 

 willing maiden having subsequently refused 

 to ratify the contract, the settlement was im- 

 mediately attacked by the savages, and all 

 were slain except the betrothed damsel who 

 was led into captivity. After hving some 

 years with the Comanches on the great 

 prairies, she was bartered away to the Paw- 

 nees, of whom she was eventually purchased 

 by a Frenchman of St. Louis. Some veiy 

 respectable families in that city are descended 

 from her ; and there are many people yet 

 Hving who remember with what affecting 

 pathos the old lady was wont to tell her tale 

 of wo. She died but a few years ago. 



Salubrity of chmate is decidedly the most 

 interesting feature in the character of New 



ch the 

 sscd an 



•For the generally barren and desolate appearance -vvhi 

 uplands of New Mexico present, «ome of them have posi*et 

 extraorJInary dejjree of fertility ; as is demonstmted by the fact 

 that many of the fields on the undulat«it3^ land3 in the suburbs of 

 Santa Fe, have no doubt l>ecn in constant cultivation over t^vo 

 hundred years, and yet produce tolerable crops, without having 

 been once renovated by manure. 



