268 PUEBLO INDIANS. 



the vast possessions of which they robbed 

 them. AJI that was left them was, to each 

 Pueblo a league or two of land situated 

 around their villages, the conquerors reserving 

 to themselves at least ninety-nine hundredths 

 of the whole domain as a requital for their 

 generosity. 



When these regions were first discovered it 

 appears that the inhabitants lived m com- 

 fortable houses and cultivated the soil, as tliey 

 have continued to do up to the present time. 

 Indeed, they are now considered the best hor- 

 ticulturists in the country, furnishing most of 

 the fruits and a large portion of the vegetable 

 supphes that are to be found in the markets. 

 They were until very lately the only people in 

 New Mexico who cultivated the grape. They 

 also maintain at the present time considerable 

 herds of cattle, horses, etc. They are, in short, 

 a remarkably sober and industrious race, con- 

 spicuous for morality and honesty, and very 

 httle given to quarrelhng or dissipation, ex- 

 cept when they have had much familiar in- 

 tercourse v>dth tlie Hispano-Mexican popula- 

 tion. 



^ Most of these Pueblos caU themselves Hie 

 descendants of Montezuma, although it would 

 appear that they could only have been made 



with the history of that monarch 



by the Spaniards 



nearly 



thousand miles from the ancient Idngdom 

 of Mexico. At the time of the conquest they 

 Riust have been a very powerful people 

 numbeimg near a hundred villages, as ex 



