270 POPULATION AND DECAY. 



are perhaps allied to the Navajoes. Though 

 all these Pueblos speak their native languages 

 among themselves, a great many of them pos- 

 sess a smattering of Spanish, sufficient to car- 

 ry on their intercourse with the Mexicans. 



The population of these Pueblos viU ave- 

 rage nearly five hundred souls each (though 

 some hardly exceed one hundred), making an 



aggregate of nine or ten thousand. At the 

 time of the original conquest, at the close of 

 the sixteenth century, they were, as has been 

 mentioned, much, perhaps ten-fold, more nu- 

 merous. Ancient ruins are now to be seen 

 scattered in every quarter of the territory : of 

 some, entire stone walls are yet standing, 

 while others are nearly or quite obhterated, 

 many of them being now only known by 

 their names which history or tradition has 

 preserved to us. Numbers were no doubt 

 destroyed during the insurrection of 1680, and 

 the petty internal strifes which followed. 



Several of these Pueblos have been con- 

 verted into Mexican villages, of which that of 

 Pecos is porhnps the most remarkable in- 

 stance. Wliat with the massacres of the 

 second conquest, and the inroads of the Co- 

 manchcs, they gradually dwindled away, till 

 they found themselves reduced to about a 

 dozen, comprising all ages and sexes ; and it 

 was only a few years ago that they abandoned 

 the home of their fathers and joined the Pu- 

 eblo of Jemez. 



Many curious tales are told of the singidar 

 habits of this ill-fated tribe, which must no 



