Ex. Doc. No. 41. 35 



Ligher class dress like the American women, except, instead of 

 the honnpt, they wejjr a scarf over the head. This they Avear 

 asleep or awake, in the house or abroad. * 



The dress of the lower class of women is a simple petticoat, with 

 arms and shoulders bare, except what may chance to be covered by 



the reboso. 



dT) 



far the greater number, when they dress at all, wear leather 

 breeches, tight round the hips and open from the knee down- shirt 

 and blanket take the place of our coat and vest. ' 



The city is dependant on the distant hills for wood, and at all 

 hours of the day may be seen jackasses passing laden with wood, 

 which is sold at two bits (twenty-five cents) the load. T.ese are 

 the most diminutive animals, and usually mounted from behind 

 after tne fashion of leap-f.og. The jackass is the only animal that 

 •can be subsisted in this barren neighborhood without great expense- 

 -our horses are all sent to a distance of twelve, fifteen, and thirty 

 miles for grass. - > . J 



Grain was very high when we first entered the town, sellino- 

 freely -at five and six dollars the fanegas, (one hundred and fort? 

 pounds.) As our wagons draw .near, and the crops of wheat are 

 being gathered, the price is falling gradually to four dollars the 

 fanegas. 



Milk at six cents per pint, eggs three cents a piece, sugar thirty- 

 five cents per pound, and coffee seventy-five cents. The sugar used 

 in the country is principally made from the cornstalk. 



A great reduction must take place now in the price of dry goods 

 and groceries, twenty per cent, at least, for this was about the rate- 

 of duty charged by Armijo, which is now, of course, taken off. 

 _ He collected fifty or sixty thousand dollars annually, principally 

 indeed, entirely, on goods imported overland from the United States. 



$500 the wagon load, without regard to th 



e con- 



tents of the wagon or value of the goods, and hence the duty was 

 very unjust and unequal. . . 



Mr. Alvarez informed me that the importations from the United 

 States varied very much but that he thought they would average 

 about half a million of dollars yearly, and no more. Mo<;t of the 

 wagons go on to Chihuahua without breaking their loads 

 ' New Mexico contains, according to the last census, made a few 

 years since, 100,000 inhabitants. It is divided into three depart- 

 ""l"" j^~, ^. northern, middle, and southeastern. These are again 

 sub-divided into counties, and the counties into townships The 

 aThZ-.'"' \°\^^^^^ division is incomparably the richest, containing 

 4S,000 inhabitants, many of whom are wealthy and in possession 

 ot farms, stock, and gold dust. •' - -^ 



- ^New Mexico, although its soil is barren, and its resources limit- 

 ed, unless the gold mm-es should, as is probable, be more extensively 

 developed hereafter, and the culture of the grape enlarged, is, from 

 Its position, in a commercial and military aspect, an all-important 

 mihtary possession for the United States. The road from Santa Fe 

 to 1? ort Leavenworth presents few obstacles for a railway, and, if it 



