t 



■4g2 



Ex. Doff. No. 41. 



I 



chill winds came rusFmg along to meet us, we found ourselves ex- 

 posed to their full sweep, and- -we experienced the cold of a mid- 



■winter day. , . , i ^ r- 



' -Near three o'clock we formed our camp in the densest grove ot 



pine trees that we could, find. Having turned our hungry animals 



loose to gr. ze, we made a huge fire of pitch pine, and the rezinous 



-■wood soon gave forth fierce flames'and genial warmth. 



We had 



marched 15 'miles— cold and fatigue had well prepared us to enjoy 

 such a fireas we built. Before long, a number of Mexicans, with 

 eleven "carretas" loaded with corn, stopped and encamped, not 

 further from us than a stone's throw. We went to see if they had 

 s^y vegetables tp sell, and learned that thej 

 que," apd were going to "Albuquerque." 

 aried pumpkins, for w^hich they asked a most extravagant price. 

 Th-ese Mexicans work for three feals a day, (37| cents.) and yet 

 will often insist on having that price for a single stick of fire-wood, 

 which they obtain for the cutting, and which can be cut in a few 



were from ^* Tag>- 

 They offered us some 



minutes. Aitkongh the Mexicans seem to be so desirou.s of obtaining 

 xnonev, yet they do not know its true value or use. We often beard 

 of men of the highest class, whose single desiie sefvmed to be to 

 collect gold and silver and stow it awiiy. The major portion of 

 4he people live not one bit better than the negroes on a plantation 

 in our southern States; and the rico of the village, like the planter. 



nil that we questioned 



4 



4 



possesses everything; no one else owns a single sheep- 



1 have been much surprised by the many men and children of the 

 lower class that I have met with who both read and write; in fact,. 



seemed to be educated, thus far, but they 

 have no books; I only recollect to have seen a Roman Catholic 

 catechism at Padillas. Many of the sons of the ricos are well 

 educated; we saw several who had been at Union College, St- 

 Louis. Ti ey speak French and English, and understand their owo 

 language grammatically. 



^^ovember 1. — We found this day 'much more pleasant than the 

 preceding one, and soon resumed our march, our course still direct, 

 when at once, before we bad irone more than four miles, we caught 

 sight of the exlendcil plain, which may be considered as unbroken 

 from this place on to the land where the timber grows. To look 

 upon this boundless extent of prairie, fills the mind with ideas, not 

 of beauty, but of grandeur; and when, with the mind's eye, ^^ 

 travtl still further over successions of these boundless plains, one 

 is seized with a feeling allied to pain, as the mind expands to com- 

 rehend such vastness. Such were the impressions of the scene 

 efore us; and when we looked back, we saw the hoary heads of 

 the lofty and snow-capped mountains, to raid-heipht clad with som- 

 bre cedars, while round their base, and near to us, the rugged 

 rocks were piled, as if the wild disorder in which nature had first 

 liiro'^ii them had been anew confused by subterranean convulsions 



The bearing of the " L 



agunas Saladas,^' is S. 62"^ E., which is 



the same with the general bearing of the Albuquerque road sint'e 



A slight ridge that rise^ beyond these laktS 



ure first stiuck it. 



forms the dividing ridge between the iriterior basin in which they 



