CONCLUSIONS FEOM ESPEJO'S NAEEATrVT]. 223 



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)rty thousand souls. But this people haying refused admit- 



ance to their towns, the iSpaniards retumcdj and folIo"v\Tng 



20 leagues down a riyer called Eio de las Yacas (Eio Pecos), 



mited again with the Eio del IS'orte, and went homeward in 



July, 1583. In conclusion, the author adds, — ^^ Almighty 



God youchsafe His assistance in this husiness, that such 



numhers of souls redeemed by His blood may not utterly 



perish; of whose good capacity, wherein they exceed those 



of Mexico and Peru, we may boldly assert that they will 



embrace the Gospel and abandon such idolatry as now the 



most of tlieni do live in." 



If this account of Antonio de Espejo be a tolerably accurate 

 cbroniclc of facts, the Eio Grande yallej must hare been very 

 I well 2:)eopled. He describes no less than sixteen provinces or 

 kingdoms, and mentions others from hearsay; and if his 

 estimates of population at all approach the truth, there were 

 far more people in that one valley in the sixteenth century 

 than there are now in the whole of New Mexico and Arizona 

 muted, including both Mexicans and Americans. 



Although the Pueblo Indians seem to have been unac- 

 quainted with the working of metals, yet we hear reports of 

 gold and silver being discovered after this time (1 582) in many 

 parts of the very country which was reported by its discoverers 

 to be utterly unworthy of colonisation. It would, however, be 

 giving the subject more attention than is here desii'able, were 

 I to quote further from Spanish soui'ces, especially as I think 

 the chief object has been already gained, namely, of prolong 

 that the towns now in ruins were thickly inhabited when the 

 first Europeans entered the country. 



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