PHYSICAL CHANGES IN THE COUNTEY. 235 



\ 



Spaniards ; so that it is impossible to say whether slavery or 

 the Apaches, or hoth, caused the destruction of the entire 

 population. 



It only remains^ in concluding this account of the Puchlo 

 Indians and their history, to say a few words on a subject 

 usually brought forward as chief amongst the causes which 

 have led to the extinction of that race. 



I have heard it affirmed on all sides that the country has 

 become depopulated because it is no longer Capable of sustain- 

 ing its former inhabitants, and that as the face of natm^e 

 changed, so did those dependent upon nature diminish. The 

 country has changed for the worse. A few centuries ago, the 

 rain-fall was greater ; forests were more abundant ; spots were 

 productive which now are barren ; and sprmgs gushed from 

 the ground which now are diy. But at this period, also, a 

 much larger area of land was probably under cultivation — 

 both with and without ii-rigation— than to-day ; and I think 

 it far more likely that the decrease in the amount of land cul- 

 tivated tended to produce aridity than that the change of 



i 



Fh 



climate made the country -mmiliaLitable. The Spaniards pro- 

 bably did great mischief by stripping the hills of timber for 

 mining purposes, and thus drying up springs, the waters of 

 which were so needed in the valleys. The greater part of the 

 Bio Grande was swept of its timber, and is very different now 

 from what it was when Antonio de Espejo yisited it in 1582.* 

 The Apaches also have a very destructiye habit amongst their 

 long catalogue of vices of fii'ing the forests of their enemies. 

 Although these facts may account for the gradual diying up 

 of the country, they will not explain how it happens that the 



Veil timbered ; this view, howeTer, was taken in a district quite 

 and one, moreoyer, wliicli has remained so for a very long period. 



iininliabited 



