450- CHIHUAHUA 
we could trace the course of the Conchos by the wood 
along its banks. This, next to the Rio Grande, is the 
largest river in the State. It has its rise high up in 
the Sierra Madre; it first flows in a southerly, next in 
an easterly, then in a north-easterly, and finally in a 
northerly course, when it discharges itself into the Rio 
Grande near the Presidio del Norte. Its principal 
tributaries are the Florido, De Buenavista, San Pedro, 
Chihuahua, and Balleza. These, with their lesser 
branches, water more than a third of the State. The 
Conchos itself has a course of one hundred and forty 
leagues, or about three hundred and seventy miles. 
In eighteen miles we reached La Cruz, a small 
village of three hundred inhabitants, and about five 
miles further Las Garzas, both on the river Conchos. 
The bottom lands are here broad, and seemed to be 
highly cultivated. Large haciendas appeared from 
among thick groves of cotton-woods, and exhibited 
quite an agreeable spectacle, after several days’ travel - 
over barren districts. After passing Las Garzas, we 
forded the Conchos, here a fine clear and rapid stream 
about two hundred yards across. After a day’s jour- 
ney of thirty miles, we reached Santa Rosalia, and 
encamped on the banks of the Rio Florido, a small 
stream which enters the Conchos at this place. — 
Santa Rosalia is the most considerable town we had 
met with since leaving Chihuahua, having almost five 
thousand inhabitants. It stands on a spur of the pla 
teau in the angle formed by the Conchos and Florido 
Rivers, about sixty or eighty feet above the valley. 
Like all Mexican towns we had thus far seen, it 1s 02 
the decline. There is rather a fine church here in the 
