184 EL PASO AND 
The town of El Paso del Norte is situated on the 
western bank of the Rio Grande, otherwise known as 
the Rio Bravo del Norte, in the north-eastern corner 
of the State of Chihuahua. It is compactly built for 
the space of half a mile near the plaza; and from there it 
extends from five to ten miles along the rich bottom 
lands of the river, each house being surrounded by 
orchards, vineyards, and cultivated fields. The valley 
or bottom land is here from one to two miles in width. 
There were regular missionaries here before the year 
1600, who traced the valley far to the north ; the pre- 
cise date of their permanent establishment is not 
known, though I think it may with some certainty be 
placed in 1585. At the time of the advent of the 
Spaniards, the Piro Indians, who occupied the valley 
extending as far north as Taos, had a village called 
Sinecu, which still exists within the space now al- 
lotted to the town; and it is quite probable that from 
a missionary establishment here, arose the present 
town of El Paso. Its name is not owing to its being 
the pass of the river; for that is fordable at all points, 
by levelling its muddy banks, except where its current 
is deepened by being contracted within a very narrow 
space. Between two and three miles above the plaza, 
where the river forces its way through the mountains, 
there is a dam, the object of which is to raise the water 
and divert it into the acequdas, or irrigating canals, 
which conduct it through the bottom lands on both 
sides of the river. The principal of these canals, called 
the acequia madre, is about fifteen feet wide; from it 
smaller ones branch off in every direction. 
As may readily be supposed, with a rich alluvial 
