REPORT ON THE RUINS IN NEW MEXICO.* 



By Dk. Oscar Loew. 



Among the few regions that were found, on the discovery of this con- 

 tinent, inhabited by people far advanced towards civilization, New Mexico, 

 no doubt, occupies a leading place. The first notices of these people were 

 published by Cabeza de Vaca (1536), who, during his adventurous and 

 most remarkable wanderings from Florida to the Gulf of California, tra- 

 versed New Mexico from east to west. All the Spanish records, though 

 sometimes very untrustworthy, agree in one point — the large number of 

 inhabited towns. If the statements of the Spanish writers are founded on 

 truth, the number of these towns was ten times that of the present pueblos, 

 or Indian towns, while, by a close examination, we arrive at a number 

 only about four times as great. Some Spanish writers estimated the whole 

 pueblo population at about 50,000; others, however, that of a single prov- 

 ince at 25,000. As a proof of Spanish exaggeration, however, I may 

 mention Castaneda's description of Acoma, a town which, according to his 

 estimate, was inhabited by 5,000 persons, and was built in three parallel 

 rows of houses. Now, I have visited this town and found the three rows of 

 houses still existing ; they extend from one side of a steep precipice to the 

 other, occupying the entire width of the precipitous bluffs about 300 feet 

 above the plain. But these rows of houses, which could never have been 

 any longer, could not have held more than about 1,000 people. At present 

 the population of the town is 800. Still it is an undeniable fact that New 



* Abstract from the Annual Eeport of the Chief of Engineers for 1875, Appendix LL. 

 22 O I 337 



