344 EUINS AND PUEBLOS 



provisions. "When the Spaniards came up," said this Indian, "the despair 

 of the people was great; many threw themselves headlong into the frightful 

 depths below, preferring suicide to humiliating death at the hands of their 

 conquerors. Suddenly the Spirit Guadalupe, who is the custodian of the 

 canon, made his appearance, and from this moment the people could jump 

 down without any danger, and since this remarkable episode the image of 

 Guadalupe has been upon the rocks." On descending, I viewed this image, 

 which is a white figure, about ten feet in length, painted high up on the 

 vertical bluffs, apparently a difficult task for the unknown artist. The only 

 place from which the spot could be reached is a narrow prominence 30 to 

 40 feet below the picture. As there is a sort of halo around the head, such 

 as we are accustomed to see in pictures of saints, I believe this image to be 

 the work of a Spanish priest who desired to impose upon the people, for 

 which purpose he might have secretly made this picture, which to them is 

 a miracle. Again, in the valley, the Indian called my attention to a num- 

 ber of peach trees along the river-margin, which he said were planted by 

 the former inhabitants of Ateyala-keokva, but, from the fact that these 

 trees still bear fruit, it would seem that the impositions on the credulity of 

 these people by the Spanish priests are not of a very remote period. 



The reports of the Spaniards frequently mention Jemez. Castanada, 

 who accompanied Coronado on his marches through New Mexico, as early 

 as 1541—43, speaks of two great provinces in that vicinity, Jemez, and 

 north of it Juke-yunke. He also speaks of strongly-fortified places difficult 

 of access, and of a town, Braba, that was called by the Spaniards Valladolid 

 on account of the resemblance of its situation with that of this Spanish 

 town. I think that from this word is derived the name Vallatoa, used at the 

 present day by the inhabitants of Jemez to signify their town. In the 

 years 1692 and 1693 two war expeditions took place, under General 

 Diego de Vargas, against the Jemez, who had destroyed the churches, 

 murdered the priests, and declared themselves free from the Spanish yoke. 

 In the Spanish account of these occurrences, it is mentioned that the In- 

 dians fled to a high mesa and there bombarded the Spaniards with a shower 

 of stones Trustworthy Mexicans told me that there are ruins of twenty- 

 five or thirty towns upon the neighboring mesas and in the canons, and 



