50 
EXPLORATIONS ON RIO GRANDE. 
To examine points for crossing Rio Grande, explorations have been made below Albuquerque, 
We first passed down the valley upon the left bank of the river. Opposite Pajarito, the arroyo of 
San Antonio comes down from the canon of Carnuel. Its slope seems uniform, and the course 
direct from the gorge through which the survey passed. At Pajarito the river bottom is wide and 
liberal constitution ; and as long as this contradiction is not abolished, the declamations of the Mexican press against the slavery 
of the United States must appear as hypocritical cant. 
“ Besides agriculture, the inhabitants of New Mexico pay a great deal of attention to the raising of stock, as horses, mules, cattle, 
sheep, and goats. Their stock is all rather of a small size, because they care very little for the improvement of the breed; but it 
increases very fast, and as no feeding in stables is needed in the winter, it gives them very little trouble. There are large tracts 
of land in New Mexico too distant from water to be cultivated, or in too mountainous parts, which afford, nevertheless, excellent 
pasturage for millions of stock during the whole year; but unfortunately here, as well as in the State of Chihuahua, the raising 
of stock has been crippled by the invasions of the hostile Indians, who considered themselves secret partners in the business, and 
annually take their share away. 
“A third, much neglected branch of industry in New Mexico are the mines. Great many now deserted mining places in New 
Mexico prove that mining was pursued with greater zeal in the old Spanish times than at present, which may be accounted for 
in various ways, as the present want of capital, want of knowledge in mining, but especially the unsettled state of the country 
and the avarice of its arbitrary rulers. The mountainous parts of New Mexico are very rich in gold, copper, iron, and some 
silver. Gold seems to be found to a large extent in all the mountains near Santa Fe, south of it in a distance of about 100 miles, 
as far as Gran Quivira, and north for about 120 miles up to the river Sangre de Cristo. Throughout this whole region gold dust 
has been abundantly found by the poorer classes of Mexicans, who occupy themselves with the w r ashing of this metal out of the 
mountain streams. At present the old and new Placers , near Santa Fe, have attracted most attention, and not only gold washes, 
but some gold mines too, are worked there. They are, so far as my knowledge extends, the only gold mines worked now in New 
Mexico. But as I have made from Santa Fe an excursion there for the special purpose of examining those mines, I must refer the 
reader, in relation to them, to that chapter of my narrative. As to the annual amount of gold produced in New Mexico, I am 
unable to give even an estimate. But as nearly all the gold of New Mexico is bought up by the traders, and smuggled out of the 
country to the United States, I believe that a closer calculation of the gold produced in New Mexico could be made in the differ¬ 
ent mints of the United States than in Mexico itself. Several rich silver mines were, in Spanish times, worked at Avo, at Cerrillos, 
and in theNambe mountains, but none at present. Copper is found in abundance throughout the country, but principally atlas 
Tijeras, Jemas, Abiquiu, Guadelupita de Mora, etc. I heard of but one copper mine worked at present south of the Placers. 
Iron, though also abundantly found, is entirely overlooked. Coal has been discovered in different localities, as in the Raton 
mountains, near the village of Jemez, southwest of Santa Fe, in a place south of the Placers, etc. Gypsum, common and selenite, 
are found in large quantities in Mexico; most extensive layers of it, I understood, exist in the mountains near Algodones, on the 
Rio del Norte, and in the neighborhood of the celebrated ‘ Salinas.’ It is used as common lime for whitewashing, and the crys¬ 
talline or selenite instead of window-glass. About four days’ travelling (probably 100 miles) south-southeast of Santa Fe, on the 
high table-land between the Rio del Norte and Pecos, are some extensive salt lakes, or ‘salinas,’ from which all the salt (muriate 
of soda) used in New Mexico is procured. Large caravans go there every year from Santa Fe in the dry season, and return with 
as much as they can transport. They exchange, generally, one bushel of salt for one of Indian corn, or sell it for one or even two 
dollars a bushel. 
“Not far from these salinas the ruins of an old city are found, of the fabulous l la Gran Quivira.' The common report in rela¬ 
tion to this place is, that a very large and wealthy city was once here situated, with very rich mines, the produce of which was 
once or twice a year sent to Spain. At one season, when they were making extraordinary preparations for transporting the 
precious metals, the Indians attacked them ; whereupon the miners buried their treasures, worth fifty millions, and left the city 
together; but they were all killed except two, who went to Mexico, giving the particulars of the affair, and soliciting aid to 
return. But the distance being so great, and the Indians so numerous, nobody would advance, and the thing was dropped. One 
of the two went to New Orleans, then under the dominion of Spain, raised 500 men, and started by w r ay of the Sabine, but was 
never heard of afterwards. So far the report. Within the last few years several Americans and Frenchmen have visited the 
place; and, although they have not found the treasure, they certify at least to the existence of an aqueduct, about ten miles in 
length, to the still standing walls of several churches, the sculptures of the Spanish coat of arms, and to many spacious pits, sup¬ 
posed to be silver mines. It was no doubt a Spanish mining town, and it is not unlikely that it was destroyed in 1680, in the 
general, successful insurrection of the Indians in New Mexico against the Spaniards. Dr. Samuel G. Morton, in a late pamphlet, 
suggests the probability that it was originally an old Indian city, into which the Spaniards, as in several other instances, had 
intruded themselves, and subsequently abandoned it. Further investigation, it is to be hoped, will clear up this point. 
“The climate of New Mexico is of course very different in the higher, mountainous parts, from the lower valley of the Rio del 
Norte; but, generally taken, it is temperate, constant, and healthy. The summer heat in the valley of the river will sometimes 
rise to nearly 100° Fahrenheit, but the nights are always cool and pleasant. The winters are much longer and more severe than 
in Chihuahua, the higher mountains are always covered with snow, and ice and snow are common in Santa Fe; but the Rio del 
Norte is never frozen with ice thick enough to admit the passage of horses and carriages, as was formerly believed. The sky is 
generally clear, and the atmosphere dry. Between July and October, rains fall; but the rainy seasons are here not so constant 
and regular as in the southern States. Disease seems to be very little known, except some inflammations and typhoidal fevers in 
the winter season. 
“The history of New Mexico lies very much in the dark. The Spaniards, it seems, received the first information about it in 
1581 from a party of adventurers under Captain Francisco de Levya Bonillo, who, upon finding the aboriginal inhabitants and 
the mineral wealth of the country to be similar to those of Mexico, called it New Mexico. In 1594, the then viceroy of Mexico, 
Count de Monterey, sent the gallant Juan de Oiiate, of Zacatecas, to New Mexico, to take formal possession of the country in the 
