HUERFANO BUTTE. 
35 
dred fanegas of wheat and fifty of corn, with the requisite amount of beans and melons, constitute 
the largest total crop of this valley. They have a few cattle and horses—the latter very poor. 
The houses are built of adobe or sun-dried brick, without windows or other openings than a single 
/door, in entering which a man of six feet in stature must bow very low. In front of each house is 
enclosed a small space of ground, twenty yards in width, by poles planted in the earth and lashed 
to horizontal strips by rawhide thongs. These picketed yards are intended as a protection 
against Indians—the Utahs having killed some of their cattle last year, destroyed their grain, 
and stolen their horses. Corrals are attached to the backs of their houses, built in all respects 
like the front enclosures. With one exception all the houses of this settlement are joined, and a 
tall man can reach to the roof, on which the whole population, not absent in the fields, assembled 
on the approach of my party, not knowing whether to expect friends or foes. I enjoyed the 
hospitality of the smaller mansion, being invited to a seat on the only article of furniture in the 
room, a bench against the wall, spread with a blanket and furnished with a pillow. On the 
earthen floor, at the sides of the room, were two or three narrow beds on wool mattresses. I 
soon found the guide I wanted, and engaged his services hence to Fort Massachusetts, in the 
San Luis valley of New Mexico. Massalino is, by birth, of the Spanish New Mexican race, of 
about forty-five years of age; and having spent it entire in the wild life of a mountaineer—by turns 
a hunter, a trapper, a trader, a voyageur, a fighter, a farmer, and a guide—he is familiar with 
the country westward to the Pacific. Last year he lived at this place with his Pawnee squaw; 
but his losses by the Utahs were considerable, and he removed to the Pueblo, on the Arkansas, 
where he is, with his family, the sole occupant of the place. He planted a little corn there, but 
the high water of the river destroyed it, and he has no crop now growing. “ I have lived 
nine years on meat alone, at one time,” said he, “ in these mountains, without tasting bread 
or salt; and I can now live well enough for me with coffee and the little meat I can kill.” 
He is reputed a fine hunter. “ I never see a grizzly bear but I give him a shot. I try to hit in 
the right spot; but if I miss it, I have to run. We will have,” alluding to our trip, “ a fine 
chance for fun ;” and his dark liquid eyes flashed as he looked towards the mountains, and visions 
of his grizzly friends appeared to his imagination. But few men of experience are bold enough 
to attempt to shoot these animals unless accompanied by a friend well armed. The mistress of 
the house very courteously inquired where I would have my bed prepared, which I preferred 
leaving to her own convenience. I should, however, have been a little surprised, had this been 
my first visit to a New Mexican residence, at the place selected—in the yard, just in front of the 
door, under the broad, bright, blue canopy of heaven, brilliant with stars. I enjoyed the matronly 
grace and dignity of the mistress as she brought forth the pallet and spread the necessary blankets 
to exclude the chilly night winds from the mountains. There, too, were spread the beds for the 
family, the open air being preferred to the house during pleasant weather. I could, of course, 
procure no supplies at this place at this season of the year. 
August 7.—I returned this morning by a route somewhat to the west of that followed yesterday; 
and after passing the Granaros, crossed the Huerfano at the butte, and soon after reached camp, 
which had remained on the Cuchara. 
August 8.—We crossed immediately over to the Huerfano butte by the route which I had 
followed the previous day. This butte is one hundred and fifty feet in height, as determined by 
Mr. Homans, standing in the river bottom quite detached from the adjacent hills. Its diameter at 
the base is equal to twice its altitude, sloping up to its summit, which is about twenty-five by forty 
feet across. Its base is strewn around with prismatical blocks of granite rocks, of from one to 
six feet across, and its surface is also covered with these prisms, which are very dark—containing 
iron, perhaps, as a coloring matter. A narrow way, leading over the summit from the southeast, 
is nearly destitute of these rocks, on either side of which they are arranged in regular order, pre¬ 
senting a trap-like appearance. Latitude of this butte, 37° 45' 04". Captain Gunnison remarks 
in his journal, that our line of travel since leaving the Arkansas should nqt be followed; “but, 
