Chap. VI. SETTLEMENTS AND AGRICULTURE. 291 
their favours to passing travellers. Small cottages, 
situated here and there in some corner, are the dwellings 
of these girls. I was told that even larger establishments, 
devoted to this traffic, are connected with certain settlements 
in this part of the country. Thus here, on the western 
edge of the great North American desert, are found the 
counterpart of African caravan-stations. 
On the other hand, it was pleasing to see here the 
beginnings of a sound culture, and to witness the courage 
with which this has been attempted. The new works of 
irrigation, for which the river has been used (throughout 
New Mexico the basis of all agriculture), and the maize- 
fields and plantations of other vegetables, produced an 
agreeable impression. No one who has not experienced 
this can, perhaps, quite understand the charm that attaches 
to any spot where human effort is perceptible after a long 
residence in a perfect wilderness. 
The buildings of this infant settlement are erected of 
adobes, with flat roofs, in the Mexican fashion, which 
carries one — although in a territory of the United States — 
quite into another world. Indeed, the whole of New 
Mexico has, and will retain, a character quite foreign to 
the spirit of the United States. 
On the 5th of October we arrived at Las Yegas, a 
miserable place in a valley running north and south, at 
the foot of the sandstone mountain mentioned in the pre- 
ceding chapter. The valley lies at an elevation of 6000 
to 7000 feet above the sea. Wheat and maize are grown 
here. The inhabitants of Las Yegas are a miserable 
population of New Mexicans ; amongst them have settled 
some Anglo-American retail dealers, innkeepers, and specu- 
lators, who inhabit the less miserable dwellings. The build- 
ings are all constructed of adobes, mostly consisting of a 
u 2 
