The pueblo of Sandia is situated in one of the most beautiful and fertile portions of the valley of the Rio Grande, about four miles below Bernalillo, at the foot of the Sandia Mountains. The town itself is located about a mile east of the river, the intervening land being covered with a luxuriant growth of cottonwoods along the river bank, forming a dense "bosque," with fields of corn and wheat, of melons, beans, and chili, and with fruitful vineyards of the mission grapes.

The pueblo itself is not attractive in appearance. It is built around an irregular plaza extending lengthwise from east to west and which is reached through still more irregular streets. The houses are generally one story in height, although two of those on the plaza, which have the appearance of considerable age, are higher. In front of many of them are water troughs, made of hollowed trunks of trees, and supported at a height of about four feet, by branched saplings firmly set in the ground. Large bee-hive-shaped ovens are also seen scattered around the plaza, and a number of these are set on top of the houses, which gives an odd appearance to the pueblo as first viewed from a distance, reminding one of the domes seen on buildings in the East.

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The present pueblo is not very ancient, being the only one except Laguna that has been established since the arrival of the Spaniards. All this portion of the Rio Grande Valley was thickly settled when first seen by Coronado and his soldiers, and constituted the region known as Tihuex. But the old pueblo of Sandia, which became a center of missionary effort at a very early date, was abandoned or destroyed in the time of the Pueblo Revolution of 1680.

In 1748, Friar Menchero, the comissary general of the Franciscan organization, who had been engaged in missionary work for six years, wrote to the governor stating that he had "converted and gained over 350 souls which I have brought from the Moqui pueblo; bringing with me the Cacique of these Moqui Pueblos, for the purpose of establishing their pueblo at a place called Sandia," and he asked for possession of the land at that point so as to prevent any convert from returning to apostasy. Thereupon the governor acceded to the request, and the new pueblo was established in due form by the name of "Our Lady of Sorrows and St. Anthony of Sandia."

The original church in the old pueblo finds special mention in history as the final resting place of the remains of Friar Lopez, one of the three Franciscans who constituted what is usually called the Mission of Friar Ruiz, in 1581. After his martyrdom, the body of Friar Lopez was interred in the pueblo of Puara where he had lived with Friar Ruiz, and there remained for thirty-four years. In 1614,

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Estevan de Perea, the comissary of the province, determined to remove it to what he considered a more important position, and the remains were therefore disinterred, in the month of February, and deposited in the newly erected church in the pueblo of Sandia, with great ceremony; a number of priests marching on foot, dressed in full robes. Tradition adds that when the procession began to move the bones of the saint commenced to perform miracles.

On the western edge of the town and across the wide acequia are the ruins of the old church, built under the direction of Padre Menchero immediately after the settlement of the pueblo in 1748. This was a building of considerable size, with walls of adobe fully three feet in width and so solidly built that though unprotected by a roof and exposed to the weather for many years, parts of them are still fifteen feet in height. The interior is very long and narrow, with transepts near the chancel; and the altar end is rounded, instead of having the usual hexagonal shape.

This church was evidently the center of an important station of the Franciscans. In front was a walled enclosure, in the center of which is still to be seen a great square adobe monument which was no doubt the base on which was erected a huge cross. On the sides and behind, are extensive buildings, once constituting the convento or monastery, and adapted to the accommodation of a large number of friars. These are still in good order and are occupied as dwellings by a number of Mexican families.

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About forty years ago this church was abandoned and a new one built on a slight elevation just north of the pueblo, on ground covered with the ruins of ancient buildings, no doubt a part of the old town existing before the Revolution of 1680. As previously stated, Sandia is not an attractive town. The railroad runs within a hundred yards of some of its houses, but the impression given from the cars is far different from that derived from the passing glimpse at the immaculate streets of Santo Domingo, the glistening yesoed walls of San Felipe, or the thrift of Isleta. The houses look uncared for and some are almost ruinous, and the proverbial cleanliness of the Rio Grande pueblos is not characteristic of this one. There is no system in its construction, the houses being built apparently in the most convenient vacant spot, without regard to the lines of other buildings, or the straightness or width of any street. In fact it looks in this respect more like an irregular Mexican village than a town built by that methodical people, whose ancient cities, as both history and their ruins attest, were models of rectangular regularity and whose houses were so uniform in construction that one might walk on the even terraces from one to another around the entire interior plaza of a three-storied city.

But little pottery is made here, the people being agricultural. Besides the ordinary grains and vegetables, they raise considerable quantities of apples, peaches, apricots, plums, and grapes, the sale of the latter affording quite a considerable revenue.

Isleta is the largest of the present Rio Grande Valley pueblos, with a population estimated at 1,250 or 1,300, a splendid domain of agricultural land and one of the most interesting Mission Churches. It is directly on the west bank of the Rio Grande, about thirteen miles south of Albuquerque, and it is here that the two lines of the Santa Fe Railroad system separate, one going south to E1 Paso and the other west to California. From the railroad station, the whole town is visible, with its surroundings of vineyards, orchards, and alfalfa fields; and to every train that stops comes a procession of women and girls bringing great trays of apricots and grapes, or peaches and pears, according to the season, and of bright colored pottery without regard to the time of year.

The name of Isleta, or Little Island, arose from the fact that the original village was stationed on a kind of island or delta between the bed of a mountain arroyo and the Rio Grande. The pueblo marked the southern boundary of the province which in Coronado's time was called Tihuex, and extended from Isleta northward until it met the Queres province near San Felipe, and included the Puara of Friar

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Ruiz and Espejo, Sandia, and all the valley in the present vicinity of Albuquerque and Bernalillo. Benavides in 1630 describes this Tihua province and the church at Isleta as follows: "This nation includes fifteen or sixteen pueblos and perhaps 7,000 souls, all baptized, in a district twelve or thirteen leagues in length, with two conventos, that of San Francisco of Sandia and that of San Antonio of Isleta, in which there are schools for teaching reading and writing, singing and playing on various instruments. These two conventos are very costly and beautiful." Thus without going farther back we know that by 1629, when Benavides left New Mexico, Isleta was the seat of an important mission with a handsome church and convento and a resident priest. It is interesting to know that when the Tihua towns in the Salinas Valley, Cuara, Tajique, and Chilili, were attacked by the Indians of the Plains, and finally abandoned, their inhabitants came into the Rio Grande Valley and settled at Isleta, thus adding very considerably to the population of that pueblo.

At the time of the Pueblo Revolution of 1680 it had become a comparatively large town, with 2,000 inhabitants, and at the first news of the uprising it was designated as the point at which all the Spaniards should rendezvous for mutual protection. When Governor Otermin left Santa Fe on his retreat, he confidently expected to find the remains of the little Spanish army, and all the inhabitants of the lower country, congregated there. But Alonzo

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Garcia, who was lieutenant governor, supposing that Otermin was killed in the uprising, and fearful of an attack from the Indians, had already left Isleta for Paso del Norte, taking with him many of the inhabitants of the pueblo as well as the Spaniards who had gathered there. Governor Otermin, with all the refugees from Santa Fe and the north, reached Isleta on August 27, 1680, but found it entirely abandoned and without a single inhabitant left to tell the tale of the retreat. It was not till the governor, with his long caravan of weary Spaniards, arrived at Alamillo, near Socorro, that they met and united with the similar procession under Garcia that had started south from Isleta.

In the campaign of 1681 for the reconquest of New Mexico, Isleta played a very important part. It was about the 1st of December when Otermin's army reached the town and found it reoccupied by Indians to the number of 1,500 or more. At first they were disposed to resist, but finally surrendered, renewed their obligations and brought many children to be baptized. During the year the old church had been burned, and its walls used for a corral for the animals owned by the people. Otermin continued his march as far as Sandia, and part of his army visited Cochití and Santo Domingo, but he finally retired to Isleta where the re-Christianized Indians were threatened by those still in rebellion. Finally the expedition was abandoned and the Spaniards returned to El Paso, accompanied by the Christian Indians of Isleta who were afraid to remain, and who

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subsequently established a new town in what is now Texas, where it still exists as Isleta del Sur.

More than ten years later, on the final reconquest of New Mexico by De Vargas, that remarkable general made Isleta his headquarters for a considerable time, while conciliating the Queres Pueblos and preparing for his successful march to Santa Fe. As soon as possible after the pacification of the province, the church was restored; that being the first business that was pressed upon both Spaniards and natives by the authorities, civil and religious.

The church in Isleta is very well located in the center of the town and fronting upon a large public plaza. It is one of the largest and most important in New Mexico, and is flanked with extensive buildings used as a residence for the priest, and other ecclesiastical purposes. The church itself is of adobe, one hundred and ten feet by twenty-seven feet in the inside, with walls four feet in thickness, and lighted by four high windows. It is floored throughout with boards, but contains no seats.

St. Augustine is the patron saint of Isleta, and so the church is dedicated to him, and his figure is of course the predominant one. There is the old statue, about two feet high, carved in wood, with black beard and tonsured head; the robes decorated with the figured gold which is a distinguishing mark of the ancient wood carvings which came in with the reconquerors; and there is the new statue of twice the size, beautifully colored, and characteristic of the style which the modern French priests have introduced.

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The latter is honored now by being the chief figure in the procession; but a good priest told me that the people had not transferred their affection to the new image, and mournfully insisted that it did not hear their prayers so well as the old one of their fathers.

In the body of the church are four large and ancient oil paintings; one of St. Bartholomew with the saw, one of a venerable saint with a square and book, one of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and one of Santa Rosalía. The latter is a very valuable and beautiful work of art, and will well repay a careful study. Behind the altar, on either side of the large statue of St. Augustine, are figures of the Virgin and St. Joseph; a larger image of the Virgin stands to the right; and in front is a small wooden carved statue of the mother of Our Lord in the antique Spanish style and no doubt cotemporary with the "old" San Agustin. On the walls around, are several crucifixes of various ages and styles, and an interesting painting of the Assumption, and a multitude of mirrors and painted lithographs of saints, in the embossed tin frames which were so general in New Mexico until recent years.

No mention of Isleta, far less a description of its ancient Mission Church, would be at all complete which did not allude to the extraordinary phenomenon, certainly believed in by thousands of people, known as the Rising of the Coffin of Padre Padilla. With no pretense of explanation, or any certainty of statement, we simply give the story as it has been

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repeated for many, many years, and has the confidence of many, many people. As everyone at all familiar with New Mexican history knows, Juan de Padilla was the first Christian martyr of the Southwest. When Coronado's expedition set out on its return to Mexico in the spring of 1542, Father Padilla and his brother Franciscan, Luis de Escalona, announced their determination to remain among the Indians as missionaries, as long as they were permitted to live. So the Spanish army retraced its way back to civilization; and the two devoted Franciscans were left alone to endeavor to convert half a continent of Indians to the Christian faith. Tradition tells us that Juan de Padilla crossed the Great Plains to do his work in the far-famed Quivira, and History has crowned him as without doubt the first martyr to lose his life in that distant region.

Tradition again steps in, and tells us that in some way his body was transported from the scene of his martyrdom, and when a Christian church was erected at Isleta it found its resting place close to the altar in that sacred temple. History throws somewhat of doubt on this, as being difficult to understand, and suggests that the martyr whose remains are revered in the Isleta church is some other one of the early Franciscans who suffered death later and in the nearer vicinity, so that there is more probability of his entombment there; and the historian Frank de Thoma wrote a learned treatise on the subject in 1895 arguing that the sacred remains might be those of Friar Ruiz or one of his two companions who were martyred in 1580, or of one of the

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twenty-one Franciscan missionaries murdered in the Pueblo Revolution just a hundred years later.

The local tradition, however, is untouched by any of these historic doubts, and clings tenaciously to the belief that the coffin entombed at Isleta contains the body of Juan de Padilla and no other. The story is no new one, but has existed for generations, and is briefly told by one of the most intelligent citizens of central New Mexico, as follows: "No one at Isleta has any doubt that the remains of Padre Padilla were brought from Quivira to the pueblo of Isleta and buried there within the church. The coffin was made from a large cottonwood tree hollowed out for that purpose. Everybody in that vicinity firmly believes that once every year the remains of the padre come to the surface, so as to be seen, and the people were allowed to view the body before it was buried again. Many claim to this day to have pieces of the clothing that the good old priest wore, made of a kind of serge. I lived not far away when a boy and heard the story all my life, and it never occurred to me to have the slightest doubt of its truth. The old people all believe that on a certain day the coffin in some mysterious way pushes itself up through the earth to the very surface, and the remains of the saint are then exposed, being very well preserved, dry as a mummy, with long dark whiskers; and that even his clothing is in a remarkable state of preservation. Many of the people have little pieces of the grave clothes, which are supposed to have worked many extraordinary cures."

Whatever version of the tradition is correct and

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whatever may be the exact facts, the belief of thousands of people must have some foundation, and this strange story adds to the interest of the old church; and the place where the coffin is said to rise periodically is certainly an object of interest.

Isleta is admitted to be the richest and most prosperous of all of the Pueblo towns, and this has been true for many years. It possesses a large acreage of very fertile soil, and the people have shown much intelligence in raising diversified crops, including many kinds of fruit, instead of confining their products to a few kinds of grain. The beautiful vineyards that surround the town are a delight to the eye, and produce enormous crops of the Mission grape, which is one of the most delightful varieties for eating, as well as an excellent wine producer. Apricots, peaches, and pears are also raised in large quantities.

As a rule the Pueblo Indians do not accumulate money. As a people they are not accumulators of any kind; but are generally satisfied to raise enough produce to meet the needs of life, year by year, without any desire to heap up riches. In most of the pueblos the wealthiest of the people are those who possess the most Navajo blankets and strings of fine coral or turquoise beads. What they have acquired, over and above the requirements for current living and the raising of a family, is invested in that way or in a few animals.

But at Isleta it is different. Here for many years there have been really rich men, rich according to

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the American standard of wealth, in the gold and silver coin of the realm. A curious piece of history, not usually known in these days, gives a remarkable illustration of this fact.

In the time of the Texan invasion, in 1862, the United States army officers in charge of the finances in New Mexico, suddenly found themselves entirely without funds. On account of the slow and difficult communication across the Great Plains, between the Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains, transportation was irregular, or perhaps in the vast transactions of the great war someone had forgotten to transmit the necessary money for the maintenance of the little Union army far away on the Rio Grande. At all events the paymasters were without funds, and every resource was exhausted. There were no banks, and the merchants had need of all their available funds. It was then, when all ordinary methods had failed, and the officers were almost in despair, that the person from whom they secured the necessary money to meet the immediate exigencies of the army was the governor of the pueblo of Isleta, a very intelligent and fine looking Indian, named Ambrosio Abeytia. He was considered at the time to be the wealthiest Pueblo Indian in the Territory, and without any hesitation he furnished the American commander with $18,000 in specie, merely taking a receipt in recognition of the obligation. Years passed without his making any claim upon the government for this amount, as he imagined that it would be returned without request on his part when

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it was convenient to the national authorities; but after waiting twelve years, he concluded to take a trip to Washington on the subject and proceeded there accompanied by his nearest friend, named Padilla, who was also for a number of years governor of Isleta, and by John Ward, then the United States Indian agent for the Pueblos. it is gratifying to know that through the personal interest of General Grant, then president of the United States, he received the amount so generously loaned in the time of need, with the thanks of the government. Hon. Amado Chaves, who has since held many positions of honor, was then a young man in the Interior Department in Washington, and was called on to take charge of Don Ambrosio during his sojourn in the capital and accompany him on his return to New Mexico; and he gives a most interesting account of the interview between General Grant and the Isleta governor, in which he acted as interpreter.

In many respects Isleta is one of the most interesting of all the pueblos. Its people are certainly the best known of any Pueblo Indians to the general American public, for the town is so conspicuous from the Santa Fe Railroad, and so easy of access from Albuquerque, that it is seldom without visitors, and its women are never without a fair representation in front of the Alvarado Hotel and the Harvey curio establishment, for the benefit of the tourist travelers on each passing train.

There are a number of festivals during the year when an opportunity is afforded to see the ceremonial

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dances of the people; some of these are similar to those to be seen at other pueblos, and some are peculiar to Isleta itself. The great annual festival on the Saint's Day of San Agustin, the 19th of September, is the largest affair of the kind, but is less interesting to the tourist than similar occasions in some more remote pueblos, because of the enormous crowd of visitors from the neighboring towns in the Rio Grande Valley, who literally take possession of the pueblo for that day. In the course of time it has become more of a Mexican fiesta than an Indian one; the people of the pueblo being almost crowded out of their own town, or rather, showing their extreme politeness and hospitality by giving way to the visitors who fill the plaza and the streets and many of the houses themselves.

There is a festival, or rather a succession of festivals, of which foot races are the feature, held on Sundays in Lent, ending on Easter Sunday, in which a race course 320 yards in length is prepared, and sixteen contestants, eight on each side, take part. Then there is another festival in the spring, popularly known as the Acequia Dance; and a peculiar celebration, exclusively belonging to Isleta, which precedes the regular festival of San Agustin by about two weeks, and is known as the festival of San Agustinito (the Little St. Augustine).

All of these are connected with religious services in the old Mission Church, which thus hallow the enjoyments of the people.

With the possible exception of Isleta, Laguna is the best known of all the pueblos to the traveler, as the main line of the Santa Fe Railroad, until very recently, passed directly through the lower edge of the town, and a full view of the entire pueblo was afforded to the passengers.

It is sixty-four miles west from Isleta and seventy-nine from Albuquerque along the railroad, but less than fifty miles from either in a direct line, and is the center of one of the most prosperous and progressive of the Pueblo Indian communities. That very spirit of progress, however, has been a detriment rather than a benefit to the village of Laguna itself, as the people who were originally concentrated in the one town have become scattered in various communities in order to carry on their farming operations to better advantage. In consequence of this, the town is almost deserted in the summer, and even in the winter many of the old houses are vacant and going to ruin.

The pueblo is built upon a great mass of rock which rises gradually from the San Jose River on the south, and has been so smoothed by more than two centuries of constant passing of moccasined feet

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that its polished surface glistens in the sunlight. The usual lines of travel are deeply indented in the rock by this same constant use, and these lead up from all sides to the center of the town where the old church stands with its walled yard in front. The windows in the houses, where there are any, are "glazed" with sheets of selenite, a crystallized gypsum which is semitransparent, and affords a fair degree of light, although objects cannot be distinguished through it. Until the introduction of glass from the United States, all the windows in central New Mexico were filled with selenite, while in those north of Santa Fe mica was used; in each case the translucent substance most easy to obtain near at hand being employed.

Laguna is one of the pueblos whose whole history is known to us, as it was founded in 1699. Shortly before that time Indians from Acoma had settled near where Laguna is situated, for farming purposes, and on account of the fine hunting for deer and antelope in the vicinity. They were joined by residents of Zia, Zuni, and other neighboring pueblos and were permanently established as a settlement about the time of the visit of Governor Cubero in July, 1699. A dam in the San Jose River caused the formation of quite a lake, from which the town received its name. At one time it contained no less than nineteen distinct clans, but many of these are now extinct. The population, however, has steadily increased; being 1,384 in 1905; and 1, 583 in 1910.

In several respects Laguna differs from other

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pueblos. It is very progressive and fully half of its population has abandoned the old customs and shown a desire to meet modern conditions. No doubt this is largely owing to the influence of three young men, all surveyors, who came together to Laguna about 1870, settled permanently in the town, and married Pueblo Indian girls. They have lived there ever since, engaged in almost constant official surveys. Each of them in turn has been governor of the pueblo. Their houses were clustered around the old depot, just below the pueblo, and were surrounded by fruit and shade trees. Colonel Walter G. Marmon died a few years ago, leaving an interesting family, and Colonel Robert G. Marmon and Major George H. Pradt remain where they settled years ago.

When the new progressive element began to assert itself there were sharp disputes between them and the conservatives, and a number of the latter emigrated to Isleta. The progressives had strength enough to bring about the abandonment of the old ceremonial dances, and on the death of the cacique prevented the election of a successor, so that the pueblo has been without a head to its ancestral religion for a number of years. These changes, and the scattering of the people in search of better agricultural land, have loosened the hold of the old faith and the multiplicity of different clans into which the people were divided is gradually dying out.

More than two hundred of the younger generation of both sexes are graduates from Carlisle and other

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schools, and many of the men are employed by the railroad company in work of various kinds; this has introduced a considerable knowledge of English, while the older generation spoke only the Queres language, either here or at Acoma. In this the people differed from those of the pueblos in the Rio Grande Valley where everyone speaks Spanish as well as his native tongue. This condition at times leads to surprises and some amusement. A short time ago the writer was visiting the pueblo, making a few kodak pictures, some of which are reproduced in this volume, and wished if possible to obtain a view of the interior of the church. But the doors were locked and the only key in possession of the sacristan. Directed by some of the people who spoke Spanish, he soon found that aged official, but unfortunately the latter understood neither Spanish nor English, while the writer knew no Queres; so the sacristan indicated that he would go for an interpreter and soon brought out from a house near by a dusky maiden attired in full Indian dress, showing the shapely ankles and small bare feet characteristic of the Pueblo girls, who was supposed to know a little English. In very simple words and slow enunciation the writer told what he wanted and all proceeded to the church, which proved to be very dark within, as it was in the afternoon and the only light came from the open door on the east. So the writer said, continuing the deliberate style in order to be understood, "It--is--too--dark--here," whereupon the pretty maiden looked up and quickly

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responded, "Yes, you would need a time exposure here." Explanations followed the surprise, and it appeared that the girl had spent five years at Carlisle. A short time after in going the rounds of the houses looking for euriosities, with the usual question, "Quien tiene cosas antiguas, como hachas de piedra?" the girl who was addressed answered, "I don't understand you, I don't know any Spanish," and a similar explanation followed.

The parish church, as in most of the pueblos, is by far the largest and most imposing building, and its commanding position on the summit of the stone

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bluff, makes it especially prominent. The building itself is about one hundred and five by twenty-three feet, built of stone, and on one side are a number of rooms originally used by the Franciscans who erected the church, for themselves and visiting brethren. In the front wall above the roof are two openings, in each of which an antique bell is hung, the whole being surmounted by a plain cross.

The interior of the church is well worthy of a careful inspection. The ceiling is of the usual carved and ornamented vigas, and the walls are carefully plastered and in good repair. Along both sides of the nave is a line or belt of painting four feet wide extending from four to eight feet from the floor, made up of many repetitions of two designs, which in bright red and yellow and green, with heavy border lines of black, are quite effective. The walls of the chancel, both behind the altar and on the sides, are painted in a kind of arabesque; on the right is a painting of Santa Barbara with her tower, and on the left one of San Juan Nepomuceno holding a cross in the right hand and a palm in the left. Between these two is a large picture of St. Joseph on elk skin, undoubtedly the largest painting on skin in New Mexico and perhaps in the world, and above this is a representation of the Three Persons of the Trinity. The front of the altar, which is nine by four feet in size, is entirely covered with skin so tightly drawn that without a careful examination the painting upon it appears to be on wood. One single skin used here is no less than seven feet long.

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This and its surroundings are covered with Christian symbols, and quaint images of saints are seen on every side, but singularly enough on the ceiling just above are the emblems of the older native religion; the sun, the moon, and the rainbow being most prominent. Near the sun are two white stars representing morning, and near the moon are eight yellow stars representing night) This curious combination of Christianity and paganism is found in some other Pueblo churches, and is in evidence in many of the ceremonial dances which are held on Christian saints' days; and it shows the attempt to engraft the new religion upon the old without too much friction, practiced by some missionaries, in contrast with the system practiced by others of insisting on the complete eradication of the old.

We present three pictures of this very interesting church, which has experienced no substantial change from the time of its foundation more than two centuries ago. The largest of these is from a striking photograph showing the church building and the double storied convento as it appeared thirty or forty years ago. Another is a direct front view taken from the foot of the steps which lead from the little irregular plaza to the open gateway. The third is taken from a wall on the east side of the plaza and includes the entire walled "campo santo" in front of the church.

One of the most remarkable lawsuits in the history of jurisprudence appears upon the records of the Supreme Court of the Territory of New Mexico in

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1857, under the title of the "Pueblo of Acoma vs. the Pueblo of Laguna." It related to a picture which for many years hung in this very church. While the decision is on record, there are different versions of details, and we give the one adopted by theChicago Record. The lawsuit was brought to determine the ownership of a picture of St. Joseph, which, it is claimed, was brought to Acoma in 1629 by Fray Ramirez, to whom it was presented by Charles II of Spain. St. Joseph is the patron saint of the pueblo of Acoma, and this picture was an object of especial veneration by the natives, not only because it was a gift from

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the king, but because it was supposed to possess miraculous powers. Whenever an attack from the Apaches was expected, whenever a drought dried up the water in the irrigating ditches, whenever an epidemic of smallpox or other pestilence prevailed, whenever the children were ill, and whenever the tribe started upon its annual hunt, St. Joseph in the chapel was always appealed to as regularly and with the same faith as the incantations of the medicine men. Acoma was prosperous and the peace and health and wealth of the village were piously attributed to the possession of that picture.

The neighboring pueblo of Laguna was not so fortunate. While Acoma prospered in all respects, Laguna suffered from continuous evils. The crops failed, cloudbursts destroyed portions of the village, epidemics carried off scores of children, calamity followed calamity, so that at last they sent a commission to Acoma asking the loan of the picture of St. Joseph, in order that he might restore prosperity and bring blessing to the afflicted town.

It was a most unusual and momentous occasion, and required many long and solemn councils before the decision could be reached. The Lagunas enlisted the coöperation of their priest, who had a consultation with the missionary at Acoma. They appealed to Father Mariano de Jesus Lopez, the superior of the Franciscans, who ordered a season of prayer and penance in both villages, at the close of which the caciques were to draw lots for the saint, believing that God would direct the result.

The lot decided in favor of Acoma, and the Laguna

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Indians were so indignant that they determined to take the saint by force, and while the people of Acoma were celebrating their victory, a band of Laguna warriors broke into the chapel and stole the picture. When the theft was discovered there would have been a bitter and bloody conflict but for the intervention of Father Mariano, who persuaded the Acomas to be generous and let the Lagunas have the benefit of the influence of the miraculous picture for a few months, provided they would agree to surrender it at the end of that time. His advice prevailed, and the Lagunas made many promises, which they were never willing to fulfill. There was a change in their condition immediately after, and they prospered immensely, which, of course, was attributed to the presence of the precious picture, and they feared that if it were returned to Acoma their luck would change. So time passed and, notwithstanding the admonitions of Father Mariano and the priest at Laguna, the Indians refused to part with the picture, which was protected by a guard day and night for more than half a century.

Finally, the people of Acoma appealed to the courts and filed a bill for a mandamus compelling the pueblo of Laguna to return the saint to its lawful owners.

There were few newspapers in those days, and very little information of current interest was published, so that we have to depend upon tradition for the history of the case. All we know is that it was hotly contested, and that the lawyers' fees made

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both pueblos poor. Judge Kirby Benedict, sitting as chancellor, decided in favor of the original owners, and ordered that the Lagunas surrender the precious painting to the cacique of the Acomas.

When the decision became known the latter appointed a delegation to bring the saint home. While they were on their journey half way to Laguna they found the saint resting against a mesquite tree. They considered this a miracle, and the people still believe that when St. Joseph heard of the decision of the court he was in such a hurry to get back to his home in Acoma that he started out by himself. This extraordinary picture still hangs over the altar of the little chapel at Acoma, and the faith in its virtues has never failed.

This famous pueblo and its massive Mission Church are situated about twelve miles south of the Santa Fe Pacific Railroad and are reached from the stations at Laguna and McCarty's.

Few travelers who have visited Acoma would fail to agree that it is the most wonderful habitation of man in the United States, and better worth a visit than any other, east or west. It is absolutely unique in its location, and well deserves the name of the "City of the Sky," so often applied to it. The giant rock on whose summit it has its seat, rises perpendicularly nearly four hundred feet from the great plain below, which is itself over seven thousand feet above the sea. The cliff, or mesa, as every elevation with a level top is called in New Mexico, has been well compared to a lofty rocky island of the sea; the only difference being that one is surroundeded by water and the other by air. The area of its summit is not far from a hundred acres, but it has a remarkably rough and irregular contour, indented by deep bays which almost bisect it, and by a multitude of lesser chasms; so that its circumference resembles

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that of the rocky islets on the coast of Maine or of Norway.

Not far away, a most striking feature of the wonderful landscape which is presented on all sides of this gigantic cliff, is its elder sister, the Enchanted Mesa--Kat-sí-mo--higher even than the mesa of Acoma, and which all believe to have been the site of the original city. Its story, as it has come down by tradition from that fateful day, is that its summit was the impregnable throne of the Ancient People who tilled the beautiful valley below, long centuries ago; and that it was only accessible by the narrow perpendicular pathway, in which the little niches for hands and feet cut in the solid rock made a ladder of stone up the dizzy height. Suddenly, in the time of summer work, when every man and nearly every woman was busy in the fields in the valley far below--only three old women, too feeble for the terrible climb, being left in the deserted town-- came a terrific storm; the lightning struck on the edge of the cliff just where the strange stone ladder was indented, and scaled off a great fragment of the mighty rock, which crashed down to the plain, carrying with it this sole method of communication with the great world below.

The industrious Indians in the fields were cut off forever from their ancient homes, and the three sad watchers on the heights lived out their solitary lives, until death once more united them with theirs more fortunate kindred. These latter, finding a return to the lofty summit impossible, built their new city

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on the adjacent cliff and called it "Ah-ko," the Acuco of the first Spanish explorers and the Acoma of today. The unique formation of this wonderful aerial city makes it easy of identification through all the chronicles of the early explorations, and on the ancient maps it always appears situated on the summit of a lofty mesa, and is the only town that has any such topographical distinction.

The history of Acoma is perhaps the most romantic of any of the Pueblo Indian strongholds. It was first heard of by Friar Marcos in 1539, by the name of Ahacus. Then came Alvarado, a year later, and we have the first description of its wonderful location. Forty years afterwards came Espejo and his little company and stayed for three days as guests within the pueblo.

After Onate's settlement at San Gabriel in 1598, he visited Acoma and was received in friendly manner, but the leading chief, Zutucapan, endeavored to have the Spanish governor enter a large estufa, in which he was to be killed; and this plan only failed through the suspicions of Onate, who declined to make the proposed visit. Within a month after, Don Juan Saldivar, the nephew of Onate, with a small party, was attacked on the cliff by the Acomas under the same old leader, and after a terrific combat Saldivar was killed, and five Spaniards, driven to the edge of the mesa, were forced to leap for their lives, but by wonderful good fortune, considered by the Spaniards to be miraculous, escaped death, and only received severe bruises.

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To avenge the death of his brother, came Vicente Saldivar, with every available soldier, from San Gabriel, on January 21, 1599, and found the Indians massed in great numbers on the heights of the mesa. The natural fortress seemed impregnable, but the Spaniards succeeded by strategy in reaching the summit in the night, and a terrific conflict ensued, lasting almost three days, and resulting in the burning of the houses of the pueblo and the destruction of nearly all of the Indians. It is perhaps the most famous battle in all New Mexican history.

The small remaining population accepted the sovereignty and the religion of the Spaniards, and a large church was built about 1629 by Friar Juan Ramirez. Some historians insist that this is the church which still exists, and that it is almost the only original edifice that survived the Revolution of 1680. Others contend that the original structure was destroyed at the time of that revolution, when the Franciscan missionary, Lucas Maldonado, was ruthlessly martyred by the people he had come to serve. The church itself, whether the original edifice or reconstructed after 1693, is one of the most remarkable of all the ancient missions which have survived the ravages of time; and has recently been selected as the model from which the New Mexico building at the Panama Exposition at San Diego has been designed. The building is of enormous proportions, one hundred and fifty feet long and forty feet high, and exceedingly massive. The pictured

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illustration gives an excellent idea of its appearance. It includes, besides the church proper, the convento rooms and cloisters which tell of the time when it was a center of missionary effort. The writer has slept at night in one of these ancient chambers and found it as peaceful a resting place as in the days of the old Franciscans.

The crowning wonder, however, of this great adobe Mission--that which makes it absolutely unique among the churches of the land--is that every particle of its substance was brought, painfully and laboriously, up from the plain below. The great rocky mesa on which Acoma stands is utterly devoid of earth. There is no soil for vegetation, far less for timber; there is no clay for adobes; not even common soil to form a graveyard, where the dead may meet their mother earth. The rock of the great cliff has been worn to smoothness and polish by the storms of heaven and the feet of man; any foreign substance is quickly washed away by the summer showers; the whole surface is as hard as adamant. So every ounce of material in the great adobes which form the massive walls, has been brought up from the depth of the valley below, and in the most laborious way ever known to man. For in those days there was no road or trail but the almost perpendicular passage in the cleft of the great cliff; no animal could possibly ascend, and every burden was brought on the backs of men, to whom one misstep would bring destruction. No one who has not seen the ancient places of ascent can understand

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the toil, the patience, and the dangers that were involved. And the walls were far from all, for the wide roof required timbers forty feet long and more than a foot square; and these were brought by men--not horses--twenty miles from the San Mateo Mountains, and then carried up the dizzy height-- how, no ordinary modern white man can well imagine--up those three hundred and fifty feet toward the sky, to form the covering of the House of God.

Where in the world is there such a monument of zeal and self sacrifice! And more than this. The graveyard is a greater miracle than the church itself. There was no earth on the storm-swept mesa in which to bury the dead, and to inter them in the valley would be far from consecrated ground; and even if there had been earth, the square in front of the church sloped off too rapidly to hold it for a single year. And so these same Indian wonderworkers built a stone wall around a square two hundred feet across, a wall forty-five feet high at the outer edge, like a giant box, and then little by little brought up from the depth below, in sacks on their bare backs, the precious earth, so common everywhere else, so greatly needed here. Think of those burdens borne up the dangerous height, where only shallow niches gave a foot-hold, and where a loss of balance meant swift destruction!

The whole town is of the greatest interest, and is the finest specimen of the terraced Pueblo architecture that still exists. It was built in three very long

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continuous blocks, each nearly a quarter of a mile in length and three stories high, and these buildings have been but little changed even in modern times. With the entrance to the town this is different. As the American Occupation brought protection from the assaults of nomadic tribes, the question of defense became less important, and gradually the old perpendicular entrances were superseded by a slanting roadway cut in the rock, that is available for animals and even vehicles.

The view as you approach the mesa from the plain is as novel as it is inspiring. Long lines of Indian girls are passing up and down the trails all day, carrying water from the springs on the plain below. There is no water on the top of the mesa, except that which is collected in the vast communal basin scooped in the sandstone. In time of drought this basin is actually dry, and all the water that is used by the Acomans is brought up from the plain below in gaily decorated water jars that are balanced on the heads of the Acoma maidens. The town itself, when once you have reached the top of the mesa, is something never to be forgotten. There are the three long rows of buildings, with ten large communal houses. The streets and alleys are very narrow, and when looking down between their walls one always gets a wonderful effect of distance, for the vision leaps off the edge of the mesa and out on the plain, no matter which way you look. Some of the houses are built right on the edge of the cliff, and as nearly all Acomans sleep on the roof, especially

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during the summer months, it is a wonder that some of them do not roll off to certain death. At night the herds of burros, goats, and cows are driven in by the boys who act as herders, and the sight is something never to be forgotten. The brilliant colors of a New Mexican sunset light up the pastoral scene like a huge painting. In fact, morning, noon, and night, Acoma will prove a delight to the painter, for there is a wonderful picture no matter which way you look. The burros and cows are brought to the summit of the mesa and turned into corrals, while the goats are enclosed at the foot of the cliffs, where they will be safe from attack from any wild beast. The rude carts, plows, and other farm machinery are stored among the hollows in the rock at the bottom of the cliffs.

The Annual Festival in Acoma is on the second of September, the day of St. Steven, who is the patron saint of the town. The exercises, which are in dramatic form, are different from those in any other pueblo, and very interesting. Early in the morning a procession is seen appearing several miles away on the plain below. This gradually approaches the foot of the mesa, and is met there by officials of the pueblo; after a conference, the strangers are welcomed to the town and escorted up the mesa to its top, and then, after certain ceremonies, enter the church with their hosts. A peculiar feature is a small horse which is conducted into the church and up to the altar. Here there are more semi-religious ceremonies, and afterwards a variety of characteristic games.

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The town is full of interesting places, to many of which historic legends are attached. The visitor will be shown the famous "Camino del Padre" where Padre Ramirez, in 1629, succeeded in ascending the trail in spite of a hail of arrows; and the place where another padre, forced to fly for his life, was compelled to leap off the edge of the cliff to what was apparently sure destruction, but by opening an umbrella, which he was fortunately carrying, it acted as a parachute, and afforded him a safe descent and comfortable landing on the plain below.

18.1. THE ENCHANTED MESA
The Enchanted Mesa has been scaled three times during recent years.

In the summer of 1897 Professor Libbey of Princeton organized an expedition which was equipped with everything necessary for the ascent, and succeeded in reaching the summit. He reported that he found nothing there to corroborate the general belief that the great cliff had been occupied by human beings a few centuries ago; that there was no evidence of man's residence or handiwork.

Six weeks later came Frederick W. Hodge of the Smithsonian Institute, and made the ascent with much less apparatus and much less difficulty than that experienced by Professor Libbey; and found what in his opinion were positive evidences of the habitation of the summit by a large number of people at some remote period of the past.

In the succeeding year (June, 1898), a party which

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included President David Starr Jordan, of Leland Stanford. University, Charles F. Lummis, three other men, and a few ladies, with one young girl, accompanied by seven Acoma Indians, climbed the dizzy height to help in solving the great mystery, and satisfied themselves that the old legend was no doubt correct, as they found in the crevices fragments of pottery, obsidian chips, and other evidences of human occupation.

Although Zuni is in many respects the most interesting of all of the pueblos, yet so far as the history of its Mission Churches is concerned, it is almost devoid of material.

As a pueblo, or a cluster of pueblos, it occupies by far the largest space in the early days of Spanish exploration and conquest. Long before any European had penetrated the interior of the continent, the fame of the Seven Cities of Cibola had reached the Mexican capital and inflamed the imagination of the Spanish adventurers. While even the geographical situation of those mythical cities was so entirely indefinite that the map- makers of the day located them wherever the passing thought or a conveniently vacant space suggested; so that on one map belonging to the writer they appear grouped in symmetrical form near the Gulf of California, and on another surround a circular lake where Denver is now located; yet the reports of a land of vast wealth, of gold and silver and precious stones, somewhere in the unexplored North, were not only persistent but constantly grew in their alluring extravagance, until Nuno de Guzman, the governor of New Galicia, made his unsuccessful attempt at conquest

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with 400 Spaniards and a vast concourse of Indian allies; and a few years later the expeditions of Friar Marcos and Coronado actually reached the coveted goal.

Estevan, the Barbary negro, who was one of the companions of Cabeza de Vaca and the guide of Marcos de Niza, was killed just outside of the first of the cities of Cibola; Friar Marcos only saw the town from afar, but dared not approach nearer; and the first Spaniards really to meet the people of Zuni, were the soldiers of Coronado in 1540. The town reached was called by the natives Hawaikuh, and on approaching it, Coronado by signs made overtures of friendship; but the Cibolans seemed to understand that this meant conquest, and prepared to resist an attack. The Spaniards immediately rushed to the assault, charging with loud cries of "Santiago," but were met with showers of stones, and even Coronado himself was struck to the ground. Still they pressed on, and soon the discipline of trained warriors and the advantage of firearms prevailed, and the Christians marched in triumph through the irregular streets of the first Pueblo town ever visited by a white man.

Coronado made his headquarters here for a considerable time, waiting for the arrival of the main body of his army, and sending out expeditions in various directions to explore the surrounding country. Thus Pedro de Tobar visited the Moqui region, and Cardenas was the first European to view the wonders of the Grand Canon, the sides of which,

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with characteristic exaggeration, he described as being "three or four leagues in the air." From here Alvarado was sent on a longer expedition to the east, which carried him to Acoma and the valley of the Rio Grande, and even as far as the distant pueblo of Cicuic, the modern Pecos.

On the retreat of the Coronado expedition, in 1542, it again rested at Cibola, and here a few of the Mexican Indians, pleased with the country, concluded to remain, while their comrades marched back to their homes in the South.

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Forty years passed, and then, in 1583, came Antonio de Espejo, with his little company, exploring westward from the Rio Grande, and was amazed to find three of those Mexican Indians still surviving after their long exile. Their names were Andres of Culiacan, Gaspar of Mexico, and Antonio of Guadalajara, and they had almost entirely forgotten their native tongue. Espejo also saw the crosses erected forty years before by Coronado and which the people had never destroyed; and in his report he gives the number of the Cibolan pueblos then existing as six, with about 20,000 inhabitants.

After the settlement of the territory in 1598 under Onate, various attempts were made to Christianize the Indians of Zuni; but the people were much more independent than those in the Rio Grande Valley, and while permitting missionaries to live among them, were slow in changing their faith from that of their forefathers. Now that we know, from the careful labors of ethnologists, something of the wonderfully elaborate mythology of these people, we need not be surprised that the Franciscans were often discouraged at their slow progress.

It can certainly be said, without question, that no nation of antiquity possessed such a remarkable variety of gods, demi-gods, and good and evil spirits of all degrees, as the people of Zuni, and that their division into many clans, each with its own religious ceremonies, produced a variety of ceremonials and rituals far beyond anything of which we have any knowledge elsewhere.

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Every event of life, from birth to death, everything connected with the phenomena of nature and the occupations of man, has its religious connection; even the most trivial and constantly repeated acts of daily existence have some ceremony connected with them; all principles and qualities are personified into spirits which are to be propitiated or overcome. In these days of intense practical activity, when nearly every thought is devoted to material objects, it is almost impossible to appreciate the nature of a people with whom every act is a religious ceremony and every breath a prayer.

This cannot be enlarged upon here, but all interested in such subjects should read the twenty-third volume of the Reports of the Bureau of Ethnology, which is entirely devoted to the discoveries made at this pueblo of Zuni by Mrs. Stevenson, the eminent ethnologist who gave the best years of her life to this most interesting work.

In the celebrated report of Benavides, written in 1629, he describes the province of Zuni as being thirty leagues west from Acoma and containing ten or eleven pueblos, extending over nine or ten leagues and containing 10,000 souls; and states that it possessed two churches and conventos.

In that very year an interesting inscription was made on the famous Inscription Rock, which stands near the old road from Acoma to Zuni, which records that "Governor Francisco Manuel de Sylva Nieto, who has accomplished the impossible, passed to Zuni, 1629, and carried the faith there." Probably

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he was conducting the new missionary, Fr. Francisco Letrado, who had just arrived from Mexico with a new party of Franciscans, to the scene of his future labors. We are told that Fr. Letrado begged to be sent to Zuni because it was considered the most difficult and discouraging of the missions. He was regarded as one of the most devoted and fervent of all of the friars; and perhaps those very qualities hastened his martyrdom; at all events, history tells us that before a year had rolled around, on a Sunday in Lent, in February, 1630, he was awaiting his congregation of converts in the church; but they did not appear. At length he went out to learn the cause of the delay, but on his urging those whom he met to attend, they all refused; and when he reproached them with their lack of religion, they became angry. Then, convinced that they intended to do him harm, he fell on his knees, and holding a crucifix in both hands, was soon pierced by innumerable arrows.

Fifty years afterwards, in the great Rebellion, the priest then in charge also became a martyr. His name was Juan del Val, from the town of El Val in Castile where he was born. He had been missionary at Zuni for about nine years, but fell a victim to the Indian hostility on the very first day of the revolt, being the tenth of August.

Yet it seems that in some respects the people of Zuni were not as vindictive in their hatred of Christianity as some of the other Pueblos; for when the reconquest took place and De Vargas marched to

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Zuni, on October 30, 1692, it was found that instead of burning and otherwise destroying the sacred vessels and other property belonging to the Church, as was done in the Rio Grande towns, they had preserved them with care, and delivered them to the governor, who sent them all to El Paso to the custodionof the Franciscan province. We read that on this occasion the whole people were restored to loyalty and Christianity, and nearly three hundred children were baptised. The real difficulty at Zuni seems to have been that the people attached very little importance to this nominal conformity. What

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they most desired was to be left alone; and when the governor came on a visitation, or an expedition was sent to accompany a new padre, they treated them hospitably and joined in the accompanying ceremonies; but as soon as it could be conveniently accomplished, managed to get rid of the padre in some way.

Of course this condition of things was not favorable to church building, and so, though we read of two churches being erected before 1629, yet there has never been at Zuni any large and imposing structure, such as were the central objects in many much less important pueblos. The two illustrations which we present show the exterior and the interior of the dilapidated building which was the last Christian church in Zuni, as they now appear.

At the same time the ceremonies of the Ancient Faith continue to be performed with scrupulous fidelity. While most of the Pueblo towns contain but two estufas, and some have only one, Zuni is satisfied with no less than six, and its spectacular festivals are of unexcelled interest. Those familiar with Southwestern ethnology will remember that the Pueblo Indians recognize six points of the compass instead of four; adding to the north, south, east, and west, the zenith and the nadir; and the six estufas are dedicated to these six points. They are not circular and half excavated in the ground, as is usual; but are like ordinary large rooms and entirely above the surface.

The remarkable Shaleco dance or drama, which

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takes place every year in the latter part of November, is one of the most unique ceremonials to be found in any country. It is always attended by many tourists, writers, and artists, and well repays a journey from the Atlantic or even from Europe. So, also, the sacred shrine, Hep-ah-teen-ah-- "The Centre of the Earth"--around which are woven volumes of folk-lore, is of remarkable interest. This whole subject is a most alluring one, but cannot be considered here further than to say to all travelers, "Come and see."

Having considered the missions established in all of the pueblos in the central Rio Grande Valley and westward to the limits of Zuni, for geographical convenience it may be well to take up the church in Albuquerque before proceeding to the more northern pueblos.

Albuquerque was the third town or "villa" established for Spaniards in New Mexico, not counting the short-lived capital at San Gabriel. This latter was founded in 1598, on the arrival of the first colonists on July 12th, and continued to be the capital until 1605, when the seat of government was moved to Santa Fe, and a villa was established there under the title of "La Villa real de la Santa Fe de San Francisco'--The royal City of the Holy Faith of St. Francis. During the next seventy-five years the few Spaniards who came to New Mexico either settled in the little pueblos of the Indians, in all of which churches or Chapels were erected and occasional religious services held, or else on separate ranches in the river valleys. At the time of the retreat of Governor Otermin in 1680, mention is made of a number of these ranches, including that

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of the lieutenant governor near where Albuquerque was afterward established.

After the reconquest under De Vargas it became necessary to found a second town for colonists, as there was not room in Santa Fe for the families that came up from Paso del Norte; some being old refugees of 1680 now returning, and others new settlers who had been induced to come to the reconquered province. Sixty-six families arrived in June, 1694, and had to remain in very crowded quarters in Santa Fe, to their own great discomfort and that of the older inhabitants. It was finally decided to found a new villa for them at Santa Cruz, and the order for settlement was made by Governor De Vargas on April 12, 1695. This was the second colonial town, and was burdened officially by the remarkable title of "La Villa Nueva de Santa Cruz de los Espanoles Mejicanos del Rey Nuestro Senor Carlos Segundo"--"The New City of the Holy Cross of the Mexican Spaniards of Our Lord the King Charles II." But in all ordinary documents it is called "La Villa Nueva de Santa Cruz de la Canada"; the place of settlement being commonly called La Canada.

So matters stood when De Vargas died, April 14, 1704, and the viceroy of New Spain, the Duke of Albuquerque, appointed Francisco Cuervo y Valdez as governorad interimuntil the regular governor appointed by the king should arrive.

Knowing that his term of office would be short, Governor Cuervo determined to do something that

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would both please his patron, the viceroy, and also immortalize his own name; so he proceeded to establish a third Spanish villa in the center of a fertile portion of the Rio Grande Valley, between the pueblos of Isleta and Sandia, and named it "La Villa de San Francisco de Alburquerque" and immediately forwarded voluminous documents to the City of Mexico to inform the viceroy of this action. The result was not as satisfactory as he had anticipated.

But the whole story, including the vexed question as to the correct patron saint of Albuquerque is so well told by Rev. Ceferino Engelhart, O.F.M., the well known Franciscan historian, that we insert his letter on the subject.

"In March, 1705, Don Francisco Cuervo y Valdez entered upon the discharge of his duties as temporary governor of New Mexico, by order of the viceroy, until such time as the monarch himself would name the governor definitely.

"That gentleman with thirty or thirty-five Spanish families founded in 1706 the town of Albuquerque, called so in honor of the viceroy, and to perpetuate his own name he called it San Francisco de Alburquerque.

"Nevertheless, his action was irregular, because he only occupied the position temporarily, the governor having been appointed by the king in 1706. He was Don Jose Chacon Salazar y Villasenor, who had not arrived yet. Also because the naming of a mission or a town pertained to the viceroy or another person delegated by him.

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"When the said Don Francisco Cuervo y Valdez notified the viceroy of what he had done, he received in reply a reprimand for having established a new town without authority, and the viceroy himself changed the name of the locality to that of San Felipe de Alburquerque in honor of the kind, Don Felipe.

"The first and only Father who employed the name of San Francisco Javier as titular saint of the church of Albuquerque, was Father Manuel Garcia.

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In order to begin a new series of baptismal records, because the first series was already full, that father began each record with the words, 'In this parochial church of San Francisco Javier.' He did this the first time about the middle of October, 1776; but on pages 6 and 7, dated April 21, 1777, after having registered the baptisms of eighteen persons, the same father returns to the old formula, 'In this parochial church of San Felipe,' and followed on afterwards employing it as the fathers who preceded him had done, and also his successors; so also in the records of marriages on page 5, dated April 2, 1777, he again uses the name of San Felipe, instead of San Francisco Javier, after having omitted doing so for nine months.

"The fact of Father Garcia having written 'San Francisco Javier' instead of 'San Felipe' may be explained only by saying that he believed all the fathers and custodians, his predecessors, were mistaken. But he was soon convinced that he himself was the one who had erred."

Thus the villa of Alburquerque was founded in 1706 and became the third Spanish town in New Mexico; and its church was built almost immediately thereafter. Time has proved that Governor Cuervo "builded better than he knew" when he paid his compliment to the Duke of Alburquerque, for certainly the foundation in his honor of this city, with its ever increasing permanence, has done more to preserve his name and fame to the present generation than any other event of his administration.

The set of parish registers belonging to the

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Church of San Felipe is of much interest, not only in establishing lines of ancestry, but on account of the glimpses of history which are incidentally afforded, and some curious personal traits of the clergy. Father Engelhart mentions one priest who endeavored single handed to change the time honored name of his parish and hand the parishioners over to the care of St. Francis Xavier instead of St. Philip; but an equally curious case is that of another parish priest, who evidently was a devotee of Our Lady of Sorrows, and who insisted on giving to every child, male or female, that he baptised during his pastorate the name of Dolores. The record will show that not a single boy or girl during that period escaped having to carry that rather mournful name throughout his life.

Owing to the prosperity and wealth of the community in Albuquerque, almost from its foundation, the church has always been well sustained, and not only kept in good order, but enlarged and improved as increasing population has required. It has never been entirely destroyed and rebuilt, so that the present beautiful edifice, though different in many respects from the modest foundation of a century ago, may still claim to be a continuation of the ancient edifice and to preserve all the hallowed associations of the past.

That due attention was paid, even in the earlier days, to proprieties of conduct and the respect due to sacred places, is shown by one of the official archives, filed in 1733, and only recently published,

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which is a record of proceedings before the governor on a complaint brought by Fr. Joseph Antonio Guerrero, comisario of the holy office, against two men for disrespectful conduct in the church in Albuquerque.

Being so prominently located in the territory, the ample residence for the accommodation of the parish priest and visiting clergy became a center of hospitality; and that this was dispensed with every attention to the comfort and pleasure of guests of distinction is amply evidenced by the interesting description of these entertainments recorded by Lieutenant Zebulon Pike in the diary of his enforced journey from Santa Fe to Chihuahua in 1806. The priest of the parish at that time was the Rev. Ambrosio Guerra, and the young officer seems to have been particularly impressed with the beauty of some of the orphan girls whom the good padre had adopted and was bringing up in his household; and enthusiastically writes, after describing the dinner at which he was entertained, "and to crown all, we were waited on by half a dozen of those beautiful girls, who, like Hebe at the feast of the gods, converted our wine to nectar and with their ambrosial breath, shed incense on our cups."

The last of the priests of the old regime was Padre Gallegos, who was in charge of the parish at the time of the arrival of Bishop Lamy, but who, in the new order of things, was soon superseded by Father Macheboeuf, afterwards first Bishop of Denver. Padre Gallegos was a man of large popularity and

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was twice elected to Congress after entering secular life.

About forty years ago, when the Jesuit Fathers came to assist in the missionary work in New Mexico, Archbishop Lamy placed the parish of Albuquerque in their hands, and it has so continued to the present time. During all this period substantial improvements have been made both in the exterior appearance and internal ornamentation of the church.

In the old church, the nave was ninety-one feet in length from the chancel to the door, and twenty-seven feet in width. The main walls were very massive, being five and a half feet in thickness.

The porch at the entrance of the church was built by Father Macheboeuf. The pulpit and sounding board were put in place under the direction of Father Truchard. The next improvement was the laying of a wooden floor, by Father Gasparri; the floor having been of earth down to that time. This distinguished Italian priest is buried in the sacristy. One of the most important alterations was the extension of the chancel, which required the cutting down of the earth fully three feet in order to secure the proper level. Fortunately no graves were encountered in this work, which afforded accommodation for the present beautiful altar of white and gold.

A number of modern paintings of much beauty, together with some of the works of medieval Spanish artists, form a background for the altar, and include portraits of San Felipe de Neri, San Francisco

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Xavier and St. Aloysius, as well as a large and beautiful painting of the Adoration of the Virgin and Child.

We present two illustrations showing this church at different periods; the first just after the erection of the porch at the main entrance, and the second when various other alterations had been made affecting the towers as well as the entrance and surroundings. No tourist, or other sojourner in the modern city of Albuquerque, should neglect a visit to the "Old Town" and this venerable edifice.

A--THE PUEBLO OF TAOS

B--FERNANDEZ DE TAOS

C--RANCHOS DE TAOS

The very name of Taos brings up so many subjects of entrancing interest that it is likely to open the flood-gates of description, of history, of tradition, of architecture, of Indian mythology, ceremonials, and domestic customs, to such an extent that a whole volume would be filled to the exclusion of all other parts of New Mexico.

Each subject is so inviting that it is a positive delight to dwell upon it and a real sorrow to pass it by.

Who that has visited the wonderful Pueblo structures, certainly the most remarkable residential buildings in the United States, does not long to describe those unique houses of a unique people, which some have characterized as the "American Pyramids" and some as the "Human Bee- hives," so that those less fortunate may obtain some adequate idea of their size and form and all the peculiarities of their construction?

And who that has been present at the fiestas of the people, the religious ceremonials, the dramatized

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folk-lore, the games of amusement or of athletic contest--all so different from the corresponding exercises of the white man--does not long to describe all these things by written word and photo-illustration, so that the new Americans of the East may have a better knowledge of these old Americans of the West?

Taos is entitled to have a whole book to itself; and what a volume of varied interest it will be, when once it is worthily prepared!

In this volume, the only way to avoid the temptation to digress is to confine this chapter strictly to its legitimate subject of the churches; and that we will endeavor to do.

21.1. A--THE PUEBLO OF TAOS
The first European to see the great communal houses which render Taos famous, was Francisco de Barrio-Nuevo, one of Coronado's captains. While the headquarters of the expedition were established at Tihuex, in the Rio Grande Valley near the present Bernalillo, this intrepid explorer was directed to march to the north in order to investigate and report as to the country and its inhabitants. At that time Cia was the limit of the geographical knowledge of the Spaniards. But Barrio-Nuevo quickly passed that point, reached Jemez and discovered the sulphur springs, and then crossed to the Rio Grande and proceeded up its valley, and finally came to the largest town in that section of the country, which was called Braba, and was situated on both sides of

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a stream, and is so well described that it is immediately identified with Taos. The Spaniards called it Valladolid from some fancied resemblance to the Spanish city of that name; but in future history we hear no mention of that attempted change, and the town of the twin pyramids is always called the pueblo of Taos.

After Coronado's time, the intermediate expeditions did not reach as far north as this remote pueblo; but when actual colonization came, under Onate, in 1598, that energetic leader, within three days after the decision to make the permanent settlement and capital at San Gabriel, on July 12th, started to visit the northerly towns of his dominion, of which he must have heard marvelous accounts, and before July 20th had explored all the vicinity of Picuris and Taos and returned to his headquarters at the mouth of the Chama.

A few weeks later, when the Franciscan comisario, Fr. Martinez, divided New Mexico into seven districts for missionary purposes, Taos and Picuris, with all the northern country, were made into one district, and Fr. Francisco de Zamora assigned as its missionary. He commenced his work energetically, though with many drawbacks, of which an entire ignorance of the language was perhaps the greatest, and one of the first churches built in the new province was at the pueblo of Taos. In the report of Fr. Benavides, written in 1629, he states that at this pueblo there were then a church and a convento and that the number of baptized Indians

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was not less than 2,500; which certainly speaks well for the persistent labors of the Franciscan priest.

That this acceptance of Christianity was often only skin-deep, seems to be too evident from the fact that notwithstanding this gratifying number of baptisms, within two years thereafter the Indians of Taos killed their missionary, who was then Pedro de Miranda. The most circumstantial account that we have of this unfortunate event, is that the government furnished two soldiers, named Luis Pacheco and Juan de Estrada, as a guard for the protection of the missionary; that on the morning of December 21, 1631, they came into the kitchen of the convento to warm themselves, as it was very cold, and found the priest engaged in prayer; that they were followed by a crowd of Indians, who for some reason had become incensed against the Spaniards, and who killed the soldiers and afterwards the priest.

When the Pueblo Revolution of 1680 broke forth, the missionary in charge was Fr. Antonio de Mora, who had been in service in New Mexico for nine years and who was assisted by Juan de la Pedroza, a Franciscan lay brother, who had a still longer term of service to his credit. Though Taos was the most remote pueblo towards the north, yet the arrangements for the uprising were so perfect that all the Indians were in revolt on the morning of August 10th, and both of the Franciscans soon joined the noble army of martyrs. Nearly every Spaniard living in the valley was slain, as will be stated hereafter.

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Little change took place in the Mission Church through all the years of its existence. Another church was built at the Mexican town of Fernandez, only three miles away, and often one clergyman had charge of the entire religious work, both for the whites and the Indians. The Pueblo church was very massively constructed and had two towers in front. No prophet arose to foretell its strange destruction. Fernandez had become quite a commercial center, and around its plaza were the stores of traders who had become rich largely from the traffic in furs and skins. In 1846 rumors arrived of the approach over the great eastern plain of an American army under General Kearny; and later the news came that the invaders had occupied Santa Fe and taken charge of the government. The selection of Charles Bent, a resident of Taos, well known by all, as the new governor, naturally created an increased local interest, but the sentiment of the people was still opposed to the domination of the Anglo-Americans and the leaders in the revolutionary movement to destroy them had little difficulty in enlisting the aid of the Indians of the pueblo of Taos. At all events, while the leadership was in and around Santa Fe, the actual uprising centered in Taos, resulting in the killing of Governor Bent and other friends of the new government in Fernandez, and of all the American residents at the Arroyo Hondo.

Unwittingly the revolutionists were ringing the knell of the old Mission Church at the pueblo, and it is with this that we are specially concerned.

The news of the revolt and the death of the governor

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created great excitement in Santa Fe and called for instant action on the part of the little American army and those sympathizing with it. The situation was critical. Very few troops were in Santa Fe; Kearny had marched toward California and Doniphan to Chihuahua, so that the number remaining in the Territory was very small, and they were scattered at Albuquerque, Las Vegas, and other distant points. News came that a large Mexican and Indian force was approaching from the north. Delay meant destruction, and Colonel Price, who was in command, determined to march immediately with such troops as he could muster, at the same time sending to Albuquerque for reënforcements. All the force that could be gathered amounted to 320 men, including Captain Angney's Missouri battalion and a volunteer company composed of nearly all the Americans in the city, under command of Colonel Ceran St. Vrain, who happened to be in Santa Fe at the time. In this company were Manuel Chares, Nicolas Pino, and a few other prominent New Mexicans, who stood by the new government and offered their services.

The first conflict took place at La Canada, where General Tafoya was killed, and the Mexicans and Indians retreated to Embudo. Here they made another stand in a narrow cation, but were forced to abandon it and again to retreat, many of the Mexicans returning to their homes. This time the remainder concentrated at the pueblo of Taos, with headquarters in the mission church, within whose massive walls they fortified themselves against attack.

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Meanwhile the Americans had been reënforced by Captain Burgwin's company of cavalry, which had hastened up from Albuquerque and arrived at the town of Taos in the afternoon, and immediately marched to the pueblo.

The American troops were worn out with fatigue and exposure, and in most urgent need of rest; but their intrepid commander, desiring to give his opponents no more time to strengthen their works, and full of zeal and energy, if not of prudence, determined to commence an immediate attack.

The two great buildings at this pueblo are well known from descriptions and engravings. Between these great buildings, each of which can accommodate a multitude of men, runs the clear water of the Taos Creek; and to the west of the northerly building stood the old church, with walls of adobe from three to seven and a half feet in thickness. The church was turned into a fortification, and was the point where the insurgents concentrated their strength; and against this Colonel Price directed his principal attack. The six-pounder and the howitzer were brought into position without delay, under the command of Lieutenant Dyer, and opened a fire on the thick adobe walls. But cannon balls made little impression on the massive banks of earth, in which they imbedded themselves without doing damage; and after a fire of two hours, the battery was withdrawn, and the troops allowed to return to the town of Taos for their much-needed rest.

Early the next morning, the troops advanced again to the pueblo, but found those within equally prepared.

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The story of the attack and capture of this place is so interesting, both on account of the meeting here of old and new systems of warfare--of modern artillery with an aboriginal stronghold--and because the church was one of the oldest of the Spanish Missions, that it seems best to insert the official report as presented by Colonel Price. Nothing could show more plainly how superior strong earthworks are to many more ambitious structures of defense, or more forcibly display the courage and heroism of those who took part in the battle. Colonel Price writes:

"Posting the dragoons under Captain Burgwin about 260 yards from the western flank of the church I ordered the mounted men under Captains St. Vrain and Slack to a position on the opposite side of the town, whence they could discover and intercept any fugitives who might attempt to escape. The residue of the troops took ground about three hundred yards from the north wall. Here, too, Lieutenant Dyer established himself with the six-pounder and two howitzers, while Lieutenant Hassendaubel remained with Captain Burgwin, in command of two howitzers. By this arrangement a cross-fire was obtained, sweeping the front and eastern flank of the church. All these arrangements being made, the batteries opened upon the town at nine o'clock. At eleven o'clock, finding it impossible to breach the walls of the church with the six-pounder and howitzers, I determined to storm the building. At a signal, Captain Burgwin, at the head of his own company and

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that of Captain McMillin, charged the western flank of the church, while Captain Angney and Captain Barber charged the northern wall. As soon as the troops above mentioned had established themselves under the western wall of the church, axes were used in the attempt to breach it, and a temporary ladder having been made, the roof was fired. About this time, Captain Burgwin, at the head of a small party, left the cover afforded by the flank of the church, and penetrating into the corral in front of that building, endeavored to force the door. In this exposed situation, Captain Burgwin received a severe wound, which deprived me of his valuable services, and of which he died on the 7th instant. In the meantime, small holes had been cut in the western wall, and shells were thrown in by hand, doing good execution. The enemy, during all of this time, kept up a destructive fire upon our troops. About half-past three o'clock, the six- pounder was run up within sixty yards of the church, and after ten rounds, one of the holes which had been cut with the axes was widened into a practicable breach. The storming party now entered and took possession of the church without opposition. The interior was filled with dense smoke, but for which circumstance our storming party would have suffered great loss. A few of the enemy were seen in the gallery, where an open door admitted the air, but they retired without firing agun. . .

"The number of the enemy at the battle of Pueblo de Taos was between six and seven hundred, and

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of those one hundred and fifty were killed, wounded not known. Our own loss was seven killed and forty-five wounded; many of the wounded have since died."

Thus, not by lapse of time and gradual dissolution, but amid the fierceness of armed conflict and with hundreds of cannon balls embedded in its walls, this ancient Mission, the northerly outpost of the Christianizing efforts of the intrepid followers of St. Francis fell into ruin. Two-thirds of a century has since passed, but its walls were so massive and so strongly constructed that its remains stand almost

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exactly as they were left at the close of the battle, its solitary tower standing in picturesque grandeur against the clear horizon, a source of unceasing interest to the traveler and the favorite subject of every artist. The illustration shows it as it appeared in 1914.

21.2. B--FERNANDEZ DE TAOS
The fertile valley of Taos naturally attracted the Spanish colonists who came to New Mexico and the officials who, from time to time, had occasion to visit the pueblo, and history informs us that at the time of the Revolution of 1680, there were about seventy Spaniards who had settled there. At the uprising they were attacked by the Indians from the pueblo and also by the Apaches who were sojourning there, and all but two were killed. These were Sergeant Sebastian de Herrera and Don Fernando de Chaves, who, leaving their dead wives and children, worked their way along the mountains to the south until they came within sight of Santa Fe, and finding that the Spaniards there were besieged on all sides, continued their journey toward the south until finally, after ten days of danger and hardship, they succeeded in joining the Spaniards who had gathered near Isleta under Lieutenant Governor Garcia.

After the reconquest new settlers were attracted by the beauty and fertility of the valley, and the town of Don Fernandez grew during the eighteenth century to considerable proportions. About 1806, or perhaps somewhat earlier, the large church was

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erected, which until very recently was the religious center of the community, and of which we are glad to be able to present an excellent picture from a photograph. Many years ago the rear wall showed signs of weakness and quite a dangerous crack was developed, but by inserting a stone foundation and building two massive buttresses of adobe it was made secure. These buttresses formed a conspicuous feature when viewed from the rear, but do not show in the photograph here presented, which gives a direct front view.

This church was the scene of the pastoral labors of the celebrated Padre Martinez for many years. He became pastor in 1826 and continued in charge until 1856. During this long period he was not only parish priest, but he conducted the most important school which then existed in New Mexico, brought a printing press to Taos, established the first newspaper in the Southwest, and published several school-books and manuals of devotion. A full generation of the youth of northern New Mexico was educated under his personal instruction, and he thus exercised a very important influence in molding the sentiment of that section for many years. When, as a result of the inevitable clash between the old Mexican ecclesiastical methods and the new ones introduced by Bishop Lamy and the French priests, he was superseded as pastor of Taos by Rev. Damaso Taladrid, he continued to hold regular services in a chapel erected for that purpose, and fully half of the people of Taos refused to be separated from

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their old pastor until his death. This chapel is still standing, but has been used for other purposes since the death of Padre Martinez. It is forty-eight feet long by twenty-five feet in width and was entered by a large square door five and a half feet wide.

Some years ago a movement was started for the improvement of the old parish church and the introduction of some modern features; and this finally resulted in an effort to erect an entirely new edifice. The latter project was warmly supported by the "Revista de Taos," and a number of public spirited citizens, and at length was crowned with success. The new structure, which was dedicated in 1914, is a very creditable building, thoroughly abreast of the times as to modern conveniences and ornamentation; but it is a subject of regret that it could not have been built on some other piece of ground, so that the venerable building which was associated with the lives of the people throughout such a long period could have been preserved as an enduring monument to the Christian zeal and devotion of the generations that are passed.

21.3. C--RANCHOS DE TAOS
The church at Los Ranchos de Taos is one of the finest specimens still standing of the early New Mexican church architecture, and it is to be hoped that it may long be preserved in all its essential features.

It is massively constructed of adobe, with two towers in front, the upper portions of which are

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built of wood, and each surmounted by a cross. The front walls on each side of the large central arched doorway are sloped outside from the top to the bottom so as to form buttresses to strengthen the building and also add to the architectural effect. On one side of the rear, with an entrance from the chancel, is an addition about twenty feet square. The main body of the church measures 108 feet in length, inside; to which should be added the thickness of the walls. The vigas of the ceiling are all sustained by carved supports imbedded in the walls, and some of the vigas themselves are ornamented by carving.

The understanding among those best informed is that this church was built in the year 1772, and certainly, judging from appearances, it is entitled to that much of antiquity. The altar is comparatively new, in the modern French style, but the reredos behind the altar has not been modernized and apparently has remained unchanged from the time of the building of the church. It includes eight pictures of saints painted on canvas. On the north side is another reredos containing eight pictures painted on wood, and of native New Mexican workmanship. These, as well as some others on the south side, have been whitewashed over the paintings at some remote period, and the marks of that covering are not yet entirely removed. In the chancel is a large statue of Christ, which is evidently of great age. The church and the adjoining rooms are full of smaller objects of interest, less changed by the spirit of innovation than in most of the old churches, and consequently

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well worthy of the attention of the tourist.

No traveler who is visiting Taos and its wonderful pueblo should fail to see this church, as well as the whole town of Los Ranchos. Originally it was the home of a number of Pueblo Indians, and a few of the old houses, showing the aboriginal style of architecture, are still in existence.

The illustration presented is from a photograph giving an excellent front view of the church, together with the walled campo santo which surrounds it, and showing not only the large cross which commemorates a mission held in the parish some years ago, but a number of other crosses which mark the resting places of the departed.

Though not as distant from Santa Fe in actual miles as some other pueblos, yet on account of its mountainous situation and difficulty of access, Picuris is really the most remote of the entire nineteen pueblos and the one least visited by tourists. This very fact not only adds to its interest, but to its actual antiquarian value, because it is least changed by contact with outsiders and least demoralized by constant visits of curio collectors and dealers. In many respects Picuris is unique among the pueblos. Without referring to any matters not germane to the subject of this volume two points may be alluded to that deserve general attention.

One is that only in this pueblo in New Mexico are there any structures built, not of adobes, but of earth properly prepared and poured into moulds to form the walls, in much the manner of modern concrete construction. This method of building is found in the Casas Grandes of Arizona and other ancient ruins, and is still employed by some Pueblo Indians and Mexicans in constructing walls around fields or corrals, but apparently has not been used in the erection of houses since the use of adobes, or sun-dried bricks, has superseded the more ancient system.

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The other is, that conspicuous among the articles on public exhibition are the scalps taken from their enemies generations ago. While the custom which made such spoils of war possible has passed away long ago, yet these are cherished as evidences of the valor of the people and of the victories which they achieved when the pueblo was strong and powerful. They are constantly on exhibition in what is commonly called the "scalp-house," an ancient one-story structure with a sort of tower in the center, making that portion two stories high. In this open tower, where they are visible from all sides, the score or more of human scalps constantly swing in the breeze. They are only taken down on great festival days, when they become the most conspicuous feature of the procession.

In the earlier history of New Mexico, Picuris is almost always associated with Taos. Being in close proximity and using practically the same language, they are naturally grouped together. In the arrangement of missionary districts, immediately after Onate's colonization, these two pueblos with their surroundings constituted one district under Francisco de Zamora as the missionary.

Soon afterwards, about 1620, Fr. Martin de Arvide was in charge, before going to Arizona where he suffered martyrdom. In the well known report of Benavides, in 1629, he states that the pueblo had a church and a convento, the latter showing that it was the headquarters of a resident priest who probably served a dozen smaller villages around.

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The people, however, were always very independent, as might be expected of those living in such a rugged and defensible locality; and in the testimony taken in relation to the great Rebellion of 1680, they are mentioned as being "very rebellious." At that time the pueblo is said to have contained 3,000 inhabitants, which was no doubt a gross exaggeration, although the real number probably reached half that figure.

Tu-pa-tu, one of the principal leaders in the revolt, was a native of Picuris, and after the slaughter of all resident Spaniards, led the warriors of the pueblo to Santa Fe to take part in the siege of Otermin. The Indians not only massacred the priest, whose name was Mafias Rendon, and burned the church and surrounding buildings, but they killed every individual Spaniard living in the valleys of the vicinity. There is no record of the escape of even one to tell the tale. When the reconquest took place, quite a fraction of the population, not reconciled to renewed subjection to the Spaniards, emigrated to Cuartelejo, on the plains of western Kansas, but they gradually returned when matters became settled and their fears had subsided.

Many of the larger houses in Picuris are vacant and in ruins, giving proof of the diminution in the population of the pueblo. Among the most interesting buildings is one known as the Cuarteles, in the northern part of the town, which is peculiar in several of its features. The ceilings of the rooms instead of being laid on a considerable number of

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vigas, or round timbers of equal size, are supported by only two or three very large vigas made of gigantic pine trees, and on these are laid transversely a great number of small vigas of poplar which penetrate the walls at each end. Resting on this upper row is a covering of willow twigs or split wood, and above that is a thick layer of adobe earth.

The pueblo has four estufas instead of the usual two; and these are excavated to such a depth that the roofs are on a level with the regular surface of the ground, and have two openings instead of one, one for the ladder by which to descend and one for the escape of smoke.

22.1. THE CHURCH
The church, as usual, is the most imposing structure, and while it is one of the few old Missions still existing, its walls are kept in such perfect repair that the first impression received is that it is comparatively modern. The picture which accompanies this chapter shows this church, with its dazzlingly white front glistening in the summer sunlight, and with the neatly walled campo santo with its ornamental crosscrowned gateway in front.

This church is dedicated to San Lorenzo--St. Lawrence--who is the patron saint of Picuris, and who, it will be remembered, received his martyrdom by being slowly burned to death upon a gridiron. This instrument of martyrdom is therefore largely in evidence in the interior of the church.

The church itself, like many built at the same period,

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is cruciform in shape, the nave being twenty-five feet six inches in width. At the lower end, over the entrance, is a gallery which presents an excellent specimen of the carved woodwork which was the principal ornament of the old churches. An immense viga extends across the church nine feet from the end wall, and this supports a number of smaller vigas which are set in the wall and reach a couple of feet beyond their support, the projecting ends being uniformly carved. Surmounting these is the floor of the gallery and a carved balustrade.

In a square niche in the east wall near the door is a skull covered with an old moth-eaten cloth. The ceiling is supported by the usual vigas which are carved and ornamented more or less fully, the older ones being more elaborate than some which have been inserted in more recent times. The side walls are simply solid masses of adobe without any ornament whatever.

In each of the transepts is a rude altar of solid masonry, a peculiarly frightful crucifix of crude Mexican workmanship being over the one in the south transept, while on the north are two statues, each three feet high, and representing San Jose and Nuestra Senora del Carmen. On the walls are three old paintings, each four by six feet in size, one of which represents the Virgin and Child, and the others are so far obliterated as not to be distinguishable.

Over the altar is a wooden reredos occupying the whole width of the chancel and filled with paintings which present a strange variety in their styles and

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degrees of excellence. The most of these are painted on wood in the crudest Mexican style, and were reputed to be "very ancient" when first seen by the oldest inhabitant of the pueblo. The upper row consists of a painting of Our Lady of Guadalupe in the center, flanked by an archangel and a saint on either side, San Rafael and San Antonio being on the right and San Miguel and San Juan Nepomuseno on the left. The dragon of San Miguel and the fish of Rafael are made very conspicuous. Below these and immediately over the altar are three pictures occupying the same width as the five above. The central one is a large modern canvas representing San Lorenzo, in scarlet and gold vestments over a white surplice, carrying an enormous gridiron with a long handle. On the sides are paintings of San Francisco and San Antonio de Padua. On the side of the altar is an image of San Lorenzo, with a small tin gridiron, and also a statuette of Santa Rita.

For many years the most interesting personality in the pueblo was Antonio Vargas, the venerable sacristan of the church, who was born in 1819. He was governor of Picuris many times and was fortunate enough to occupy that position at the time when President Lincoln presented every Pueblo governor with a silver-headed cane, inscribed with the president's name. This cane or "baston" has since been the insignia of the governor's office, taking the place of a mace and even of a certificate of election. Its possession is the evidence of title to the office, and in the only contested election case

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which ever arose relative to the governorship of a pueblo, at Santa Clara about 1881, the suit was brought in the form of a demand for possession of the "baston." Vargas had a vivid recollection of the rebellion of 1837, of the battle of La Polvadera, and of the killing of Governor Perez.

He occupied the position of sacristan of the church for many years, and his son-in-law, Santiago Martin, now "reigns in his stead." This official is particularly conspicuous in Picuris, because the bell, which can be seen in the illustration, has to be rung by a man standing by its side, upon the roof. It is one of the sights of Picuris to watch the stalwart blows given to this ancient bell in order to bring forth the greatest volume of sound.

The annual festival of Picuris is the "Fiesta de San Lorenzo," the patron saint. This occurs on the 10th of August and is the day usually selected by tourists to visit the pueblo. Those who are endeavoring to see everything possible of pueblo ceremonials in a given time, arrange to spend the 9th and 10th of August at Picuris and then proceed directly to the pueblo of Santa Clara where the day of the annual festival is August 12th.

The exercises of the day are of peculiar interest, as they are entirely different from anything to be seen in the pueblos in the Rio Grande Valley.