Henry Gannett

“ These crevices have been utilized by these people, when hard pressed by their enemies, as strongholds. They built walls across the whole fronts, leaving only little holes for egress and ingress, light and air. Thus walled in, their position was absolutely impregnable from above or below. It is astonishing in what a limited space these beings contrived to exist; some of these cave-dwellings are scarcely large enough for a man to crawl into.
More pretentious than these are the cliff-houses, which are built in similar situations, differing only in the height of the crevices. ”

“ DURING the past few months the presence of the negro in the United States, his future, and his possible influence upon our social and political fabric, have become a fertile subject of discussion. Thus far the argument has tended entirely in one direction, all writers seeming to be agreed that the country is rapidly getting into a bad way, by reason of its millions of black laborers. ”

“ We know that at some time, far back in the dim past, a great people lived in the Mississippi Valley; that they built there enormous structures, mere traces of which remain, scarcely enough to mock at the seeker after their history. Whence they came, and whither they went, we know not. In the Southwestern Territories we find these structures of a semi-civilized people—whether the same as the mound-builders, no one can tell. ”

“ OF all the physical features of the earth, the courses of rivers are among the most unchangeable. Once outlined, they are adhered to with a wonderful tenacity. Only a general change in the slope of their basins will usually suffice to divert them from their original courses. Mountains and plateaus may rise across their paths, but, like a saw, the river cuts its way through the obstacle. ”

“ The increase of whites in the South received a most effectual check during the four years of war, in which every male capable of bearing arms was in the field, and in which fully half a million laid down their lives. Since the war the white race has taken up a rate of increase equal to, if not greater than, that of the country at large, a greater rate than that of the colored people within its borders, and there is no apparent reason why they should not maintain it. ”

“ As the negro becomes numerically the stronger, and, through education, appreciates more fully his present position, he will commence a struggle for the mastery, and then the days of the Ku-klux will be eclipsed in blood and slaughter. Such is the condition to which these ill-fated States are hurrying. ”

“ If the rate of rise be greater than the erosive power at first, it forms a temporary dam, and a lake is produced above the obstacle, which increases in depth until a sufficient fall is given to the stream to enable it to cut at the same rate at which the range rises. Then equilibrium is established, and the cutting goes on at the same rate as the range increases in elevation. When the rise ceases, the lake is gradually drained in whole or in part, as the river gradually cuts away the dam by moving its crest up-stream. ”

“ Such being the history of the negroes in ante-bellum days, when they were property, and when every consideration of self-interest prompted their owners to watch over their health, to encourage child-bearing, and to protect and preserve the children, is it to be supposed for a moment that this careless, improvident, ignorant race, thrown suddenly upon its own resources, should at once, or within a generation, take on a rate of increase more rapid than before emancipation? ”

“ In some of the cliff-houses, the stones had to be carried for hundreds of feet, up precipitous walls, where the only footing was by holes which they had cut in the rock. All the stone used in the enormous buildings at Aztec Spring was brought from the foot of a cliff fully a mile away, and this without the aid of beasts of burden.
Fragments of pottery are found everywhere. Indeed, it is slight exaggeration to say that the plateaus are paved with them. One may ride for miles with the constant accompaniment of the ring of the horse's hoof against the relics of the ancients. ”

“ Along an horizontal curve which passes through its deepest part is a stratum of harder rock, ten feet wide at its widest part, making a projecting shelf, on which is perched the single row of houses of which the town consists. Here the people were entirely protected from attack from above, as the overhanging wall of the cliff projects at least one hundred feet. ”

“ This stream is an important branch of the Grand, entering it at the foot of the great valley, after that river has passed around the end of the Uncompahgre Plateau, and just as it plunges into the course of canons by which it passes the Sierra la Sal.
Traveling along the crest-line of the Uncompahgre Plateau, one is interested in observing how sharply the crest-line serves as a water-parting. The drainage toward the west heads in the crest, without cutting it at all. The bluff-wall is everywhere continuous. ”

“ The first class of structures is found on the fertile bottom-lands, close to water, and they are not arranged with the least regard to defense or security. They were the homes of an agricultural people, and were doubtless surrounded by fields of waving maize and orchards of peach-trees, while herds of goats pastured on the lower slopes of the mesa. The men labored in the fields, and took care of the herds ”

“ Scattered over the region are the remains of a long-forgotten people—a people which, judging from the few relics left for our study, possessed a far higher degree of civilization than the wild tribes now roaming the country, higher than the Moquis and Pueblos of the present day, yet resembling them in many respects. ”

“ In the towns built in time of war, for defensive purposes, these dwellings are usually much smaller than in the former case, and could have accommodated comparatively few persons: but this is due to the circumstances of building-site solely; for everything in their history shows them to have been a gregarious people. ”

“ As the negroes are not increasing as rapidly as the whites, either in the country at large or in the cotton States, and therefore are destined to become constantly of less numerical importance, the pressing necessity for doing something to ward off the evils predicted by the authors above quoted does not appear to exist. ”

“ This massing of the negroes in what may, for convenience, be denominated the cotton States, coupled with the steady sharpening of the line of separation between the two races—a line which, as the author claims, becomes more and more accentuated as the inferior race increases in numbers and advances in education will lead to inevitable conflict between the two races. ”

“ Throughout this vast region, with the exception of the streams mentioned, the only water to be had is in springs and in water-holes, where rain-water, protected from the ardent rays of the sun, remains for a time. The sources of supply are precarious, and, without a knowledge of their location, one might travel for days without finding water. ”

“ We find the remains of their homes, their houses of stone, in various places and of various kinds: some, the homes of a happy, contented people, in full security, leading a pastoral life; others, mere houses built for shelter and defense in stormy times, as protection from the invader, for concealment, and for open defense. ”

“ Connected with the agricultural and mesa towns are, in many cases, watch-towers usually of circular form, perched on fragments of rocks in commanding positions, whence the approach of enemies can be detected. These are small and with single walls. In the neighborhood of some agricultural settlements are holes dug in the earth, and the earth thrown up in heaps in front, as in rifle-pits. They probably were made for a similar use.
The rocks of which the cañon cliffs are composed are of sandstone and shale. ”

“ The wonder is, that in the past twenty years they have not fallen further behind.
Considering the colored race in this country as a whole, it is seen that it has not held its own, either in a state of slavery or thus far in freedom. ”

“ It is a country of plateaus and cañons—of plateaus whose surfaces are flat and unbroken for miles on miles; as far as one can see, the country presents a monotonous level, but is cut here and there by deep, almost impassable, cañons. As we recede from the mountains, these plateaus, which are there covered with piñion pine and sage, become more sterile, and finally vegetation ceases, except in isolated spots, and the surface is bare rock or drifting sand—a very Sahara. ”

“ A comparison between the results of the eighth and tenth censuses shows the advantage to be clearly in favor of the native whites, who increased 61 per cent in the twenty years, while the colored element increased but 48 per cent. This great increase of the native whites was effected in spite of the fact that the ranks of the adult males were depleted to the extent of over a million by the casualties of war, which the negroes scarcely felt. ”

“ In some cases, these dwellings, especially in agricultural towns, are from one to two hundred feet in length. At Aztec Spring, a few miles north of the San Juan, is a very large town, built in one mass, and covering 480,000 square feet. In the midst of this, one building, standing by itself, seems to be the principal house of the town, judging by its dimensions, thickness of its walls, and the care displayed in dressing and laying the stone ”

“ Without committing himself as to the increase or decrease of the colored element in the country at large, in proportion to the whites, the author finds, upon a somewhat superficial study of the statistics bearing upon the question, that in the South Atlantic and Gulf States the negroes have increased decidedly in proportion to the whites, while in those States which he classes as border States they have relatively decreased. ”

“ The commonest form for dwelling-houses is the rectangle. In all cases where possible the dwellings are semi-communistic—that is, each of the houses is very large, intended to contain a number of families, but is divided into many rooms. ”

“ These buildings are, in all cases, the most thoroughly constructed; their walls are thicker and of larger and better-dressed stones than in any other buildings. Structures quite similar to these are found in the pueblos of the present day, and are used for the purposes above mentioned. They are always found in agricultural towns, and in fortified towns on the summits of mesas, but in most collections of the cliff-houses and in the cave-dwellings they are of necessity absent. ”

“ The argument upon which Professor Gilliam bases his conclusion that the negroes are increasing faster than the whites runs as follows: During the decade 1870-'80 the whites increased, upon the face of the returns, 29 per cent, and the blacks 34 per cent. From the former rate of increase he subtracts 9 per cent, to account, as he says, for foreign immigration, leaving 20 per cent to represent what he calls the native increase. ”

“ They are generally well preserved, as their situations protect them in great measure from the elements. There are several in the cañon of the Rio Mancos. In one place there is quite a large village, consisting of a series of rooms opening toward the back of the crevice, and with a smooth wall in front, broken only by a few small openings for air and light. ”

“ We are not here concerned with those mountains which have arisen suddenly, by catastrophic action, but only with such as have been slowly evolved. In the former case, rivers, like all other natural features, share in the general overturning and destruction. ”

“ The fact is, that the negro is not migrating southward. There is no massing of the colored people in the cotton States. In 1860 the colored element of these States formed 66 per cent of the colored element of the country. ”