Santa Fe

“ Twenty of us were conveying a party of women and children—the families of merchants and officers at Santa Fe—through the Indian country, on our way to that city, when the Comanches came down on us, in a swarm of hundreds, and finding there was no escaping a fight, we ran our wagons in a circle, shut the women and horses inside, and then it seemed as if hell was let loose upon us. ”

“ No other town of its size in America has been the subject of and focus for as much good literature as Santa Fe. Pittsburgh and dozens of other big cities all put together have not inspired one tenth of the imaginative play that Santa Fe has inspired. Some of the transcontinental railroads probably carry as much freight in a day as went over the Santa Fe Trail in all the wagons in all the years they pulled over the Santa Fe Trail. ”

“ From the year 1820 many caravans made their way over the trail to Santa Fe, then, as it is to-day, the seat of government. It was here in the old palace that some of the early governors had lived in a semi-royal state, maintaining [Pg 8] a little court and body-guards whose lives were by no means a sinecure, since they were called upon to fight the Indians on many occasions. ”

“ The climate of Santa Fe is rather pleasant; not excessively warm in the summer, and moderately cold in the winter, though snow is a common occurrence. Nearly all the year the sky is clear, and the atmosphere dry. All the houses in Santa Fe are built of adobes, but one story high, with flat roofs; each house in a square form, with a court or open area in the centre. The streets are irregular, narrow, and dusty. The best looking place is the “plaza;” ”

“ A party of Spaniards visited the site of Santa Fe in 1542 and found there a large Indian pueblo with a population estimated at 15,000. About 1605, the pueblo being then deserted, the Spanish made a settlement here under the name ‘La Ciudad Real de la Santa Fé de San Francisco,’ enslaved the Indians in the neighborhood, and opened up extensive gold and silver mines. ”

“ I'd rather you'd inform me as to how soon I'm to reach Santa Fe."
"That's the question," he replied. "We've first to round the headwaters of this stream, then those of the Red River. Afterwards it is not unlikely we can manage so to lose ourselves as to contrive to wander into the midst of the Spanish settlements."
I stared glumly at the snowy peaks towering upon the western horizon. "That may be months hence. We cannot travel fast among the mountains. Why not strike first for Santa Fe?"
"The Spanish settlements must all lie to the southward of yonder grand peak. ”

“ It lies in 35° 41′ 6′′ north latitude, and 106° 2′ 30′′ longitude west of Greenwich. [5] Its elevation above the sea, according to my own observations, is 7,047 feet.
Santa Fe lies in a direct line about 20 miles east of the Rio del Norte, in a wide plain, surrounded on all sides by mountains. The eastern mountains are the nearest; those towards the northeast, the Taos mountains are the highest: some of their snow-capped peaks are supposed to be from four to five thousand feet higher than Santa Fe. ”

“ In Chihuahua, they make a great exhibition with the whole scalps of Indians which they happen to kill by proxy; the refined New Mexicans show but the ears. Among the distinguished buildings in Santa Fe, I have to mention yet two churches with steeples, but of very common construction.
The inhabitants of Santa Fe are a mixed race of Spanish and Indian blood, though the latter prevails. The number of inhabitants was in former times reported as high as 4,000; at present it contains at most 3,000; and with the surrounding settlements belonging to the jurisdiction of Santa Fe, about 6,000. ”

“ At last the massed brightness out in the plain quivered and parted. The pageantry broke, wide curving and returning with some freedom but with order too, into Santa Fe. I saw the Queen and the King with their children, and the Grand Cardinal, and prelates and prelates, and the Marquis of Cadiz, and many a grandee and famous knight. Don Enrique de Cerda and his troop came by.
Diego Lopez and I returned to the town. I saw again the man who would find India by a way unpassed, as far as one knew, since the world began! ”

“ In the days when the Santa Fe trade was at its height, the Pawnees were the most formidable tribe on the eastern central plains, and the freighters and trappers rarely escaped a skirmish with them either at the crossing of the Walnut, Pawnee Rock, the Fork of the Pawnee, or at Little and Big Coon creeks. To-day what is left of the historic hill looks down only upon peaceful homes and fruitful fields, whereas for hundreds of years it witnessed nothing but battle and death, and almost every yard of brown sod at its base covered a skeleton. ”

“ There is a very charming and cultivated society in Santa Fé of the small circle of American residents,—a circle that is of late rapidly increasing. The country around is rich in gems,—the turquoise, opal, onyx, garnet, and bloodstone being found in liberal deposits; and in the town is a manufactory of Mexican filigree work that employs the natives only who are very skilful in this delicate art. The Plaza is a curiously fascinating place to saunter around, and the visitor finds himself loitering and lingering as he is wont to loiter and linger on the old Ponte Vecchio in Florence. ”

“ Other places of interest are the partially reconstructed Cathedral of San Francisco, the Church of San Miguel, and old Fort Marcy. Santa Fe also has the Capitol, a penitentiary, a Federal building, a hospital, and the Territorial Orphan Asylum. ”

“ Mr. Meany (the Anglican clergyman) , the officers and ladies of the Tenth, Governor and Mrs. Prince, and the brilliant lawyer folk of Santa Fe.
Such an ideal life cannot last long; this existence of ours does not seem to be contrived on those lines. At the end of a year, orders came for Texas, and perhaps it was well that orders came, or we might be in Santa Fe to-day, wrapt in a dream of past ages; for the city of the Holy Faith had bound us with invisible chains.
With our departure from Santa Fe, all picturesqueness came to an end in our army life. ”

“ So the Spaniards made no further efforts to penetrate northward into a territory which they claimed to be uninhabitable for civilized man. They had made but one settlement—Santa Fe in 1605, which, next to St. Augustine, Florida, is the oldest town in the United States. Near Santa Fe, Coronado twice wintered his army on the Rio Grande, in the Province of Tiguex. For eighty-five years the Spaniards possessed Santa Fe, when, in 1690, there was an uprising of the Indians, who captured the town, burned the buildings, and massacred or drove out its inhabitants. ”

“ Santa Fe is quite a town, stretching for a considerable distance along a terrace, but little elevated above the water level. The houses are built of rather large, dark-brown, adobe bricks; the walls are usually white plastered; the roofs of all the houses are tiled, and the supporting rafters of the roof extend out far beyond the front wall of the house, so that the passer on the footpath is sheltered against rain and the noonday sun. ”

“ With Indians approaching, [Pg 15]
The Navajos and Pawnees,
Kiowas and Comanche,
Creeping closer to the trail.
The children and the women,
Oh! ’tis hard that they should die.
Then the musket shots ring out
From cool men bent on killing,
Fighting for the ones they love,
Though ten to one outnumbered,
Until morning tints the sky
And with it ends the combat.
Then the town of Santa Fe,
Oh! Father, in Thy mercy—
And the women laugh and sing,
The tired men are weeping,
A thousand times repeated,
As men entered Santa Fe. ”

“ SANTA FÉ, a city of Argentina and capital of the province of that name, on the Santa Fé channel of the Paraná near the mouth of the Salado, about 299 m. N.W. of Buenos Aires. Pop. (1895) 24,755, (1904 estimated) 33,200. It is built on a sandy plain little above the river level. It is regularly laid out and contains a cathedral, bishop's palace, Jesuits' college and church dating from 1654, the cabildo or town hall facing on the principal square and provincial government buildings. ”

“ We recommenced our journey, and passed a mission of Indians under the control of an old priest. After crossing a point of the mountain, we reached Santa Fe,48 on the 5th. This town contains between four and five thousand inhabitants. It is situated on a large plain. A handsome stream runs through it, adding life and beauty to a scene striking and [77] agreeable from the union of amenity and cultivation around, with the distant view of the snow clad mountains. It is pleasant to walk on the flat roofs of the houses in the evening, and look on the town and plain spread below. ”

“ The first known expedition by Americans over the trail was made by the Mallet brothers, who arrived in Santa Fe, July 22, 1739. The first trader to follow the trail reached Santa Fe in 1763. It was not until 1804 that LaLande, a trapper and hunter, crossed the trail and made Santa Fe that year. Kit Carson was one of those who struck the trail in 1826, when he was but sixteen years of age. ”

“ Another day's trip out of Santa Fé will take the visitor up the rugged Santa Fé Cañon, by the large reservoir and the Aztec mineral springs to the Scenic Highway, which crosses the Santa Fé range into the upper Pecos Valley and unfolds at every step new mountain views and panoramas magnificent beyond description. Nor do these trips exhaust the interesting points in and about Santa Fé. Almost every other town in the territory offers sights and scenes of equal interest to the tourist and sightseer. ”

“ Four cities have already been annihilated by the rule of the partisan supporters of Rosas: Santa Fé, Santiago del Estero, San Luis, and La Rioja. Santa Fé, situated at the junction of the Paraná and another navigable river, the mouth of which is close by the town, is one of the most favored spots of South America, and yet contains less than two thousand souls; San Luis, the capital of a province with a population of fifty thousand, in which it is the only city, contains less than fifteen hundred. ”

“ Santa Fé is an important centre of trade, and the development of the mining industries in the vicinity is rapidly increasing its prosperity. The population was 6635 in 1881.
One of the oldest cities of North America, Santa Fé de San Francisco was the capital of New Mexico from 1640, but remained in comparative seclusion till the early part of the present century, when it became a main station on what was called the Santa Fé Trail—the trade route between the United States and Mexico, or more especially between St Louis and Chihuahua. ”

“ Not only is this "City of the Holy Faith" consecrated by that sacrificial devotion of the Franciscan Fathers; the heroic explorers and pioneers, the brave and dauntless soldiers, from the time of Cabeza de Vaca and Coronado to that of the gallant and noble General Kearny, have left on Santa Fé the impress of their brave purpose and high endeavor. The old Cathedral of San Francisco, the ancient church of San Miguel, and the Rosario Chapel, all interest the stranger. ”

“ It makes each house a sort of fortress, as General Taylor's troops learned to their cost at the siege of Monterey. The [18] front entrance of each house is large enough to admit animals with their packs.
Santa Fe is well supplied with cool water from springs within its limits, and from fountains above the city near the neighbouring mountain. The appearance of the place is inviting and imposing, as it stands on a plateau elevated more than 7000 feet above the sea, and near a snow capped mountain, which rises 5000 feet above the level of the town ”

“ More exact statements concerning the date of this settlement are not accessible, although they probably exist in the Spanish archives; but it is certain that Santa Fé was not founded till after the year 1607. Twenty years afterward two hundred and fifty Spaniards dwelt there, including soldiers; and when the Indians rose and drove out the whites in 1680, the whole district contained not more than one thousand Europeans, about half of whom lived in Santa Fé.
All the other towns in New Mexico, the Indian villages excepted, are of much later origin than Santa Fé. ”

“ Santa Fé is the third city of Buenos Ayres; it is seated at the confluence of the Salado with the La Plata, about ninety leagues north-west of the metropolis. It is of a square form, surrounded with a wall, and tolerably fortified, to preserve it from the attacks of the Indians, who have pillaged it several times, always massacreing the inhabitants. It contains a church and convent. The environs abound in game, and the soil being fertile produces corn, wine and fruits. It is the channel through which the Paraguay tea is sent to Peru, and is, on that account, of considerable importance. ”

“ They crossed prairies where no white man had ever penetrated, having no guides but the stars of Heaven, the morning breeze from the mountains, and perhaps a pocket compass. Daily they had to pass through hostile nations; but spite of many other difficulties, such as ignorance of the passes and want of water, they arrived at Santa Fé. ”

“ The railroad leads almost straight north from Santa Fe over high, clear mesas of yellow ocher covered with scrub juniper. There is little sign of water after you leave the Rio Grande, for water does not flow uphill; and you are at an altitude of 8,000 feet when you cross the Divide. You pass through fruit orchards along the river, low headed and heavy with apples. Then come the Indian villages, San Ildefonso, and Española, and Santa Clara, where the strings of red chile bake in the sunlight against the glare adobe. Women go [Pg 187] up from the pools with jars of water on their heads. ”