1859.] HOSPITALITY OF THE MEXICAN. 259 hill-side as bloody and gallant, adding in confirmation that the Americans lost one man! Starting again we struck the Rio Grande, here an insignificant stream in a narrow valley. At four, P. M., the sun had disappeared; so we halted at a spacious adobe whose swarthy owner received us in great dirt and dignity. We performed our ablutions in the little acequia or irrigating canal; supped on mutton, frijoles and eggs and slept on floor-mattresses with yellow-haired saints and a pink-faced virgin staring down from the walls. Breakfasting at daylight before our host was up, we left a quarter-eagle upon his table and started on. The hospitable Mexican entertains all travelers, but never demands payment, leaving that question wholly to his guest. We galloped through El Ambudo, (the funnel,) in 1847 scene of another sanguinary battle, in which two hundred Americans under a raking fire dislodged five hundred of their foes, and had but one man killed! That is our version; but like the lion in the fable the Mexicans had no painter. We entered a dark cold canyon, its frowning walls crowned with odorous pine and hemlock. The mountain scenery grew so wild that I lingered behind my companion to enjoy it. In a lonely dell I was stopped by two brawny Indians, who imperiously demanded whisky and tobacco, and manifested an unpleasing interest in my saddle-bags. A handful of smoking tobacco failing to satisfy them, I drew my revolver and sternly motioned them away. They instantly obeyed; but had they known how poor a marksman I was they would have laughed in my face. Next I encountered a party of Apaches moving their village, with children and household utensils in baskets suspended from the dragging lodge-poles. At two, P. M., sore in every joint, from the ride of eighty miles, equal to one hundred and twenty upon level roads, I reached Taos, and was soon housed under Carson's roof. Taos, (named from an Indian tribe now extinct,) beside the narrow, flashing Taos river which gushes from the mountains a few miles above, has two thousand five hundred inhabitants. It is the third city of New Mexico, Santa Fe being the first and Albuquerque the second. With irrigation its valley produces 260 THE VICTIM OF A BIOGRAPHER. [1859. bountiful crops of wheat which is chiefly converted into whisky, known throughout the far West as 'Taos lightning.' The native women are the most comely in the Territory. Here at the age of fifty Kit Carson had settled to crown a youth of labor with an age of ease. His wife was an intelligent Spanish lady, and his home was brightened by four or five children. He had accumulated a handsome competence and was now Government agent for the Ute Indians with a salary of one thousand dollars per year. Owning a large farm with many horses and mules, he designed thenceforward to avoid horseback riding and travel only in carriages,- a plan which he doubtless carried out as far as practicable in a country destitute of wagon roads. He is by birth a Kentuckian, of excellent abilities but narrow education. Reading with difficulty, and writing little beyond his own name, he speaks fluently English, French, Spanish, and several Indian tongues, all acquired orally. As if figuring fancifully in romances numerous and yellow-covered were not misfortune enough, he is also the victim of a biographer. His romantic life is set forth in a large octavo volume, from data furnished by himself to a persistent author. He confessed to me-most modest 1859.] ALL ABOUT MEXICAN DONKEYS. 261 of heroes-that he had looked into the book here and there but had never read it! He is a gentleman by instinct; upright, pure, and simple-hearted, beloved alike by Indians, Mexicans, and Americans. When serving as scout and guiding Fremont on his explorations he held a lieutenant's commission in our army. After several years of civil life he was made a brigadier general of volunteers during the war for the Union, and he now commands a fort in New Mexico. The narrow streets of Taos, like those of Santa Fe and El Paso; are usually crowded with Mexican carriages. The burro, or donkey, little larger than a Newfoundland dog, serves for mule, ox, horse, cart, and barouche. He staggers like a runaway haystack under huge loads of grass, straw, husks, and corn-stalks. He brings from the mountains enormous piles of pine and cedar for fuel. He transports trunks, sacks of coffee, kegs, and even barrels of whisky. Often he carries burdens quite as heavy as himself. Women and children jog soberly along upon the patient little beast. They use neither saddle nor bridle but guide him by a club, mercilessly thwacking his thick skull. While making a call or visiting a trading house they leave him alone for hours. They 'hitch' him by throw The American residents claimed that the instinctive hostility of the natives, who formed a majority upon all juries, rendered it impossible to punish any Mexican through the courts, for the grossest outrages upon white 262 THE REBELLION OF 1847. [1859. men.' This was their excuse for wearing revolvers and knives and wreaking private revenge for every real or fancied injury. Homicides even among themselves were common; and in that marvelously, healthful climate there was some foundation for the current proverb that Yankees never died except from revolver shots, hard drinking, or a personal vice still more repulsive. I heard a hopeful American youth of seventeen, who with drawn bowie knife had wantonly attacked a native at a fandango, bitterly regret that he was not able to 'cut the Greaser in two? before they were separated. And a burly Mexican, in a frenzy of anger, cut off the ears of his wife! For a timid gentleman of quiet habits the society was not alluring! Our Government acquired this extensive Territory almost without bloodshed during the Mexican war. A year after its annexation, in a general rebellion which began at Taos, Mexicans and Indians massacred Governor William Bent, every other United States civil officer whether of Mexican or American birth, and most of the white private citizens. Carson was absent from home, but the savages who took every thing from his house even stole all the clothing from his wife's person except her chemise. They scalped their victims and burned out the eyes of one, a lawyer from Ohio, before life was extinct. Friendly native women had given frequent warnings, and some escaped the massacre by flight. The national authority was soon restored and eighteen of the murderers were hanged. The old Aztec priests had the confessional, granted absolution and taught the people to dramatize scenes in the lives of their gods. These customs were easily assimilated to the new faith. During Holy week, in all large towns, churches and altars are richly adorned, priests appear in gorgeous robes, and figures of the Saviour and the virgin, as large as life, are exhibited. The European 'mysteries' of the middle ages originated with returned pilgrims from the Holy Land, who, in public streets, leaning upon well-worn staffs, and wearing cloaks and chaplets picturesquely decorated with shells and images, recited poems describing the consecrated spots they had visited, interwoven with traditions, simple and extravagant, of Christ and the apostles. In time pious citizens erected stages for these performances. One of 1859.] CURIOUS RELIGIOUS CUSTOMS OF NATIVES. 263 the quaint dramas represented the beloved apostle cast into a caldron of boiling oil. Another exhibited the eleven drawing lots with straws for a successor to the apostate Judas. Some began with the creation and ended with the last judgment—at least a comprehensive plan. Even the Almighty was personated; and anecdotes are preserved of one curate who came near expiring on the cross, and another, who while playing Judas and hanging upon a tree narrowly escaped suffocation through the slipping of his rope. The New Mexican devotees closely imitate their medieval prototypes, enacting the trial of Christ, the ghastly death, the watching of the body by Pontius Pilate, (!) and other incidents real, fanciful, and grotesque in the first great tragedy of the Christian religion. The Aztec priests fasted and did cruel penance, scourging and piercing themselves with thorns. until blood streamed from their wounds. The Penitentes, a secret society of the most ignorant Catholics including many criminals, still reproduce these horrors. They spend Easter week in a secluded lodge or ranch, dragging stones, crucifixes, and other heavy burdens, cutting their flesh with swords, and tearing it with cactus thorns. On Thursday and Friday, wearing only drawers, they are led blindfolded through the streets, lashing themselves with a tough weed until blood flows. freely, sometimes to the infliction of fatal injuries. These tortures end in the cathedral, where they represent the darkness and chaos which they believe followed the crucifixion. After again lashing their bodies pitilessly, they remain in total darkness for an hour, groaning, shrieking, and hurling sticks and stones. This week of penance they deem ample atonement for all their sins of the year. The priests (Irish and French, with a few natives) are often very ignorant. Nearly all live openly with mistresses, whose children bear the mother's name, though their paternity is neither concealed nor denied. The priests' marriage fees range from ten to one hundred dollars. Among the poor, burial costs from one dollar to one hundred, according to the distance of the grave from the altar. The wealthy are sometimes charged a thousand dollars for interment in sacred earth. The personal names of these devout Catholics startle Protestant |