What alone has saved the old church of Pecos from utter ruin has been its solid mode of construction. Entirely of adobe, its walls have an average thickness of 1.5 m.—5 ft. The adobe is made like that now used, wheat-straw entering into it occasionally; but it also contains small fragments of obsidian,—minute chips of that material and broken pottery. This makes it evident that the soil for its construction must have been gathered somewhere near the mesilla; and the suspicion is very strong on my part that it was the right bank of the arroyo which furnished the material.[93] It is self-evident that the grounds which were used for that purpose must have antedated, in point of occupation, the date of the construction of the church by a very long period. I have measured all the adobe bricks of the church that are within easy reach, at various places, and found them alike. They all measure .55 m. × .28 m.—22 in. × 11 in.—and .08 m.—3 in.—in thickness. They are laid as shown in [Plate I.], Fig. 4.
The mortar is, as the specimen sent by me will prove, of the same composition as the brick itself.
The regularity with which these courses are laid is very[p. 44] striking. The timbers, besides, are all well squared; the ornaments, scrolls, and friezes are quaint, but not uncouth; there is a deficiency in workmanship, but great purity in outline and in design.
To the south of the old church, at a distance of 4 m.—13 ft.—there is another adobe wall, rising in places a few metres above the soil; which wall, with that of the church, seems to have formed a covered passage-way. Adjoining it is a rectangular terrace of red earth, extending out to the west as far as the church front. A valuable record of the manner in which this terrace was occupied is preserved to us in the drawing of the Pecos church given by Lieutenant W. H. Emory in 1846. It appears that south of the church there was a convent;[94] and this is stated also by Sr. Ruiz. In fact, the walls, whether enclosures or buildings, which appear to have adjoined the church, extend south from it 74 m.—250 ft. [Plate I.], Fig. 2, gives an idea of their relative position, etc.: c is 4 m.—13 ft.—wide; d is 21 m. × 46 m.—70 ft. × 156 ft.; e is 25 m. × 46 m.—82 ft. × 150 ft.; f is 24 m. × 46 m.—78 ft. × 150 ft.
The divisions are not strictly marked, and I forbear giving any lengths, since there is great uncertainty about them.
The foundation walls, where visible, are generally about 0.60 m. to 0.75 m.—23 in. to 30 in.—wide, and composed of three rows of stones, set lengthwise, selected for size, and probably broken to fit.[95]
Looking northward from the church, a wall of broken stones, similar to the one we already noticed at the south, meets the eye. The mesilla itself terminates east and west [p. 45] in rocky ledges of inconsiderable height, and the wall stretches across its entire width of 39 m.—129 ft. Its distance from the church is 10 m.—33 ft.; and it thus forms, with the northern church wall, a trapezium of 10 m.—33 ft. This enclosure is said to have been the church-yard.[96] Beyond it the mesilla and its ruined structures appear in full view; and from the church to the northern end, which is also its highest point, it has exactly the form of an elongated pear or parsnip. Hence the name given to it by Spanish authors of the eighteenth century, "el Navon de los Pecos."[97] This fruit-like shape is not limited to the outline: it also extends to the profile. Starting from the church, there is a curved neck, convex to the east, and retreating in a semicircle from the stream on the west. At the end of this neck, about 200 m.—660 ft.—north of the church, there is a slight depression, terminating in a dry stream-bed emptying into the bottom of the Arroyo de Pecos south-westward; and beyond this depression the rocks bulge up to an oblong mound, nearly 280 m.—920 ft.—long from north to south, and at its greatest width 160 m.—520 ft.—from east to west. At the northern termination of this mound the mesilla curves to the north-east, and finally terminates in a long ledge of tumbled rocks, high and abrupt, which gradually merges into the ridges of sandy soil towards the little town of Pecos.[98] [Pl. I.], Fig. 5, gives a[p. 46] tolerably fair view of the mesilla. [Pl. I.], Fig. 1, is designed to exhibit its appearance as seen from below, the highest elevation above the stream being nearly 30 m.—95 ft.
The rock of the mesilla is a compact, brownish-gray limestone. It is crystalline, but yet fossiliferous, very hard, and not deteriorating much on exposure. Its strata dip perceptibly to the south-west; consequently the western rim is comparatively less jagged and rocky than the eastern, and the slope towards the stream more gentle, except at the north-western corner, where the rocks appear broken and tumbled down over the slopes in huge masses.