The mound and tower H performed a similar office towards the steep ledge of rocks there descending, among whose fragments Indians could hide for hours from the scouts on the house tops. Thus the great enclosure with its details served a triple purpose. It was the reservoir which held and conducted the waters precipitated on the mesilla to the useful purpose of irrigation. It was a preliminary defensive line,—a first obstruction to a storming foe, and a shelter for its defenders. But it was also in places an admirable post of observation. It formed the necessary complement to the houses themselves,[190] and both together composed a system of defences which, inadequate against the military science of civilization,[p. 133] was still wonderfully adapted for protection against the stealthy, lurking approach, the impetuous but "short-winded" dash, of Indian warfare.
In conclusion of this lengthy report, I may be permitted to add a few lines concerning the great houses themselves. Their mode and manner of construction and occupation I have already discussed; it is their abandonment and decay to which I wish to refer. This decay is the same in both houses; the path of ruin from S.S.E. to N.N.W. indicates its progress. It shows clearly that, as section after section had been originally added as the tribe increased in number, so cell after cell (or section after section) was successively vacated and left to ruin as their numbers waned, till at last the northern end of the building alone sheltered the poor survivors. They receded from south to north; for the church, despoiled and partly destroyed in 1680, was no protection to them. Its own ruin kept pace with that of the tribe.[191] The northern extremity of the pueblo was their best stronghold, and thither they retired step by step in the face of inevitable doom.
A. F. Bandelier.
Santa Fé, Sept. 17, 1880.
To Professor C. E. Norton, President of the Archæological Institute of America, Cambridge, Mass.
GRANT OF 1689 TO THE PUEBLO OF PECOS.
The following is a literal copy of the original grant, now (Sept. 25, 1880) on file at the United States Surveyor-General's office at Santa Fé, made to the inhabitants of the Indian pueblo of Pecos in New Mexico. The language of the document is not altogether clear, but the essential terms are distinct:—
Año de 1689
| En el Pueblo de nu. S.a de Guadalupe del Paso del Riodel Norte en veinte y cinco dias del mes de Sep.te de mil seiscientosy ochenta y nueve años el Señor Gov.or y Cap.n Gen.lD.a Domingo Jironza Petroz de Cruzate dijo que por quantoen el alcanze que se dio en los de la Nueva Mex.co de losYndios Queres y los Apostatas y los Teguas y de la nacionThanos y despues de haber peleado con todos los demasYndios de todos Pueblos un Yndio del Pueblo de Zia llamadoBartolomé de Ojeda que fue el que mas se señaló en la vatallaacudiendo á todas partes se rindio viendose herido deun balazo y un flechaso lo cual como dicho es mando quedebajo de juram.to declare como se halla el Pu.o de Pecosaunque queda muy metido á donde el sol sale y fueron unosYndios Apostatas de aquel Reyno de la Nueva Mexico. |
Preguntado que si este Pu.o volverá en algun tiempo comoha sido constumbre en ellos y dice el confesante que no queya está muy metido en terror que aunque estaban abilantadoscon lo que les habia susedido á los de el Pu.o de Zia el añopasado juzgaba que era un imposible que dejaran de dar laobediencia; por lo cual se concedieron por el Señor Governadory Capitan General D.a Domingo Jironza Petroz deCruzate los linderos que aqui anoto; para el. Norte unalegua; y para el Oriente una legua; y para el Poniente unalegua; y para el Sur una legua; y medidas estas cuatro lineasde las cuatro esquinas del Pu.o dejando á salvo el temploque queda al medio dia del Pu.o y asi lo proveyo mando yfirmo susca [?] á mi el presente Secretario de Gov.on yGuerra que de ello doy fé. D.a Domingo Jironza Petroz de Cruzate. Ante mi Don Pedro Ladron de Guitara Sc.o de G.n y Gu.a |
