Alburquerque is a town as large as Santa Fé, stretched for several miles along the left bank of the Rio Grande, and if not a handsomer, is at least not a worse looking place than the capital.
The population of New Mexico, owing to the insecure tenure of life on a frontier which is constantly liable to the ravages of wild Indians, has always clustered together in towns and villages. These are scattered along the valley of the rivers, and are commonly known as the "rio arriva" and "rio abajo" or "up stream" and "down stream" settlements. Even individual ranchos and haciendas serve as the nucleii of large neighborhoods, and finally become important villages. All the principal locations of this character lie in the valley between one hundred miles north and one hundred and forty south of the capital. The most important of these next to the capital, is El Valle de Taos, whose name is derived from the Taosa tribe, a remnant of which still forms a Pueblo in the north of the district. No part of New Mexico equals this spot in productiveness; and although the bottom lands of the valleys where irrigation may be easily obtained have often produced over a hundred fold, yet the uplands throughout all these elevated plains about the Rocky Mountains, must, in all probability, remain sterile in consequence of the extraordinary dryness of the atmosphere. Indeed, New Mexico possesses but few of those natural advantages which are necessary to a rapid progress of civilization. It is a region without a single communication by water with any other part of the world, and is imprisoned by chains of mountains extending for more than five hundred miles, except in the direction of Chihuahua from which, however, its settlements are separated by a dreary desert of nearly two hundred miles.[75]
"Some general statistics of the Santa Fé trade," says Dr. Gregg, "may prove not wholly without interest to the mercantile reader. With this view I have prepared the following table of the probable amount of merchandise invested in the Santa Fé trade, from 1822 to 1843 inclusive, and about the portion of the same transferred to the Southern markets (chiefly Chihuahua) during the same period; together with the approximate number of wagons, men and proprietors engaged each year:
| Years. | Amount Mdse. | Wagons. | Men. | Prop'ietors | Train to Chihuahua | Remarks. |
| 1822 | 15,000 | 70 | 60 | Pack-animals only used. | ||
| 1823 | 12,000 | 50 | 30 | do. do. | ||
| 1824 | 35,000 | 26 | 100 | 80 | 3,000 | do. and wagons. |
| 1825 | 65,000 | 37 | 130 | 90 | 5,000 | do. do. |
| 1826 | 90,000 | 60 | 100 | 70 | 7,000 | Wagons only henceforth. |
| 1827 | 85,000 | 55 | 90 | 50 | 8,000 | |
| 1828 | 150,000 | 100 | 200 | 80 | 20,000 | Three men killed, being the first. |
| 1829 | 60,000 | 30 | 50 | 20 | 5,000 | 1st U. S. Escort—one trader killed. |
| 1830 | 120,000 | 70 | 140 | 60 | 20,000 | First oxen used by traders. |
| 1831 | 250,000 | 130 | 320 | 80 | 80,000 | Two men killed. |
| 1832 | 140,000 | 70 | 150 | 40 | 50,000 | Party defeated on Canadian 2 men killed, 3 perished. |
| 1833 | 180,000 | 105 | 185 | 60 | 80,000 | |
| 1834 | 150,000 | 80 | 160 | 50 | 70,000 | 2d U. S. Escort |
| 1835 | 140,000 | 75 | 140 | 40 | 70,000 | |
| 1836 | 130,000 | 70 | 135 | 35 | 60,000 | |
| 1837 | 150,000 | 80 | 160 | 35 | 80,000 | |
| 1838 | 90,000 | 50 | 100 | 20 | 40,000 | |
| 1839 | 250,000 | 130 | 250 | 40 | 100,000 | Arkansas Expedition. |
| 1840 | 50,000 | 30 | 60 | 5 | 10,000 | Chihuahua Expedition. |
| 1841 | 150,000 | 60 | 100 | 12 | 80,000 | Texan Santa Fé Expedition. |
| 1842 | 160,000 | 70 | 120 | 15 | 90,000 | |
| 1843 | 450,000 | 230 | 350 | 30 | 300,000 | 3d U. S. Escort—Ports closed."[76] |
The following valuable geographical information is derived from a statement published by Major James Henry Carleton, United States Army, in the National Intelligencer, and is founded on the measurements made by Captain Alexander H. Dyer, with a viameter, during the march of General Kearney against New Mexico.