THE PUEBLO (THE TOWN).
After the Spanish rule had been firmly established in the New World, the government, to hold the Indians, in cheek, constructed fortified posts, at certain distances, on the extreme limits of their possessions. These posts were called presidios, and were peopled by criminals of every degree of whom it was deemed prudent to clear the mother country. The presidio of San Lucar, on the Rio Bermejo, was one of the first established.
At the epoch of the foundation of this presidio, the post consisted solely of a fort built on the north bank, on a steep cliff which commands the river, the plains to the south, and the surrounding country.
It is square in form, built with very thick walls of hewn stone, and flanked by three bastions,—two on the river, to east and west, the third in the plain.
The interior contains the chapel, priest's house and the powder magazine; on the other sides are the old dwelling places of the prisoners, spacious buildings for the commandant, the treasurer, and officers of the garrison, and likewise a small hospital.
All these buildings, only one story high, were finished off with flat Italian roofs. Outside, the government had also constructed vast granaries, a bakery, a mill, two workshops for saddlers and carpenters, and two ranchos appropriated to the horses and cattle.
In these days the fort is almost in ruins the walls, for want of repair, are crumbling in all directions; only the dwellings are kept in tolerable condition.
The presidio of San Lucar is divided into three sections,—two to the north, the third to the south of the river.
Its general aspect is melancholy. A few sparse trees grow here and there, in close contiguity to the river, manifesting, by their want of vitality, how ungrateful is the soil from which they draw their existence. The roads are covered with a pulverulent sand, throwing up clouds of dust at the least motion in the atmosphere.