One celebrated group of ruins remains to be described in this chapter—the Casas Grandes of northern Chihuahua. These ruins are situated on the Casas Grandes River,—which, flowing northward, empties into a lake near the United States boundary,—about midway between the towns of Janos and Galeana, and one hundred and fifty miles north-west of the city of Chihuahua. They are frequently mentioned by the early writers as a probable station of the migrating Aztecs, but these early accounts are more than usually inaccurate in this case. Robertson found in a manuscript work a mention of the Casas Grandes as "the remains of a paltry building of turf and stone, plastered over with white earth or lime."[X-58] Arlegui, in his Chrónica, speaks of them as "grand edifices all of stone well-hewn and polished from time immemorial." So nicely joined were the blocks of stone that they seemed to have been 'born so,' without the slightest trace of mortar; but the author adds that they might have been joined with the juice of some herbs or roots.[X-59] Clavigero, who claims to have derived his information from parties who had visited the ruins,—since the hostile attitude of the Apaches at the time of his own residence in the country made a visit impracticable—was the first to give any definite idea of these monuments, although he also falls into several errors. He says: "This place is known by the name of Casas Grandes on account of a vast edifice still standing, which according to the universal tradition of the people was built by the Mexicans in their pilgrimage. This edifice is constructed according to the plan of those in New Mexico, that is composed of three stories and a terrace above them, without doors in the lower story. The entrance to the edifice is in the second story; so that a ladder is required."[X-60]
Sr Escudero examined the ruins in 1819, and describes them as "a group of rooms built with mud walls, exactly oriented according to the four cardinal points. The blocks of earth are of unequal size, but placed with symmetry, and the perfection with which they have lasted during a period which cannot be less than three hundred years shows great skill in the art of building. It is seen that the edifice had three stories and a roof, with exterior stairways probably of wood. The same class of construction is found still in all the independent Indian towns of Moqui, north-east from the state of Chihuahua. Most of the rooms are very small with doors so small and narrow that they seem like the cells of a prison."[X-61] A writer in the Album Mexicano, who visited the Casas Grandes in 1842, wrote a description which is far superior to anything that preceded it.[X-62] Mr Hardy visited the place, but his account affords very little information;[X-63] and Mr Wizlizenus gives a brief description evidently drawn from some of the earlier authorities and consequently faulty.[X-64] Finally Mr Bartlett explored the locality in 1851, and his description illustrated with cuts is by far the most satisfactory extant. From his account and that in the Album most of the following information is derived.[X-65]
Casas Grandes—Chihuahua.
The ruined casas are about half a mile from the modern Mexican town of the same name, located in a finely chosen site, commanding a broad view over the fertile valley of the Casas Grandes or San Miguel river, which valley—or at least the river bottom—is here two miles wide. This bottom is bounded by a plateau about twenty-five feet higher, and the ruins are found partly on the bottom and partly on the more sterile plateau above. They consist of walls, generally fallen and crumbled into heaps of rubbish, but at some points, as at the corners and where supported by partition walls, still standing to a height of from five to thirty feet above the heaps of débris, and some of them as high as fifty feet, if reckoned from the level of the ground. The cuts on this and the opposite pages represent views of the ruins from three different standpoints, as sketched by Mr Bartlett.
CASAS GRANDES.
