Ruins of Pecos.
Of the ruined Pueblo towns no extended description is necessary, since they present no contrasts with those still inhabited which have been described. Pecos was formerly one of the most important, and was still inhabited in the early part of the present century. The cut copied from Emory for Mr Baldwin's work, represents a portion of the ruins, which include Spanish and aboriginal structures, both of adobe. Emory noticed large well-hewn timbers. Davis says the ruins of the village cover two or three hundred yards, and include large blocks of stone, square and oblong, weighing over a ton, with marks of having been laid in mortar. Hughes speaks of the traces of a stone wall eight feet high, which once surrounded this Pueblo town. Kit Carson told Mr Meline that he found the town still inhabited in 1826. It was here that in former times was kept burning the everlasting fire which formed part of the religious rites in honor of their deity, or, according to the modern account, of Montezuma. There is no evidence, however, that the aborigines in ancient times had any deity, or monarch of that name; it is quite certain that they did not hear of the Aztec monarch Montezuma many centuries before he began to reign; just possible that they did hear of his fame a few years before the Spaniards came to New Mexico; but altogether probable that they first heard the name of Montezuma, of the Aztec people, and of their former migration southward, from the Spaniards themselves, or their native companions.[XI-63]
With the Quivira located by Thomas Gage and other early writers and map-makers, "on the most Western part of America just over against Tartary," as with the great city of Quivira which Francisco Vasquez de Coronado sought and has been popularly supposed to have found, I have at present nothing to do. It should be noted, however, that the latter Quivira was not one of the Pueblo towns of the Rio Grande, but a town of wigwams on the plains in the far north-east. The ruined town of Quivira or Gran Quivira, east of the Rio Grande, entirely distinct from that of Coronado, includes, like Pecos, a Spanish church among its ruins. The buildings are of hewn stone and of great extent. Gregg speaks of an aqueduct leading to the mountains eight or ten miles distant, the nearest water. This town was very likely, like many others, ruined at the revolt of 1680. Abó, Quarra, Laguna, and the rest, present no new features. There are, moreover, on the Puerco River—a tributary of the Rio Grande, and not that of the Colorado Chiquito already mentioned—many traces of Pueblo buildings which have no definite names.[XI-64]
SEVEN CITIES OF CÍBOLA.
Rock-Inscriptions—Rio Grande.