[88] Casas Grandes is a short distance south of Janos (see ante, [note 78]). Near the Mexican village are the famous ruins of large, several-storied dwellings built by an Indian tribe that has passed away. Evidence of a canal which conveyed the water supply is also to be seen, and at some distance from the cluster of buildings is a kind of watch-tower. Similar ruins have been discovered in Arizona, all the work of Pueblo Indians, although of a tribe having attained a somewhat higher culture than those of to-day. See Bandelier, "Final Report," iv, pp. 544-575.—Ed.
[89] The town of El Paso dates from about 1680, when the Spanish were driven out of Santa Fé by the great Pueblo revolt. For Indian, trapper, trader, and miner it has been a gateway between the Atlantic and Pacific river systems. Its name arose from the fact that there the Rio del Norte emerges from the mountains to the plains. The modern El Paso, Texas, is across the river from the old town.—Ed.
[90] This is not the Pacos (Pecos), previously mentioned by Pattie (see ante, [note 49]), but the Puerco, a western tributary of the Rio del Norte. Puerco was also a common, though mistaken name, for the Pecos, hence the confusion. The Puerco is a narrow, shallow stream, about seventy-five miles in length, which, rising in the mountains west of Santa Fé and flowing southward, unites with the Rio del Norte a few miles above Socorro.—Ed.
[91] The Mescalero were among the most treacherous and murderous tribes of the Apache. Their favorite haunts were the mountains bordering the Rio del Norte on the east. Some five hundred of them are now on the Mescalero reservation in New Mexico.—Ed.
[92] The Mimbres River flows between Mimbres Mountain and the copper mines, being but a short distance from the latter.—Ed.
[93] This is probably Andrew Henry, a pioneer trader on the Missouri, for whom see our volume xv, p. 246, note 107.—Ed.
[94] See ante, [note 65.]—Ed.
[95] The jaguar (Felis onca) most resembles the leopard of the old world. It inhabits the wooded parts of America, from Texas to Paraguay.—Ed.
[96] For the Cocopa Indians, see ante, [note 65.] The Pipi were probably Pimi, a distinct linguistic family, occupying southern Arizona and northern Mexico. They lived a settled life in villages, and were generally well-disposed toward the whites.—Ed.
[97] Santa Catalina was the last mission founded in Lower California. It was established by the Dominicans (1797) in the mountains, back from the coast, about latitude 31° 20′, on the headwaters of River St. Quentin.—Ed.