depth cut through solid rock, which, it is believed, could not have cost less than $100,000. In the mountains of Sandia, Abiquiú, and more particularly in those of Picuris and Embudo, there are also numerous excavations of considerable depth. A few years ago, an enterprising American undertook to reopen one of those near Picuris; but after having penetrated to the depth of more than a hundred feet, without reaching the bottom of the original excavation, (which had probably been filling up for the last hundred and fifty years,) he gave it up for want of means. Other attempts have since been made, but with as little success. Whether these failures have been caused by want of capital and energy, or whether the veins of ore were exhausted by the original miners, remains for future enterprise to determine.

I should premise, before further reference to authorities, that the ruins of the three cities, so evidently built by the Indians, under the direction of the Spaniards, or rather of Spanish priests, are all met with in the valley of the Pecos, at no very great distance apart. They are Abio, Quarra, and Quivira. It is the ruins of Quarra which Major Abert, of the United States Commission Survey, was, at the time of this report we proceed to quote, now visiting. He says:

I now bade adieu to my generous entertainers, and with thousands of extravagant compliments from the kind people, I set out to overtake the party. After traveling southeast for six miles, I reached the ancient village of 'Quarra.' Here there is yet standing the walls of a time-worn cathedral; it is composed entirely of stone-red sandstone; the pieces are not more than two inches thick. The walls are two feet wide, and the outer face dressed off to a perfectly plain surface. The ground-plan presents the form of a cross, with rectangular projections in each of the angles. The short arm of the cross is thirty-three feet two inches wide; the long arm is eighteen feet nine inches wide; their axes are, respectively, fifty feet and one hundred and twelve feet long, and their intersection is thirty feet from the head of the cross. The rectangular projections, that partly fill the angles formed by the arms, are six feet square. At the foot of the cross are rectangular projections, that measure ten feet in the direction of the long axis, and six feet in the other direction.

Around the church are the less conspicuous remains of numerous houses that had been built of the same material, and the surfaces of the walls finished with tools; but these houses are almost level with the earth, while the walls of the ancient church rise to a hight of sixty feet.

While making my measurements, assisted by one of the men who had remained with me, a Mexican came up to me and said, in the most mysterious way, I know something of great moment, and want to speak to you to you alone; no one must be near; come with me to my house.' I went; but when we arrived there, we found an old ruin fitted up with such modern additions as was necessary to render it habitable. Here were several women. I sat some time, talking of indifferent matters, waiting anxiously the important secret; but my friend did not like the presence of the women, and would not tell me then; so I got ready to re-commence my journey, while he endeavored, in a thousand ways to detain I asked him some questions about the geography of the country, and about the famous place called Gran Quivera.' He told me that it was exactly like the buildings of Quarra, thus confirming exactly what I had learned at Manzano.

me.

I now signified my determination to proceed, when this man seemed extremely anxious about my going, and at last told me that he would meet me in a cedar grove, some distance in my route. In a little while I reached the grove, and saw him there. He then told me that he had discovered the greatest mine in the country, where there was an abundance of gold and silver. I asked him why he did not go and get it? O,' said he, 'you can not have been long in this country not to know that we poor people can keep nothing; the Ricos would seize all, but with your protection I would be secure in my labors.' Then he added, I'll give you my name, write it down, it is José Lucero, of Quarra; you can inquire in the villages through which you pass, they will tell you that I am honest.' I took down José Lucero's name, and proceeded on in my journey, so that if any one wishes, they can go and seek the gold of Quarra.

It is the impression of all intelligent explorers, who have seen any one of the ruins mentioned, that from the geological character of the country surrounding them, their existence

can only be accounted for, upon the supposition that they were built for mining purposes, and that since the entire extermination of their Spanish tyrants and taskmasters by the Indians in the first great rising of 1680-they have kept the secret of these mines concealed for the reasons given by Gregg, and frequently repeated by myself. The significant question:-"Why these long aqueducts, bringing water from great distances to cities in the midst of arid plains, when but a short distance south-east, or west, would have given the city-builders, pleasant, beautiful, and well-watered sites?" has no other reasonable answer that I can perceive. The ignorant frontiers-men and savages of Texas had never heard the names of Quarra or Quivira, yet they clearly pointed them out, in connection with this very neighborhood of rich mines.

Dr. Wislizenus, in his report, says: Not far from these salinas the ruins of an old city are found, the fabulous la Gran Quivira.' The common report in relation to this place is, that a very large and wealthy city was once here situated, with very rich mines, the produce of which was once or twice a year sent to Spain. At one season, when they were making extraordinary preparations for the transporting the precious metals, the Indians attacked them, whereupon the miners buried their treasures, worth fifty millions, and left the city together; but they were all killed except two, who went to Mexico, giving the particulars of the affair and soliciting aid to return. But the distance being so great and the Indians so numerous, nobody would advance, and the thing was dropped. One of the two went to New Orleans, then under the dominion of Spain, raised five hundred men, and started by way of the Sabine, but was never heard of afterward. So far the report. Within the last few years, several Americans and Frenchmen have visited the place; and, although they have not found the treasure, they certify at least to the existence of an aqueduct, about ten miles in length, to the still standing walls of several churches, the sculptures of the Spanish coat of arms, and to many spacious pits, supposed to be silver-mines. It was, no doubt, a Spanish mining town, and it is not unlikely that it was destroyed in 1680, in the general successful insurrection of the Indians in New Mexico against the Spaniards. Dr. Samuel G. Morton, in a late

pamphlet, suggests the probability that it was originally an old Indian city, into which the Spaniards, as in several other instances, had intruded themselves, and subsequently abandoned it. Further investigation, it is to be hoped, will clear up this point.

Here are decidedly too many coincidences to be purely accidental and meaningless! Prescott mentions the fact that the quantities of gold found in the possession of the Mexicans by Cortez, are by no means accounted for, in the probable or even possible productiveness of any of the known mines of Mexico at the present day. How, then, is this great wealth to be accounted for? We think we have shown. It came, mostly, from New Mexico and the mysterious regions of the Gila and Colorado; and since this massacre of the Spaniards by the first, and the utter baffling of their search by the latter, these mines have been as a sealed book. But it will no longer continue to be sealed, when American enterprise shall have passed over these buried treasures.

But hear what is said by yet other historians, of the seemingly incalculable quantities of gold obtained by the Spanish conquest of Old and New Mexico, and no reader can be at a loss to account for the European prosperity and predominating insolence of the Catholic Church of this period, any more than he will find the insatiable cravings of the earlier Jesuit missionaries on the north, a difficult riddle to solve.

We shall merely quote a single passage from Prescott, the historian of the Conquest, in confirmation of the above, and conclude this branch of our subject.

In a few weeks most of them returned, bringing back large quantities of gold and silver plate, rich stuffs, and the various commodities in which the taxes were usually paid.

To this store Montezuma added, on his own account, the treasure of Axayacatl, previously noticed, some parts of which had been already given to the Spaniards. It was the fruit of long and careful hoarding-of extortion, it may be-by a prince who little dreamed of its final destination. When brought into the quarters, the gold alone was sufficient to make three heaps. It consisted partly of native grains; part had been melted into bars; but the greatest portion was in utensils, and various kinds of ornaments and curious toys, together with imitations of birds, insects, or flowers, executed

with uncommon truth and delicacy. There were, also, quantities of collars, bracelets, wands, fans, and other trinkets, in which the gold and feather-work were richly powdered with pearls and precious stones. Many of the articles were even inore admirable for the workmanship than for the value of the materials; such, indeed-if we may take the report of Cortez to one who would himself have soon an opportunity to judge of its veracity, and whom it would not be safe to trifle with-as no monarch in Europe could boast in his dominions!

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Magnificent as it was, Montezuma expressed his regret that the treasure was no larger. But he had diminished it, he said, by his former gifts to the white men. Take it,' he added, Malinche, and let it be recorded in your annals, that Montezuma sent this present to your master.'