Tales of Aztlan; The Romance of a Hero of Our Late Spanish-American War, Incidents of Interest from the Life of a Western Pioneer and Other Tales

  CHAPTER IV.

  A STRANGE LAND AND STRANGER PEOPLE

  We were now within the boundaries of the Territory of Colorado andapproaching the northern line of New Mexico. When we passed throughTrinidad, which was then a small adobe town, we met Don Emilio Cortezagain. He was at home in this vicinity and came for the express purposeof persuading me to come with him. "My good wife charged me to bringher that little gringo," he said; "she longs for an American son." "Ourdaughter, Mariquita, is now ten years of age, and has been asked inmarriage by Don Robusto Pesado, a very rich man. But the child isafraid of him, as he is a mountain of flesh, weighing close on twelvearrobas. Now we thought that two years hence thou wilt be seventeenyears old and a man very sufficient for our little Mariquita, who willthen, with God's favor, be a woman of twelve years. She will have alarge dowry of cattle and sheep, and as the saints have blessed us withan abundance of land and chattels, thou art not required to provide."

  I thanked Don Emilio very kindly, but was, of course, too young then toentertain any thought of marrying. I was really sorry to disappointhim, as he seemed to have formed a genuine attachment for me and wasseriously grieved by my refusal.

  Rumor spreads its vagaries faster among illiterate people than amongthe enlightened and educated. Therefore, it was said in New Mexico longbefore our arrival there that Don Jose Lopez's outfit brought a youngAmerican, the like of whom had never been known before. He was notignorant, as other Americans, for he not only spoke the Spanish, but hecould also read and write the Castillan language. It was well knownthat most Americans were so stupid that they could not talk as well asa Mexican baby of two years, and that often after years of residenceamong Spanish people they were still ignorant of the language. Andwould you believe it, but it was the sacred truth, this littleAmerican, albeit a mere boy, had the strength of a man. He made thatbig heathen Navajo brute Pancho, the mayordomo of Don PrecilianoChavez, of Las Vegas, stand stark before him in his nakedness, with hishands raised to Heaven and compelled him, under pain of instant death,to say his Pater Noster and three Ave Marias. Others said that Don JoseLopez was a man of foresight and discretion and saw that the Indianswere on the warpath and very dangerous. Therefore, he prayed to hispatron saint for spiritual guidance and succor. San Miguel, in hiswisdom, sent this young American heretic, as undoubtedly it was best tofight evil with evil. And when the devil, in the guise of a coyote, ledthe Indians to the attack, then he was sorely wounded by the unerringaim of the gringito's rifle.

  Others said that Don Jose Lopez had set up a shrine for the image ofhis renowned patron saint, San Miguel, in his provision wagon, whichwas being driven by the American boy, and the boy took the bullet whichwounded the coyote so sorely out of the saint's mouth, who had bittenthe sign of the cross thereon. And the evil one, in the likeness of thecoyote, rolled in his agony on the grass when he was hit by thecross-marked bullet. Of course, the grass took fire and very nearlyburned up the whole caravan.

  Other people said they were not surprised to hear of miracles emanatingfrom the shrine of the patron saint of Don Jose. His grandfather hadwhittled this famous image out of a cottonwood tree, whereon a saintlyPenitente had been crucified after the custom of the order ofFlagellants. This Penitente resembled the penitent thief who died onthe cross and entered Paradise with the Saviour in this, that he wasknown to be a good horse thief, and as he had died on the cross on anight of Good Friday, he surely went to Glory Everlasting. Don Jose'sgrandfather made a pilgrimage with this image he had made to the Cityof Mexico, to have the Archbishop bless it in the cathedral beforeSanta Guadalupe. During the ceremony, it was said, there grew a finehead of flaxen hair on the image and it received beautiful blue eyes.And it had the miraculous propensity to ever after wink its eye in thepresence of a priest and at the approach of a Christ-hating Jew, itwould spit. This virtue saved much wealth for the family of Don Jose,as they were ever put on their guard against Jewish peddlers.

  The rumor that Don Jose Lopez had carried the household saint with himin his wagon was at once contradicted and disproved by his wife, DonaMercedes. The lady declared that San Miguel had never left his shrinein the patio of their residence except for the avowed purpose of makingrain. In seasons of protracted drouth, when crops and live stock sufferfor want of water, crowds of Mexican people, mostly farmers' wives andtheir children, form processions and carry the images of saints roundabout the parched fields, chanting hymns and praying for rain.

  On this occasion Dona Mercedes availed herself of the chance to extolthe prowess and power of her family's idolized saint, San Miguel. Shesaid as a rainmaker he had no equal. He disliked and objected to havehimself carried about the fields when there was not a certain sign ofcoming rain in the heavens. Her little saint, she said, was toohonorable and too proud to risk the disgrace of failure and bring shameon her family. Therefore, he would not consent to be carried out in thefields until kind Nature, through unfailing signs, proclaimed a speedydownpour. When thunder shook the expectant earth and the first drops ofrain began to fall, then he started on his little business trip andnever had he failed to make it rain copiously. Friends of Don JoseLopez, hearing all this talk, were not slow to take advantage of it.The time for the election of county officials was near and theypromptly placed Don Jose in nomination for the office of the sheriff ofSan Miguel County.

  When people applied to the parish priest for advice in this matter, helaughingly told them that he did not know if all these current rumorswere true, quien sabe, but surely nothing was impossible before theLord and the blessed saints, and Don Jose being a friend, he advisedthem to give him their support, as he was a very good and capable manwho would make an ideal sheriff. To be sure, the Don paid his debts andwas never remiss in his duties to Holy Church.

  We crossed over the Raton Mountains and were then in the northern partof the Territory of New Mexico. What a curious country it was! Thehouses were built of adobe or sun-dried brick of earth, in a veryprimitive fashion. We seemed to be transported as by magic to the HolyLand as it was in the lifetime of our Saviour. The architecture of thebuildings, the habits and raiment of the people, the stony soil of thehills, covered by a thorny and sparse vegetation, the irrigated fertileland of the valleys, the small fields surrounded by adobe walls--allthis could not fail to remind one vividly of descriptions and picturesof Old Egypt and Palestine. Here you saw the same dusty, primitiveroads and quaint bullock carts, that were hewn out of soft wood andjoined together with thongs of rawhide and built without the vestige ofiron or other metal. There were the same antediluvian plows, made oftwo sticks, as used in ancient Egypt at the time of the Exodus, whenMoses led the Jews out of captivity to their Promised Land. The veryatmosphere, so dry and exhilarating, seemed strange. In thistransparent air, objects which were twenty miles distant seemed to beno farther than two or three miles at most. In such a country it wouldnot have surprised anyone to meet the Saviour face to face, riding anass or burro over the stony road, followed by His disciples and amultitude of people, who, with the most implicit faith in the Lord'spower to perform miracles, expected Him to provide them with anabundance of loaves and fishes. Here we were in a country, a territoryof the United States, which was about eighteen hundred years behind thecivilization of other Christian countries.

  As we passed through the many little hamlets and towns, the malepopulation, who were sitting on the shady side of their houses,regarded us with lazy curiosity. They were leaning against the cool,adobe walls, dreaming and smoking cigarettes. The ladies seemed topossess a livelier disposition and emerged from their houses to gossipand gather news. They viewed me with the greatest interest andcuriosity and, shifting the mantillas, or rebozos, behind which theyhid their faces after the Moorish fashion, they gazed at me withshining eyes. And I believe that I found favor with many, for theywould exclaim, "M'ira que Americanito tan lindo, tan blanco!" (What ahandsome young American. See what beautiful blue eyes he has and what awhite complexion.) And mothers warned the maidens not to look at me, asI might
have the evil eye. I heard one lady tell her daughter, "You maylook at him just once, Dolores; oh, see how handsome he is!" (Valga me,Dios, que lindo es, pobrecito!)And the way the young lady gazed was arevelation to me. The fire of her limpid black eyes struck me as a rayof glorious light. An indescribable thrill, never before known, rose inmy breast and she held me enthralled under a spell which I had not theleast desire to break. And they said that it was I who had the evileye! To say that these people were lacking in the virtues andaccomplishments of modern civilization entirely would be a mistake veryeasily made indeed by strangers who, on passing through their land, didnot understand their language and were unfamiliar with their socialcustoms and mode of living. They extended unlimited hospitality toevery one alike, to friend or stranger, to poor or rich. They were mostcharmingly polite in their conversation, personal demeanor, and socialintercourse and very charitable and affectionate to their families andneighbors. These people are happy as compared with other nations inthat they do not worry and fret over the unattainable and doubtful, butlightheartedly they enjoy the blessings of the present, such as theyare. Therefore, if rightly understood, they may be the best ofcompanions at times, being sincere and unselfish; so I have found manyof them to be later on, during the intercourse of a more intimateacquaintance. In the large towns, as Santa Fe, Albuquerque, and LasVegas, where there lived a considerable number of Americans, thesewould naturally associate together, as, for instance, the Americancolony in Paris or Berlin or other foreign places, so as not to beobliged to mingle with the natives socially any more than they chose.But in the village where my relatives lived, we had not the alternativeof choosing our own countrymen for social companionship.

  Therefore, I realized when I reached my destination that I had tochange my accustomed mode of living and adapt myself to such a life aspeople had led eighteen hundred years ago. I thought that if I took theexample of the Saviour's life for my guiding star, I would certainlyget along very well. Undoubtedly this would have sufficed in aspiritual sense, but I found that it would be impractical as applied tomy temporal welfare and the requirements of the present time. For Icould not perform miracles nor could I live as the Saviour had done,roaming over the country and teaching the natives. And then, seeingthat there were so many Jews in New Mexico, I feared they might attemptto crucify me and I did not relish the thought. Therefore I acceptedKing Solomon's life as the next best one to emulate. While I wasgreatly handicapped by not possessing the riches of the great old king,I fancied that I had a plenty of his wisdom, and although I could notcut as wide a swath as he had done, I did well enough under thecircumstances. I was, of course, limited to a vastly smaller scale inthe pursuit and enjoyment of the many good things to be had in NewMexico. Ever joyous, free from care, I drifted in my voyage of lifewith the stream of hope over the shining waters of a happy anddelightful youth.