I never missed the Sunday
morning mass, and I fell in easily with the religious
observances.
I read and studied about the old explorers, and I seemed to live
in the time of Cortez and his brave band. I became acquainted
with Adolf Bandelier, who had lived for years in that country,
engaged in research for the American Archaeological Society. I
visited the Indian pueblos, those marvellous structures of adobe,
where live entire tribes, and saw natives who have not changed
their manner of speech or dress since the days when the Spaniards
first penetrated to their curious dwellings, three hundred or
more years ago. I climbed the rickety ladders, by which one
enters these strange dwellings, and bought the great bowls which
these Indians shape in some manner without the assistance of a
potter's wheel, and then bake in their mud ovens.
The pueblo of Tesuque is only nine miles from Santa Fe, and a
pleasant drive, at that; it seemed strange to me that the road
was not lined with tourists. But no, they pass all these wonders
by, in their disinclination to go off the beaten track.
Visiting the pueblos gets to be a craze. Governor and Mrs. Prince
knew them all - the pueblo of Taos, of Santa Clara, San Juan, and
others; and the Governor's collection of great stone idols was a
marvel indeed. He kept them laid out on shelves, which resembled
the bunks on a great vessel, and in an apartment especially
reserved for them, in his residence at Santa Fe, and it was
always with considerable awe that I entered that apartment. The
Governor occupied at that time a low, rambling adobe house, on
Palace Avenue, and this, with its thick walls and low
window-seats, made a fit setting for the treasures they had
gathered.
Later on, the Governor's family occupied the palace (as it is
always called) of the old Spanish Viceroy, a most ancient,
picturesque, yet dignified building, facing the plaza.
The various apartments in this old palace were used for
Government offices when we were stationed there in 1889, and in
one of these rooms, General Lew Wallace, a few years before, had
written his famous book, "Ben Hur."
On the walls were hanging old portraits painted by the Spaniards
in the sixteenth century. They were done on rawhide, and whether
these interesting and historic pictures have been preserved by
our Government I do not know.
The distinguished Anglican clergyman living there taught a small
class of boys, and the "Academy," an excellent school
established by the Presbyterian Board of Missions, afforded good
advantages for the young girls of the garrison.
