| THE first white man in
New Mexico was an officer of the
ill-fated Florida expedition of
Narvaez Cabeza de Vaca, who, with
three companions crossed Texas
and the Pueblo region in 1536,
and reached Spanish Mexico. Bands
of Franciscans founded missions
among the savage tribes, and many
won the crown of martyrdom. The
civilized Pueblo race has for
several centuries occupied the
fertile valley of the
northwestern part of the
territory with their communal
houses of stone and adobe. They
were once a numerous people, with
villages also in Arizona,
Chihuahua, Colorado and Utah; but
a series of droughts and
pestilence and wars with the
Apaches and Spaniards reduced
them to a shadow of their former
greatness. The Pueblos still
occupy the oldest towns in
America, and are a gentle, honest
and industrious race of farmers.
In 1847 Kearney's Army of the
West marched 900 miles across the
plains from Missouri, occupying
this territory. New Mexico, west
of the Rio Grande, belonged to
the region ceded by Mexico to the
United States in 1848, and the
part east of the Rio Grande was
ceded by Texas in 1850. The trade
between Missouri and New Mexico,
on the Santa Fé trail, began
early in the century, and the
freight was carried on by pack
animals until 1824, when mule and
ox-wagons, "prairie
schooners," came into use.
Up to 1831 the caravans started
from Franklin (now Booneville),
on the Missouri, and afterwards
from Independence. |
