Chapter I: Preface

No part of the United States is so foreign of aspect as our great Southwest. The broad, lonely plains, the deserts with their mystery and color, the dry water courses, the long, low mountain chains seemingly bare of vegetation, the oases of cultivation where the fruits of the Orient flourish, the brilliant sunshine, the deliciousness of the pure, dry air—all this suggests Syria or northern Africa or Spain. Added to this are the remains everywhere of an old, old civilization that once lived out its life here—it may have been when Nineveh was building or when Thebes was young. Moreover, there is the contemporary interest of Indian and Mexican life such as no other part of the country affords.

In this little volume the author has attempted, in addition to outlining practical information for the traveler, to hint at this wealth of human association that gives the crowning touch to the Southwest’s charm of scenery. The records of Spanish explorers and missionaries, the legends of the aborigines (whose myths and folklore have been studied and recorded by scholars like Bandelier, Matthews, Hough, Cushing, Stevenson, Hodge, Lummis, and others) furnish the raw material of a great native literature. Painters long since discovered the fascination of our Southwest; writers, as yet, have scarcely awakened to it.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE
I Santa Fe, the Royal City of St. Francis’s Holy Faith 1
II The Upper Rio Grande, its Pueblos and Cliff Dwellings 20
III Roundabout Albuquerque 43
IV The Dead Cities of the Salines 56
V Of Acoma, City of the Marvellous Rock; and Laguna 68
VI To Zuñi, the Center of the Earth, via Gallup 82
VII El Morro, the Autograph Rock of the Conquistadores 93
VIII The Storied Land of the Navajo 102
IX The Homes of the Hopis, Little People of Peace 116
X The Petrified Forest of Arizona 130
XI Flagstaff as a Base 137
XII The Grand Cañon of the Colorado River in Arizona 150
XIII Montezuma’s Castle and Well, Which Montezuma Never Saw 162
XIV San Antonio 176
XV In the Country of the Giant Cactus 188
XVI Southern California 204
A Postscript on Climate, Ways and Means 222
Index 227

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING PAGE
An Acoma Indian Dance 72
Laguna, the Mother Pueblo of Seven 73
Bead Maker, Zuñi Pueblo 82
A Street in Acoma Pueblo 83
Old Church, Acoma Pueblo 88
A Sunny Wall in Zuñi 89
Casa Blanca or White House 116
El Morro or Inscription Rock, N. M. 117
In the North Petrified Forest 135
A Corner in Santa Fe, N. M. 136
Old Governor’s Palace, Santa Fe, N. M. 162
Montezuma’s Castle 163
San José de Aguayo 184
San Xavier del Bac, Arizona 185