XXIX.
CHIHUAHUA, THE GREAT FRONTIER STATE.
AT the time of the revolt of the Indians of New Mexico, in 1680, the Spanish colonists, driven out of Santa Fé, retreated southward along the Rio Grande to Paso del Norte,—the North Pass,—where they intrenched themselves, and remained until reinforcements reached them from Mexico.
The most fertile valleys in the Rio Grande region lie to the northward of El Paso, and were occupied, even long before the arrival of the Spaniards, by Indians, who dwelt in settled communities, and were partially civilized. These Pueblo Indians had not penetrated into the territory now pertaining to Old Mexico, unless the ruins of the Casas Grandes—to which I shall allude further on—belong to them, and are found mainly in New Mexico and Arizona. Coming down from the north, pursuing the course followed by the little army of Spanish fugitives of two hundred years ago, a great railroad line—a system, rather, with its giant trunk and numerous feeders—bisects New Mexico, the territory of the Pueblos, and crosses the Rio Grande at El Paso. At Paso del Norte it enters Old Mexico as the "Mexican Central," though still under the guidance of the same wise and sagacious capitalists who projected the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fé system westward from the Missouri River, and southward to the Mexican frontier.
In the fine station at El Paso your baggage is checked for Mexico, and at the still finer station of the "Central," in Paso del Norte, across the river, it goes through the farce of an examination by the customs officials, and is re-checked to Chihuahua City, or farther on. But you yourself are not disturbed by even a change of cars, and may retain your seat without molestation.
