Diary of a Journey From the Mississippi to the Coasts of the Pacific With a United States Government Expedition: Volume 2 Page: 34

                                
3 L          JOURNEY TO THE PACIFIC.
of thmln could be seen but the flashing black eyes.
Further on we met small caravans, with laden mules,
journeying to Albuquerque, and Pueblo-Indians coming
down from the mountains with clumsy two-wheeled
carts, carrying loads of wood.
In the afternoon we came to Isleta, a town that in
its style of building, as well as its situation, reminded
us of Santo Domingo, except that some one-storied
houses of Mexican settlers were interspersed among
the two and three-storied dwellings of the Indians. As
we approached the town, we saw numbers of the latter
busily at work in their vineyards, and talking in loud
cheerful voices as they cleared the ground of its seedbearing
weeds, whilst the lazy Mexicans were lounging
before their doors smoking cigars. We stopped as we
passed through the town to buy some fruit, and then
pitched our camp on the north side of it, near the bank
of the river, on some fields where the last remains of a
fine harvest were still to be seen, and in whose loose,
well-cultivated soil, we had great difficulty in fixing
our tent pegs firmly enough to hold the canvas
extended.
Scarcely had we completed the task, when we saw
a crowd of Indian women hastening towards us from
the town, bearing pitchers of milk, and baskets of fruit.
They offered us their wares in a very good-humoured
manner, and we bought as much as we could use, and
amused ourselves till the evening with these harmless
people, who came thronging about us.
The night was pretty far advanced when the sound of
drums and of a wild kind of singing reached our camp
from the town, and awakened our curiosity. The
weather was cold, but very fine, and several of us