The Atchison route, after crossing Kansas, enters Colorado, passing La Junta and Trinidad, and then turning southward rises to the highest point on the line, crossing the summit of the Raton Pass, at an elevation of seventy-six hundred and twenty feet, by going through a tunnel, and emerging on the southern side of the mountain in New Mexico. The railway is then laid along the slope of the Santa Fé Mountains, and on their side are Las Vegas Hot Springs, about forty of them being in the group, their waters used both for bathing and drinking, and having various curative properties. The Glorieta Pass is subsequently crossed at seventy-five hundred feet elevation, and beyond is Santa Fé, the capital of New Mexico. This is a curious and antique town, the oldest in the United States next to St. Augustine in Florida. It was an Indian pueblo or town in the very early times, and in 1605 the Spaniards came along, captured it, reduced the Indians to slavery, and worked the valuable gold and silver mines. In 1680 the Indians revolted, expelled the Spaniards and destroyed their churches and buildings, but they recovered control a few years later. There are now about seven thousand people of all races, having a good trade, and being chiefly employed in mining. It is a quaint old place, with crooked and narrow streets and adobé houses surrounding the central Plaza, on one side of which is the ancient Governor's Palace, a long, low adobé structure of one story, wherein the Governors of Spanish, Mexican and American rule have lived for nearly three centuries. It contains various historical paintings and relics, and here General Lew Wallace wrote _Ben Hur_ while Governor of New Mexico in 1880.