I have already stated that, in the beginning of the eighteenth century, the Utes introduced near the pueblo of Taos another branch of the great Shoshone stock,--the _Comanches_. This tribe soon expelled the Apaches,[177] who had not been exceedingly troublesome to the pueblos, and, a vigorous northern stock, became that fearful scourge of all the surrounding settlements, which they have continued to be for 150 years. Their efforts were mainly directed against the pueblo of Pecos, as the most south-easterly village exposed to their attacks. On one occasion the Comanches slaughtered all the "young men" of Pecos but one,--a blow from which the tribe never recovered. Thus, when the Indians of the Rio Grande rose in arms against the Mexicans in 1837, as has been so ably described by Mr. D. J. Miller,[178] the Pecos did not take any part, for there were only eighteen adults left, huddled together in the northern wing of the huge building _A_, and watching the sacred embers in the face of slow, inevitable destruction. Then, in the following year, 1838, an event took place which, simple and natural as it is, still illustrates forcibly the powerful link which the bond of language creates between distant Indian communities. The pueblos of Pecos and Jemez had been almost without intercourse for centuries; but in the year 1838, says Mariano Ruiz, the principal men of Jemez appeared in person on the site of Pecos and held a talk with its occupants. They had heard of the weakness of their brethren, of their forlorn condition, and now came to offer them a new home within the walls of their own pueblo. The Pecos took the proposal under consideration, but were loth to leave the home where they had lived for so many centuries. In the following year "mountain fever" broke out among them, and only five adults remained alive. These, by joint indentures, sold the majority of the lands granted to them in 1689 by Cruzate.[179] Another portion was left to Ruiz as "son of the tribe." In 1840 these five men, named respectively Antonio (_gobernador_, and still living at Jemez), Gregorio, Goya, Juan Domingo, and Francisco, appeared before Don Manuel Armijo, then Mexican governor of the territory, and declared to him their intention to abandon their home and to seek refuge among their kindred at Jemez. Soon after, the _gobernador_, the _capitan de la guerra_ and the _cacique_ of Jemez, with several other Indians of that tribe, appeared at Pecos. The sacred embers disappeared, tradition being, according to the Hon. W. G. Ritch, Secretary of the Territory, that they were returned to Montezuma.[180] The remnants of the tribe moved on with their chattels, and guided by their friends, to Jemez, where, in a few months, I hope to visit "the last of the Pecos." MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS.