[93] On the right side of the Arroyo de Pecos, there is a wide amphitheatre bottom, which was filled with red clay, like that of which the adobe at the church is made, and which appears to have been partly dug out. The place is to the right of the road also, which there crosses the creek. The only objection to the surmise is in the fact that along this entire bottom I found not the slightest trace of obsidian. Pottery, however, is scattered everywhere. On the left side of the creek, unless more than a mile below, there is no place where the soil is sufficiently thick or sufficiently free from ruins and scattered stones, to permit the enormous quantity of clay needed for the church to be secured. [94] Lieut.-Col. Emory, _Notes of a Military Reconnoissance_, p. 30, and two plates. [95] The walls, or foundations rather, appear as follows:--The interstices are often filled with tufts of _grama_, and the stones themselves look very old and worn, covered with lichens and moss. [Illustration: Stone Wall] [96] According to Mariano Ruiz and to Mrs. Kozlowski. The former has lived in Pecos since 1837. But few, if any, of the dead are buried there; the majority were entombed within the church itself. [97] P. José Amando Niel, _Apuntamientos que sobre el Terreno hizo el ... Annotations to the history of_ Fray Géronimo Zarate Salmeron, in _Documentos para la Historia de México_, 3 series, vol. i. p. 99. [98] Called by the Spaniards Plaza de Pecos. It is a comparatively new place, the only church-book still in possession of Rev. Father Léon Mailluchet, the present priest, commences in 1862. Including the scattered _casitas_ several miles around, its population is not over five hundred souls. It is situated in a narrow vale or hollow, not far west from the Rio Pecos itself, and has a modest but clean and tidy church, with a small belfry. All the houses are of adobe. Lieutenant-Colonel Emory (_Notes, Executive Document_ 41, p. 30) speaks of it in 1846 as "the modern village of Pecos, ... with a very inconsiderable population." As yet there are but very few Americans in the plaza. My recollections of Pecos are highly pleasant (5th September), owing to the friendly reception tendered me by Mr. E. K. Walters, Sr. Juan Bacay Salazar, and Father L. Mailluchet. According to Colonel Emory, its altitude is nearly 6,366 ft. (p. 163). Lat. about 35° 30' N. [99] See Plate I. [100] See Plate IX. [101] See Plate I., Fig. 5. [102] When Mr. Louis Felsenthal of Santa-Fé came to New Mexico in 1855, and still later, in 1858, the time of the arrival of Mrs. Kozlowski, the roofs were still perfect in part. [103] Pl. II., Fig. 6. [104] Pedro de Castañeda de Nagera, _Relation du Voyage de Cibola_, French translation, by Ternaux-Compans, 1838. Original written about 1560. Introduction, p. ix; part ii. cap. v. p. 176.