to advance up the
narrowing canyons than to defeat the foe. At Embudo, six or seven hundred
Pueblos lined the rock walls under hiding of cedar and pinon. The
soldiers had to climb to shoot; and again the Indians could not
withstand trained fire. They left twenty killed and sixty wounded here.
Two feet of snow lay on the trail as the troops ascended the uplands;
and it was February 3rd before they reached Taos. Every ladder had been
drawn up, every window barricaded, and the high walls of the tiered
great houses were bristling with rifle barrels; but rifle defense could
not withstand the big shells of the assailants. The two pueblos were
completely surrounded. A six pounder was brought within ten yards of the
walls. A shell was fired--the church wall battered down, and the
dragoons rushed through the breach. By the night of Feb. 4th, old men,
women and children bearing the cross came suing for peace. The
ringleader, Tomas, was delivered to General Price; and the troops drew
off with a loss of seven killed and forty-five wounded. The Pueblos loss
was not less than 200. Thus ended the last attempt of the Pueblos to
overthrow alien domination; and this attempt would not have been made if
the Indians had not been spurred on by Mexican revolutionaries, with
counter plots of their own.

* * * * *

We motored away from Taos by sunset. An old Indian woman swathed all in
white came creeping down one of the upper ladders. They could not throw
off white rule--these Pueblos--but for four centuries they have
withstood white influences as completely as in the days when they sent
the couriers spurring with the knotted cord to rally the tribes to open
revolt.

CHAPTER XIII

SAN ANTONIO, THE CAIRO OF AMERICA

If you want to plunge into America's Egypt, there are as many ways to go
as you have moods. You explain that the ocean voyage is half the
attraction to European travel. There may be a difference of opinion on
that, as I know people who would like to believe that the Atlantic could
be bridged; but if you are keen on an ocean voyage, you can reach the
Egypt of America by boat to Florida, then west by rail; or by boat
straight to any of the Texas harbors. By way of Florida, you can take
your fill of the historic and antique and the picturesque in St.
Augustine and Pensacola and New Orleans; and if there are any yarns of
rarer flavor in all the resorts of Europe than in the old quarters of
t