El Gringo: Or New Mexico And Her People (1857)

This book is part travelogue, part history, part adventure and very well done. If you liked reading "Wah-to-yah and the Taos Trail" by Lewis Hl Garrard and "Adventures in Mexico and Rocky Mountains" by George Frederick Ruxton and "Commerce of th Praires" by Josiah Greg you will like this book, too. The author served as US Attorney in New Mexico for several years starting in 1853. He says in the introduction he relied on records he translated from Spanish for much of the detail and information in his book. It is thorough. The account of his trip from Missouri along the Santa Fe Trail is especially worthwhile because his day-by-day account of trip gives miles covered and descriptions of the stops and landscape. It is surprising how fast a stage coach could go. Then his descriptions of the people in New Mexico, the Mexican and Indians, has to be the best written at that time because it is so thorough, thoughtful and wonderfully personal. Chapter headings will give you an idea of what it covers: Manners and Customs of the People, The Pueblo Indians, Winter in Santa Fe, Riding the Circuit (as U.S. Attorney) and a trip to the Navajo country. Something he mentions that some others of the same period mention is the fine wine made in El Paso, wine that had been made since 1650. I used to live not too far from El Paso in the 1950's and 1960's, and I never heard that. I love surprises like that.