ther times; but it occurred at a peculiar period in Spanish-American
history. Just then the Spanish power, all over the American continent,
was hastening to its decline; and the fall of San Ildefonso was but one
episode among many of a character equally dramatic. Near the same time
fell Gran Quivira, Abo, Chilili, and hundreds of other settlements of
note. Each has its story--each its red romance--perhaps far more
interesting than that we have here recorded.

Chance alone guided our steps to the fair valley of San Ildefonso,--
chance threw in our way one who remembered its legend--the legend of the
_White Chief_.

APPENDIX.

NOTES.

"_Sierra Blanca_."--Page 1. The Sierra Blanca is so called because the
tops of this range are usually covered with snow. The snow of the
Sierra Blanca is not "eternal." It only remains for about three parts
of the year. Its highest peaks are below the snow-line of that
latitude. Mountains that carry the eternal snow are by the Spanish
Americans denominated "Nevada."

"_The Grand Prairie_."--Page 2. This name is somewhat indefinite, being
applied by some to particular portions of prairie land. Among the
hunters it is the general name given to the vast treeless region lying
to the west of the timbered country on the Mississippi. The whole
longitudinal belt from the Lower Rio Grande to the Great Slave Lake is,
properly speaking, the Grand Prairie; but the phrase has been used in a
more restricted sense, to designate the larger tracts of open country,
in contra-distinction to the smaller prairies, such as those of Illinois
and Louisiana, which last are separated from the true prairie country by
wide tracts of timbered surface.

"_Settlements of Nuevo Mexico_."--Page 2. The settlements of New Mexico
covered at one time a much wider extent of country than they do now.
The Indians have been constantly narrowing the boundaries for the last
fifty years. At present these settlements are almost wholly restricted
to the banks of the Del Norte and a few tributary streams.

"_Gramma grass_."--Page 2. The _Chondrosium_, a beautiful and most
nutritions herbage that covers many of the plains of Texas and North
Mexico. There are several species of grass known among Mexicans as
"gramma"; one in particular, the _Chondrosium foeneum_, as a food for
horses, is but little inferior to oats.

"_Cackle of his fighting-cock_."--Page 7. There is no exaggeration in
all this. Every travelle