On the 6th our road was bounded on both sides by a ridge of mountains, and after crossing a hill covered with cedars, we came to a spot called Parajito at the bank of a stream. From hence there was an open road to El Cuervo, a bend of a stream, near which is a red-coloured conicalshaped mountain. I rode much in advance of the main body of troops and prisoners, and it was dark before I got to Los Esterros. We started in the morning of the 8th before sunrise, and at an early hour reached a hill above the river Galenas. At this place General Armijo, the governor of New Mexico, was encamped. A large body of troops were under arms, with some artillery. The road for the greater part of the remainder of the day was over a plain, and in the evening we came to a settlement on the Puerco called Anthon Chico. In the neighbourhood there were large flocks of sheep. The heads of the maize here, as well as in other places in New Mexico, were remarkably large.

On the 9th we crossed and re-crossed the Puerco, passing through a very hilly country, and to the N. was a range of lofty mountains. We again reached the Puerco, in a Canada, or valley, called Cuesta: there was a pretty settlement here, and the fields were enclosed and subject to irrigation. From hence, winding through a mountainous country, cultivated wherever it was practicable, we followed the course of the river, and in the evening arrived at the large town of San Miguel. This town and the neighbourhood contain probably 2000 persons: there is a square in the centre of the town, and a church on the N. side.

We remained at San Miguel until the 17th : the main body of our party having arrived on the 12th. They had been harshly treated after we had left them: they had been stripped of their coats and waistcoats; their second blankets had been taken away: for nearly two days they were tied, and many thought that they were to be shot. Shortly after their arrival much of the merchandize seized was distributed in the square among the soldiers and Indians.

We were here joined by Mr. Kendall and those who were taken in advance of the first division, and by two parties which we had sent forward after we reached the grand prairie, and which had been captured soon after they had left us. The main body of the first division had already marched for the city of Mexico.

Our first day's journey from San Miguel was through the mountains : the country was well wooded, but there was no settlement on the road. At sunset we stopped at an old Indian settlement called Pagos, situated on the brow of a hill above the river: it is a walled enclosure, in which a few persons lived; but the houses within were made more ruinous than on our arrival, by the Mexican soldiers, who made fires of the materials.

On the morning of the 18th the high and bold mountains above Santa Fe lay to the N., and the peaks were covered with snow. We went W. over a tolerably open country to a fine ranche, or farm, called Galisteo, belonging to one Pinos, whose name on some maps is, I suspect, intended to mark this place. The stream here runs to the Rio Grande, and we camped the next day in a field on the bank of it.

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Adapted from Thomas Falconer
"Notes on a Journey through Texas and New Mexico, in the Years 1841 and 1842"