During the journey to Santa Fe, while stopping over at the town of San Juan, where I was treated with the utmost warmth of hospitality, I was able to inform myself as to the prosperous condition of the trader Le Lande, who had married and settled in the vicinity. But my as to my reception by the Governor of this remote province prevented me from taking as deep an interest either in that or in the strange customs and appearance of these Mexican people as I should have felt in easier circumstances.  
Unlike Agua Caliente and some of the other small settlements we had passed, I found Santa Fe a town widely in the . Many of the low buildings which made up the bulk of the place stood each in its tiny patch of field, which, early as was the season, the people were beginning to cultivate with their rude ploughs and mattocks. Within these suburbs, however, the houses crowded closer and closer together, until they were for the most part separated only by streets that were no less narrow and than dirty. A more striking difference between this two-century-old settlement and the ones up-country was the presence of the two huge adobe churches which towered among the hovels, all the more for the contrast. Their windows, like those of the better houses, were with sheets of thin, talc.
 
I was at once taken past the rectangle of the soldiers' barracks to the great open court, or , in the midst of the town, where we came to the house of the Governor. By this time I and my escort were surrounded by a number of mestizos and tame Indians, all of whom, however, drew away when we entered the palace through an open, brick-paved , or shed. After the plainness of the , I was astonished by the ornate furnishings of the rooms within, whose limed walls were hung with bright-figured drapes and whose floors of beaten clay were spread with skin rugs.
 
Little time was given me to wonder at what to my unaccustomed eyes seemed most magnificent decorations. I was quickly shown on into a large apartment, at the upper end of which sat a sallow-faced, corpulent Spanish don. I had no need to look at the secretary and the other attendants grouped about his high chair to realize that I was in the presence of Don Joachin Allencaster. The harshness of his glance as I was led before him was enough of proof; for until now, all whom I had met, even to the most ignorant and dogmatic of the priests, had treated me with the of true hospitality.
 
Not until this moment had I realized the wretchedness of my appearance. Though the kindness of the commandant at Agua Caliente had provided me with a bath and a cotton shirt, I still wore my buckskins; upon my head was my old coonskin cap, which had been half by a fall in the fire; my limbs and feet were clad in moccasins and leggings of fresh hide, the raw surface outward; while about my shoulders my unkempt hair fell down in loose and shaggy locks, as barbarous as the eight months' beard upon my lean, starved face.
 
"Por Dios!" exclaimed His Excellency. Having doubtless been informed in the despatches that I claimed to be a Frenchman, he addressed me in that language: "Sacre! You have come here, the second American in two years, to spy upon my province!"
 
"Your Excellency," I replied, "I had thought the Commandant of Agua Caliente wrote you regarding the purpose of my visit to New Spain. As to this Pursley, if it is to him you refer as my fellow spy, I had never before so much as heard of the man until told at Agua Caliente. The Commandant can tell you how astonished I was when he informed me of Pursley's exploit in the . For my part, I should that he is no more than one of our venturesome fur-hunters. But if you insist upon your suspicions, why not include Baptiste Le Lande with us in a trio of spies?"
 
Throughout this the Governor had continued to regard me with great austerity. Quite unmoved by my attempt at lightness, he now signed to his secretary, and to me in a most tone: "Your papers, fellow!"
 
I drew out the documents relating to the Le Lande claim and handed them over to the secretary. His Excellency demanded their , which I gave as clearly and as my French would permit.
 
"We shall see," he commented, when I ended my account. "Your papers will be examined, and I will send for Le Lande. Meantime you will consider yourself under arrest. You will be given quarters in the rooms assigned for officers in , but you are at liberty within the bounds of the town, if accompanied by your guard."
 
With this, he appointed a corporal of the regular dragoons to attend upon me both as guard and waiter, and I was led out. During the short delay which followed, I had no cause to complain of my treatment. The corporal proved a most accommodating servant, and my meals were sent to me from His Excellency's own table. In addition, the hospitality of the leading people of Santa Fe was so cordial that I should have enjoyed greatly the two days I had to wait, had it not been for my fears that the Governor might detain me for an indefinite period, or send me out of the province, into the country of the Comanches.
 
When, therefore, he again called me before him, and stated that he had inquired and found that Le Lande was of discharging the claim presented by me, I declared boldly that I knew this to be a mistake, and that it appeared to me His Excellency was seeking to shelter a refugee of my country, in of the treaties between Spain and the United States.
 
"Look to it, Your Excellency!" I concluded, with all the heat and indignation I could affect. "Look to it! This is no light matter. The man is an thief, and the treaty rights of Monsieur Morrison are clear. I insist upon the payment of this claim. If I cannot obtain justice of Your Excellency, I will appeal to the Governor-General."
 
This last stirred him out of the of into which he had been thrown by the of my heated protest. Governors of Spanish provinces are not accustomed to being bearded by their inferiors in rank, much less by foreigners suspected of . But at my mention of his superior, he found his voice.
 
"Ah!" he exclaimed, and I marked the change in his tone. "Madre de Dios! You would go to Chihuahua?"
 
"No offence to Your Excellency," I hastened to protest, affecting to believe him alarmed for himself. "It may well be that your authority is so limited that you cannot satisfy my claim. My complaint against your refusal will be formal. In truth, I prefer to have the decision of the Governor-General, if only to obtain a in the adjudication of similar claims which may be presented in other provinces under his rule."
 
"Por Dios! You wish to go to Chihuahua!" he repeated. I believe he would have been less amazed had I urged him to let me go to the . "To Chihuahua! to Salcedo!" he murmured.
 
"Why not, Your Excellency?" I inquired.
 
His sallow cheeks darkened with a sudden return of his suspicions, and he sought to transfix me with his glance.
 
"Caramba!" he muttered. "Tell me clearly how you came across all that vast desert. You came from the . Did you then cross the mountains?"
 
I described briefly that terrible march south and west from the Grand Peak. He listened with growing wonderment.
 
"Poder de Dios! It is impossible!" he cried. "Malgares has told me of that gigantic peak and the sierra you crossed. It is not possible! The Sangre de Cristo, and in midwinter—afoot!"
 
"Yet it is true, Your Excellency."
 
Again his eye sought to pierce me with its suspicious stare.
 
"Your party?" he demanded. "You have spoken of hunters. Who are they?—and where?"
 
Having now some of the details of Pursley's adventures to copy, I told a connected tale of having accompanied some Osages from St. Louis to the Pawnee country, in search of the Le............