Note 22 — Chapter XIV

The pueblo of Pecos was situated thirty miles southeast of Santa Fé, and at the close of the seventeenth century had a population of two thousand, being the largest pueblo in either New Mexico or Arizona. It was visited as early as 1540 by Alvarado, a lieutenant of Coronado. In 1598, the inhabitants rendered submission to Oñate, and a mission was established among them for which a large church was built in the seventeenth century, its ruins being still conspicuous. In the revolt of 1680 the Pecos remained neutral; but soon thereafter decline in numbers set in, and by 1837 but eighteen adults were left. A fever swept away the majority of these, when in 1840 the remnant of five men sold their lands to the government, and retired to their kinsmen at Jemez. A son of the tribe was found in 1880 among the Mexicans of the village of Pecos, a small, comparatively modern town. Bandelier discredits the Montezuma myth, which he considers a Spanish-Mexican importation. See Archæological Institute of America Papers, American Series, i, pp. 110-125. He found among the ruins, however, evidences of the existence of the sacred fire.—Ed.