The Santa Fe Trade: Its Route and Character (Classic Reprint)

Description

Excerpt from The Santa Fe Trade: Its Route and Character
Less than twenty years ago, a traffic, which had been carried on for half a century under conditions unique in North America, came to an end, or, to speak more strictly, though the traffic continued, its conditions, which had been mediaeval, oriental and, for this century and continent, singular, became modern, American and commonplace.
The Santa Fe trade resembled that of the caravans of Africa and Western Asia in that it traversed a desert, or what was then so-called – the Great American Desert; it was also attended with dangers from the attacks of wild, marauding tribes. It differed from that, however, in the fact that there were no oases or inhabited stations on the long route, and in the contrast in the peoples and the conditions of life of the communities between which this traffic was conducted. At the eastern terminus was the rude, busy, enterprising, essentially modern and progressive life of our Western border, distinctively American, using that word, as we must so often, in default of an adjective denoting that which pertains to the United States. At the other end of the route, the social, industrial and political condition of the people was substantially unchanged since Spanish rule was established in Mexico by Cortes and his companions early in the sixteenth century, and with no prospect of a change for centuries to come. This remark applies, of course, to the conditions prevailing when the trade was begun and for many years afterward, but not so strictly to the last twenty-five years of its existence.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.”