[103] Fray Cristobal was long an important station in New Mexico; but, as Gregg says, never a town of any size, merely a camping place at the beginning of the Jornada del Muerto. The latter is well described by Gregg, and was the dreaded portion of the journey from north to south until the building of the railway, which traverses the larger part of the old caravan route, but leaves the river somewhat higher up and returns to it at Rincon, some distance above Robledo.--ED.
[104] Robledo was on the Rio Grande at the site where the Americans later erected Fort Selden.
El Paso and the district north had formerly been a part of New Mexico; but the act of 1824, reconstituting the northern states, assigned El Paso district to Chihuahua, hence the boundary here mentioned.--ED.
[105] This place is often known among Americans as '_The Pass_.' It has been suggested in another place, that it took its name from the _passing_ thither of the refugees from the massacre of 1680; yet many persons very rationally derive it from the _passing_ of the river (_el paso del Rio del Norte_) between two points of mountains which project against it from each side, just above the town.--GREGG.
[106] There is very little wine or legitimate _aguardiente_ manufactured in New Mexico. There was not a distillery, indeed, in all the province until established by Americans some fifteen or twenty years ago. Since that period, considerable quantities of whiskey have been made there, particularly in the vicinity of Taos,--distilled mainly from wheat, as this is the cheapest grain the country affords.--GREGG.
[107] For the ordinary mesquit, see Pattie's _Narrative_, in our volume xviii, p. 94, note 56. The tornillo is _Prosopis pubescens_, the fruit of which is often called the screw-bean, and used by the Indians both for food and fodder.--ED.
[108] A particular species of _agave_, called _A. lechuguilla_, abounding in the El Paso region. See J. N. Rose, "Useful Plants of Mexico," in U. S. Herbarium _Contributions_, volume v, no. 4, p. 209.--ED.
[109] Lake Patos (Lake of Geese), in northern Chihuahua, is the outlet for Rio Carmen.--ED.
[110] Carrizal was founded about 1750, and at one time considered a part of the province of New Mexico. It was later made a presidio, or frontier fort, with a surrounding wall.--ED.