【英文文学】Indians of the Mesa Verde.docx

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1、【英文文学】Indians of the Mesa VerdePART ONE 1 ECHOS OF THE PASTUnder the arching roof of a tremendous cave stands a silent, empty city.For almost seven centuries it has stood there looking out across the canyon toward the setting sun. Proudly, almost haughtily, it has resisted the heavy tread of those s

2、low centuries. Like a giant with a shawl of everlasting stone pulled closely about its shoulders it has stood with unbowed head, an eternal monument to the intelligence and industry of its builders.Almost seven centuries ago the people turned their backs on their proud city and walked away. All of t

3、he forces of nature seemed to be against them. The rains failed to fall; the springs ceased to flow. No corn grew in the fields. At last, weak from lack of food and water, and bewildered by the failure of the gods to answer their hysterical prayers they surrendered to the inevitable. Sadly they turn

4、ed their backs on the once happy city and walked down the canyon, never to return.Cliff Palace, the crowning glory of the Mesa Verde, was a silent, deserted city.In spite of the protection offered by the cave Cliff Palace has suffered from the leveling forces of time. The owls and pack rats have bee

5、n careless tenants and the lack of repair is evident. Some of the walls have cracked; a few have fallen. Foundations have slipped; roofs have disappeared. The once-bright plaster is peeling from the walls.These minor changes have failed to dim the splendor of the largest of all cliff dwellings. From

6、 one end of the cave to the other stand unbroken lines of houses. Story upon story they rise to the very roof of the cave itself. On a still higher ledge, far up under the cave roof, stands a long row of small rooms where the people once stored their abundant supplies of grain. In some of the houses

7、 paintings are still bright on the walls; in others footprints of the people are still clearly evident in the 4 hard-packed clay floors. At each end of the cave is the trail which once led to the corn fields on the mesa top; below the cave is the trail that led to the bottom of the canyon.In reality

8、 Cliff Palace has not changed a great deal since that day when its inhabitants disappeared. They walked away, it is true, but they are still there. You can see them if you close your eyes.Unfortunate indeed, is he who views this ancient city and sees only the towering walls. Unfortunate because the

9、stones are the least important part. Cliff Palace is really built of the hopes and desires, the joys and sorrows of an industrious people. It is not a cold, empty city for it is still warm with the emotions of its builders. In each fingerprint and tool mark lie the prayers of a young couple for a ho

10、me filled with children and happiness. Each storage bin is chinked with a farmers prayers for a bountiful harvest. In each plastered kiva wall is an ancient priests reverence for his gods. A pot is not just a piece of baked clay: it is an ancient potters moulded prayer for beauty and strength. Each

11、solid wall is a testimony of success; each shattered human bone, each broken jar is an admission of defeat.Cliff Palace stands today as a monument to the ancient people of the Mesa Verde. For many centuries they occupied the great, green mesa and finally, almost in its center, they built their great

12、est city. Certainly it was their outstanding architectural achievement but it is only one of many hundreds of ruins which stand in silent testimony to the skills of an industrious people.For over a thousand years the Indians enjoyed the security and bounty of the Mesa Verde. In the beginning their c

13、ulture was simple but as the centuries passed they progressed steadily without taking a backward step. Finally they reached the highest point of their development and for the brief century during which they occupied the cliff dwellings they enjoyed the fruits of their long struggle. Then catastrophe

14、 came and in a short time they were gone.5The north rim of the mesa rises 2000 feet above the valleyThe flat mesa top is cut by a score of rugged canyons7The complete archeological wealth of the Mesa Verde will never be known. The great mesa, which rises high above the surrounding country, measures

15、fifteen miles from north to south and twenty miles from east to west. Its flat top, sloping gently to the south, is cut by a score of rugged canyons and access to the remote areas is difficult. The ruins are often hard to find and many will never be discovered. In the days of discovery, as we shall

16、see in the next chapter, the early explorers entered almost every cliff dwelling but they left few records. In recent times it is doubtful if one-third of the cliff dwellings have been entered and probably no living person has been in one hundred of them.The ruins on the mesa tops far outnumber the

17、cliff dwellings but most of them are difficult to find. Earth and vegetation have covered them, often completely, and intensive search does not reveal all. This wealth of mesa-top ruins is indicated by a recent survey of a small portion of one mesa. Careful search of an area of only three square mil

18、es revealed over three hundred ruins.In 1906, one-half of the great mesa was set aside as Mesa Verde National Park in order that the ruins might be preserved for all time and made accessible to visitors. Cliff Palace and some of the other cliff dwellings have been excavated and out on the mesa tops

19、ruins of earlier types have been excavated to complete the archeological story. In the nearby museum are to be seen the things which have been found in the ruins. Displayed in their chronological order they tell the story of the ancient inhabitants of the Mesa Verde.It is a fascinating story of a va

20、nished people. For endless centuries they dominated the Mesa Verde, passing through higher and higher stages of culture. When an unendurable calamity forced them to leave they left behind abundant evidence of their skill and industry. With the care they now receive Cliff Palace, Spruce Tree House, S

21、un Temple and the innumerable other ruins will stand forever as monuments to the skill of their ancient builders.Mesa Verde National Park was created to preserve the works of those prehistoric people. Slow, silent centuries have spread a cloak of mystery over it and visitors should come with open mi

22、nds, prepared to hear an absorbing story of a strange people. Complete enjoyment and understanding come only to the visitor who is able to leave his modern self behind, momentarily, and live and think in terms of the past.2 DISCOVERYAfter the cliff dwellings were deserted by the Pueblo Indians late

23、in the thirteenth century they stood, unmolested by man, for many hundreds of years. The owls and pack rats took them over and enjoyed their security, but from all evidence it was many centuries before men again entered the caves.The Indians themselves may have intended to return when conditions bec

24、ame normal again but they never came back. There is no evidence that farming Indians ever lived in the Mesa Verde after its desertion by the ancient people. Other Indians came but they were hunters and they seem to have shunned the silent cave cities.A couple of centuries after Mesa Verde was desert

25、ed an important event took place, an event that was to have a strange effect on it at a later date.America was rediscovered!Fifteen thousand years after the Indians discovered the continent from the west, white men entered it from the east. A new people blundered into the western hemisphere that had

26、 so long belonged to the Indians.The newcomers were a greedy lot and they began to stretch acquisitive fingers in all directions. Mexico was colonized and tales of wealth among the Indians to the north led the Spaniards into the Southwest. In 1540, Coronado was only 150 miles from the Mesa Verde but

27、 he turned away. Other Spaniards came nearer and nearer until at last, in the year 1776, they were at the base of the great green mesa.On August 10, 1776, only thirty-seven days after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Escalante, a Spanish priest, camped in the very shadow of the Mesa V

28、erde. It seems almost incredible that at a time when the colonists along the Atlantic seaboard knew nothing of the vast wilderness beyond the first range of mountains, Escalante and his men were here in the land of the cliff dwellings. Seeking a short route to Monterey, 10 on the Pacific Coast, they

29、 had journeyed northwest from Santa Fe. At last, on August 10, 1776, they camped by a small stream at the base of the La Plata Mountains.In his diary Escalante wrote:“August 10. Father Fray Francisco Atanasio awoke troubled by a rheumatic fever which he had felt in his face and head since the day be

30、fore, and it was desirable that we make camp here until he should be better, but the continuous rains, the inclemency of the weather, and the great dampness of the place forced us to leave it. Going north, and having traveled a little more than half a league, we turned to the northwest, went on a le

31、ague and then swung west through valleys of very beautiful timber and abundant pasturage, roses, and various other flowers. After going two leagues we were again caught in a very heavy rain. Father Fray Francisco Atanasio became worse and the road impassable, and so, having traveled with great diffi

32、culty two more leagues to the west, we had to camp on the bank of the first of the two little rivers which form the San Lazaro, otherwise called Rio de los Mancos. The pasturage continues in great abundance. Today four and a half leagues.”The small stream beside which Escalante camped that night is

33、still called the Mancos. Only a few miles below his camping place it cuts directly into the Mesa Verde. The former inhabitants of the cliff dwellings had known it well. It had failed them during the great drouth. And now, on August 10, 1776, exactly 500 years after the beginning of that drouth which

34、 had caused them to leave the Mesa Verde, Escalante, a man of a new race, camped beside the Mancos, only a few miles from the empty ruins of the cliff dwellings.Without doubt he saw the great mesa, the Mesa Verde, for it looms high above the Mancos Valley. But he turned away; he was seeking the sea

35、to the west.During the following three-quarters of a century many other Spaniards must have seen the Mesa Verde for there was much exploration in the region. Sometime during this period the mesa was given a Spanish nameMesa Verdethe “green table.” The Spaniard who named it is unknown. Possibly he na

36、med it after climbing to its summit for from the valley below it is not so evident that the top is flat and eternally green. 11 Could it be that he even saw the cliff dwellings and we have failed to find the record in the musty archives of Mexico or Spain? No, probably not. We must consider that the

37、 cliff dwellings were still unseen by modern man.In 1848, the Mesa Verde, although still unknown, passed from Mexican to American ownership. Slowly the new owners drew nearer. The date of discovery of the now aged cliff dwellings was close at hand.The first known mention of the Mesa Verde was made i

38、n the year 1859. In that year an exploring expedition set out from Santa Fe, under the leadership of Captain J. N. Macomb, to explore certain territory in what is now the State of Utah. Serving as geologist for this expedition was Professor J. S. Newberry and in his geological report he wrote:“Betwe

39、en the Rio de la Plata and the Rio de los Mancos we skirted the base of the extreme southern point of the Sierra de la Plata. These mountains terminate southward in a long slope, which falls down to a level of about 7500 feet above the sea, forming a plateau which extends southward to the San Juan,

40、the Mesa Verde, to which I shall soon have occasion again to refer.”Farther on in his report he adds:“To obtain a just conception of the enormous denudation which the Colorado Plateau has suffered, no better point of view could possibly be selected than that of the summit of the Mesa Verde. The geol

41、ogist here has, it seems to me, satisfactory proof of the proposition I have before made.”From the manner in which he spoke of the Mesa Verde it is very evident Professor Newberry voiced a name that was in common usage. This was true also of all the rivers and mountains mentioned in his report. Thei

42、r names indicate the Spaniards had done a very thorough job of christening the landmarks of the region.From Newberrys report it is also evident that he climbed to the summit of the Mesa Verde. His description indicates he must have scaled one of the high points along the northern rim, possibly Park

43、Point, the highest of all. He merely climbed to the summit, feasted his geological eyes on the thrilling view over 16,000 square miles of wilderness, and descended. He 12 was only a few miles from the ruins but he failed to suspect their presence. He does deserve credit, however, for the first known

44、 mention of the Mesa Verde and for the earliest modern ascent to its summit.The first American settlers entered the Mesa Verde region about 1870. Miners, farmers, trappers, cattlemen, even bandits, came pouring into the Mancos Valley and found it to their liking. None of them had ever heard of, or w

45、ould have been interested in the ruins. To them the past was dead and forgotten; they were looking ahead. They were interested only in taming the wilderness and in keeping their scalps firmly attached to their heads.At that time the entire region was terrorized by the Ute Indians. Naturally a war-li

46、ke group they were goaded into a frenzy by the loss of their hunting grounds and they made life miserable for the whites. Adventurous miners and trappers were slain; farming settlements lived in constant fear of the merciless warriors. The situation became acute and soldiers finally were sent in to

47、hold the Utes in check.To the settlers the Indians were simple hazards to be expected in the conquest of the wilderness. They were merely to be brushed aside. If they resented the brushing process, if they showed a tendency to resist the loss of their ancient tribal homes, it was very unfortunatefor

48、 the Indians. The persuasive little leaden pellets of the settlers convinced one Ute after another that it was wrong to resent the loss of homes and hunting grounds. The remnants of the tribe sought refuge in natural strongholds, especially in strongholds where there was nothing desired by the white

49、s.One of these natural strongholds was the Mesa Verde. Its warm lower canyons had long been the winter home of bands of Utes and they were familiar with every nook and cranny in it. The deep, narrow canyons and high mesas offered sanctuary to the oppressed Indians. The settlers in the Mancos Valley respected this wilderness stronghold and it remained a place of mystery to them. From the time of Professor Newberrys c