of those natural advantages which are necessary to a rapid progress of civilization. It is a region without a single communication by water with any other part of the world, and is imprisoned by chains of mountains extending for more than five hundred miles, except in the direction of Chihuahua from which, however, its settlements are separated by a dreary desert of nearly two hundred miles.3
"Some general statistics of the Santa Fé trade," says Dr. Gregg, "may prove not wholly without interest