The Conquest of Don Pedro [antikvár]

CHAPTER ONE I^The town of Don Pedro stood on the eastern edge of the lower Rio Grandé Valley, where it spreads out more than a mile wide and the silver river loops and wanders through the lush green of growing crops and the bosques of cottonwood, willow and overgrown mesquite. Although its history was more a matter of legend than of record, Don Pedro was known to be a very old town. When Leo Mendes came there shortly after the Civil War it must have been at least two hundred years old. It was nearly as old as El Paso, less than a day's ride to the south, and older than Mesilla and Las Cruces, the only other towns in the region important enough to have churches. Although it now belonged to the territory of New Mexico, Don Pedro was close to both Texas and Old Mexico, as the boundaries ran then. Its proximity to the Mexican bordér was one thing that made it interesting to Leo Mendes.