Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Counting Steps To Measure The Distance.


The following quote comes from page 137 of Volume I of the book titled "Great River, The Rio Grande in North American History" written by Paul Horgan and published  in 1954 by Rinehart & Company, Inc. from New York and Toronto. Volume I of the book is about Indians and Spain and in Chapter II dealing with the Eastern Plains (el Llano Estacado or Staked Plains) and the early 1540's journey of Francisco Vasquez de Coronado on page 137 there is a curious paragraph that states ;

"But still they marched, seeing in one place a white woman with a painted chin, and in another a wild hailstorm. The stones, as big as oranges, dented armor and killed animals. Trembling, the people wept and prayed and made vows. Each day they heard how far they had gone according to the soldier whose duty it was to count steps by which the leagues could be computed. In all that wilderness they were appalled at how little mark so great a throng of men and women and beasts made on the grass upon the plain. They left no trail, for the grass in the wind waved over their path like the sea in a galleon's wake."

Imagine, if you will, that being your job, to compute the passing leagues by counting steps. Then imagine that the leagues had to be computed from the time you left Mexico City until the Llano Estacado had been explored and maybe all of the way back again. Would the General, Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, have one man do this, or alternate the tedious and boring job? It had to be done, there was no easier way at the time of measuring distance on flat land. But you had to do it if you wanted to get back. They realized they would die of thirst if they got lost.

No pedometer, no odometer, no GPS to mark the distance in a flat and grass covered land. It had to be done by some other method. The counter could not often lose count or he literally would have lost not only those who he was with, but eventually he would lose his head.



Monday, January 25, 2016

History is not always kind to you and I


History is not always kind to you and I. Sometimes it can be downright cruel. It can be glossed over for sure, but if the truth comes out it is most likely painful for those wishing to know and somewhat understand the truth. The history of the world, the country, the region, state, city or family is most likely not what everyone imagines. The truth may not be every ones cup of tea.
Sometimes the truth does hurt, it hurts us as individuals, as a group, whatever the group may be and it hurts as a nation. Especially if you begin to understand what it took, what was done to get to where we are today. It is not always pretty, not what we thought it was. But is is history, however much we want to buy into it or avoid it. And the knowledge of history is liberating in many ways.
Then there are the rose colored glasses. If you want to use them they filter history to allow us to see what we want to see.
For folks doing genealogy the glasses eventually come off, they will eventually come off if the research is done right, if the research is correct. It is interesting to the nth degree, no doubt about it. But, and this is  a big but, you have to have the stomach for it.

Saturday, January 9, 2016

Te Deum By The Conquistadores

Before battle, the Conquistadors prayed the Te Deum. In New Mexico the prayer was heard during battles with the Indians from the time of Coronado thru the reconquest with don Diego de Vargas. The Indians had no idea what the words meant much less that the prayer was used before an attack by the Spanish.

Read about the prayer here.

En Espanol

Te alabamos, oh Dios: reconocemos ti para ser el Señor.
Toda la tierra adoración doth de ti: el eterno Padre.
A ti todos los ángeles lloran en voz alta: los cielos, y todos los poderes en el mismo.
A ti Querubines y Serafines: continuamente llores,
Santo, Santo, Santo, Señor Dios de los ejércitos;
El cielo y la tierra están llenos de la majestad: de tu gloria.
La compañía gloriosa de los Apóstoles: te alabamos.
La beca buena cantidad de los Profetas: te alabamos.
El noble ejército de mártires: te alabamos.
La santa Iglesia por todo el mundo: doth te reconoce;
El Padre: de un infinito Majestad;
Tu honorable, fiel: Hijo unigénito;
También el Espíritu Santo, el Consolador.
Tú eres el Rey de la gloria: oh Cristo.
Tú eres el Hijo eterno del Padre.
Cuando te tookest sobre ti para liberar al hombre: no hayas aborrecen el vientre de la Virgen.
Cuando tenías superar la nitidez de la muerte:
    hiciste abrir el Reino de los Cielos a todos los creyentes.
Ora sentado a la diestra de Dios, en la gloria del Padre.
Creemos que vendrás: para ser nuestro Juez.
Por tanto, te rogamos que ayudan a tus siervos:
    quienes redimiste con tu preciosa sangre.
Haz que sea contado entre tus santos: en la gloria eterna.

In English

We praise thee, O God : we acknowledge thee to be the Lord.
All the earth doth worship thee : the Father everlasting.
To thee all Angels cry aloud : the Heavens, and all the Powers therein.
To thee Cherubim and Seraphim : continually do cry,
Holy, Holy, Holy : Lord God of Hosts;
Heaven and earth are full of the Majesty : of thy glory.
The glorious company of the Apostles : praise thee.
The goodly fellowship of the Prophets : praise thee.
The noble army of Martyrs : praise thee.
The holy Church throughout all the world : doth acknowledge thee;
The Father : of an infinite Majesty;
Thine honourable, true : and only Son;
Also the Holy Ghost : the Comforter.
Thou art the King of Glory : O Christ.
Thou art the everlasting Son : of the Father.
When thou tookest upon thee to deliver man : thou didst not abhor the Virgin's womb.
When thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death :
    thou didst open the Kingdom of Heaven to all believers.
Thou sittest at the right hand of God : in the glory of the Father.
We believe that thou shalt come : to be our Judge.
We therefore pray thee, help thy servants :
    whom thou hast redeemed with thy precious blood.
Make them to be numbered with thy Saints : in glory everlasting.

Monday, January 4, 2016

Different Views Of The Weblog With The Different Web Browsers

Click on the image to make it larger....

I don't know why, but the views are different with each of the browsers I have down loaded. Internet Explorer has one view, Google Chrome has another and Fire Fox has yet another. Odd, but there is nothing I can do or so it seems. I will have to look and see.

I started with Internet Explorer and it worked well until they upgraded it a few upgrades back. Then it gave me some strange results with the cut and paste function and it would not let me upload pictures. So I started using Google Chrome.

That is the one I use mostly now. I tried editing something with IE this morning and it took me 15 minutes to fix it with Google Chrome.

Seems like to me that IE is losing out to Google, not only with the browser, but with everything. At least with my desktop PC. No smart phone here yet. Falling behind the technology power curve. Sitting way on the right side of the "bell shaped curve".

I have to make a move on this technology front soon, either that or get left behind totally. Stuff if changing so rapidly that it is hard to keep up. Planned obsolescence is here to stay and the time gap between new and obsolete is shortening to the ridiculous.

Como se dice aqui en el Norte estos dias, prospero ano nuevo, yall.