The Rock
- Bishop Latour and Jacinto get up and head onward to Ácoma. As they go, Latour still can't help but marvel at the New Mexico landscape, even though he's been here for over a year.
- As they approach Ácoma, Latour notices that the settlement is built on top of a high rock shelf, where it is completely exposed to the sun and rain.
- He asks Jacinto why people would ever build their town on a place like that, and Jacinto informs him that it's because the place is very easy to defend against attackers, since there is only one narrow path that leads up the rocks.
- Jacinto notices that rain is coming as they reach Ácoma. He thinks this is good because it'll put the people there in a good mood. Rain is usually pretty scarce in the desert.
- Latour is amazed to find a giant church that has been built directly into the town's rocky edges. He can't imagine the amount of effort it would have taken to create the thing. He asks Jacinto where the people could have gotten the timber for it, and Jacinto answers that they must have gotten it from a mountain range that's more than forty miles away. Bringing the wood on foot from there would have been an incredible feat.
- On his way back to Santa Fe, Latour spends another evening with Father Jesus and listens to one of the old man's stories.