During the first year after his arrival, Father Latour is in his diocese only four months; he spends the other eight traveling to and from the Plenary Council, an important meeting in Baltimore. Upon returning, Latour hires Jacinto, a young Indigenous man, to guide him through the Pueblos that make up much of his diocese. In Albuquerque, he meets Father Gallegos, a wealthy and influential priest. Gallegos is hospitable and happy to meet Latour, but Latour disapproves of Gallegos’s drinking, dancing, and poker playing. He’s upset to learn that Father Gallegos hasn’t said mass at the remote Acoma Pueblo in many years. Gallegos protests that the locals aren’t very open to Catholicism, but Latour resolves to visit Acoma, if only to baptize the many children born since Gallegos’s last visit. In addition, Latour meets an elderly, nearly blind priest at Isleta Pueblo. Latour falls in love with Isleta and admires its beautiful white houses, its acacia trees, and the flock of parrots that the inhabitants of Isleta revere.

Father Latour and Jacinto ride west out of Albuquerque through barren desert. It takes them several days to arrive at Laguna Pueblo, and Latour marvels at the contrast between the large lake (which gives Laguna Pueblo its name) and the arid landscape that surrounds it.