USA > Arizona > Arizona, prehistoric, aboriginal, pioneer, modern; the nation's youngest commonwealth within a land of ancient culture, Vol. I > Part 11
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The establishment of the now-great city of San Francisco by an Arizona soldier and his party of poverty-stricken Sonora colonists has a flavor of romance, rare and grateful within this prosaic age. It matters little that the actual settle- ment was under an inferior officer, for the idea of a through road connecting all the provinces of New Spain without dispute was that of de Anza. No small degree of credit also attaches to his feat of guiding across the deserts the units of his motley command. Rivera and Padre Palou had been on the peninsula before him and, in December of 1774, had planted a cross upon Point Lobos, the jut of land just south of the Golden Gate's entrance, a point that had been named Punta del Angel de la Guardia.
Moraga, left under the authority of Rivera, was allowed to leave Monterey June 17, to carry out his instructions, taking with him two priests, seventeen soldiers and a few colonists, the greater number to come by water on the famous San Carlos, which had been the ship tender for Portola. The Lieutenant reached Dolores June 27 and at the Presidio founded a settlement of fifteen tents just five days before the American Declaration of Independence was proclaimed by the tongue of a bell that in the summer of 1915 rested on the grounds of the Pennsylvania building, within the Panama-Pacific Exposition, not a rifle shot from this site of the first Spanish colony.
The San Carlos, driven by adverse winds as far south as San Diego, was seventy-three days on her voyage from Monterey. On September 17 the Presidio was dedicated, with a mass by Padre Palou in a little chapel that had been pro- vided. On October 8 there was a solemn procession across the hills to Dolores, there to dedicate La Mision de Nuestro Serafico Padre San Francisco de Asis. A few months later, Moraga led his soldiery in the founding of the mission of Santa Clara and of the pueblo of San José Guadalupe, to these distributing parts of his original Sonora colonists. He died July 13, 1785, still in command on the peninsula. The influence of the southern colonists on the history of California can be appreciated when it is told that in 1790 all of Alta California had a population of less than 1,000, exclusive of Indians.
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THE TRAVELS OF PADRE GARCES
After Garcés and Eixarch had been left in their new field of labor among the Yumas, the former started on a round of historic exploration. His first trip, undertaken in 1775, was to the southward, among the Cajuenches, whom he had visited in 1771, who manifested such horror at his picture of the condemned soul that they would not look upon it again. Through the country of the Coco- pahs, he reached the mouth of the Colorado and then returned to the Puerto de la Concepcion. About this time, on account of the rising river, the priests moved their station to an elevation of land where later was built the modern Fort Yuma in California.
In February, 1776, the energetic missionary started up the west side of the Rio Colorado, received pleasantly by the Jamajab (Mojave) and Chemevet (Chemehuevi) Indians. While Garcés had been preceded by at least two parties of Caucausians into the valley of the Colorado, he was the first white man ever seen by the living Indians of the locality and was visited in all curiosity by the natives. He found the Indians to the northward superior to the Yumas and other tribes, less troublesome and less thievish, and added, "As I am the first Spaniard who entered their country, they made much of this event." From some point in the Mojave country on the Colorado, Garcés was guided westward by Mojaves until he reached the mission at San Gabriel, which he had visited before with Anza in 1774. From San Gabriel, the friar made a general explora- tion of south-central California, as far northward as the lower San Joaquin Val- ley. His return to the Colorado was at the starting point, not far from the present site of Needles.
Thence he struck eastward, guided by a Mojave into the country of the Yavapais, where he found a guide who claimed to have been to Moqui and to know the road thereto. He found the Yavapais very friendly and with five of them made most of the journey across northern Arizona to the village of Oraibe.
On his way to the Moqui villages, Padre Garcés had a wonderful trip, to which he really did not do justice in his narrative. He had passed through the country of the Jaguallapais (Hualpais), incidentally naming the present Peach Springs as Pozos de San Basilio. He was headed for the Rio Jabesua and for the tribe of the same name. If he say it carefully, after the Spanish method, the reader may connect this word with the modern Havasu, the dwellers on Cataract Creek within the tremendous cañon of the same name. Garcés was not content with the name, however. He changed the designation of the stream to Rio de San Antonio. Eventually, at the edge of the mesa, he came upon what he called "Voladero," a precipice or abyss, where he had to descend a ladder of wood, his Indians taking his mule down by another route. The pluck of the wandering priest well was shown by his willingness to use this frail and dan- gerous aboriginal pathway, which was part of the direct Hualpai trail, one of three that still lead into the cañon. Probably the same route was taken in 1858 by Lieutenant Ives, who made very much more fuss over it than did Garcés, who called it only "a difficult road." It is probable that he found the Hualpais just about the same as they are to-day, a well-disposed tribe of about 200, tilling the soil. His way out was by the cañon of Tope-kobe, along the clear old aborigi- nal Moqui trail, that even yet is used by the Moquis and Navajos in their traffic with the Supais and Hualpais.
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Without much reference to his directions, which are vague indeed, Garcés undoubtedly saw the Grand Cañon first from the same point from which it was viewed by Coronado's captain and thence traveled to the Moqui villages on the very same trail. He told that he halted at the side of one of the most profound cajones, that ever onward continued, and that within this flowed the Rio Colo- rado. "There is seen a very great sierra, which in the distance looks blue and runs from southeast to northwest, a pass open to thie very base, as if the sierra were cut artificially to give entrance to the Colorado into these lands."
It would appear that Garcés for the occasion felt his ordinary religious nomen- clature unavailable, for he named the cañon in honor of the Mexican Viceroy, "El Puerto de Bucareli." Escalante had called it "EI Rio Grande de los Cosninos." The padre found across his path still another large stream known to the Indians as Jaquesila, singularly similar to that of the Yuman designation of the Gila, "Hah-qua-si-il-la," but he had to change the name to the San Pedro. He iden- tified it very plainly as the Little Colorado, for he said that its running water was very dirty and red and that it could not be drunk. It is possible that he did not go straightway to Oraibi but that he passed the Little Colorado somewhere near Moencopie Wash, though the journey thither would have been difficult and apparently useless.
The Moquis were found most inhospitable, though at Oraibi there was an Indian who addressed him kindly and who told him in Spanish, "Father, these are chichimecos (wild Indians) and they do not want to be baptized; nor do they believe you are a priest ; but I recognize you, for I am baptized." He invited the missionary to accompany him to Zuñi and to Acoma. The invitation had to be declined, for the Yavapai guides refused to accompany him further. He sent a letter, however, by the Zuñi to his missionary.
The priest stayed in Oraibi, huddled at night in a little niche he had found. Every Indian had fled from him and he could find none with whom to converse. Finally, at sunrise on the third day, he was approached by a multitude in festal array, who, though offering no violence, told him that he could not remain. With uplifted crucifix, he addressed them with a fiery speech of mixed Spanish and Indian words, telling them that it was out of love that he had come to speak to them of the Lord Jesus Christ, who had allowed himself to be crucified for their welfare, but he seemed to make no impression and was escorted to a point outside the pueblo. Saddened by his failure, he hurried back to the Mojave country. He did not return to the mouth of the Gila on this trip, but, following down the Colorado, crossed that stream twelve leagues above the Gila and traveled east- ward through the country of the Coco-Maricopas and Pimas, finally reaching San Xavier September 17, 1776, after an absence of nearly eleven months, in which he had traveled 1,000 leagues, had visited nine tribes and had met about twenty- five thousand Indians.
Padre Garcés was a most systematic sort of individual, who kept a close diary of his travels. Much of this diary with his quaint observations on religion, morals, ethnology and geography, has been preserved and has had delightful translation by Coues. A copy of the priest's diary was sent through the Viceroy to the King himself.
Vol. 1- 6
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MASSACRE OF THE SPANIARDS BY YUMAS
The padre, while lion-like in his personal courage, retained an opinion that success among the Yumas could be secured only under the protection of a strong presidio. In this he was in full accord with Colonel de Anza. But troops were few in the province. In February, 1779, Garcés practically was ordered to return to Ynma, together with Padre Juan Diaz, as soon as the secular authorities had furnished the necessary guards and supplies. Only twelve soldiers with a ser- geant could be secured after waiting till August. The journey was made by the desert route through Sonoitac, Garcés leading the way and finding conditions at the mouth of the Gila very much changed for the worse since his last visit, with the Indians at war with each other, disregarding his counsels for peace. They found also that Chief Palma, relying upon the promises of the secular authori- ties in Sonora, had promised supplies of tobacco, clothing and other articles, which the priests were unable to bring. Even the necessities of life were lacking for the missionaries and soldiers.
Report upon the subject to the authorities in Sonora brought back only lofty instructions for the establishment and maintenance of two mission pueblos among the Yumas, with details for the surveying of a townsite and placing thereon of houses in orderly style, that the Indians might be attracted "by the good example and sweet manners of the settlers." To carry these out, from Sonora in the fall of 1780 was sent an additional force of 20 colonists, 12 laborers and 21 soldiers- all with wives and children. There was blundering throughout and all despite the reports made by Garcés and of the veteran Anza. A pueblo was erected under the title of Concepcion, opposite the Gila's mouth, where the settlers from Mexico took possession of Indian fields, in defiance of a royal regulation, issned for the protection of the natives. Under instructions from Croix, a second pueblo was placed three leagues down the river, bearing the pretentious name of San Pedro y San Pablo de Bicuner. Padres Garcés and Juan Antonio Barraneche had charge of the Mission Imaculate at Concepcion and Padres Juan Diaz and José Matias Moreno at Bicuner.
The Church records uniformly give the Yumas about the worst character of the tribes of the Southwest. They had welcomed the Spaniards with the idea that from them wealth was to be secured. But when permanent settlers were established among them, with priests who lived without luxury and colonists who tilled the soil for a living and with soldiers both brutal and licentious, the atti- tude of the Indians soon changed to hatred. Even Chief Palma, who had been to the City of Mexico and had seen the grandeur of the Spaniards and who had been baptized with all ceremony in a cathedral, was humiliated by being placed in the stocks.
In June, 1871, from Sonora, bound for Santa Barbara, there came to Con- cepcion, Capt. Fernando Rivera y Moncada, late of Monterey, now made Lien- tenant Governor of Baja California, with a party of recruit soldiers and emi- grants. The settlers and a part of the military he sent on to San Gabriel. Some of his soldiery he sent back to Sonora and with a half dozen of his force and a greater part of the horses and cattle of the expedition he made camp about the site of the present town of Yuma, intending to remain for a brief period of recuperation. His horses and cattle, said to have numbered nearly 1,000, ate the
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green mesquite beans, on which the Yumas largely depended for food, giving pretext for an outbreak.
The four priests for months had seen signs of a breaking storm, but their appeals to both the Spanish soldiery and to the Indians seemed of little effect. On Tuesday, July 17, 1781, Padre Garcés had commenced the second mass when without the church were heard the wild yells of the Indians. Comandante San- tiago Islas rushed from the church to get his weapons but was stricken down as he passed the doorway. Corporal Baylon followed and also was set upon by the Indians. It is told that Padre Garces appeared in the doorway and, himself receiving many blows from clubs, gave the dying corporal absolution. The Indians then scattered into the Spanish settlement, where they killed or mortally wounded almost all foreigners. Padre Barraneche in the afternoon slipped out of the church and found some dying Spaniards, to whom he gave the last sacraments.
The attack had been well organized. At the lower settlement, Padres Diaz and Moreno were among the first to fall. The sacred images and altar vessels were cast into the river and the band of assassins started up the stream, bearing on a pole Moreno's head. Across the river, Rivera had been attacked with fury. He had thrown up intrenchments and from their shelter made great slaughter among the Indians. But there was a torrent of arrows and clubs under which the Span- iards fell, one by one, until at noon the bloody work was finished.
In the afternoon the Indians turned their attention to the church at La Con- cepcion, which by that time had been abandoned by the friars and a number of their converts. The chapel and the homes of the Spaniards were plundered and destroyed, but Chief Palma used his influence to at least delay pursuit of the two escaping priests. He finally, on the following day, sent out a party to bring the priests back without injury. But his instructions were forgotten when the mis- sionaries were found in the hut of a christianized Indian couple and the priests were slain, almost the last of the entire number of Spaniards. Something of sanity appears to have come to the Indians after this act, for the two bodies were reverently buried in the sand and over them was erected a cross.
The news of the massacre went through the Pimas and Papagos to the Spanish missions in Sonora and later was confirmed by the appearance of a Spaniard, who had managed to escape. It is told that from Altar a single soldier was dispatched to the Colorado to verify the news and that he was put to death as soon as he ar- rived. Later arrived a letter from Chief Palma, written by Matias, a prisoner, asking pardon for what had happened. A strong force of troops was forthwith sent by General de Croix from Altar, under Captains Fages and Tueros. No Indian was found around the Colorado settlements. In the ruins of Bicuner, five months after the massacre, were identified the bodies of Padres Diaz and Moreno, which lay where they had fallen, and later were disinterred the bodies of Padres Garcés and Barraneche. A number of Spanish captives were rescued and the command then returned to Altar. The prisoners declared that the Indians had moved eight leagues further down the river, because around the mission nightly had been seen a ghostly procession, carrying candles, preceded by one carrying a cross. This procession would march many times around the chapel and then disappear.
Governor de Croix had made elaborate plans for the punishment of the tribes,
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but it was not until September 15 of the following year (1782) that action was taken. One hundred and sixty men were sent from Altar to meet at the Colorado River a force of Spaniards and native allies from California points. There was bloody work for a while. Of the Indians 108 were killed and eighty-five were captured, while ten Christian prisoners were liberated. Yet Palma was not cap- tured and the Indians remained hostile until overpowered by the United States troops many years thereafter. As is told by an old Spanish writer: "Neither presidio, mission, nor pueblo ever again was established on the Colorado; and communication by this route never ceased to be attended with danger. Truly, as the Franciscan chroniclers do not fail to point out, the old way was best; the innovations of Croix had led to nothing but disaster ; the nuevo modo de conquis- tar was a failure."
Francisco Garcés was born in Aragon, Spain, April 12, 1738, and entered the Franciscan order in his native province. He was ordained priest when 25 and when 28 years of age became an inmate of the famous missionary college of Que- retaro in Mexico, to which his body and the remains of his brothers in martyrdom were returned July 19, 1784, for permanent sepulture.
Possibly as good an epitaph as Garcés could have had is that given him by Coues, who wrote: "Garcés was a true soldier of the cross, neither greater nor lesser than thousands of other children of the Church, seeking the bubble of salva- tion at the price of the martyr's crown ; his was not his own life, but that of God who gave it. Better than all that, perhaps, this humble priest, like Abou ben Adhem, was one who loved his fellow men. It made him sick at heart to see so many of them going to hell for lack of the three drops of water he would sprinkle over them if they would let him do so. I repeat it-Garcés, like Jesus, so loved his fellow men that he was ready to die for them. What more could a man do-and what were danger, suffering, hardship, privation, in comparison with the glorious reward of labor in the vineyard of the Lord? This is true religion, of whatever sect or denomination, called by whatever name."
A modern touch to the dreadful story of the murdered priest was given in 1915, when at Yuma a moving picture company, on the very ground of the martyrdom, staged an elaborate play called "Padre Garcés' Mission," with all the assistance that could be given by the Indian and Mexican population of the locality.
MISSION OF SAN XAVIER DEL BAC
Most notable among all the churches of the Southwest, is Garcés' old mission of San Xavier del Bac, in the valley of the Santa Cruz, nine miles south of Tucson. Without doubt it is the most beautiful church structure of the South- west. Though some of its out-buildings have crumbled, as well as the adobe walls that once encompassed it, the old church still rises in beauty and majesty, somc- what repaired of late years through the interest of the Bishop of Tucson.
The structure itself is of stone and brick, with interior measurements of 105x27 feet; of cruciform shape, with a transepts 21 feet square. Interior decora- tions, in many places almost illegible, cover nearly all the available wall space, with a number of frescoes and with two paintings, representing the presentation of Jesus in the Temple, and a "Lady of the Pillar" of the Spanish legend of Saragossa. There is a profusion of gildings and arabesques in Moorish style.
MISSION OF SAN XAVIER DEL BAC IN 1877
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Each of the twelve Apostles has his image. The main altar is dedicated to Saint Francis Xavier, the patron chosen by the Jesuits. At the entrance, in low relief, is the coat-of-arms of the order of Saint Francis of Assisi, founder of the Fran- ciscan order, as well as a life-sized statue of Saint Francis. Thus are shown the dual establishment of the two great Catholic orders that in sequence occupied the structure. In the belfry are four rough home-made bells of small size. Only one of the contemplated two towers ever was completed. A connecting building, for- merly used by the priests, was repaired by the government in 1873, and later has been used by a sectarian school for the Indians.
Though the parish for years has had no resident priest, its spiritual needs are supplied from Tucson. The old church is cared for reverently by the Indians of the Papago village that surrounds it, for the Papagos wish to be considered good Catholics, and indeed show good results of long years of devotion to the faith.
In keeping with the humility enjoined by Saint Francis upon his disciples, no mention is made in any records or upon the walls of the church of the names of any of the priests who erected the structure. It is probable, however, that it was commenced in 1783, under the administration of Padre Belchasar Carillo, who was pastor from May, 1780, until 1794. Succeeding was his assistant, Padre Narciso Gutierres, who remained in charge till 1799, having as successive assist- ants Mariano Bordoy, Ramon Lopes and Angel Alonzo de Prado. The date "1797," cut on one of the doors of the church, is said to be that of the structure's completion. Padres Carillo and Gutierres were assigned successively to the mis- sion at Tumacácori, from which their bones, in 1822, were transferred by Padre Liberos from the old church to a new one and were buried in the sanctuary at the gospel side. The date of the death of Padre Gutierres appears to have been late in 1820.
In 1810 began evil days for the missions of the Southwest. When the cry for independence was started throughout New Spain, remittances from the Spanish government began to fail, but each of the missionaries kept to his work with a stout heart through the lean years that followed. The final blow was the expulsion of the Franciscans, following the fall of the colonial government in Mexico, De- cember 2, 1827. The mission at San Xavier never was abandoned, as the Bishop of Sonora placed it under charge of the secular parish priest at Magdalena, who could visit it only on rare occasions.
In 1859, the territory embraced within Arizona, by an order from Rome, was added to a diocese of New Mexico, with headquarters at Santa Fé. The Bishop, Right-Rev. J. B. Lamy, soon thereafter sent into Arizona, his Vicar-General, Rev. J. T. Machebeuf, who found San Xavier the only mission church that had not dropped into ruin. His report told that the temple had been damaged by leakage and he busied himself in having it plastered to prevent further damage. The Indians welcomed the priest with delight and rang the bells in joy. The missionary found they still remembered some prayers and that even a few were able to sing at mass. Articles for the altar were produced from hiding places where they had been kept by the Indians in trust.
In 1898 an added incentive to devotion was provided by Bishop Henry Granjon of Tucson near the Sau Xavier church in a replica of the Shrine of
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Lourdes, the grotto excavated in solid rock, wherein a niche was cut for the image of the Virgin.
By presidential proclamation, the old Tumacácori mission was set aside in 1908 as a national monument. The proclamation referred to it as "one of the oldest Spanish mission ruins in the southwest, erected probably in the latter part of the sixteenth century, largely of burned brick and cement mortar, instead of adobe and in remarkable repair considering its great age, and of great histori- cal interest." Ten acres of land, including the mission buildings were deeded to the United States by V. Mendez, who had acquired title under the homestead law.
THE FRIDAY FAST IN THE AMERICAS
There has been an impression among Catholics that the Sonora-Arizona re- gion possesses a special indulgence annulling the usual Friday fast, the one explanation being that in the early days fish could not be had and that meat, fresh and dried, was the principal article of diet, at times the only food supply available. The editor on this point sought the assistance of Rev. Novatus Benz- ing, O. F. M., rector of the Phoenix parish, whose researches show that no such indulgence ever was granted by the Church upon the Western Continents. About the time of the joint reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, when the Spaniards were fighting the Moors, a dispensation of this character was granted Spain, in recog- nition of her valiant service in the cause of Christianity. When Spaniards came to America they brought with them the idea that the dispensation was a per- sonal one to all Spaniards. So the error has continued to the present day, con- sidered as referring to Spanish-speaking localities, including Sonora, Arizona, New Mexico and California. In 1898 the revered Bishop Salpointe, while on a visit to Rome, asked information on this question and received it substantially as herein stated. But there was decision at the same time that, inasmuch as the practice had continued so many centuries and the error had become fixed by usage, no penalty would attach to this violation of the ordinary canons of the Church. It is probable the fast rule is about as well observed nowadays in the Southwest as elsewhere.
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