USA > Arizona > History of Arizona, Volume I > Part 5
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EARLY SPANISH MISSIONS AND MISSIONARIES. 57
In 1690, Father Kino, who had established . several other missions was visited by Father Juan Maria de Salvatierra, who had been sent by his superiors as visitador general. These two missionaries, says Francisco Velasco, were followed by Indians, asking to be instructed and admitted as members of the Catholic religion. Among them were the Sobahpuris, who lived on the San Pedro, and had come over a distance of 200 miles to ask the priests to follow them to the place called Guevavi, where they had their vil- lages. Their petition was granted. The mis- sionaries followed them and founded for their tribe a mission which was given the name of the place. This mission, now abandoned for a long time, was the first established on the soil of Ari- zona. It is in the same region that the missions of Tumacacuri and San Xavier del Bac were subsequently founded, along the course of the Santa Cruz River. According to the Rt. Rev. Thomas O'Gorman, the church of Guevavi and that of San Xavier del Bac would have been built by Father Kino in 1687.
In 1694, Kino visited the Pima Indians in the neighborhood of the Casas Grandes, where he established two missions, the Immaculate Con- ception and St. Andrew.
The above is taken from Salpointe (Soldiers of the Cross), but in an appendix to Garces Diary, by Elliott Coues, I find the following :
"In December of that year (1690), Father Juan Maria de Salvatierra, was appointed supe- rior and visitador of Sinaloa and Sonora; he came to Dolores whence he went with Kino to the other places above named (San Jose de Himeris
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and San Ignacio) ; whence the two congenial spirits pushed further into Pimeria Alta, laying great plans for spiritual conquests to be ex- tended to California and elsewhere. Ortega, pp. 248-252, names places visited on this entrada of 1691 as follows: From Dolores by way of Santa Maria Magdalena pueblo and a land called El Tupo to the mission of San Pedro y San Pablo de Tubutama (on Rio Altar) ; place still so called, and probably in 1691 not yet a regular mission, though Kino may have operated there; thence to Saric (still so called on the same river), and Tucubabia in the same vicin- ity. Here they were met by a delegation of Sobaipuris, from' the region about the modern (San Cayetano de) Tumacacori in southern Ari- zona, begging for padres; the fathers deter- mined to go to (acercares) the Sobaipuris, and did so, says Ortega, p. 249, reaching in 15 leagues the rancheria called Guevavi where, in Ortega's time (al presente-1752) there was a mission ; but it does not appear that Guevavi was the place where the Sobaipuris were met or a mission was then founded; and all those who so state must have misread their Ortega. However, the latter clearly states that the priests pushed on to San Cayetano Tumacacori (sic) ; and this place be- ing close to Tubac, Kino now makes his first entrada into Arizona, at or near our recent Fort Mason, on the Santa Cruz river. The fathers then went to Santa Maria de Suamca, a place almost on our boundary, east of Los Nogales; and thence to Cocospera, easily found on a mod- ern map. There they separated, Kino tarrying
EARLY SPANISH MISSIONS AND MISSIONARIES. 59
awhile, and Salvatierra returning from his ex- tended tour of inspection."
In 1692 Kino made his second entrada into Arizona, early in September, pushing on as far as San Xavier del Bac, and returning to Dolores on December 11, 1692.
In 1694 he was informed by some Indians from Bac of the Casas Grandes on the Gila, and went alone to examine them. This time he reached the Gila and said mass in the Casas Grandes, and he was, according to Dellenbaugh and other noted modern authorities, the first white man to view these ruins.
In November, 1697, was undertaken the first formal exploration into Arizona of which any detailed account survives. Of this expedition, Bancroft says: "Lieutenant Cristobal Martin Bernal, with Alferez Francisco Acuma, a ser- geant, and twenty soldiers, marched from Fron- teras via Terrenate and Suamca, while Kino and Mange with ten servants came from Dolores. The two parties united at Quiburi, not far from the site of the modern Tombstone; Coro, a Sobaipuri chief, with thirty warriors, joined the expedition, and all marched down the Rio Qui- buri, since called the San Pedro, to its junction with the Gila, now so called in the records for the first time, though, as we have seen, the Gila province of New Mexico, was named as early as 1630. Down the main river went the explorers to and a little beyond the Casa Grande, which is, for the first time, described and pictured by sim- ple drawings in the diaries. From the Gila they returned southward up the river, since called the Santa Cruz, by way of Bac and Gue-
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HISTORY OF ARIZONA.
vavi, reaching Dolores at the beginning of De- cember. They had marched 260 leagues, had been warmly welcomed everywhere, had regis- tered 4,700 natives, and baptized 89, besides con- ferring badges of office on many chieftains."
Space does not permit me to follow all the wanderings of this tireless explorer, who made altogether thirteen entradas into Arizona. Con- cerning the last expeditions of Father Kino into Arizona, and the Jesuit administration in Ari- zona, Engelhardt says: "In April and May, 1700, Fr. Kino was again at Bac and laid the founda- tion of a large church, which the natives were eager to build, but respecting the further pro- gress of which nothing is known. In September Fr. Kino was in the Yuma country, and gave the name of San Dionisio to a Yuma rancheria at the junction of the Gila with the Colorado. In 1701 Fr. Kino and Fr. Salvatierra again ap- peared at Bac and Tumacacori. Some time after the venerable explorer passed from Sonoi- ta to the Gila and the Colorado and visited the Yumas in their rancherias. Early in 1702, Fr. Kino made his last trip to the Gila and Colorado, and this was also, as far as known, the last time he crossed the Arizona line. 'There is no satis- factory evidence,' said Bancroft, 'that Arizona had either a regular mission or a resident Jesuit priest before Kino's death in 1711. A few rumors of padres stationed there can be traced to no definite source; and the whole tenor of such records as exist is against them.'
"After Fr. Kino's death, for more than twenty years, no Spaniard is known to have entered Arizona. It is not unlikely that a missionary
EARLY SPANISH MISSIONS AND MISSIONARIES. 61
may have visited the rancherias of the Santa Cruz valley, but there is no proof of such trips into Arizona. All communication gradu- ally ceased; the Gila tribes forgot what Fr. Kino had taught them, and even the nearer Pimas and Sobaipuris lost much of their zeal for mission life. Only two or three Jesuits are known to have worked in the field of the Pimeria Alta near the Arizona line before 1730.
"In 1731 there came a small re-enforcement of Jesuits; two of them were sent to the north and effected what may be regarded as the first Span- ish settlement in southern Arizona. Fr. Felipe Segesser took charge of San Xavier del Bac, Fr. Juan Baptista Grasshoffer of San Miguel de Guevavi, which from this time may be regarded as regular missions, the other rancherias becom- ing visitas or missionary stations. It is probable that during the rest of the Jesuit period, the two missions were but rarely without priests. Fr. Grasshoffer died; Fr. Caspar Steiger was at Bac in 1773-1736; and in 1750 the missionaries were Fr. Jose Carucho at Guevavi, and Fr. Francisco Paver at San Xavier del Bac. In 1736-1737, Fr. Ignacio Keller of Suamca, in Sonora, made two trips to the Gila and visited the Casa Grande. He found that many of the rancherias of Kino's time had been broken up.
"In 1743, Fr. Jacob Sedelmair of Tubutama reached the Gila and in the following year at- tempted to visit the Moquis in the north, but owing to the unwillingness of the Indians to guide him, he did not get beyond Bill Williams' Fork.
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HISTORY OF ARIZONA.
"In 1750 occurred the second revolt of the Pima tribes, in which two missionaries at Ca- borca and Sonoita, were killed, as were about 100 Spaniards. Bac and Guevavi were plundered and abandoned, but the two Jesuits escaped to Suamca. Peace was restored in 1752 and the missions reoccupied in 1754.
"During the remaining years of the Jesuit period, 1754-1767, the missions of the Pimeria Alta barely maintained a precarious existence. 'A few neophytes were induced to remain faith- ful, but the natives lived for the most part as they pleased, not openly rebellious, nor disposed to molest the padres, so long as the latter at- tempted no control of their actions, and were willing to take their part in quarrels with set- tlers or soldiers. Missionary work was at a standstill.' Exactly how long the missions had been abandoned after the revolt of 1750 is not known, but in 1763 Fr. Alonzo Espinosa was in charge of Bac, as he was still at the time of the Jesuit expulsion in 1767. At Guevavi the mis- sionaries were Fr. Ignacio Pfefferkorn in 1763, Fr. Jimeno in 1764, and Fr. Pedro Rafael Diaz in 1767. The rancheria of Tucson was a visita of Bac in these years, and a few Spanish settlers seem to have lived there; but in 1763 it was, like the mission, abandoned by all except a few sick and infirm Indians. There were also nearly 200 Spanish settlers at Guevavi, Santa Barbara, and Buenavista. The missionary stations at Tuma- cacori and Calabazas were composed of Pima and Papago neophytes; but the latter had run away in 1763. Respecting the expulsion of the devoted Jesuit Fathers by the Free Mason gov-
EARLY SPANISH MISSIONS AND MISSIONARIES. 63
ernment of Spain in 1767 nothing is known, ex- cept the names of the three Fathers Espinosa, Dias and Barera, the latter at Suamca. The whole number of neophytes in 1764-1767, seems to have been about 1,250.
"From the Spanish names on early maps, the conclusion has been drawn that, up to the Gila Valley, Arizona was covered with prosperous Spanish missions and settlements which had to be abandoned later in consequence of Apache raids; but the truth is, there was no Spanish occupation beyond a narrow region of the Santa Cruz valley, and even there were only the two missions Bac and Guevavi, with a few rancherias de visita under resident missionaries from 1732, or possibly 1720, and protected in their precari- ous existence by the Tubac presidio from 1752. The Spanish names of saints were simply those applied by Kino and his associates to the ranch- erias visited on their exploring tours, whose in- habitants, in some instances, were induced to make preparations for the reception of the mis- sionaries promised, but who never came. It has also been the fashion to regard Tucson as a more or less prosperous town from a very early time. Some writers even date its foundation in the six- teenth century, though, as a matter of fact, it is not heard of as an Indian rancheria till the middle of the eighteenth century, and was not properly a Spanish settlement till the presidio was moved there in later years.
"After the Masonic government of Spain in 1767 had expelled the devoted Jesuits, all the mission property, since it was regarded as be- longing to the missionaries and not to the
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HISTORY OF ARIZONA.
Indians, was confiscated, and its care tempo- rarily intrusted to royal comisionados. The re- sult was that in 1793 the viceroy wrote: 'There is no reason to doubt that they either wasted or em- bezzled the rich temporalities of all or most of the missions, and that these funds were lost, and decadence or ruin could not be prevented.' "
EARLY SPANISH MISSIONS AND MISSIONARIES. 65
CHAPTER VI. EARLY SPANISH MISSIONS AND MISSIONARIES (CONTINUED) AND MILITARY ANNALS.
TUBAC-TUCSON-REVOLT OF PIMAS-EXPUL- SION OF JESUITS-RELAPSE OF INDIANS- MILITARY ANNALS-GENERAL CROIX-GEN- ERAL UGARTE-SAN XAVIER DEL BAC- PADRE FRANCISCO GARCES-FRANCISCANS- SAN JOSE DE TUCSON-A WALLED TOWN -PADRE GARCES - BIOGRAPHY-FOUNDING OF PRESIDIO-PUEBLO MISSIONS ON COLORADO -DEATH OF INSPECTOR HUGO OCONOR-SAN AGUSTIN DEL PUEBLO DE TUCSON-TUBAC- CAPTAIN JUAN B. ANZA-APACHE DEPREDA- TIONS-GUEVAVI-PADRE JUAN CRISOSTOMO GIL DE BERNAVE-TUMACACORI-FRA NAR- CISO GUTIERREZ - JUAN B. ESTELRIO - RA- MON LIBEROS-SAN CAYETANO DE CALABA- ZAS-ARIVACA-MINES-DON IGNACIO ZUN- IGA-ABANDONMENT OF SETTLEMENTS.
No successive narrative of early Arizona an- nals is extant. The data we have, which has been collected by Bancroft and others, is incom- plete, but enough is known to justify the asser- tion that the Gila Valley of Arizona was not covered with prosperous Spanish missions and settlements that were abandoned on account of Apache raids. Under the Jesuit rule, only two missions, those of Bac and Guevavi, were estab- lished. The rest were rancherias de visita, which received a precarious protection by Tubac
5
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HISTORY OF ARIZONA.
presidio, from 1752. Bancroft says: "The Ari- zona missions were never more than two, and they were never prosperous. So, also, the rich mines and prosperous haciendas, with which the country is pictured as having been dotted, are purely imaginary, resting only on vague tradi- tions of the Planchas de Plata excitement, and on the well-known mineral wealth of later times. The Jesuits, of course-though the contrary is often alleged-worked no mines, nor is there any evidence that in Jesuit times there were any mining operations in Arizona beyond an occa- sional prospecting raid; and even later, down to the end of the century, such operations were on a small scale, confined to the vicinity of the pre- sidios." This remark may also be applied to agricultural operations, which were often aban- doned, and more often plundered by the savages.
Tucson has been regarded as a more or less prosperous town from a very early date; some writers dating its foundation in the sixteenth century, but as a matter of fact it was not heard of, even as an Indian rancheria, until the middle of the eighteenth century, and it was not a Span- ish settlement until the presidio was moved there in later years.
The expulsion of the Jesuits was caused pri- marily by the revolt of the Pimas in 1750, and after this revolt was put down by the Spanish arms, there rose a quarrel between the Jesuits and the civil authorities, each charging the other with being the cause of this revolt, which re- sulted in the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1767, when all mission property belonging to the Jesuits, was confiscated by the Spanish Govern-
EARLY SPANISH MISSIONS AND MISSIONARIES. 67
ment and its care entrusted to royal comisarios. "Respecting the definite acts of these officials in Pimeria Alta, there is," says Bancroft, "no in- formation."
From another authority Bancroft quotes: "The missions were found by the Franciscans in a sad state. Some of the establishments had been plundered by the Apaches, and were again plundered, as at Suamca and Bac, during the first year of Franciscan occupation. In some cases, the comisarios had grossly neglected their duties. Everywhere the neophytes had been for a year free from all control, and had not been improved by their freedom. Not only had they relapsed to a great extent into their roving and improvident habits, but they had imbibed new ideas of independence, fostered largely by set- tlers and soldiers. They regarded themselves as entirely free from all control by the mission- aries, whose whole duty in these later times was to attend to religious matters. The padres might not, so these independent aborigines thought, give orders, but must prefer requests to native officials; if they required work done for them, they must pay for it. The friars at first had nothing to do with the temporalities, but Galvez in 1770-(it was really in June, 1769)-ordered the property returned to their control, and the slight remnants were thus re- stored. They received a stipend of $300 each from the royal treasury, and spent it on their churches and neophytes. They worked faith- fully, though often discouraged, and presently the state of affairs became, in all essential re- spects, similar to that in Chihuahua, the padres
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HISTORY OF ARIZONA.
keeping together the skeleton communities, in- structing the children, caring for the sick, and by gifts and persuasion exercising slight and varying control over the masses of the Indians, who were Christians only in name."
The military annals during this period are also incomplete. The general situation of affairs is clear. In 1767-71, the island and coast tribes of Sonora gave as much trouble as did the Apaches, and while these tribes were being re- duced to submission, campaigns on the northern frontier were suspended, and protection was only given to the presidios and missions. There are no particulars as to when aggressive cam- paigns were inaugurated. By a reglamento of 1772-3, service against the Apaches was made more effective. Through a change in the mili- tary discipline and Indian policy, at the same time, the sites of the four frontier presidios at Altar, Tubac, Terrenate and Fronteras were ordered changed. These changes, except at Altar, were made, including the transfer of Tubac to Tucson, the exact date of which is un- known. General Croix, from 1779, is credited with having effected useful reforms in the mili- tary service. The garrisons at each presidio, before the year 1780, were increased from fifty to seventy-five men, and, in 1784, a company of Opata allies was organized, which gave efficient aid to the Spanish soldiers. Records showing these facts also give information respecting the Apaches and their methods of warfare, and con- tain a general complaint of never ending depre- dations.
EARLY SPANISH MISSIONS AND MISSIONARIES. 69
In 1786 General Ugarte, by the viceroy's order, introduced radical changes in the Indian policy. The Apaches were to be forced by un- ceasing campaigns against them, with the aid of the Pimas and Opatas, to make treaties of peace, which, up to that time, had never been per- mitted, and, so long as they observed such treaties, though closely watched, they were to be kindly treated, "furnished with supplies, en- couraged to form settlements near the presidios, taught to drink intoxicating liquors, and to de- pend as much as possible on Spanish friendship for the gratification of their needs."
The plan seems to have worked remarkably well. For over twenty years or more there were but slight indications of Apache depreda- tions. They were regarded as hostile and treacherous at heart, but found it to their inter- est to keep their treaties, for they were sup- ported by the Government at a cost of from $18,000 to $30,000 a year. Independent and de- tached bands of Pimas and Papagoes, as well as the Apaches, sometimes made trouble, requir- ing constant vigilance and ready chastisement to keep them in order, but, as compared with condi- tions in earlier and later times, the country dur- ing the last decade of the 18th century and the first decade of the 19th century, was at peace. "Then it was," says Bancroft, "that the Ari- zona establishments had their nearest approxi- mation to prosperity, that new churches were built, that mines were worked to some extent, and haciendas. Unfortunately, we may not know the particulars."
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HISTORY OF ARIZONA.
"San Xavier del Bac, known as a rancheria since the seventeenth century, and as a mission since 1720 or 1732, was, in June, 1768, committed to the care of Padre Francisco Garces, who was its minister for eight or ten years, but whose suc- cessors are not named in any record that I have seen. The neophytes were scattered and had forgotten their doctrina, so it is said, but they consented to return if not compelled to work. Before the end of the year, the mission was de- stroyed by Apaches, who killed the native gov- ernor and captured two soldiers, the padre and most of the neophytes being absent at the time. In several subsequent raids, the mission live- stock disappeared, but after 1772 lost ground was more than regained, though Padre Garces
* was for a large part of the time, en- gaged in northern explorations. The official re- port of 1772 shows a population of 270 on the registers, and describes the church as moderately capacious, but poorly supplied with furniture and vestments. All the churches of Pimeria Alta at this period are described as of adobes, covered with wood, grass and earth. Arricivita, writing in 1791, mentions on one page that the Franciscans have built here adobe houses for the natives and walls for defense against the Apaches; but though specifying somewhat minutely the various churches that had been built or repaired, he says nothing of such work at Bac. In a similar statement on another page, how- ever, he includes Bac, as well as Tucson, among the places where churches of brick had been built. Yet I think the chronicler would not have dismissed with so slight a notice the magni-
EARLY SPANISH MISSIONS AND MISSIONARIES. 71
ficent structure still standing at San Xavier, which has elicited many a description from mod- ern visitors. The church is said to bear the date of 1797, which is presumably that of its comple- tion. The building, or rebuilding, was probably begun soon after the date of the reports on which Arricivita based his work, and completed in the final decade of the century. *
* * The estab- lishment seems to have had no minister, and to have been practically abandoned from about 1828, though the Papago ex-neophytes are said to have cared for the building to some extent in later years."
This is the oldest mission in Arizona or Cali- fornia, and to-day stands as a monument to the industry and religious zeal and architectural skill of the early fathers.
"Tucson, as we have seen, is first mentioned in 1763 as a rancheria visita of Bac, which had been for the most part abandoned. In the last years of Jesuit control, however, it had 331 Indians, more or less, under control of the missionaries. Reyes, in his report of 1772, describes San Jose de Tucson, as a visita of Bac, without church or padre's house, on a fertile site where a large number of gentile and Christian Indians-not registered, but estimated at over 200 families- had congregated. Many of these seem to have been subsequently scattered; at least Anza found only eighty families of Pimas in 1774. Says Arricivita: 'The Apaches have always sought to destroy a small rancheria at Tucson, it being the point of entry for their irruptions; but by the efforts of Padre Garces, there was built a pueblo, with a church, house for the padre, and a wall
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HISTORY OF ARIZONA.
for defense, and it is to-day, a presidio of Span- iards.' "
From this it will be seen that Padre Garces made Tucson a walled town, it being the first and only walled city in the United States.
The accompanying map shows the wall as it existed in 1863.
Padre Fra Francisco Garces was born in the Villa de Morata del Conde, in the Reyno de Ara- gon, on the 12th of April, 1738. At twenty-five years of age, having finished his studies, he was ordained in the priesthood of the Franciscan Order, and at the age of thirty he was assigned to San Xavier del Bac. None of the early fathers showed greater zeal than he in extending the do- minion of the church and of his king. From del Bac he made pilgrimages to the tribes along the Gila, extending to the Yumas on the Colorado River, and from thence into California and as far as San Francisco.
At the request of Palma, the chief of the Yumas, who had embraced Christianity and vis- ited Mexico, on August 1st, 1779, leaving Padre Diaz with a small escort of soldiers at Sonoita, Padre Garces started with two soldiers and one other on his last entrada into what is now Ari- zona. He reached Yuma late in the month, and on September 3rd, sent the soldiers back to Diaz at Sonoita, with the information that he was already having trouble on account of the dissen- sions among the Yumas. The soldiers reached Diaz, and, at the same time, a Papago reported that some of his nation had revolted and pro- posed to attack the expedition en route. The soldiers were inclined to desert. This informa-
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Map of the WALLED TOWN OF TUCSON.
EARLY SPANISH MISSIONS AND MISSIONARIES. 73
tion having reached the higher authorities, the padres were advised to postpone further opera- tions. They remained firm under orders of the commanding general to persevere. Padre Diaz succeeded in joining Padre Garces at Yuma on October 2d, with about a dozen men. From the start there was trouble owing to the discrepancy between what Palma's people had been led to ex- pect in the way of lavish gifts, and the beggarly outfit that the needy friars had to divide among them. During that winter Palma became dis- affected, many Indians were in open revolt, and after much complaining on the part of the mili- tary and priesthood, it was determined to estab- lish two foundations on the Colorado. Formal orders for each were issued March 20, 1780. Says Elliott Coues: "The scheme was a novel one-one so novel that Arricivita styles its au- thor, Croix, 'an artificer of death,' (artifice de morir). The plan was for neither a presidio, a mission nor a pueblo, each of which was intelli- gible to a Spaniard, but a mongrel affair nobody could manage, combining features of all three such establishments; and there were to be two such mongrels. For the first of these were de- tailed a corporal, nine soldiers, ten colonists, and six laborers ; for the second, a corporal, eight sol- diers, ten colonists, and six laborers. Such were the two presidio-pueblo missions established on the Colorado; the one at Puerto de la Purisima Concepcion, identical in site with modern Fort Yuma, and the other perhaps eight miles lower down the river, at a place called San Pedro y San Pablo de Bicuner, near the site of Modern Fort Defiance (Pilot Knob). The logic of
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