USA > Arizona > History of Arizona and New Mexico, 1530-1888, Volume XVII > Part 41
USA > New Mexico > History of Arizona and New Mexico, 1530-1888, Volume XVII > Part 41
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6 Arricivita, 402, has it 8 visitas, but the larger number would seem more likely to be correct.
" Reyes, Noticias del estado actual de las misiones, in Doc. Hist. Mex., 3d ser., pt iv., p. 724-65. Other references in Hist. North Mex. States. The viceroy's report was founded largely on one by Bishop Reyes in 1784, not extant.
378
PIMERÍA ALTA, OR ARIZONA.
the sites of the four frontier presidios at Altar, Tu- bac, Terrenate, and Fronteras were ordered.8 These changes, except at Altar, were made, including a transfer of Tubac to Tucson, but the exact dates and other details are not known.9 In 1774, or a little later, Hugo Oconor came as inspector to see that the reglamento had been properly enforced; General Croix from 1779 is credited with having effected useful reforms in the military service; before 1780 the garrison at each presidio was increased from fifty to seventy-five men; and in 1784 a company of Opata allies was organized, which rendered efficient aid to the Spanish soldiers.10 In the records which show these facts there is much information respecting the Apaches and their methods of warfare; and all records of the time contain a general complaint of never-end- ing depredations; but of campaigns, disasters, and other events from year to year, practically nothing is known. In 1786 General Ugarte, by the viceroy's order, introduced all along the frontier line of the Pro- vincias Internas some radical changes in Indian policy. The Apaches were to be forced by unceasing cam- paigns, with the aid of friendly Fimas and Opatas, to make treaties of peace, never before permitted with that nation; and so long as they observed such trea- ties, though closely watched, they were to be kindly treated, furnished with supplies, encouraged to form settlements near the presidios, taught to drink intoxi- cating liquors, and to depend as much as possible on Spanish friendship for the gratification of their needs. Hitherto war had been the business, as easier than
8 Presidios, Reglamento é Instrucciones.
9 A report of Gen. Elias in 1614 contains most that we know of these changes. Pinart, Doc. Hist. Chih., MS., 17-19. The idea was to locate the presidios in a liue, at intervals of abont 40 leagues. Terrenate was to be moved to one of the valleys of S. Pedro, Nutrias, Guachuca, or Terrenato, and nearer Fronteras. It was moved to Sta Cruz, 40 1. from Tucson, then to Nntrias, and finally to the abandoned mission of Sta Maria (Suamca). Fron- teras was moved, as ordered, to the valley of San Bernardino, nearer Janos, but was later restored to the former site, 35 1. from Terrenate.
10 Sonora, Resumen, 224; Arch. Cal., Prov. St. Pap., MS., iv. 1-9, 12-14; Pueblo de Sonora, Feb. 4, 1868; Pinart, Doc. Hist. Son., MS., i. 1-5; Velasco, Not. Son., 152; Zúñiga, Rápida Ojeuda, 4.
379
APACHE POLICY.
hunting, by which they had lived; now they were to be made to dread war, as sure to cut off their supplies. The plan seems to have been remarkably successful ; at least for twenty years or more there are but slight indications of Apache depredations. They were still regarded as hostile and treacherous at heart, but they were gradually forced to form treaties, which in many instances it was made their interest to keep for years, many of them settling near the Spanish establish- ments, and being supported by the government at a cost of $18,000 to $30,000 a year. Detached bands sometimes made trouble, as did gentile and renegade Pimas and Pápagos, requiring constant vigilance and bloody chastisement; but in comparison with its con- dition in earlier and later times, the country in the last decade of the century and first of the next was at peace. Then it was that the Arizona establishments had their nearest approximation to prosperity, that new churches were built, that mines were worked to some extent, and haciendas. Unfortunately, we may not know the particulars.11
San Javier del Bac, known as a ranchería since the seventeenth century, and as a mission since 1732 or 1720, was, in June 1768, committed to the care of Padre Francisco Garcés, who was its minister for eight or ten years, but whose successors are not named in any record that I have seen.12 The neophytes were scat-
11 Galvez, Instrucciones á Ugarte, 1786; Escudero, Not. Son., 69-70; Soc. Mex. Geog., Bol., v. 312-13; xi. 89; Revilla Gigedo, Carta, 436; Velasco, Not. So7., 240-1; Monteros, Exposicion de Son., 21, 26; Arricivita, Cron. Seraf., 457, 483-8, 524-9; Ilustracion Mex., iv. 418; Gaceta de Mex., i. 85.
12 P. José del Riois named by Arricivita, 417-18, as a compañero of Garcés, sent to Mex. on a mission in 1770-1, and he may have served at Bac, though his mission in 1758-9 was Tubutama. Fr. Pedro Arriqutbar was probably the minister in 1819, as he appears on the Tubac register as chaplain of Tucson. A writer in the Tucson, Dos Repúblicas, of Sept. 16, 1877, who has apparently examined some of the mission registers, names the following padres as having served in Arizona between 1768 and 1828: Francisco Garcés, Juan Diaz, José Matías Moreno, Juan Antonio Barreneche, *Bartolomé Jimenez, *Gaspar de Clemente, *Juan Carzoll, *Clemente Moreno, *Clemente Rijarch, Pedro Arri- quibar, *Juan B. Nelderrain, Joaquin Antonio Velar le, Baltasar Carrillo, Narciso Gutierrez, Mariano Bordoy, Ramon Lopez, Ramon Liberos, Juan Maldonado, and Rafael Diaz, who was in charge of S. Agustin del Pueblito de Tucson in 1826. It is to be noted that this list does not include P. Gil de Bernave, the original minister of Guevavi. The 21, 3d, and 4th on the list
380
PIMERÍA ALTA, OR ARIZONA.
tered 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 destroyed by Apaches, who killed the native governor and cap- tured two soldiers, the padre and most of the neo- phytes 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 Garcés, as we shall see, was for a large part of the time engaged in northern explorations.13 The official report of 1772 shows a population of 270 on the regis- ters, and describes the church as moderately capacious, but poorly supplied with furniture and vestments. All the churches of Pimería Alta at this period are described as of adobes, covered with wood, grass, and earth.14 Arricivita, writing in 1791, mentions on one page that the Franciscans have built here adobe houses for the natives and walls for defence against the Apa- ches; 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 state- ment on another page, however, he includes Bac, as well as Tucson, among the places where churches of brick had been built.15 Yet I think the chronicler would not have dismissed with so slight a notice the magnificent structure still standing at San Javier, which has elicited many a description from modern visitors. The church is said to bear the date of 1797, which is presumably that of its completion.16 The
were the padres killed at the Colorado missions in Cal., never serving in the Arizona establishments, where it is probable that their names and others of the list appear only as visitors. The 6 marked with a * I have not found elsewhere; but the rest appear on books of the Pimería Alta missions, south of Arizona. Only Garces, Arriquibar, Gutierrez, Liberos, and Fr. Juan B. Estelric-the latter not named in the Dos Republicas-have I found in Ari- zona proper; but I have not seen the original registers, except a fragment at Tubac.
13 Arricivita, passim.
14 Reyes, Noticia, 754-6. Anza, Descub., MS., found 74 Pima families at Bac. in 1774.
15 Arricivita, 448, 488-9. 'Todas de ladrillo y bóvedas.'
16 Las Dos Repúblicas, Sept. 16, 1877, as already cited. The author men- tions traditions that it was built on the site of the oll Jesuit church, that its construction occupied 14 years, and that two brothers Gaona were the
38I
SAN JAVIER DEL BAC AND TUCSON.
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, during the epoch of comparative peace and prosperity to which I have alluded. Neither church nor mission has any later recorded history. The establishment seems to have had no minister, and to have been practically abandoned from about 1828, though the Pápago ex-neophytes are said to have cared for the building to some extent in later years.17
Tucson, as we have seen, is first mentioned in 1763 as a ranchería visita of Bac, which had been for the most part abandoned. In the last years of Jesuit con- trol, however, it had 331 Indians, more or less, under control of the missionaries. Reyes, in his report of 1772, describes San José 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 sub- sequently scattered; at least Anza found only eighty families of Pimas in 1774. Says Arricivita, the Apaches "have always sought to destroy a small ran- chería at Tugson, it being the point of entry for their irruptions; but by the efforts of Padre Garcés, there was built a pueblo, with a church, house for the padre, and a wall for defence; and it is to-day a presidio of Spaniards." As we have seen, the presidio was trans- ferred from Tubac, in accordance with the reglamento and instructions of 1772. The change was made in or
builders. He thinks it was built during the ministry of PP. Carrillo and Gutierrez. It would serve no good purpose to refer to the many descriptions extaut, each with a few words of most inaccurate history. Many writers re- gard the church as having been built by the Jesuits; and one tells us it was built by the Spanish govt, under Jesuit direction, at a cost of $33,300! An original report of 1842 shows the friendly Pápagos to have been living at Bac in considerable numbers.
17 Brackett, in Western Monthly, 1869, p. 170, says the property was sec- ularized in 1824; but there are no definite records on the subject. In Riesgo and Valdes, Memoria Estad. (Pinart, Doc. Hist., MS., i. 107), Bac is named as a pueblo belonging to the presidio of Tucson. In 1834, Bac is also named as a pueblo, in a decree forming a partido to which it belonged. Pinart, Col. Doc., print, no. 302.
382
PIMERÍA ALTA OR ARIZONA.
before 1777, and probably by order of Inspector Hugo Oconor, given during his visit of about 1775, so that the date of the founding of Tucson as a Spanish set- tlement may be set down as probably 1776.18 The In- dians were quartered in a little pueblo adjoining the presidio, called from this time San Agustin del pue- blito de Tucson, the presidio also being sometimes called San Agustin.19 Annals of this place are a blank for many years, and practically so down to 1846, since we know only by occasional mention that the presidio maintained its existence; that the garri- son numbered, in officers and men, about 106 men, though the ranks were often not full; and that there was frequent complaint of inadequate arms, ammuni- tion, and other supplies. We have no statistics, but the population of Tucson and the adjoining districts, in the last years of the period covered by this chapter, may have been about 2,000, including the families of the soldiers.20
Tubac is a name that first appears in 1752, when a presidio was established there. In 1764-7, and for some years later, it was under the command of Captain Juan B. Anza, and had a population of nearly 500. Under orders following the reglamento of 1772, the
18 Arricivita, 448, 449. On the latter page he says the Tucson church, like that of Bac, was of brick and 'de bóvedas.' This writer proves that the presidio change was before 1791; but that it was before 1777 is shown by a petition, dated S. Agustin de Tuson, Nov. 24, 1777, written in the interest of Tubac, and asking for a restoration of the fort to the south. Translation in the Yuma Sentinel, April 13, 1878. The change had not yet been made in Oct. 1775, when Thison, or Tuguison, is named as a pueblo by Anza. Diario, MS., 9, and Font, Journal, 6.
19 Some modern writers say that S. Agustin was founded in 1769; but the ranchería, before 1772, was called S. José.
20 F. Pedro Arriquibar, chaplain in 1819. Tubac, Lib. Mis., MS. Cost of the garrison of 4 officers and 101 men in 1824, $29,744. Pinart, Doc. Hist. Son., MS., i. 36. Six officers and 94 men in 1828 cost $27,854. Alcaldes de policía. Fine climate, but cold winters. Riesgo and Valdes, Mem. Estad. In 1838 the comandante was Jose M. Martinez. He had so few men and horses that he had to hire Apaches to go and look after a party of Americans 25 1. away. Restaurador Federal (Arizpe), Jan. 16, 1838. In 1842-3 Antonio Comaduran was comandante. The comp. had 89 men, or 11 less than re- quired by the reglamento of 1826. He writes complaining letters. Pinart, Col. Doc., MS., no. 40-1. Velasco, Not. Son., 113-14, tells us that Tucson had but 60 cavalry, and the district had become so dangerous that the popu- lation was reduced to less than 1,000 men.
383
TUCSON AND TUBAC.
presidio was transferred, in 1776-7, to a site farther north, at Tucson. This left the few settlers of the region more exposed to the depredations of the Apaches, and they wished to quit the country, but were prevented from doing so by orders from the gov- ernment to be enforced by severe penalties. They sent in, however, many petitions for a restoration of the presidio, or for an increase of troops;21 and at a date not exactly recorded, but before 1784, a company of Pima allies was organized and stationed here. Sub- sequently Spanish soldiers seem to have been added to the garrison; and the law of 1826 provided for a presidial company at Tubac as well as Tucson, though in later years the company seems to have been one of infantry. The post has no other annals than an occa- sional mention of its existence and force. In 1828 a silver mine is spoken of as having been worked for several years. In 1834 all the Arizona establishments were organized as a partido with Tubac, or San Igna- cio, as Cabecera. In 1842-3 a ranchería of friendly Apaches lived here. Spiritual interests were attended to by the padre of the adjoining mission.22
21 The document of 1777 already cited. Yuma Sentinel contains the follow- ing: 'Daily experiencing more violence from the enemy because he is aware of the few troops that we possess, we have desired to break up our homes and sell our effects .... And now, finally, the last month the Apaches finished with the entire herd of horses and cattle which we guarded; and at the same time with boldness destroyed the fields and carried away as much corn as they were able. Since the fort was removed to Tucson these towns and missions have experienced some casualties; so much so that they have been obliged to burn the town of Calabazas-a calamity it never before experienced. Also, but few days ago the cavalcade, which the Apaches brought from the west, was grazing for three days in the vicinity, falling every day upon the fields to load with corn, and to run away with those whom they found there; and lastly, they not leaving the neighborhood, we momentarily expect that they may serve us and our families as they have served our property.' The document gives some description of the Tubac region, where over 600 fanegas of wheat and maize were produced each year, not one third of the land being occupied. 22 For 1814-24 I have some fragments of the Tubac Lib. Mis., MS. "The place is denominated both presidio and 'pueblo y mision.' Capt. Nicolás Herrera is named in 1819; Alf. Juan B. Romero in 1821; and Lieut. Ignacio Elias Gonzalez as comandante in 1821. This same year the books were in- spected by the bishop. The law of March 21, 1826, providing for two pre- sidios, is mentioned in Riesgo and Valdés, Mem. Estad., 26. In 1828 the Pima comp., called 'de Buenavista,' had 3 officers and 81 men, cost $13,373; silver mine worked. Pinart, Doc. Hist. Son., MS., i. 37, 60-4, 109. July 1, 1834, order of Son. congress, organizing the partido of S. Ignacio. Id., Col. Doc., print, no. 302. Nov. 1, 1842, the company, apparently regulars and not
384
PIMERIA ALTA, OR ARIZONA.
Guevavi, in Jesuit times called San Miguel and also for a time San Rafael, but by the Franciscans termed Santos Angeles, was a mission which, like Bac, dated back to 1732, or perhaps 1720, and in 1764-7 had 111 neophytes, or with its three visitas, 517. Padre Juan Crisóstomo Gil de Bernave was its minister for several years from 1768. He became president of the missions, and in 1773 was killed by the Indians of his new mission of Carrizal, Sonora.
Tucson º
S.Javier o
39
39
Sta.Cruz
R.S.Pedro.
PAPAGUERÍA
Sonoita
Arivaca o
Tubac
Tumacacori
Guevavi , Calabazas
Quiburi
Arizona
Suamca Sta.Cruz
Aquimurió
S.Lazaro
Terrenate?
Fronteras O
Saric
31
31
· Tubutama
Remedios
G Ati
· Oquitoa
Imuris
Pitiqui
o Altar
. S.Ignacio
Dolores
Caborca o
Magdalena
R.Altar
R.S.
znaci
· Arizpe
MISSIONS OF ARIZONA, 1768-1846.
Pimas, had 33 men, rank and file, under Lieut. Roque Ibarra of Pitie since 1840, when Lieut. Salvador Moraga had been retired. There was a capitan de indios, José Rosario. About half the garrison were absent at Cucurpe and Rayon. One soldier was a prisoner of the Apaches. A rancheria of Apaches, 169 souls under Francisco Coyotero, as chief, lived near the presidio. Id., MS., no. 2. In 1843 the force remained as before. Id., passim. In Dec. 1844, José Rosario, the captain of Indians, joined the pronunciamiento of the garrison at Ures in favor of Paredes. Id., Doc. Hist. Son., MS., iii. 223-4.
Cocospera o
385
GUEVAVI AND TUMACÁCORI.
In 1772 Guevavi had 86 Indians, and with its visitas, 337. The church was a poor affair, and the establish- ment was often raided by Apaches. Before 1784 it was abandoned, and Tumacácori became head of the mission. The visita of San Ignacio Sonoita, or Sono- itac, seems also to have been deserted before 1784.23 The name of the latter is still retained, but that of Guevavi seems to have disappeared from modern maps.
Tumacácori, or San José, a visita of Guevavi from Jesuit times, with 199 Indians in 1764-7, and 39 in 1772, was almost in ruins in the latter year, having been attacked in 1769 by the Apaches at midday. But before 1791 a new roof had been put on the church, and from 1784, or earlier, San José had be- come a mission instead of a visita. Adobe houses for the neophytes and a wall for their protection were also built. After Padre Gil de Bernave, I have no records of missionaries in charge of this mission and the adjoining presidio in early times; but Fray Nar- ciso Gutierrez was the minister in 1814-20, Juan B. Estelric in 1821-2, and Ramon Liberós in 1822-4."* The ruins of Tumacácori are still to be seen near Tubac, on the west bank of the river. San Cayetano de Calabazas, the only pueblo de visita that seems to have survived 1784, had 64 neophytes in 1772, but . no church or house for the padre, though these were supplied before 1791. In 1828 Calabazas is men- tioned as a rancho near which some poor people worked a gold mine.25 Aribac, or Arivaca, in the west, appears on a doubtful map of 1733 as a pueblo. Anza, in 1774, says it had been deserted since the
23 Arricivita, 518-22; Reyes, Noticias, 757; Revilla Gigedo, Carta.
24 Tubac, Lib. Mis., MS. In 1822 a new church was in process of construc- tion or extension, but work was for a time suspended on account of trouble about the pay for 4,000 cattle that P. Estelric had sold to obtain funds. Pinart, Doc. Hist. Son., MS., i. 30-1. In 1844, by a padre who admits he knows very little about it, Tumacácori is described as having an elegant church and being a visita of Bac ! Id., iii. 182. In the Arizona Hist. (Elliott & Co.), 52, the first church is described as having been built by the Jesuits in 1752, and destroyed by Apaches in 1820. The ruins are described here and in the S. F. Bulletin, March 19, 1879.
25 Riesgo and Valdés, Mem. Estad., MS., 60-4.
HIST. ARIZ. AND N. MEX. 25
386
PIMERÍA ALTA, OR ARIZONA.
Pima revolt of 1751, though mines were worked until 1767. In 1777 it is noted as a place rich in mines, and one Ortiz is said to have applied about this time for a grant of the rancho. Zúñiga, in 1835, mentions it as a 'rancho despoblado.' 26 It may also be noted here that in the early part of the present century, if not before, the old Terrenate presidio was located at or near the abandoned mission of Suamca, just south of the Arizona line, and was known as Santa Cruz.
The coming of a new order of missionaries to take the place of the Jesuits, the natural desire of the friars to do something more than simply fill the places of their predecessors, their success on the coast in effect- ing the spiritual conquest of Alta California, and above all the indefatigable zeal of Father Francisco Garcés, the Kino of the Franciscans, caused renewed interest to be felt in the northern interior, in the con- version of the Gila tribes, and of the apostate Moquis. The result was a series of somewhat extensive explora- tions which must be recorded here, but with compara- tive brevity, because they were for the most part but reexplorations, and because, in certain phases, they are presented elsewhere in this series of works.
As early as August 1768, Padre Garcés, moved by favorable reports from visiting natives at Bac, set out with one Indian of his mission and four Pápagos from abroad and crossed the country west and north-west to the Gila, visiting many rancherías, and explaining the mysteries of the faith and the grand achievements of the Spanish king. The natives behaved much as in Kino's time, eager to be converted, to have padres, and to have their children baptized. The friar could do nothing but promise great things for the future, and on his return a severe illness interfered, for a time, with his plans. In 1770, however, a year in which the measles raged among the northern tribes, he was
26 Map in Sonora Materiales, MS .; Anza, Descuh. de 1774, MS .; Yuma Sen- tinel, April 13, 1878, Oct. 18, 1879; Zúñiga, Rápida Ojeada, 33.
387
TOURS OF PADRE GARCÉS.
sent for by some of the sufferers, set out "equipped only with charity and apostolic zeal," and again reached the Gila, where he was as warmly welcomed as before, and from this time the project of founding missions in this region took firm possession of his mind.27
The project was approved in Mexico, both by Fran- ciscan and secular authorities; five additional friars were sent to Sonora to be in readiness; and the early founding of the missions was regarded as a certainty, though a change of viceroys and of presidents caused some annoying delays. Meanwhile, Garcés deemed it necessary to make additional explorations for mis- sion sites as well as to explain to the natives the slight delay, thus preventing dissatisfaction; and accordingly he started August 8, 1771, on a new tour, accompanied only by a single Pápago, with a. horse to carry the apparatus for saying mass. He reached the Gila on the 22d by way of Papaguería, and for about two months he wandered in various directions over the region of the lower Colorado, possibly crossing that river to the California side. Though Arricivita gives a somewhat minute narrative with extracts from the explorer's diary, it is not possible for me to trace his route, though I attempt a résumé in the appended note. 28
27 Arricivita, Crón. Seráf., 403-4, 416-17. There is nothing to indicate his exact route or even the region where he struck the Gila. A diary of the 2d trip was written but is not published. In the 1st he say he went west, north, and south-west through the country of the Pápagos. Of the 2d, more details are given. He left Bac Oct. 18th, through a new valley past the rancherías of Cuitoat, Oapars, and Tubasa; 19th, west, seeing rancheria of Aquitun; 20th, reached the ranch. of Pitac on the Gila; 21st, to the place where he had been in 1768, where he had to baptize 22 persons, the Indians almost detaining him by force. But he went down the river, saw many ranch., especially one very large one called Napeut on the other bank; thence past Sutaquison he went to a Salina and N. w. to the country of the Opas on the 23d. The Opas could speak Pima, had never seen padres, and desired to know if he was man or woman 'y otras impertinencias iguales a su rudeza.' At one ranch. they had seen white traders from Moqui. Here he turned south; on the 23th saw six Ind. from the Colorado; turned east and in three days across the desert reached the Pápago rancherías.
28 Arricivita, 418-26. Aug. 8, 1771, west past several rancherías, includ- ing Ati, to Cubac on the 15th, and perhaps Sonoi (Sonoita?) on the 16th. Thence his course was by the sierra, or volcano, of Sta Clara and broad sand plains to the Gila at an unoccupied well-wooded spot, where he arrived on the 22d. Soon was seen a branch river conjectured to be the Rio Azul.
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