USA > Arizona > The resources of Arizona; a description of its mineral, farming, grazing and timber lands; its rivers, mountains, valleys and plains; its cities, towns and mining camps; its climate and productions; with brief sketches of its early history etc > Part 28
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The Franciscan fathers visited the tribes on the Gila and Colorado, and after many failures they at last succeeded in founding two missions on the last named stream. In January, 1774, Captain Juan Bautista Ainsa, in pursuance of orders from the Viceroy, undertook to establish communication by land be- tween Sonora and Alta California. He was accompanied by Fathers Garcez, Pedro and Elrach, who visited the Maricopas, Yumas, and other river tribes, and for nearly two years labored persistently among them. Father Garcez visited the Mohaves and Yavapais, and explored a large portion of Central Arizona, everywhere preaching the doctrines of Christianity among the wondering savages.
In 1776 Captain Ainsa returned from California, bringing with him from the Colorado Palma, and other chiefs of the Yuma tribe, praying for the establishment of missions among them.
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In compliance with their request, Father Garcez was selected as the man best fitted for the task, and in 1779 three missions stood on the banks of the Colorado-two on the western and one on the eastern. One was on the hill opposite the junction of the Gila, where Fort Yuma now stands, and was known as La Conception; another was established near Chimney Peak, and was called San Pablo, and the last was opposite the Castle Dome mountain, and named San Pedro. A presidio was established on the hill of La Conception, and a small garrison, for the pro- tection of the missions, maintained therein under the command of Don Jose Maria Ortega. On the 17th day of July 1781, the Yumas rose against the Spanish authorities, massacred the offi- cers and soldiers of the garrison of La Conception, and the priests and civilian employees of all the missions. The women and children were made captives, the buildings destroyed, and thus ended the missions of the Colorado. After a brief ex- istence of three years, the beacon-fires of Christianity which flashed across its turbid waters, were quenched in blood, and no effort was afterwards made to rekindle the flame.
Among the adventurous pioneers of the Cross who explored Arizona from 1773 to 1776, mention should be made of Fathers Pedro Font, Francisco Garcia, Sylvestre Escalante and Fran- cisco Dominguez. These zealous sons of Saint Francis visited and made a thorough examination of the Casa Grande, trav- ersed a large part of Central Arizona, penetrated to the Moquis villages, but it does not appear any attempt was made to found missions there. Escalante's party crossed the Colorado above the Grand canon, and reached the Uintah mountains. He also explored the country as far east and south as Moro, in New Mexico. He published an interesting account of the region through which he passed, and the different tribes he encountered.
Escalante appears to have been the last of that pious and zealous band who followed in the footsteps of Marco de Niza, and carried the Cross among the savage tribes of Arizona for nearly 250 years. After the destruction of the missions on the Colorado, the depredations of the Apaches became more fre- quent. They swept down from their mountain strongholds, leaving death and destruction in their track, and keeping the peaceful neophytes in a constant state of alarm. The breaking out of the Mexican War of Independence was a heavy blow to their prosperity. Deprived of the fostering care and pro- tection of the vice-regal rule, they languished and declined. The government of the republic did not exhibit a friendly spirit, and in 1827 a decree was published, ordering their suppression. Shortly after they were abandoned to the tender mercies of the Apache, and the fruits of 150 years of patient industry, unremit- ting toil, privation and self-denial, were given back to the savag- ery from which they had sprung.
That the missions of Arizona at one time attained a high de-
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gree of prosperity and gathered about them a large Indian population, is shown by their baptismal records, several of which are in a perfect state of preservation to-day. From 1720 until their abandonment in 1827, the missions of Tubac, Tumacacori, San Xavier and Tucson, have had in succession forty-seven priests, many of whom fell martyrs to their faith, and moistened with their blood the seeds of Christian truth planted in the wild regions of "Arizuma." As showing the mode of life among the Indian neophytes, we insert the following, written by Bishop Salponite, of Tucson.
" Early in the morning the Indians had to go to church for morning prayers and to hear mass. Breakfast followed this ex- ercise. Soon after a peculiar ring of the bell called the work- men. They assembled in front of the church, where they were counted by one of the priests, and assigned to the different places where work was to be done. When the priests were in sufficient numbers they used to superintend the work, laboring themselves, otherwise they employed some trustworthy Mexi- can to represent them. Towards evening, a little before sun- down, the workmen were permitted to go home. On their arrival in the houses, which were located around the plaza, one of the priests, standing in the middle of this plaza, said the evening prayer, in a loud voice, in the language of the tribe. Every word he pronounced was repeated by some selected Indians, who stood between him and the houses, and last, by all the Indians present in the tribe." An alphabet of the Pima language was prepared, and the converts had made some pro- gress in learning to read and write. They were taught the arts of agriculture, and under the direction of the fathers large tracts were reclaimed and made productive, and many a smiling grain field and fruitful vineyard and orchard flourished where now all is ruin and desolation.
Of all the mission churches, built by the Jesuits and Fran- ciscans in Arizona, that of San Xavier del Bac is the only one remaining in a state of preservation. This mission was among the first established in the Territory, but the present building is supposed to date from 1727. When the priests were driven from the missions in 1827 the Papagos took charge of the church, and preserved it from destruction by the Apaches. In 1863, thirty-five years after its abandonment, it was again taken possession of by two members of the order who founded it. These priests were from . Los Angeles, California, and accom- panied the first Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Mr. Poston, when he visited the Territory.
Great was the joy of the simple Papagos at having the "black gowns" once more among them. The gold and silver vessels of the altar, and all the other valuable ornaments, were brought forth from the secure hiding-places where they had remained undisturbed all these long years; nave, chancel and altar were
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gaily decorated ; lights flashed from every column, and the voices of the happy Papagos filled the dim aisles and lofty arches of the old church with songs of joy and gladness. Since then re- ligious services are held regularly, and a school has been estab- lished by the Sisters of St. Joseph, but the pastor resides in Tucson, and the edifice is left entirely in charge of the Indians, who take the greatest care of it.
The church of San Xavier del Bac has the form of a cross. It has a length of 105 and a width of twenty-seven feet, inside the walls. The foundation is of stone and the upper walls of brick, covered with a coating of fine cement. The style is that peculiar type of church architecture met with in Spain and all Spanish-American countries. It has been called the Spanish Rennaisance, and its predominating features are one of the legacies which the Moorish invaders left to Castile and Leon. The building faces to the south, with a beautiful facade, highly ornamented in scroll-work and adorned with the arms of the Franciscan order. Two lofty towers surmount the front, one of which remains in an unfinished condition. Over the main
chapel, in the north end, is a massive dome, whose strength, lightness, and perfect proportions are the admiration of all who gaze upon it. Around the walls of the roof, from which springs the dome, is a balustrade of brick coated with cement, with griffins' heads, also in cement, at each angle and corner. The interior fairly dazzles the beholder, being a mass of elaborate gilding, painting, and frescoe-work. The nave is divided into six parts, marked by as many arches. On the right-hand side as you enter, and between the door and the main altar, there is a frescoe representing the "Coming of the Holy Ghost," and on the left a work of similar style illustrating the "Last Supper." These frescoes are still in a good state of preservation, and show no little artistic ability. The main altar is dedicated to St. Francis Xavier and is adorned with small-sized figures of the Saint, the Virgin, and the Holy Family.
Four frescoes near the altar represent the "Adoration of the Wise Men," the "Flight into Egypt," the "Adoration of the Shepherds," and the "Annunciation," all still well-preserved. Statues of the twelve apostles are placed in niches in the massive columns along the main aisle, while the main altar, and those on either side are decorated with columns and arabesques in relief, gilded and painted in the Moorish style. The lofty ceiling was once a mass of brilliant frescoe-work, much of which has been defaced by moisture trickling through the roof.
Near the main door are two small openings leading to the stairs, which conduct the visitor to the towers. The first flight leads to the choir, which is decorated with some fine frescoes. Two flights more and the belfry is reached. Here hang four small home-made bells, whose chime is said to be remarkably sweet and musical. A few steps more and the visitor is in the
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little dome, covering the tower, about seventy-five feet above the ground. From this coign of vantage there is a fine view of the Santa Cruz valley and the peaks and mountains which surround it on every side. At this point the valley is under a high state of cultivation, and its green fields of grain form an agreeable contrast to the barren plain, and bare and rugged mountain, which meets the eye in every direction.
When we consider the age in which it was built, and the facilities at hand for its construction, the church of San Xavier del Bac must always appear a remarkable structure. As has been well said, " the entire edifice is perfect in the harmony of its proportions, and in every point of view the eye is satisfied." The traveler who first beholds its graceful outlines standing in solitary grandeur on the edge of the desert waste, is astonished to find in this. remote region a building, which would adorn any capital in Christendom. ;
It stands a noble and impressive monument to the zeal, energy and self-sacrificing devotion of the Mission fathers, who were the first to open to civilization and settlement the wild region, now known as Arizona. They were no ordinary men, and were inspired by no ordinary motives, who could rear so imposing a structure as this in the southern wilds fifty years before the immortal Declaration was read from the steps of Independence Hall. And although the bones of its founders have long since mingled with the dust, the fruits of their labors are seen in the happy and prosperous tribe they redeemed from barbarism, and taught the arts of peace and civilized industry.
The ruins of San Jose de Tumacacori is the only other relic of the numerous missions which flourished in Arizona. It stood on a gentle slope within a few hundred feet of the Santa Cruz, near the old presidio of Tubac. This mission was taken by the Apaches in 1820, and all the occupants massacred. The church was smaller and less pretentious in its style of architecture than San Xavier. Its shape was that of a Greek cross, with a basil- ica. The latter is still standing, crowned with the emblem of Christianity. The material used in the construction was adobe, or sun-dried brick, which was plastered with cement and coped with burnt brick. The roof was flat and covered with tiles. The rich valley adjacent was brought under a high state of cultivation, and bloomed in richness and beauty. The remains of crude smelting works, and the slag from the same, go to show that the old Jesuits practiced the mining industry here, long before a pound of bullion was pro- duced in any portion of the vast territory now known as the United States.
Of all the other Mission churches reared by the pious hands of Jesuit and Franciscan, nothing remains but piles of shapeless ruins, the work of the red fiends. But while hardly one stone re- mains upon another and the outlines of the former structures
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can scarcely be traced, the truths which they taught and the germs which they planted have bloomed and blossomed, and are to-day bearing the fruits of a vigorous and progressive civil- ization.
Tumacacori at one time was the richest of all the Arizona missions, but the Apache "came down like a wolf on the fold," and nothing remains of Jesuit enterprise and endeavor save the crumbling ruin of the old church, and the abandoned shafts and tunnels, overgrown with brush and filled with debris, which are frequently met with in the surrounding mountains. The old padres sleep in bloody graves; but so long as piety, zeal, cour- age, energy and self-denial shall command the admiration of men, Arizonans will remember the struggles and triumphs of the early Mission fathers.
PRE-HISTORIC ARIZONA.
The Traces of an Unknown Race-The Ruins of Casa Grande-The Ruins of Pueblo Viejo, and along the Gila-Of Salt River and Tonto Basin- Ruins about Prescott, and along the Verde-Remains of Towns and Irrigating Canals in the Salt River Valley-A Remarkable Cave-The Cosonino Cliff Dwell- ings-Who were the Ancient Race and what has been their Fate ?
HE traveler through Arizona cannot fail to notice the peculiar mounds and the traces of immense acequias, or canals, which he encounters in the large valleys. Along the cliffs, bordering many of the water-courses, he will find ex- cavations in the solid rock, which were evidently at one time the abode of human beings. Fragments of coarse pottery are gen- erally found scattered about near mounds and caves. In dig- ing into these tumili, stone hammers, and axes, rudely fash- ioned carthen jars, often filled with charred corn and beans, and in some instances human skeletons, have been unearthed. - The evidence is indisputable that the valleys of the Gila, the Salt, the Verde, the San Pedro, the Colorado Chiquito, and all the principal water-courses throughout the Territory, werc, at some time in the dim past, filled with a dense population.
The outlines of artificial water-courses, which are found near every stream, and the smooth and perfect configuration of the land-with an almost imperceptible slope toward the river bed --- leaves no doubt that a teeming population once lived and labored here. Not unfrequently the modern husbandman upturns from the soil some rude implement, used by his unknown predecessor, or cuts, with his plough, into some old adobe wall, once the hab- itation of the ancient tiller of the soil, whose bones have long since mouldered to their kindred dust.
In many a valley, now a desolate waste, these mute evidences of thrift and industry are seen on every hand; and vast regions, now given over to the solitude of nature, were, at some remote period, the homes of a race who made them bloom with beauty and smile with industry. There is every reason to believe that where one acre is cultivated in the Territory to-day, twenty were made productive by the people who once occupied the land.
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This may well be called the pre-historic period of Arizona, when the country presented a far different appearance from what it does to-day. It was a period when valley, vale and glen blossomed with the fruits of peaceful industry; when com- fortable homes dotted the plain and mountain side, and when a happy people dwelt in peace and plenty, surrounded by everything which could gratify their simple wants. But the race . which once made these arid plains and deserted valleys to smile with verdure, have passed away, leaving behind no trace of their origin, their history or their extinction. A few crumbling and shapeless ruins is all. that remains to tell the tale of their exist- ence; and the flickering and uncertain gleam of conjecture is all that is left to guide the explorer in discovering the fate that be- fell them. As helping to cast some light on the life of these un- known people, a short description of some of the principal ruins they left behind them, is here appended :
First among these pre-historic relics, both in its extent and state of preservation, is the famous Casa Grande. It is situated in the valley of the Gila, about five miles south of the river, and six miles below the town of Florence. The ruins were first dis- covered by Cabeza de Vaca, in his journey across the continent, of which mention has heretofore been made, and was thoroughly explored by Coronado, when he led his famous expedition northward, two years later. It was then (1540) four stories high, with walls six feet in thickness. Around it were many other ruins, with portions of their walls yet standing, which would go to prove that a city of no inconsiderable dimensions once existed here. As showing its great antiquity, it is mentioned that the Pima Indians, who then, as now, were living in the immediate vicinity, had no knowledge of the origin or history of the struc- ture, or of the people who built it. It had been a ruin as long as tradition existed in the tribe, and when or by whom erected, was as much of a mystery to the Pimas as to their European visitors. Fathers Kino and Mange visited the Casa Grande in 1694, and gave a detailed description of the ruins as they then appeared.
They found the remains of a great edifice, having a large room in the middle, four stories in height, with walls six feet in thickness. They also give an account of twelve other ruins in the vicinity. Father Pedro Font visited the ruins in 1777, and found them much in the condition they were when seen by Kino and Mange. He describes the main building as "an oblong square, facing to the cardinal points of the compass. The exterior wall extends from north to south 420 feet, and from east to west 260 feet. The interior of the house consists of five halls, the three middle ones being of one size, and the ex- treme ones longer. The three middle ones are twenty-six feet in length from north to south, and ten feet in breadth from east to west." This was Casa Grande over 100 years ago, but the
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rains and winds of a century have left their mark on its crumb- ling wall. The building stood upon a slight eminence, and was no doubt the main structure in the city which once existed here. The walls were composed of a concrete, made of mud and gravel, held together by a hard cement. This concrete was made in large blocks, which were put in place and firmly cemented to- gether. The inner surface was coated with this peculiar cement, and is as hard and smooth to-day as when it dried under the hands of the ancient builders.
The dimensions of the ruin still standing are about fifty by thirty feet. Each succeeding year sees a gradual diminishing, and it is only a question of a short period when Casa Grande will be an undistinguishable mass of mud and gravel, like the mounds that surround it. The walls still standing show round holes in which are found pieces of cedar poles which supported the floors. The ends of these poles show that they were cut with some blunt instrument, and as a number of stone axes, bone awls and other implements of the stone age have been excavated from the ruins, it is evident the people who built these re- markable structures had no knowledge of the use of iron. In the immediate vicinity the traces of an immense irrigating canal have been followed to the Gila river, forty miles distant. This canal no doubt brought water to the city, and irrigated the rich valley which surrounds the ruins in every direction.
Casa Grande is one of the most interesting remains of the pre- historic age to be found on the continent. In gazing upon its weather-beaten front, which has so bravely withstood the storms and floods of centuries, the question so often asked, but never answered, instinctively comes to the lips: "Who were the peo- ple that raised so massive a structure? From whence did they come, and what has been their fate?" But, sphynx-like, the mysterious ruin stands amid the solitude of the desert plain, while from its weather-beaten crest voiceless centuries look down upon the curious inquirer.
Along the valley of the Gila, for nearly its entire length in Arizona, ruins of buildings and irrigating canals are met with. Wherever the river forms a valley of any size it was evidently cultivated. On the Upper Gila is a large and rich body of land, known as Pueblo Viejo (Old Town). In this valley extensive mounds, traces of buildings, canals, broken pottery, etc., are met with in every direction, and it is certain that the entire valley- containing between 40,000 and 50,000 acres-was at one time under cultivation. Stone hammers and axes, broken ollas, or earthen jars, are found in nearly all these ruins. On Eagle creek, Bonita and all the principal streams running into the stream, are found the same evidences of an older and cruder civili- zation. On the San Pedro, near its junction with the Gila, are the remains of what must have been a large city. The founda- tions were of stone, laid in a hard, coarse cement, and some of
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CLIFF DWELLINGS.
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the ruins show that the buildings were large and solidly con- structed. In the Tonto Basin, situated between the Mazatzal and Mogollon ranges, and north of Salt river, extensive ruins are found. These are of stone, many of them showing the ma- terial dressed, and laid in cement equal to that in use at the present day. Many cliff dwellings are also found in this region, and the valleys of all the streams running into the Salt show the same style of building.
On Coon creek, at the foot of the Sierra Ancha, in this basin, are many cliff dwellings hewed out of the solid rock. On the south side of Salt river, near the mouth of Tonto creek, are also many caves in the rock, which were evidently the abode of man in ages past. On the Mazatzal range, near the Four Peaks, are found the ruins of many stone dwellings, and the remains of what appear to have been fortifications. The solid walls of the buildings that once stood on this lofty perch can be traced along the range for a distance of nearly fifteen miles.
In one of the caves on the south side of Salt river the bones of a large animal, evidently of the mastodon species, have been found. One massive piece was more than three feet in length, and over eighteen inches through at the thickest part.
In another cave, on removing the debris, pieces of cotton and cotton-cloth have been discovered six feet below the present floor. These relics were in a good state of preservation, the cotton being of a fine silky fibre. One of the pieces of cloth showed a rude attempt at ornamentation, having small eyelets worked by some sharp-pointed instrument. A piece of coarse matting, made doubtless from native grasses, and in a good state of preservation, was also found. Numerous ruins of houses, cliff dwellings, fortifications, etc., are met with along the Verde river and its tributaries, also in the Agua Fria valley, and in nearly every mountain and valley for a distance of more than fifty miles north, cast, south and west from Prescott. Nearly all these remains are of stone, showing that the ancient builders used that material in preference to the adobe or concrete whenever they could get it.
The Verde valley must at one time have contained a very large population. Traces of the carly inhabitants can be found on all sides. Opposite the fort are a number of stone ruins overlooking the river; and two miles below, on an elevated mesa, an ancient burial-ground has been discovered ; and some excavations made therein show that a large number of this ancient race sleep their last sleep within its boundaries. On Beaver creek, which empties into the Verde four miles above the Fort, the cliffs on either side are lined with cave dwellings. They are walled up in front resembling the rocky bluffs out of which they have been excavated, and were no doubt reached by ladders, which at night were drawn up by the occupants. Large cisterns, made of cement, and still in a good state of
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preservation, are found near many of these dwellings. One of the caves is eighty feet across its front, and nearly 100 feet above the base of the cliff. The interior shows a number of rooms cut out of the rock-a coarse kind of felsite. The wall in front is pierced by loopholes, through which a view of the country for some distance around can be obtained.
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