The Diary and Itinerary of Francisco Garcés
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130NV-SOV u III. AMERICAN EXPLORERS SERIES. On tbe Urail of a Spanisb pioneer. VOL. II. KOHAT, CHIEF OF THE HAVAbLl'Al Photograph by G. Wharton James, 1897 ON THE TRAIL OF A SPANISH PIONEER THE DIARY AND ITINERARY OF FRANCISCO GARCES (^Missionary Priest) IN HIS TRAVELS THROUGH SONORA, ARIZONA, AND CALIFORNIA 1775-1776 2- / 3 g S TRANSLATED FROM AN OFFICIAL CONTEMPORANEOUS COPY OF THE ORIGINAL SPANISH MANUSCRIPT, AND EDITED, WITH COPIOUS CRITICAL NOTES BY ELLIOTT COUES Editor of Lewis and Clark, of Pike, of Henry and Thompson, Fowlerfournal, Larpenteur, etc., etc. EIGHTEEN MAPS, VIEWS, AND FACSIMILES IN TWO VOLUMES Vol. II NEW YORK FRANCIS P. HARPER 1900 Copyright, 1900, BY FRANCIS P. HARPER. F CONTENTS. CHAPTER VIII. PAGE From Mojave to Moqui, June, 1776, 313 CHAPTER IX. Among the Moquis, July 2-4, 1776 361 CHAPTER X. From Moqui to Mojave, July, 1776, 392 CHAPTER XI. From Mojave down Rio Colorado to Yuma, up Rio Gila, and over to Bag, July 25-September 17, 1776, 415 CHAPTER XII. Reflections on the Diary, 441 Point I. Number of Nations, etc., 443 Point 2. Amities and Enmities, 449 Point 3. Nations Most Ready for Catechism and Vas- salage, etc., 454 VI CONTENTS. PAGE Reflections on the Dairy— Continued. Point 4. Presidios Necessary, 455 Point _$. How to Subdue the Apache, . -457 Point 6. Communication with New Mexico and Mon- terey, 467 Point 7. On the Reports of Silvestre Velez de Esca- lante, etc., 469 Point 8. On the Equipment of Missions, . 493 Postscript by the Scholiast, Miguel Valero Olea, . 502 Appendix. Eusebio Francisco Kino. By Elliott Coues, . 522 Index, 557 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. VOL. II. Frontispiece KOHAT, Chief of the Havasupai, . • . • Facing page ib^ The Hopi Pueblo OF Oraibi, . A Native of Oraibi, " "365 " Old Spanish Church at Acoma, ... •' 367 Church at Lacuna, " " 3^9 The ONate and Letrado Inscriptions Ac- cording TO Simpson, .... •• «• 3^5 *' The True Letrado Inscription of 1632, . " 377 Present Church at ZuJ5i, .... " " 379 .c A MoKi Maiden, .. 384 Autograph of Escalante, Page 391 Map of the Mesa Country Occupied by the Hopi Indians. Facing page 393 CHAPTER VIII. V ' 2- FROM M0;AVE to MOQUI, JUNE, I776. 2. / ' 6 i' June 4. I ascended along the bank of the river and went two leagues northwest, arriving at the place ob- served on m^ coming in 35° 01'/ June 5. I went one league north, and having crossed the river went down it half a league south. In the afternoon I traveled three leagues eastnorth- east.^ ' See back, p. 234, date of Mar. 3, where we found this posi- tion in the immediate vicinity of modern Fort Mojave, but on the other (west) side of the river. June 4 is Garces' 104th day's journey. ' The crossing of the Colorado is to be taken at or near Fort Mojave. Hence Garces starts in Arizona on his tour to the Moquis, as memorable as that he has just made to the Tulares of California, his being the first such journey ever made by a white man. His present objective point is the settlement of the Yavasupai or Suppai Indians, who lived then as they do now in Cataract canon, where I visited them in June, 1881. In this and earlier years I traveled on horseback or by wagon through this whole region in several different directions, and am so familiar with the topography that we shall be able to trail Garces very closely. His route from Fort Mojave to Cataract cafion is closely coincident with that traveled in 1858 by Lieu- 314 SIERRA DE SANTIAGO. June 6. I ascended the sierra that I called Sierra de Santiago to the eastnortheast, having traveled a tenant J. C. Ives, under the guidance of the noble Mojave chief Iriteba. A glance at Ives' beautiful map will show it in outline, and we shall be able to fill in many details. Chapters vii and viii, pp. 93-112, figs. 26-36, of Ives' admirable Report, may be pleasantly and profitably read in this connection; it still remains one of the best descriptions extant of this region. On p. 8 of App. B Ives gives a tabular itinerary, with distances, etc., of his camps 60-73; some of these are identical with those of Garces. Another notable itinerary to be considered in this connection is the Report of E. F. Beale, 35th Congr., ist Sess., Ho. Rep. Ex. Doc. No. 124, half-titled " Wagon Road from Fort Defiance to the Colorado River," etc., 8vo, Washington, 1858, pp. 87, map. "Beak's route" is traditional in Arizona; everybody has heard of it, but few know anything accurately " about it, and Beale's springs " (for which see beyond) is now its most pointed reminder. Mr. Beale came through in Sept. and Oct., 1857, with a motley outfit which included Greeks, Turks, and camels, besides the men and animals more familiarly American, passing on and near the 35th parallel, approximately along the earlier lines of march of Sitgreaves and Whipple; he passed on to Fort Tejon in California, and came back through Arizona in Jan. and Feb., 1858. His report is that of an en- thusiastic and energetic explorer, who believed in camels and was confident he had found the best route for a railroad across northern Arizona; his narrative is a lively one, but loose in the joints, and with the serious defect that text and map do not always agree with each other; it exhibits a profusion of original place-names, very few of which have ever come into use, and on the whole is entirely overshadowed by the better wo'-k of Sitgreaves, Whipple, and Ives. All the same, the present rail- road does run nearer Beale's route than any single one of the other explorers' routes; and Beale almost retraced Garces' trail AGUAGE DE SAN PACIFICO. 315 league and a half to finish it; and with yet another league and a half did I arrive at the watering-place that I named (Aguage) de San Pacifico. In the afternoon I went two leagues to the southsoutheast, and one other eastward.^ Plenty of grass. from Mojave as far as Truxton's springs (which see, beyond). So we can confidently follow Garces into this desert, where all travel before the railroad came through was necessarily directed from one aguage to another, and the traveler who failed to find them was liable to perish of thirst. ° The Sierra de Santiago or St. James range of Garces is that immediately bordering the Colorado on the east, separating the great river valley from the Sacramento valley which intervenes between this range and the Cerbat range. In my time (1865) the Sierra de Santiago was called the Sacramento range, from the name of the Sacramento valley of which it forms most of the western boundary. But the earliest name I know of is the Black range, of Ives' Report and map, given because the range to the northward is traversed by Black caiion, through which the Colorado flows; and Black mountains is also the name on the latest U. S. Geological Survey maps, though the Land Ofifice maps call this range the Blue Ridge mountains. The main road over the range goes through Union pass, which I have traversed five times. It is perfectly easy for light wagons, and not very difficult for freight trains. Going across the Sacra- mento valley from Beale's springs (vicinity of Kingman, on the railroad) the road is due west to Union pass, on the summit of which the Mojave valley of the Colorado spreads before the view in a beautiful prospect; the descent is rapid to the river at Hardy, or Hardyville, consisting of a house or two in the river bottom; whence it is five or six miles down river to old Fort Mojave. Union pass has been the scene of at least one Indian ambuscade and attack upon passing whites; and I have 3l6 OTHERWISE MEADOW CREEK. June 7. I traveled four leagues east, and arrived painful recollections of the atrocious cruelties inflicted upon the cattle of a wagon train I met near the summit. This pass is not the one Garces made. Striking easterly from Mojave he followed an Indian trail now disused, or so little known that no name is to be found on the modern maps. But it is notable as the one by which Beale's expedition crossed the range on Oct. 15-16, 1857; it is also the one taken Mar. 25, 1858, by Ives, who calls it Sitgreaves' pass. Why Ives should have done this I do not know; certainly Sitgreaves did not use it: see his map, trail from camp No. 31 to No. 32, showing that Sitgreaves crossed the range by Union pass, Nov. 5, 1851, as correctly delineated on Beale's map. The Aguage de San Pacifico of Garces is present Meadow creek, so named by Ives in his Report and on his map. This streamlet has its source in springs on the eastern slope, and flows a short distance toward the Sacra- mento valley. It is illustrated by fig. 26 on p. 93 of Ives' Re- port, where we read: "The grazing at the camp in Sitgreaves' Pass was poor, and the mules were ill prepared for the rough road before them. A few miles brought us to the base of a steep and difficult ascent that led to the summit of the Black mountains. The path was narrow and devious, and attended with hazard to the weak and heavily-loaded beasts. All of the party had to clamber up on foot, leading their riding animals.