The Romance of the Colorado River : $b The Story of its Discovery in 1840, with an Account of the Later Explorations, and with Special Reference to the Voyages of Powell through the Line of the Great CanyonsDellenbaugh, Frederick Samuel
History
The Romance of the Colorado River : $b The Story of its Discovery in 1840, with an Account of the Later Explorations, and with Special Reference to the Voyages of Powell through the Line of the Great Canyons
Dellenbaugh, Frederick Samuel
Colorado River (Colo.-Mexico) -- Description and travel; Colorado River (Colo.-Mexico) -- Discovery and exploration; Colorado River Valley (Colo.-Mexico) -- Description and travel; Colorado River Valley (Colo.-Mexico) -- Discovery and exploration; Grand Canyon (Ariz.) -- Description and travel; Gran
Here Kino had begun a church
in 1699, and at a later period another better one was started near by.
This was finished in 1797 and to-day stands the finest monument in the
South-west of the epoch of the padres. It is a really beautiful
specimen of the Mexico-Spanish church architecture of that time. No
better testimony could there be of the indefatigable spiritual energy
of the padres than this artistic structure standing now amidst a few
adobe houses, and once completely abandoned to the elements. Such a
building should never be permitted to perish, and it well merits
government protection. Its striking contrast to Casa Grande, the
massive relic of an unknown time, standing but a few leagues distant,
will always render this region of exceptional interest to the artist,
the archaeologist, and the general traveller.
Church of San Xavier del Bac, near Tucson. Church of San Xavier del
Bac, near Tucson.
Drawing by F.S. DELLENBAUGH, after a photograph.
From Bac, under the protection of the presidio of Tubac, some thirty
miles farther south, later transferred (1776) to the present Tucson,
Garces carried on his work. He made five great entradas from the time
of his arrival in June, 1768. The first was in that same year, the
second in 1770, but in these he did not reach the Colorado, and we will
pass them by. In the third, 1771, he went down the Gila to the Colorado
and descended the latter stream along its banks perhaps to the mouth.
On the fourth, 1774, he went with Captain Anza to the Colorado and
farther on to the mission of San Gabriel in California, near Los
Angeles, and in his fifth, and most important one, 1775-76, he again
accompanied Captain Anza, who was bound for the present site of San
Francisco, there to establish a mission. Padre Font was Anza’s
chaplain, and with Garces’s aid later made a map of the country.[4] At
Yuma Garces left the Anza party, went down to the mouth of the
Colorado, and then up along the river to Mohave, and after another trip
out to San Gabriel, he started on the most important part of all his
journeys, from Mohave to the Moki Towns, the objective point of all
entradas eastward from the Colorado. The importance attached at that
time to the towns of the Moki probably seems absurd to the reader, but
it must not be forgotten that the Moki were cultivators of the soil and
always held a store of food-stuffs in reserve. They were also builders
of very comfortable houses, as I can testify from personal experience.
Thus they assumed a prominence, amidst the desolation of the early
centuries, of which the railway in the nineteenth speedily robbed them.
[4] Font says of Garces: “He seems just like an Indian himself... and
though the food of the Indians is as nasty and disgusting as their
dirty selves the padre eats it with great gusto.” Dr. Coues had
planned to publish a translation of Font’s important diary. See
_Garces_, by Elliot Coues, p. 172, Font meant his remark as praise.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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