STATISTICAL XII. Intendancy of Sonora. treated Father Garces not to unrol it any more, mor nor speak to them of what would happen after death. These Indians are of a gentle and sincere character. Father Font explained to them by an interpreter the security which prevailed in the Christian missions, where an Indian alcalde administered justice. The chief of Uturicut replied: "This order of things may be necessary for you. We do not steal, and we very seldom disagree; what use have we then for an alcalde among us?" The civilization to be found among the Indians when we approach the north-west coast of America, from the 33° to the 54° of latitude, is a very striking phenomenon, which cannot but throw some light on the history of the first migrations of the Mexican nations. There are reckoned in the province of Sonora one city (ciudad), Arispe; two towns (villas), viz. Sonora and Hostemuri; 46 villages (pueblos), 15 parishes (paroquias), 43 missions, 20 farms (haciendas) and 25 cottages (ranchos) The province of Cinaloa contains five towns (Culiacan, Cinaloa, el Rosario, el Fuerte, and los Alamos), 92 villages, 30 parishes, 14 haciendas, and 450 ranchos. In 1793 the number of tributary Indians in the province of Sonora amounted only to 251, while 步 L} XII. Intendancy of Sonora. STATISTICAL in the province of Cinaloa they amounted to 1851. This last province was more anciently peopled than the former. The most remarkable places of the intendancy of Sonora are: Arispe, the residence of the intendant, to the south and west of the presidios of Bacuachi and Bavispe. Persons who accompanied M. Galves in his expedition to Sonora affirm, that the mission of Ures near Pitic would have answered much better than Arispe for the capital of the intendancy. Population, 7,600. Sonora, south from Arispe, and N. E. from the presidio of Horcasitas. - Population, 6,400. Hostimuri, a small town well peopled, surrounded with considerable mines. Culiacan, celebrated in the Mexican history under the name of Hueicolhuacan. The popu lation is estimated at 10,800. Cinaloa, called also the Villa de San Felipe y Santiago, east from the port of Santa Maria d'Aome. Population, 9,500. El Rosario, near the rich mines of Copala. Population, 5,600. Villa del Fuerte, or Montesclaros, to the north of Cinaloa. Population, 7,900.. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS. XII. Intendancy of Sonora. Los Alamos, between the Rio del Fuerte and the Rio Mayo, the residence of a diputacion de Mineria. Population, 7,900. A 米 SEVERAL geographers confound New Mexico with the Provincias internas; and they speak of it as a country rich in mines, and of vast extent. The celebrated author of the philosophic history of the European establishments in the two Indies has contributed to propagate this error. What he calls the empire of New Mexico is merely a coast inhabited by a few poor colonists. It is a fertile territory, but very thinly inhabited, and destitute, as is universally believed, of metallic wealth, extending along the Rio del Norte, from the 31° to the 38° of north latitude. This province is from south to north 175 leagues in length, and from east to west from 30 to 50 leagues in breadth; and its territorial extent, therefore, is much less than people of no great information in geographical matters are apt to suppose even in that country. The national vanity of the Spaniards loves to magnify the spaces, and to remove, if not in reality, at least in imagination, the limits of the country occupied by them to as great a distance as possible. In the memoirs which I STATISTICAL XIII. Province of Nuevo Mexico. procured on the position of the Mexican mines, the distance from Arispe to the Rosario is estimated at 300, and from Arispe to Copala at 400 marine leagues, without reflecting that the whole intendancy of Sonora is not 280 marine leagues in length. From the same cause, and especially for the sake of conciliating the favour of the court, the conquistadores, the missionary monks, and the first colonists, gave weighty names to small things. We have already described one kingdom, that of Leon, of which the whole population does not equal the number of Franciscan monks in Spain. Sometimes a few collected huts take the pompous title of villa. A cross planted in the forests of Guyana figures on the maps of the missions sent to Madrid and Rome, as a village inhabited by Indians. It is only after living long in the Spanish colonies, and after examining more narrowly these fictions of kingdoms, towns, and villages, that the traveller can form a proper scale for the reduction of objects to their just value. The The Spanish conquerors shortly after the destruction of the Aztec empire set on foot solid establishments in the north of Anahuac. town of Durango was founded under the administration of the second viceroy of New Spain, Velasco el Primero, in 1559. It was then a military post against the incursions of the Chichimee |