STATISTICAL XII. Intendancy of Sonora.

of several provinces, which have preserved the particular names which they had before the union. The intendancy of Sonora, consequently, comprehends the three provinces of Cinaloa, or Sinaloa, Ostimury and Sonora Proper. The first extends from the Rio del Rosario to the Rio del Fuerte; the second from the Rio del Fuerte to the Rio del Mayo; and the province of Sonora, called also in old maps by the name of New Navarre, includes all the northern extremity of this intendancy. The small district of Cinaloa is now looked on as part of the province of Cinaloa. The intendancy of Sonora is bounded on the west by the sea; on the south by the intendancy of Guadalaxara; and on the east by a very uncultivated part of New Biscay. Its northern limits are very uncertain. The villages de la Pimeria alta are separated from the banks of the Rio Gila by a region inhabited by independent Indians, of which neither the soldiers stationed in the presidios, nor the monks posted in the neighbour. ing missions, have been hitherto able to make the conquest*.

*To go a la conquista, to conquer (conquistar), are the technical terms used by the missionaries in America to signify that they have planted crosses, around which the Indians have constructed a few huts; but, unfortunately for the Indians, the words conquer and civilize are by no means synonymous.

STATISTICALXII. Intendancy of Sonora.

ANALYSIS.

The three most considerable rivers of Sonora are Culiacan, Mayo, and Yaqui, or Sonora. From the port of Guitivis, at the mouth of the Rio Mayo, called also Santa Cruz de Mayo, the courier embarks for California, charged with the dispatches of the government and the public correspondence. This courier goes on horseback from Guatimala to the city of Mexico, and from thence by Guadalaxara and the Rosario to Guitivis. After crossing in a lancha the sea of Cortez, he disembarks at the village of Loreto in Old California. From this village letters are sent from mission to mission to Monterey and the port of San Francisco, situated in New California under 37° 48′ of north latitude. They thus traverse a route of posts of more than 920 leagues, that is to say, a distance equal to that from Lisbon to Cherson. The river of Yaqui, or Sonora, has a course of considerable length. It takes its rise in the western declivity of the Sierra madre, of which the crest, by no means very elevated, passes between Arispe and the Presidio de Fronteras. The small port of Guaymas is situated near its mouth.

The most northern part of the intendancy of Sonora bears the name of Pimeria, on account of a numerous tribe of Pimas Indians, who inhabit it. These Indians, for the most part, live under the domination of the missionary monks, and follow

STATISTICAL} XII. Intendancy of Sonora.

the catholic ritual. The Pimeria alta is distinguished from the Pimeria bara. The latter contains the Presidio de Buenavista. The former extends from the military post (presidio) of Ternate to the Rio Gila. This hilly country of the Pimeria alta is the Choco of North America. All the ravins and even plains contain gold scattered up and down the alluvious land. Pepitas of pure gold of the weight of from two to three kilogrammes have been found there. But these lavaderos are by no means diligently sought after, on account of the frequent incursions of the independent Indians, and especially on account of the high price of provisions, which must be brought from a great distance in this uncultivated country. Farther north, on the right bank of the Rio de la Ascencion, live a very warlike race of Indians, the Seris, to whom several Mexican savans attribute an Asiatic origin, on account of the analogy between their name and that of the Seri, placed by ancient geographers at the foot of the mountains of Ottorocorras to the east of Scythia extra Imaum.

There has been hitherto no permanent communication between Sonora, New Mexico, and New

* From 5lb. 2oz. 2dr. 2scr. 8gr.Troy. Trans.

To 8 0 4 0 12

STATISTICAL

ANALYSIS. S
} XII. Intendancy of Sonora.

California, although the court of Madrid has frequently given orders for the formation of presidios and missions between the Rio Gila and the Rio Colorado. The extravagant military expedition of Don Joseph Galvez did not serve to establish in a permanent manner the northern limits of the intendancy of Sonora. Two courageous and enterprising monks, fathers Garces and Font, were able, however, to go by land through the countries inhabited by independent Indians from the missions of la Pimeria alta to Monterey, and even to the port of San Francisco, without crossing the peninsula of Old California. This bold enterprize, on which the college of the propaganda at Queretaro published an interesting notice, has also furnished new information relative to the ruins of la Casa grande, considered by the Mexican historians* as the abode of the Aztecs on their arrival at the Rio Gila towards the end of the twelfth century.

Father Francisco Garces, accompanied by Father Fontt, who was entrusted with the observa

* Clavigero, i. p. 159.

+ Chronica Serafica de el Colegio de Propaganda fede de Queretaro, por Fray Domingo Arricivitor, Mexico, 1792, tom. ii. p. 396,426, and 462. This Chronica, which forms a large folio volume of 600 pages, is well deserving of an extract being made from it. It contains very accurate geographical notions

STATISTICAL} XII. Intendancy of Sonora.

tions of latitude, set out from the Presidio d'Hor casitas on the 20th April, 1773. After a jour ney of eleven days they arrived at a vast and beautiful plain one league's distance from the southern bank of the Rio Gila. They there discovered the ruins of an ancient Aztec city, in the midst of which is the edifice called la Casa grande. These ruins occupy a space of ground of more than a square league. The Casa grande is exactly laid down according to the four cardinal points, having from north to south 136 metres in length, and from east to west 84 metrest in breadth. It is constructed of clay (tapia). The pisés ‡ are of an unequal size, but symmetrically placed. The walls are 12 decimetres in thickness. We perceive that this edifice had three stories and a terrace. The stair was on the outside, and probably of wood.

as to the Indian tribes inhabiting California, Sonora, the Moqui, Nabajoa, and the banks of the Rio Gila. I could not learn what sort of astronomical instrument Father Font made use of in his excursions to the Rio Colorado between 1771 and 1776. I am afraid lest it should have been a solar ring. * 445 feet. Trans. † 276 feet. Trans.

Pisé has no equivalent, it is believed, in our language. It signifies the case in which the clay is rammed down in the construction of a clay wall. This mode of building has been adopted on the Duke of Bedford's estate. Trans.

§ 3 feet 11 inches. Trans.