STATISTICAL } XII. Intendancy of Sonora. The same kind of construction is still to be found in all the villages of the independent Indians of the Moqui west from New Mexico. We perceive in the Casa grande five apartments, of which each is 8,3 in length, 3m,3 in breadth, and 3,5 in height*. A wall, interrupted by large towers, surrounds the principal edifice, and appears to have served to defend it. Father Garces discovered the vestiges of an artificial canal, which brought the water of the Rio Gila to the town. The whole surrounding plain is covered with broken earthen pitchers and pots, prettily painted in white, red, and blue. We also find amidst these fragments of Mexican stone-ware pieces of obsidian (itztli); a very curious phenomenon, because it proves that the Aztecs passed through some unknown northern country which contains this volcanic substance, and that it was not the abundance of obsidian in New Spain which suggested the idea of razors and arms of itztli. We must not, however, confound the ruins of this city of the Gila,' the centre of an ancient civilization of the Americans, with the Casas grandes of New Biscay, situated between the presidio of Yanos and that of San Buenaventura. The latter *27.18 feet, 10.82 feet, and 11.48 feet. Trans. STATISTICAL XII. Intendancy of Sonora. ANALYSIS. are pointed out by the indigenous, on the very vague supposition that the Aztec nation in their migration from Aztlan to Tula and the valley of Tenochtitlan made three stations; the first near the lake Teguyo (to the south of the fabulous city of Quivira, the Mexican Dorado!) the second at the Rio Gila, and the third in the environs of Yanos. The Indians who live in the plains adjoining the Casas grandes of the Rio Gila, and who have never had the smallest communication with the inhabitants of Sonora, deserve by no means the appellation of Indios bravos. Their social civilization forms a singular contrast with the state of the savages who wander along the banks of the Missoury and other parts of Canada. Fathers Garces and Font found the Indians to the south of the Rio Gila clothed and assembled together, to the number of two or three thousand, in villages which they call Uturicut and Sutaquisan, where they peaceably cultivate the soil. They saw fields sown with maize, cotton, and gourds. The missionaries, in order to bring about the conversion of these Indians, showed them a picture painted on a large piece of cotton cloth, in which a sinner was represented burning in the flames of hell. The picture terrified them; and they en STATISTICAL XII. Intendancy of Sonora. treated Father Garces not to unroll it any more, 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 VOL. II. STATISTICAL XII. Intendancy of Sonora. ANALYSIS. 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. Galvez 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 M of Cinaloa. Populat |