banks of the Rio Gila, by a region inhabited by independent Indians of whom neither the soldiers stationed in the presidios, nor the monks posted in the neighbouring missions, have been hitherto able to effect the conquest. On the west, this intendancy has more than 280 leagues of coast extending along the Sea of Cortes, usually called the Gulf of California. On the south, Sinaloa is bounded by Guadalaxara and the ocean. Its breadth varies from 50 leagues (its greatest breadth below the 27th parallel) to upwards of 128 leagues. Its extent in square leagues is computed to be rather more than 19,000; and the population in 1803, was 121,400, or six inhabitants only to the square league.

The province of Sinaloa was the first peopled. Major Pike estimates its population at 60,000,"not more than three-twentieths of whom are Spaniards; the remainder, Creoles, Mestizoes, and Indians." In 1793, the number of tributary Indians in this province was 1,851. The country presents much the same aspect as that of New Biscay,-bare, destitute of timber, and hilly; the air dry, pure, and salubrious, except along the coast, where the ground is marshy, the soil rich, and the atmosphere humid. It contains 5 towns, 92 villages, 30 parishes, 14 haciendas, and 450 ranchos. Sinaloa, the head town, called also the Villa de San Felipe y Santiago, is situated to the east of the port of Santa Maria d'Aome: its population is estimated at 9,500. Culiacan ("celebrated in the history of Mexico under the name of Hueicolhuacan") contains a population of 10,800. El Rosario, near the rich mines of Copala, has 5,600; Villa del Fuerte, or Montesclaros, to the north of Sinaloa, 7,900.

Los Alamos, between the Rio del Fuerte and the Rio Mayo, the residence of a deputation of mines, is in the district of Ostimury, or Hostimuri. It con

tains about 8,000 inhabitants. Ostimury itself is a small but populous town, surrounded with considerable mines.* From the port of Guitivis at the mouth of the Rio Mayo, the public courier or post from Mexico embarks in a lancha for Loreto in Old California, whence letters are sent from mission to mission as far as Monterey and the port of San Francisco, in New California, under the parallel of 37° 48′.

The chief places in Sonora Proper, are, Arispe, the capital of the intendancy, situated near the head of the river Yaqui, in lat 31° N., long 111° W., the population 7,600; Sonora, S. of Arispe, population 6,400; and Terrenate, or Ternate, a presidio to the N. of the capital. Arispe, Major Pike, says, "is celebrated throughout the kingdom for the vast quantity of gold table utensils made use of in the houses, and for the urbanity and hospitality of the inhabitants.' "" He makes the population amount only to 3,400, or less than half Humboldt's estimate, but whether on the authority of a more recent census or

not, does not appear. Little is known with any degree of certainty or precision of these remote regions. Even the mines are too distant to attract or to repay attention. Yet, the proportion of gold which they yield, is so considerable, that gold does not preserve its usual exchange with silver in this province. General Salcedo told Capt Pike, that the largest piece of pure gold ever discovered in New Spain; was found in this province, and it had been sent to Madrid to be put in

* We have followed Humboldt, in the absence of better information; but in his map, the town or real of Hostimuri is placed on the north side of the river Mayo, between which and the river Fuerte he describes the province of Ostimury as lying. After stating, moreover, that the intendancy comprises the three provinces of Cinaloa, Ostimury, and Sonora Proper, he takes no further notice of the second of these divisions, but subsequently divides the intendancy into the two provinces of Sonora and Cinaloa.

his majesty's cabinet of curiosities.* Sonora trades with New Mexico, Durango, and the southern provinces, either by land, or through the Californian Gulf. It is celebrated for cheese, horses, and sheep. Like New Biscay, the province is destitute of timber, but has some rich soil near the sea. It abounds with deer, cabrie, bears, and “remarkably large Guana lizards, which are said to weigh ten pounds, are perfectly harmless, and are trained by the inhabitants to catch mice." †

The most northern part of this intendancy bears the name of Pimeria, on account of a numerous tribe of Pimas Indians who inhabit it. These Indians live for the most part under the domination of the missionary monks, and observe the Romish ritual. This district is divided into the Pimeria alta and the Pimeria baxa; the latter containing the presidio of Buenavista, and the former extending from the presidio of Ternate to the Rio Gila. Here the traveller has

reached the confines of civilised society. "Hitherto," says Humboldt, "there has been no permanent communication established between Sonora, New Mexico, and New 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. Two courageous and enterprising monks, Fathers Garces and Font, succeeded, however, in penetrating by land through the countries inhabited by independent Indians, from the missions of the Pimeria alta, to Monterey and the port of St Fran

* All the ravines and even plains of the hilly country of the Primeria alta, Humboldt states, contain gold scattered up and down the alluvial land. Masses of pure gold, of the weight of from 5 to 8 lb. troy, have been found there. But these goldwashings are by no means diligently sought after, on account of the frequent incursions of the Indians, and especially on account of the high price of provisions, which must be brought from a great distance in this uncultivated country.

† Pike, p. 358.

cisco, without crossing the peninsula of Old California. This bold enterprise, 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 Font, who was entrusted with the observations of the latitude, set out from the presidio of Horcasitas on the 20th April, 1773. After a journey 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 more than a square league. The Casa grande is exactly laid down according to the four cardinal points, having from north to south 445 feet in length, and from east to west 276 feet in breadth. It is constructed of clay (or unburnt bricks) of unequal size, but symmetrically placed. The walls are nearly four feet thick. The edifice had three stories and a terrace; the stair, probably of wood, was on the outside. The same kind of construction is still to be found in all the villages of the independent Indians of the Moqui, west of New Mexico. We perceive in the Casa grande five apartments, each of which is about 27 feet in length, 10 in breadth, and 11 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. whole surrounding plain is covered with broken earthen pitchers and pots, prettily painted in white, red, and blue. We also find among these fragments of Mexican earthen ware, pieces of obsidian (itzli); a very curious phenomenon, because it proves that the

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, that suggested the idea of razors and instruments of itzli. We must not, however, confound the ruins of this city of the Gila, the centre of an ancient civilisation, with the casas grandes of New Biscay, situated between the presidio of Yanos and that of San BuenaThe latter are pointed out by the natives, 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.

ventura.

"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 (savages). Their social civilisation forms a singular contrast with the state of the savages who wander along the banks of the Missouri. 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 called Uturicut and Sutaquisan, where they peaceably cultivated the soil. They saw fields sown with maize, cotton, and gourds. The missionaries, in order to bring about the conversion of these Indians, shewed 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 entreated 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