may have visited the rancherias of the Santa Cruz valley, but there is no proof of such trips into Arizona. All communication gradually ceased; the Gila tribes forgot what Fr. Kino had taught them, and even the nearer Pimas and Sobaipuris lost much of their zeal for mission life. Only two or three Jesuits are known to have worked in the field of the Pimeria Alta near the Arizona line before 1730. "In 1731 there came a small re-enforcement of Jesuits; two of them were sent to the north and effected what may be regarded as the first Spanish settlement in southern Arizona. Fr. Felipe Segesser took charge of San Xavier del Bac, Fr. Juan Baptista Grasshoffer of San Miguel de Guevavi, which from this time may be regarded as regular missions, the other rancherias becoming visitas or missionary stations. It is probable that during the rest of the Jesuit period, the two missions were but rarely without priests. Fr. Grasshoffer died; Fr. Caspar Steiger was at Bac in 1773-1736; and in 1750 the missionaries were Fr. Jose Carucho at Guevavi, and Fr. Francisco Paver at San Xavier del Bac. In 1736-1737, Fr. Ignacio Keller of Suamca, in Sonora, made two trips to the Gila and visited the Casa Grande. He found that many of the rancherias of Kino's time had been broken up. "In 1743, Fr. Jacob Sedelmair of Tubutama reached the Gila and in the following year attempted to visit the Moquis in the north, but owing to the unwillingness of the Indians to guide him, he did not get beyond Bill Williams' Fork. "In 1750 occurred the second revolt of the Pima tribes, in which two missionaries at Caborca and Sonoita, were killed, as were about 100 Spaniards. Bac and Guevavi were plundered and abandoned, but the two Jesuits escaped to Suamca. Peace was restored in 1752 and the missions reoccupied in 1754. "During the remaining years of the Jesuit period, 1754-1767, the missions of the Pimeria Alta barely maintained a precarious existence. 'A few neophytes were induced to remain faithful, but the natives lived for the most part as they pleased, not openly rebellious, nor disposed to molest the padres, so long as the latter attempted no control of their actions, and were willing to take their part in quarrels with settlers or soldiers. Missionary work was at a standstill.' Exactly how long the missions had been abandoned after the revolt of 1750 is not known, but in 1763 Fr. Alonzo Espinosa was in charge of Bac, as he was still at the time of the Jesuit expulsion in 1767. At Guevavi the missionaries were Fr. Ignacio Pfefferkorn in 1763, Fr. Jimeno in 1764, and Fr. Pedro Rafael Diaz in 1767. The rancheria of Tucson was a visita of Bac in these years, and a few Spanish settlers seem to have lived there; but in 1763 it was, like the mission, abandoned by all except a few sick and infirm Indians. There were also nearly 200 Spanish settlers at Guevavi, Santa Barbara, and Buenavista. The missionary stations at Tumacacori and Calabazas were composed of Pima and Papago neophytes; but the latter had run away in 1763. Respecting the expulsion of the devoted Jesuit Fathers by the Free Mason gov ernment of Spain in 1767 nothing is known, except the names of the three Fathers Espinosa, Dias and Barera, the latter at Suamca. The whole number of neophytes in 1764-1767, seems to have been about 1,250. "From the Spanish names on early maps, the conclusion has been drawn that, up to the Gila Valley, Arizona was covered with prosperous Spanish missions and settlements which had to be abandoned later in consequence of Apache raids; but the truth is, there was no Spanish occupation beyond a narrow region of the Santa Cruz valley, and even there were only the two missions Bac and Guevavi, with a few rancherias de visita under resident missionaries from 1732, or possibly 1720, and protected in their precarious existence by the Tubac presidio from 1752. The Spanish names of saints were simply those applied by Kino and his associates to the rancherias visited on their exploring tours, whose inhabitants, in some instances, were induced to make preparations for the reception of the missionaries promised, but who never came. It has also been the fashion to regard Tucson as a more or less prosperous town from a very early time. Some writers even date its foundation in the sixteenth century, though, as a matter of fact, it is not heard of as an Indian rancheria till the middle of the eighteenth century, and was not properly a Spanish settlement till the presidio was moved there in later years. "After the Masonic government of Spain in 1767 had expelled the devoted Jesuits, all the mission property, since it was regarded as belonging to the missionaries and not to the Indians, was confiscated, and its care temporarily intrusted to royal comisionados. The result was that in 1793 the viceroy wrote: "There is no reason to doubt that they either wasted or embezzled the rich temporalities of all or most of the missions, and that these funds were lost, and decadence or ruin could not be prevented.'"' CHAPTER VI. EARLY SPANISH MISSIONS AND MISSIONARIES (CONTINUED) AND MILITARY ANNALS. TUBAC-TUCSON-REVOLT OF PIMAS-EXPUL SION OF JESUITS-RELAPSE OF INDIANS- No successive narrative of early Arizona annals is extant. The data we have, which has been collected by Bancroft and others, is incomplete, but enough is known to justify the assertion that the Gila Valley of Arizona was not covered with prosperous Spanish missions and settlements that were abandoned on account of Apache raids. Under the Jesuit rule, only two missions, those of Bac and Guevavi, were established. The rest were rancherias de visita, which received a precarious protection by Tubac |