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Show 172 BY PATH AND TRAIL. Christian religion, and when about to leave, marked on his chart the Pima valley and gave to it the name of San Francisco Xavier del Bac, perverted by local usage into " San Xavier del Bac." This intrepid missionary traveled through Lower California, Sonora and Arizona, instructing the desert Indians and baptizing, according to Clavigero, 30,000 infants and adults. From 1691 to 1702 he visited all the tribes of these regions, solving many interesting problems of ethnology, erecting mis sions and collecting vast treasures of information about the land and its wonderful people, the Yumas, Apaches, Opates, Pimas and Zunis. He reached the Gila in 1694, and said mass in the ancient ruin, the " Casa Grande," which is yet standing, in splendid isolation, amid a waste of burning sand. In 1700 he built the first church, and, according to his biographer, Ortega, " He used a light, porous stone, very suitable for building." The church records are extant from 1720- 67, and show that during these years twenty- two Jesuit fathers suc cessively administered Bac and neighboring missions. In 1768 the Franciscan fathers succeeded the Jesuits. In that year Father Garces assumed charge of this Pima mission. This extraordinary and saintly priest was one of the great men of these early days. In his quest for perishing souls he visited all the tribes of Ari zona, crossing deserts, scaling mountains and enduring famine, thirst and insult. He mapped, charted and named mountains, rivers and Indian settlements. He took latitudes and longitudes, and was the first white man to have reached the Grand Canyon from the west and give it a specific name. His diary or the itinerary of his travels was translated into English last year by that eccentric, but honest, bigot, Elliott Coues. With Mr. |