| OCR Text |
Show BY PATH AND TRAIL. 177 del Comedio, and on the 15th reached the coast, first of white men from Pimeria Alta from the west to look out upon the waters of the great gulf. At Turbutana, Mange left the priest for a time, and went up the Col orado river to a rancheria named Cups, so called from a smoking, rocky cave in the neighborhood. Eeturning he joined Kino at Caborca, bringing news of famous ruins said to exist on the banks of a river entering into the Colorado, or Eiver of the Immaculate Conception, as Kino christened it. This was the first intimation the Spaniards had of these remarkable buildings. The party now returned to the mission of Our Lady of Sorrows, Sonora. While here, some Indians, Pimas from San Xavier, on the Santa Cruz, Arizona, came on a visit to the priest, who questioned them on the existence of the pre- historic ruins near the Gila river. They informed him that these wonderful ruins were standing on the desert, but of their origin they knew nothing. In October, 1694, Kino, accompanied and settled Fran cis Xavier Saeta as missionary at Caborca, where he was murdered by the Yumas, April 2, 1695. Leaving Saeta at this mission, Father Kino now set out alone on an expedition to the Casas Grandes. He reached the Gila, camped for the night, and on the morning of November 30, entered the region of the ruins, and in the largest of the three buildings offered up the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Mange, on page 25 of his published report, in Spanish, gives the whole history, and bestows great praise on Kino. The priest was the first white man who saw and ac curately described these now famous pre- Columbian ruins. This wonderful priest tramped the valley of the Santa Cruz to the Gila. Passing down the Gila to its |
