On the trail of a Spanish pioneer; the diary and itinerary of Francisco Garces (missionary priest) in his travels through Sonora, Arizona, and California, 1775-1776; translated from an official contemporaneous copy of the original Spanish manscript, and ed., with copious critical notes

On the trail of a Spanish pioneer; the diary and itinerary of Francisco Garcés (missionary priest) in his travels through Sonora, Arizona, and California, 1775-1776; translated from an official contemporaneous copy of the original Spanish manscript, and e - Page 227

512 <| EN CUYA RELACION? gamuza y mantas de algodon.' Mi pensamiento se funda en que viniendo este rio del nordeste, corresponde, segun mi dieron noticia, - las diez jornadas cabales hasta el rio Colorado, que fu6 el grande que detuvo al padre y donde le dieron la noticia. Fundome tambien en la circunstancia de los vestidos, pues a mas de las naciones que he visto con gamuzas y mantas, me dijeron los jamajabs, que todas las del norte andan vestidas. Las casas y pueblos amurallados se hacen creibles en vista del Moqui en donde las casas tienen dos y tres altos, y por la parte de mi entrada, sin puertas ni ventana alguna, mas que casas parecian murallas; tengo, pues, por verosimiles las noticias de la relacion citada." But whose relation is it that Garces thus cites, comments upon, and credits? That is the question we cannot answer. Bandelier, calling special attention to the fact that Garces uses quotation marks, and has therefore some original relation be­fore him, goes on to conclude: " It cannot have been the Relacion of Fray Marcos which we have, for that document con­tains nothing of the kind. It must therefore be either the other report of that friar mentioned by him as having been written, or else a report of Fray Juan de la Asuncion, or one written by Father Marcos in the former's name and behalf. I regard the testimony of Father Garces as almost conclusive on this point." I agree with Bandelier that Garces' testimony is conclusive to the fact that there was someone's Relacion to be cited; but unluckily, the construction of the sentence in which the words " en cuya relacion" occur leaves it entirely am­biguous. Again, what river did Juan de la Asumpcion reach, so large that it impeded his passage, and what was the still larger river ten days further on, inhabited by numerous people clothed in cotton and living in walled pueblos? I see no possibility of settling the case satisfactorily. If we suppose the friar to have reached the Gila, at a time when it ran water enough to im­pede his passage, a still larger river to the north would be