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Show 1W1 to 1..W he visited, all the tribes of these regions, re-gions, sou-mg many interesting problems of ethnology ethnol-ogy erecting missions and collecting va-t treasures of inlonr.at.on linout tl0 .JKj ,m(1 is womler-.,i um,. He reached the Gila in 1,iti and said mass in t he ancient rum the (., Cran-l,." v,hk.h scime. i a former letter. In 17"ii he built the first church and. according to hi, biographer, Or- ft vJn- 8 101'",H very suitable tor Imilding. The church records are .Ma;- from 172n-t;7. and show that during thoe year- twer.tv-two Jesuit amors .-uocess.vely adinini.-iered Pae and nei-h- i honng nn-Mons. ,n J7HS ,,,, Vnmc,oan lathers i succeeded the Jesuits. In that year Father Ga.ves assumed charge of ihis Pima mission. This extraordinary extra-ordinary and saintly prion was one of the -reat men of these early days. In his quest for peri-him-souls he vts.ted all the tribes of Arizona, crossii 7. icserts. scaling mountains and enduring famine.! j thirst and insult. He mopped, charted and named j . mountains rivers and Indian settlements. He took ; latitudes and longitudes and was (he Hr.-t white man j to have reached ihe Grand Canyon from the we-r j and give it a sj.eeitic name. !ii diarv on the itin- niry of Ins travels was translate,! into Kugli.-h hut i year by that eccentric but hone- bigot, Fliior I Coues. With Mr. Cones' hi-tori,-. topographic and ; jinvauiame notes the diary of the pries!, in two volume-, is a splendid addition to the ellino-rapine literature of the southwest. On the Ijith of July. 171. th,- rcat pri-.-t wa- murdered U ihe mission of the 1 inm.-eate Con.-ep-t ion now luma in an Indian uprising against ,!t!io Spaniards. The corner-.-'.. pe of ih-? present j beaut iful church of the Pae mis-ho W;ls !,v j the Franciscan fathers in 17; and ih- .late. "17fi7," J jstiinegible over the door rc-ord,. ,oubf, its coin- j jpletion. Pishop Salpoinie Vl hort lime before hi-' j consecration published a "Uriel Sketch of the- Mis-i siou of San Xavier del Ihio," an intrre-tinp pamph- ; let buljaeking in .mplotene-s. The historian, lb r-bert r-bert Paneroff. calls the church a "nnigniriee structure." and devotes three pages ,,f his lli.-to;-s i of Arizona t0 this mission. In is's. soon aft.-r Mexico broke away from her allegiance to the mother country and declared herself an independent independ-ent republic, chaos reigned 'and tin: fathers were compelled by the force of circumstance.- to abandon their missions hi Arizona. The Pima and Papago converts assembled in the church every Sunday and feast day. and for years, in fact until' the return of J a priest appointed by th- Uishop of Durango. said' the heads, sang their accustomed hymns and made' the stations of the cross. The historic building shows sadly the wear and tear of lime and threatened threat-ened to become a melancholy ruin in a few more years. The Bishop of Tuscon. aided by the chamber of commerce and some enterprising citizen-, has entered en-tered upon the scene and when the workmen and decorators now engaged on the contract of rehabilitation rehabi-litation shall have completed their work, the ohui-. ii of the Papagoes will once again be ihe boast and pride of the Indians of Southern Arizona. Wb. -n I began this correspondence to The Intennountain Catholic I had inteuded to do.-eribe the sacred building build-ing in detail, but I find that the limitations of space confine nn- within reasonable boundaries. A groat deal of nonsense, garnished with unpardonable errors er-rors Af dates and nanus, has been written in the I cas2! magazines and newspaper- of this church aiK tB'nr" 51 "'-1 '"deed of Tuscon itself. The lat-';jat lat-';jat j claim, made by a Dr. Alexander Craig, In "ing'ij'i A'igeles Times, on behalf of the antiquity late"(i()T'bv t" white settlement of Tuscon over St. i other.' VJP' F'11-; ilI!' f;in.,i' 1' r- 1Ic "Ppeais plenti rt f contention to "a stained and tinu 'Tracid t'mm'Ilt f vellum, signed by their Catholic ''teiw's Ferdinand and Isabella, and counter-SJM'- hy the viceroy of Mexico and General Cor-oiukTj', Cor-oiukTj', who in the early part of 1.V.2 raised the flag of Spain over the little Indian village of Tuscon and laid with his own hands the corner-stone of the first mission. This important document v.-is lost to the public until about twelve years ago. when it was discovered by a mere accident among the archives of ihe ancient Church of San Xavier del Pac. nine miles south of Tuscon. "And there! you are. Fven the Chicago Pocrd-I lerald and the Ave Maria of the Fathers of the Holy Cross gave, in all sinceritv, publicity Io thi- hoax. The. doctor ' is what the French call a farceur and westerns a ! joker. If he had substituetd Cabe::za do Vaca. IV ' dro do Tobar. Lopez de C-irdenas or even Fathor j Marcos of Xizza for Coronado. who never saw flu i Santa Cruz river, the hoax would bo more plausible plaus-ible and the imposition less daring. Sometime, let us hope, a gifted and conscientious historian wiil appear and do for the early missionaries of the southwest, for the Kinos. the Garec-. the Esealant- -and the other saintlv and heroic priests and martyrs mar-tyrs what Parkman has done for the earlv Jesuit.-of Jesuit.-of Canada and Xcw York and Bryan Clinch for the Spanish missionaries of Southern and Lower California. Cali-fornia. Mission of San Xavier del Bac, Ariz.. March 2."). |