Page:The Pima Indians.pdf/32

Rh neighboring Pima villages. For a century and a half after that invasion no white man is known to have reached the territory of the Pimas Gileños.

The earliest as well as the most important explorer in the history of Pimería Alta was Father Eusebio Francisco Kino, who, between the years 1687 and 1710, journeyed many a dusty, thirsty league in the eager search for souls. In 1694 he reached the Casa Grande in company with native guides who had informed him of the existence of the ruin. Absolutely nothing is known about this expedition except that a mass was said within the walls of Casa Grande. However, it may be safely inferred that Kino visited the near-by Pima villages. As the Papagos were at that time also called Pimas it is sometimes difficult to determine what part the true Pimas played in the events chronicled by the padres. Yet it is probable that they are referred to in the account of the religious festival which was observed in 1698 at Remedios, in Pimería Baja. Among the visitors were "native chieftains from as far north as the Gila valley." Then as now the Pimas and Papagos were on a friendly footing, and the character and movements of the Spaniards must have been made known to the Pimas before the latter saw Kino or any other white man.

Kino diligently strove to establish missions among the many tribes that he visited, but was much hampered by lack of funds. He succeeded in interesting the authorities sufficiently to induce them to send a military expedition to the Gila in 1697 for the purpose of ascertaining the disposition of the Pimas. The party included 20 soldiers, with 3 officers. Juan Mateo Mange was sent with Kino to write the official reports of the expedition. On the upper San Pedro river 30 Sobaipuris joined the party, which followed that stream to the Gila. They reached the Pima villages on the 21st of November, visiting and for the first time describing the Casa Grande. The return was by the more direct route of the Santa Cruz valley. It was by this route also that Kino in September, 1698, again descended to the Pimas with a small party of native guides. He returned by way of Quijotoa (?) and the Gulf.

Early in 1699 Kino, in company with Mange, made his fourth journey to the Pimas by way of Sonoita and the lower Gila. The return was by way of the Santa Cruz.

A year later Kino again reached the Gila by a new route. From a point above the Bend, and hence doubtless among the Pimas, he descended to the mouth and returned to Sonora by way of Sonoita.

In 1702 he made his sixth and last journey to the Pimas, going by way of Sonoita and the lower Gila. Among the "40,000 gentiles" whom he is said to have baptized there were quite a number of Pimas, but as his sojourn among them was never of more than a few days' duration his influence could not have been very great. Nevertheless,