FEWKES] HISTORY 57 
Keller, to whom reference has been made. This interesting docu- 
ment says:* 
Pursuing the same course for about 20 leagues from the junction [of the San Pedro], 
the Gila leaves on its left, at the distance of 1 league, the Casa Grande, called the 
House of Moctezuma because of a tradition current among the Indians and Spaniards, 
of this place having been one of the abodes in which the Mexicans rested in their long 
transmigrations. This great house is four stories high, still standing, with a roof made 
of beams of cedar or tlascal and with most solid walls of a material that looks like the 
best cement. Itis divided into many halls and rooms and might well lodge a traveling 
court. Three leagues distant and on the right bank of the river there is another 
similar house but now much demolished, which from the ruins can be inferred to have 
been of vaster size than the former. For some leagues around, in the neighborhood 
of these houses, wherever the earth is dug up, broken pieces of very fine and variously 
colored earthenware are found. Judging from a reservoir of vast extent and still 
open, which is found 2 leagues up the river, holding sufficient water to supply a city 
and to irrigate for many leagues the fruitful land of that beautiful plain, the residence 
of the Mexicans there must not have been a brief one. About half a league west from 
this house a lagoon is seen that flows into the river, and although the surface is not very 
large it has been impossible to measure its depth by means of cords tied together, etc. 
The Pima tell of another house, more strangely planned and built, which is to be 
found much farther up the river. It is in the style of a labyrinth, the plan of which, 
as it is designed by the Indians on the sand, is something like the cut on the margin; 
but it is more probable that it served as a house of recreation than as a residence of a 
magnate > I have heard of other buildings, even more extensive and more correct in 
art and symmetry, through Father Ignatius Xavier Keller, although 1 can not recol- 
lect in what place of his apostolic visits. He spoke of one that measured in frontage, 
on a straight line, half a league in length and apparently nearly as much in depth, the 
whole divided into square blocks, each block three and four stories high, though 
greatly dilapidated in many parts; but in one of the angles there was still standing a 
massive structure of greater proportions, like a castle or palace, five or six stories high. 
Of the reservoir, asin the case of the one spoken of above, the reverend father said 
that it not only lay in front of the house but that, before its outlet reached there, it 
divided into many canals through which the water might enter all the streets, 
probably for cleansing purposes, when such was desired, as is done in Turin and other 
cities of Europe and was done even in Mexico in olden times. This last Casa Grande 
is perhaps the same as that of which we spoke before and which lies on the other side of 
the river, for those who have been there agree that there are ruins not merely of a 
single edifice but of a large town. 
GARCES’ NARRATIVE 
The next recorded visit to Casa Grande is that of Lieut. Col. Juan 
Bautista de Anza, accompanied by a force of 239 persons, including 
Fathers Francisco Garcés, Pedro Font, and Tomas EKixarch, who were 
among the first Franciscans to serve as missionaries in this region 
after the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1767. During an excursion from 
Tubac, in October, 1775, the party approached the Gila on the 30th, 
and on the following day, Anza having decided to rest, an opportunity 
was given of ‘‘going to see the Casa Grande that they call [Casa] de 
Moctezuma.”’ Garcés continues: ® 
1 Translation by Eusebio Guitéras, op. cit., pp. 127-128. 
2It is shown elsewhere (in Amer. Anthr., N. S., IX, pp. 510-512, 1907) that this is a misconception. 
The Indians did not intend to suggest a dwelling but the ground plan of a game.—J. W. F. 
3In Coues, On the Trail of a Spanish Pioneer; The Diary and Itinerary of Francisvo Garcés. . . in 
1775-76, 1, 66, 1900. 
