296 CASA GRANDE EUIN. [eth.ann. 13 



a fortress, destroyed long before by the barbarous tribes which they 

 found in the country. His description of these tribes seems to apply 

 to the Apache. 



The geographic data furnished by Castaneda and the other chroni- 

 clers of Coronado's exiiedition is very scanty, and the exact route fol 

 lowed has not yet been determined and probably never will be. So far 

 as these data go, however, they are against the assumirtion that the 

 Chichilticale of Castaneda is the Casa Grande of today. Mr. A.' F. 

 Bandelier, whose studies of the documentary history of the southwest 

 are well known, inclines to the opinion that the vicinity of Old Camp 

 Grant, on the Eio San Pedro, Arizona, more nearly fill the descriptions. 

 Be this as it may, however, the work of Castaneda was lost to sight, and 

 it is not until more than a century later that the authentic history of the 

 ruin commences. 



In 1694 the Jesuit Father Kino heard of the ruin, and later in the 

 same year visited it and said mass within its walls. His secretary and 

 usual companion on his missionary journeys, Mange by name, was not 

 with him on this occasion, but in 1697 another visit was paid to the 

 ruin and the description recorded by Mange ' in his diary heads the 

 long list of accounts extending down to the present time.^ Mange 

 describes the ruin as consisting of — 



A large edifice, the principal room in the center being four stories high, and those 

 adjoining it on its four sides three stories, with walls 2 varas thick, of strong 

 argamaso y baro (adobe) so smooth on the inside that they resemble planed boards, 

 and so polished that they shine like Puebla pottery. 



Mange also gives some details of construction, and states that in the 

 immediate vicinity there were remains of twelve other buildings, the 

 walls half fallen and the roofs burned out. 



Following Mange's account there were a number of descriptions of 

 no special value, and a more useful one written by Padre Pont, who in 

 1775 and 1776 made a journey to Gila and Colorado rivers and beyoud. 

 This description^ is quite circumstanti.al and is of especial interest 

 because it formed the basis of nearly all the accounts written up to the 

 time when that country came into our possession. According to this 

 authority — 



The house forms an oblong square, facing exactly the four cardinal points, and 

 round about it there are ruins indicating a fence or wall which surrounded the 

 house and other buildings. The exterior or plaza extends north and south 420 feet 

 and east and west 260 feet. 



Font measured the five rooms of the main building, and recorded 

 many interesting details. It will be noticed that he described a sur- 



^An En;^lish translation i& given by H. H. Bancroft, Works, iv, ]). 622, note. Also by Bartlett, 

 Personal Narrative, 1854, vol. ii, pp. 281-282; another was published by Schoolcraft, Hiat. Cond. and 

 Pros, of Ain. Ind., vol. iii, 1853, p. 301. 



''Quite an extensive list is given by Bancroft (op. cit., pp. 622-625, notes), and by Bandelier in Papers 

 Arch. Inst, of Araer., American series, i, p. 11, note. 



3A number of copies of Font's Journal are known. Bancroft gives a partial translation in op.oit., 

 p. 623, note), as does also Bartlett (op. cit., pp. 278-280) ; and a French translation is given by Ternaux 

 Compans, ix. Voyages de Cibola, appendix. 



