60 THE SERI INDIANS [eth.ann. 17 



Inez, the modern Isla Angel de la Guarda,' one of the most prominent 

 geographic features visible either from Cerro Nazareno or from the adja- 

 cent coast. There is no reason to infer that Kino or any of his party ever 

 detected their error in identification of geographic features which must 

 have been conspicuous in the lore of the aborigines and settlers of 

 Sonora; indeed, the error well attests the prominence of the Seri and 

 their habitat in the local thought of the time/ 



An effect of the Jesuit invasion was to give record to episodes grow- 

 ing out of alien contact with tlie Seri. One of the earliest of these 

 records recounts nocturnal raids by the "Seris Salineros" for robbery 

 and murder in the pueblos of Tuape, Cucurpe, and Magdalena (de 

 Tepoca).'' In January, 1700, Sergeant Juan IJautista de Escalaute 

 set out with fifteen soldiers to this mission of Santa Magdalena de 

 Tepoca on an expedition of protection and reprisal; and here he learned 

 that the " Seris Salineros" had killed with arrows three persons. Taking 

 their trail, he reached Nuestra Senora del Populo only to find that ten 

 families of converts had deserted to steal cattle, whereupon he started 

 in search of them; he overtook them 20 leagues away, and, despite 

 armed resistance on their part, arrested and whipped them and returned 

 them to the pueblo. Among the captives were two "Seris Salineros" 

 concerned in the murders at Tepoca, and three others guilty of similar 

 outrages at the Pueblo de los Angeles de Pimas Cocomacagiies ; these 

 lie executed as a warning to the others, after taking their depositions 

 and confessions, and after they were shrived by Padre Adano Gilo (or 

 Adau Gilg), the priest of Populo. This duty performed, he resumed 

 the trail of the Seri, accompanied by the padre; and, approacliing the 

 sea, he found a port, as well as an island to which most of the Seri had 

 escaped in balsas, leaving eight of their number, who were arrested and 

 turned over to the priest.'' 



This is the first record of actual invasion of Seriland by Caucasians. 

 According to Bancroft, it "may be deemed the beginning of the Seri 

 wars which so long desolated the province".-^ 



The next noteworthy episode occurred when Sergeant Escalante, 

 who had returned to Tuape and Santa Magdalena (de Tepoca), again 

 set out for the coast on February 28, 1700, taking a new route (probably 

 down Rio Bacuache). He traveled 30 leagues, passing four watering 

 places, and on March 6 arrived at the Paraje de Aguas Frias (probably 



' Identified by Alexandre de Humboldt in bis Carte GSn^rale du Eo.vauniedela JJouvelle Espagnc, 

 of 18114 (in Atlas Giograpbique et Pbysique, Paris, 1811). So late as 1840 the old name was sometimes 

 retained, e. g., on Robert Greenhow's map accomiiaiiying bis Histor.v of California and Oregon. 



=In one of tbe last letters from bis pen, dated November 25, 189il, the late Dr Elliott Coues wrote, 

 "I tind you trailing Kino and Mange in 1694 precisely as I bad them, and I make no doubt of tbe sub- 

 stantial aecura<^y of your typewritten MS. I accept your position that tbe large island they sighted 

 and named San Agustin was not Tiburon, but Angel de la Guarda Isl " 



2A mission founded in 1699 by Tadre Melcbor Bartirorao (Historit de la Compania de Jesus en 

 Nueva Espana, que e.sta eseribiendo el P. Francisco Javier Alegre, 1842, tomo ill, p. 117), of which tbe 

 location has long been lost. 



*Resumen de Xoticias, op. cit., tomo I. p. 321. 



*0p. cit., p. 275 (the year is misi)rinted 1800 on this page and in the index). 



