70 THE SERI INDIANS |etii.axn17 



of these missions to Serilaud are signiflcant: according to the anon- 

 ymous autlior of Sonora's classic, " Kudo Ensayo", written in 1763, 

 Nacameri lay in the valley of Itio Opodepe (or Horcasitas), 7 leagues 

 below the town of the same name (still extant); !) leagues down the 

 same stream lay Populo (on the site of the present town of Horcasitas) ; 

 Angeles lay 3 or 4 leagues farther downstream, or over 12 leagues 

 above the site of Pitic' (the present Hermosillo); while various refer- 

 ences indicate that the temporary inissiou of Santa Magdalena was 

 located in the same valley, probably a few leagues above Oi)odepe.^ 

 Accordingly, tlie missions ranged from 100 to 150 miles inland, meas- 

 ured in an air line, or four hard days' journey, as shown by Escalaute's 

 record, from the Seri coast. The nearest mission at Angeles was 75 

 miles, or three days' journey, from the inland margin of Serilaud i)roper, 

 and the intervening territory was a depopulated expanse (" el grande 

 despobhido") according to Villa- Senor,' ranged but not inhabited by 

 Seri and Tepoka hunting parties. Never traversed by white men, save 

 those of Coronado's parties nearly two centuries before and of Esca- 

 lante's hurried expeditions of 1700, this "despoblado" was practically 

 unknown; even the surprisingly well-informed author of " Rudo 

 Ensayo" was unaware of the existence of Rio Bacuache, and noted 

 only such prominent mountains as Gerro Prieto and " Bacoatzi the 

 Great in the land of the Seris'V lying far outside the tribal home. The 

 remoteness of the missions from the habitat of the tribe bears testi- 

 mony to the dread with which they were regarded, and to tlie slight- 

 ness of the influence exerted on the tribesmen by the zealous padres. 



Desjjite the efforts of both priesthood and soldiery, the number of 

 Seri converts at the missions was limited. In 1700 there were ten fami- 

 lies at Populo; true, they had slipped away to maverick the herds 

 ("por ladrones deganados"), but Escalante overtook them and whipped 

 them back to the shadow of the church; later he captured 120 Tepoka 

 people (probably some twenty families, with a few strays), and recap- 

 tured 300 backsliders (perhaps fifty families or more), and haled them 

 all to the mission, where lands were allotted to them and where they 

 were carefully guarded by theeciclesiastics — until opportunity came for 

 reescape; and to this congregation Escalante added a few Seri prisoners 

 taken on Tiburon, as noted above. In 1727 Brigadier Pedro de Rivera 

 noted a dozen tribes in central Sonora, including the "Seris" and 

 "Tepocas", numbering 21,74(i "of all ages and both sexes", all receiving 



' Rudo Ensayo, G-uiteras' traiislatiou in Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of 

 Phila<telphia, vol. V, 1894, p. 124. Bandelier identified the author as Padre Nentwig, S. J., of Jluassa- 

 Tas, eastern Sonora (Final Report of Investigations among the Indians, etc., part 1, in Papers of 

 the Archieologicallnstitute of America," vol. Ill, 1890, p. 78). The name is written " John Nentuig" 

 in a third-person reference in Gniteraa" translation; but an editorial footnote adds, "No d(mbt a 

 jM-inter's mistake for Mentni«: — L. F. F [lick]"' (ibid., p. 191). 



^Noticias Estadisticas del Estado de Sonora, by Jose Francisco Velasco, Mexico, IS.'JO, p. 124. 



3 Theatre Americano, Descripcion General de los Reynos, y Provincias de la Nueva-Kspaua, y aus 

 Jurisdicciones, Joseph Antonio de Villa-Senor, y Sanchez, segunda parte; Mexico, 1748, ]>. 392. 



■■Op. fit., p. 133. 



