74 THE SERI INDIANS [eth. ann. 17 



threats, to ascend in search of the Seri; but that some of the Pima allies iimlertook 

 to l)eleagiier the mountains, these, with cue or another of the officers, being the 

 only ones that saw the face of the enemy, and even these on two occasions only. 

 From the lirst sally they returned reporting that they had killed 3 of the Seri, and 

 their empty word was accepted; the second time they were so fortunate as to dis- 

 cover a village of women and children, whom they took prisoners, and returned 

 declaring tliat the men had been left dead on the field. This famous conquest, which 

 the manuscript drawn up by the comnjander of the expedition did not hesitate to 

 compare with those of Alexander and Ca'Sar, who were as nothing beside the gov- 

 ernor of Sonora, intoxicated much more the allied chief of the Pima, who had taken 

 tlie leading part in the iinal victory.' 



Eventually the vanity of this chief (Luis, or " Luys de Saric") led to 

 a revolt on the part of the Pima tribe with the massacre of Padres 

 Tello and Eohen at Caborca. 



Ortega was still more sarcastic in his fuller record of the expedition. 



The skepticism of the padres as to the completeness of Parilla's 

 extermination was well grounded, as was attested by the continuation 

 of Seri sorties with undiminished frequency and by the persistence of 

 hippophagy at the expens.e of the stockmen as already noted; more- 

 over, in the absence of records of maritime operations, in view of the 

 impracticability of transporting so large a force as that of Parillaon 

 balsas, and in the light of a still common application of the name 

 Tiburon to Sierra Seri and its environs as well as to the island, it would 

 seem to be an open question whether the much-lauded exjjeditiou ever 

 attained the insular stronghold, or even reached the seashore. How- 

 ever this may be, the expedition was the first of a long series sent 

 out to exterminate one of the hardiest and acutest of tribes, wonted to 

 one of the hardest and aridest of habitats ; and, save in the subsequent 

 advertising, all have yielded results more or less similar. 



Another curtailment of the range of tlie Seri dates from the refounding 

 of the mission of "San Josi' de Guaimas"- (on the site of the present 

 Guaymas) in 1751, and the establishment of a "rancho called Opau 

 Guaimas" some distance up the coast about the same time; the site of 

 the mission being tinit of a sanctuary located by Kino in 1701, and 

 revisited by Salvatierra and Ugarte, though never continuously main- 

 tained. True, the padre and the ranchero suffered from the Seri, who 

 displaced the former, killed eight of his converts, burned the church, 

 and scattered the hundred families of the pueblo, afterward keeping 

 the Spaniards at a distance for ten years ;^ yet the settlers only returned 

 with new vigor, and gradually gained the strength requisite for hold- 

 ing the town. Naturally the belligerency of the Seri in this vicinity 

 impressed the state authorities with the desirability of further ''exter- 

 mination"; and when in 17.50 a band of the Seri, after a hypocritical 

 suit for peace, entrenched themselves among the all but inaccessible 



' Historia de la Compaaia de Jesua, tomo in, pp. 290-291 1 cf. Apostolicos Afanea de la Compafiia 

 de Jesus, escritos por un Padre de la misma Sagrada Religion do su Provincia do Mexico : IJaroelona, 

 1754, pp. 366-368. 



*Rudo Knsayo. p. 229 (nii.sspelled "(luiamus"). 



^liancroft, op. cit., vol. i, p. 554. 



