MCGEE] BATTLES OF CERRO PRIETO — 1756-1763 75 



rocks and barrancas of Cerro Prieto (a rugged sierra midway between 

 Pitic and San Jos6 de Giiaimas, which for this reason came to be 

 regarded — erroneously — as the headquarters of the tribe), Don Juan 

 Antonio de Meudoza, then governor of Sonora, sent out a strong body 

 of soldierj' to dislodge or destroy them ; but after 200 of the soldiers 

 were ambushed and 24 of them wounded, the expedition returned to 

 the capital, San Miguel de Horcasitas. Stung by this defeat, Mendoza 

 reorganized his force and led the way in i)ersou to Oerro Prieto, where 

 one of the four parties into which the force was divided wrought such 

 execution that, in the following May, there were seen the bodies of 

 enemies "dead and eaten by animals, dead and partly buried in the 

 earth, dead lying in caves, and dead in the water-pockets of the sierra".' 

 In this battle Mendoza himself was ambushed and attacked by three 

 Seri archers, escaping only by the mediation of his saint ("por medio 

 de mi santo"); but during the ensuing night he carried out the ingeni- 

 ous ruse of beating drums in ditterent parts of the canyon, which 

 reechoed from the rocky heights with such terrifying effect that the 

 enemy tied, leaving him in victorious possession of the field. 



Again in 1760, when a band of the Seri (supposed to be temporarily 

 combined with the Pima) took refuge in Cerro Prieto, Governor 

 Mendoza attacked them with over 100 men; but a band of 19 Seri suc- 

 cessfully held this force at bay for several hours, until their chief 

 (called EI Becerro) fell wounded and dying, yet retaining sufficient 

 vitality to rise, as the Spaniards approached, and transfix Meudoza 

 with an arrow — when the two leaders died together.- Mendoza was 

 succeeded by Governor Jose Tienda de Cuervo, who, in 1761, led a 

 force of 420 men to Cerro Prieto, where a still bloodier battle was fought, 

 the Seri losing 40 killed and 63 captured, besides 322 horses; though 

 the greater part of their force escaped to the island of San Juan 

 Bautista (San Esteban!).'' 



In 1763 Don Juan de Pineda succeeded to the governorship, and 

 obtained the cooperation of a force of national troops under Colonel 

 Domingo Elizondo : 



Headfiiiarteiing in Kl Pitiqni, he commenced active war against tlie said Seris, 

 but was unable to reduce them, because, being separated and dispersed over their 

 vast territory, they wore out the troops, who only occasionally stuuil)led on one 

 little rancheria or another. For this reason, and because in many years they could 

 not exterminate them, .and desiring to leave the country, they opened negotiations 

 with them, making them sniiill presents and offering them royal protection it' tliey 

 would surrender peacefully. Some of them pretended to do this and assembled at 

 I'itiqui, where they remained with the same bad faith as always, fed at the expense 

 of the royal treasury, when the troops retired, leaving the evil uncured, Imt merely 

 covered. ^ 



In the same year Padre Tomas Iguacio Lizazoin reported, for the 



' Docuraentos para la Hiatoria de Mexico, cuarta s^rie. tomo i, p. 85. 

 ^Historia tie lu Compafiia de Jesu.-*, torao in, p. 298. 



^Ibid., ]). 299; Undo En-sayo, i>. 196. It i.s i»robable that part or all of the captives were cfuartered at 

 Pueblo Seri, though the record is silent on this point. 

 * Resumen de Noticias, op. cit., vol. i, p. 224. 



