io6 The National Geographic Magazine 



longer route by way of Tubac and Tuc- 

 son) the main overland tributary to "El 

 Camino Real ' ' — The Royal Highwa}' of 

 California. 



The Jesuits were expelled in ^767; but 

 the old Yuma trail and the old Califor- 

 nia missions remained as monuments to 

 their enterprise and as means of later 

 progress. 



With the international friction presag- 

 ing the Mexican war, the importance 

 of the ancient trail began to wane ; 

 with the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo 

 in 1848 our own argonauts cast their 

 eyes toward the far-rumored overland 

 route, and with the gold fever of Forty- 

 nine the activity along the fitly named 

 Camino del Diablo waxed again tempo- 

 rarily. The sharing of its miseries by 

 American and Mexican adventurers be- 

 got sympatiiy and mutual understand- 

 ing, and opened enduring friendships 

 which helped to heal the international 

 breach and obliterate the scars of war- 

 fare. Yet the transitional epoch was not 

 without painful episodes ; the Crabb 

 filibustering expedition struck the his- 

 toric trail on their way via Sonoyta, to 

 be annihilated at Caborca (where the old 

 church still bears bullet-marks of the 

 battle) ; tradition tells of an immigrant 

 colony from Mexico to California follow- 

 ing the ancient way to Tinajas Altas, 

 where they were halted by an evil con- 

 junction of epidemic with international 

 complications to fill literal scores of 

 graves still dotting the barren footslopes 

 of the dazzling sierra ; and equally stir- 

 ring events still live in the memories of 

 all older Arizonians and Sonorenses. 



It was during the gold-fever renais- 

 sance that the death-roll of El Camino 

 del Diablo became most appalling, for 

 many of the travelers were fresh from 

 humid lands, knew naught of the decep- 

 tive mirage or the ever-hovering thirst- 

 craze of the desert, and pressed out on 

 the sand wastes without needful prepara- 

 tion.' The roll will never be written in 

 full, since most of the unfortunates left 



no records, scores leaving no sign save 

 bleaching bones ; but observers estimate 

 that there were 400 victims of thirst 

 between Altar and Yuma within eight 

 years, an estimate which so conservative 

 a traveler as Captain Gaillard thought 

 fair after he had ' ' counted sixty-five 

 graves in a single day's ride of a little 

 over thirty miles." 



THE BOUNDARY SURVEYS. 



With the Gadsden purchase of 1853, 

 the boundary surveys already under way 

 received fresh impetus, while the be- 

 lated argonauts still trying all possible 

 paths toward the new territory, whose 

 name was synonymous with gold for 

 a generation, were once more tempted 

 southward. So, even before the survey 

 reports were published the fame of the 

 route spread widely ; stories of hard 

 marches over the malpais stretching out 

 from the volcano of Pinacate, of the 

 miring of outfits in the bottomless mud 

 of Tule valley in springtime, of wagons 

 clogged in shifting sands, of desperate 

 night marches under the sharp goads of 

 thirst and hunger, of rescues of thirst- 

 crazed waifs, of burials of the bodies 

 and distributions of the goods of less 

 fortunate parties — these and other heart- 

 rending recitals were whispered afar, or 

 penned in friendly letters, to color the 

 lore of America' s most energetic pioneer- 

 ing and filter meagerl}^ ( far too meagerh' 

 for full history) into literature. The 

 ill-repute of the trail graduall}^ diverted 

 the overland travel to more northerly 

 routes, and when the Southern Pacific 

 Railwa}^ pushed over the arid zone in 

 the seV'Cnties the old route was fi-nall}^ 

 deserted, save b}^ Papago pilgrims in 

 the sacramental journeys still pursued, 

 and b}^ rare prospectors or hunters. 



The final chapter in the histor}^ of the 

 Yuma trail touches onl}- the retraversing 

 of the route (after sixteen years with- 

 out the passage of a vehicle) by the 

 International Boundary Commission -of 



