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150 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES 
their habitations, some of them very old. However, it is believed 
that the number of people living in the region at any time may never 
have been great, for they moved from place to place, abandoning 
their communal or village dwellings. The early expeditions of the 
Spanish explorers found many pueblos, but they were widely scattered. 
It is probable that the first Spaniards to enter Arizona were the Fran- 
ciscan friars, Juan de la Asuncién, Juan de Olmeda, and Pedro Nadal, 
who made an exploration in 1538 from Mexico City ‘1,700 miles 
northwest to a broad, deep river’? which they could not cross— 
perhaps the Colorado. In 1539 Marcos de Niza, another Franciscan 
friar, crossed southeastern Arizona from Sonora on the way to Zuii. 
A year later De Niza led Francisco Vasquez de Coronado to Zuiil. 
Coronado had an advance escort of 50 horsemen, some natives and a 
group of friars, followed by his main army of 250 adventurers, includ- 
ing many Spaniards of high rank, and some 800 Indian allies. Two 
small parties from Coronado’s expedition visited the Hopi pueblos, 
and they were also reached by Antonio de Espejo in 1583. Hernando 
de Alarcén explored the Gulf of California and lower Colorado River 
in 1540, and Juan de Ofate visited part of the same region in 1604-5. 
It was Ofiate who in 1598 took possession of ‘‘all of the country north 
of New Spain” and called it Nuevo Méjico. In 1691 Eusebio Kino, 
a Jesuit priest, began his missionary work in Arizona, visiting settle- 
ments in the Santa Cruz, San Pedro, and Gila Valleys and supplying 
the Indians with livestock. He laid the foundation of the mission 
church of San Xavier at Bac, 9 miles south of Tucson (too-sown’), 
in 1700 and of San Gabriel at Guevavi, near Nogales, in 1701. He 
made numerous expeditions, reaching the Colorado River near Yuma 
in 1699 and again in 1700. He crossed the river below that place in 
November, 1701, and reached its mouth in March, 1702. The expe- 
dition of Father Jacobo Sedelmair in 1744 followed the Gila River 
(he’la) below Casa Grande and traversed the region west and south 
to Yuma, discovering the warm springs at Agua Caliente. Father 
Francisco Garcés, a Franciscan who labored for 12 years as a mis- 
sionary to the Indians, made notable expeditions from San Xavier 
in 1768 to 1775 into southwestern Arizona and southern California. | 
He was killed at Yuma in the Indian revolt of 1781. (See p. 237.) 
After Mexico won her independence from Spain in 1822 the region 
made but little progress, and when in 1827 the order of expulsion 
against the Spanish caused most of the friars to leave, many of the 
little settlements were abandoned. The country north of the Gila 
River was ceded to the United States by the treaty of Guadalupe 
Hidalgo in 1848, Prior to that there were no American inhabitants 
_ the territory. Most of the early visitors were prospectors, thou- 
Sands crossing during the gold rush to California in 1849. After the 
Gadsden Purchase (see fig. 35), by which over 45,000 square miles 
