SOUTHERN PACIFIC LINES 187 
followed the San Pedro and the Gila to and beyond Casa Grande. He 
returned by Bac,*” 9 miles south of Tucson, where he laid the founda- 
tion of the church of San Xavier in 1700. At that time Bac had a 
population of 830, with 176 houses, extensive wheat fields, and much 
well-tended livestock; it was the largest rancheria in the Pima country. 
In 1700 also Kino descended the Gila River to its mouth, and in 
1701 he returned to the vicinity of Yuma and crossed the Colorado 
River on a raft. The observations made on these explorations con- 
vinced him that California was not an island. In 1702 he made 
another journey to the mouth of the Colorado and other places. 
He continued his travels for a few years more, taking his last view of 
the Gulf of California in 1706. He died at Misién Dolores in 
Mexico in 1710 or 1711, at the age of about 70 years. - In some of these 
great journeys he was alone; in others he was accompanied by Father 
Juan Maria Salvatierra and Capt. Juan Mateo Mange. At that time 
there were no other Spaniards in the Southwest, so that these journeys 
were lonesome and hazardous, but Kino found the Indians perfectly 
friendly and eager to learn, and they gave him guidance and supplies. 
His persistence and endurance were phenomenal. 
A mission was conducted at Bac by the Jesuits from 1701 to 1767, 
when that order was expelled by the Spanish Government and the 
Franciscans placed in charge of all missions. One of the Franciscan 
missionaries located in San Xavier was Padre Francisco Garcés, the 
great explorer whose journeys down the Santa Cruz Valley and over a 
wide region as far as Utah and California during a period of 13 years 
constitute one of the most brilliant chapters of American history. 
Born in Spain in 1738, he was 30 when he entered upon his heroic 
career as missionary to the Indians of Pimeria Alta. His first 
“entrada,” in 1768,°5 was from Bac to the Gila River, and later he 
proceeded down that stream to its mouth and crossed the Colorado, 
finally reaching the Mission San Gabriel in California. In 1775 he 
accompanied Captain Juan Bautista de Anza’s expedition to found 
San Francisco as far as the Colorado River and then made a great 
trip alone, cireling to the north and returning to Bac by a route that 
gave him a glimpse of the Grand Canyon, being thus the first white 
man to approach that great spectacle from the west. He gave it the 
name Puerto de Bucareli. In 1779 he established his ill-fated colony 
in the Yuma region and was massacred with it on July 19,1781. He 
is now buried in San Pedro de Tubutama, in Sonora. A coworker, 
Padre Pedro Font, has written of him: “‘He is so fit to get along with 
the Indians and go about among them that he seems just like an 
37 Bac, a Pima word frequently en- 38 Garcés’ travels have been described 
countered, means house, adobe house, | in detail by Coues (Diary and Itinerary 
or a ruined house, of Franciseo Garcés, 1775-1776, 2 vols., 
Harper, 1900). 
