266. _ INDIANS OF THE GILA, 
there are of the animals, they make the common sub- 
sistence of the inhabitants. From what can be seen 
of the highest of these houses, there appears to be a 
country of more than a hundred thousand hastas in 
extent.* , 
“The heathen Indians received us with jubilee, 
giving of their provisions to the soldiers; and we 
counted two hundred persons, who were gentle and 
affable. Remaining there to sleep, the Father and I 
instructed them, through the interpreters, in the mys- 
teries of our Holy Faith; on which they besought us 
that there might be baptized fifteen of their children 
and seven sick adults.” 
Four leagues from the Casa Grande would bring us 
about to the spot where we were then encamped, and 
near to the villages of the Pimos, which, in former 
times, extended much further up the Gila than they 
do at present. The great country which the writer 
saw here was doubtless the plain where the villages 
now stand, and the great plain to the north, extending 
twenty-five or thirty miles to the Salinas. 
But Alegro,+ in recounting the arduous labors of 
Father Kino, relates other particulars of the Pimos and - 
Coco-Maricopas, and the interviews between them an 
this zealous missionary. Kino found, in’ 1698, the 
most friendly relations existing between them, and . 
noticed the difference in their languages and dress. 
But their manners and customs were the same; and 
* Measure of a lance, about three yards in length. 
+ Hist. de la Compaiiia de Jesus en Nueva Espaiia, tom. iii., PP- s 
mare... . 
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