82 
The Colorado River 
tions was a mission he established in Sonora; the mission 
of Dolores, founded in 1687. For some thirty years Kino 
laboured in this field with tireless energy, flinching before no 
danger or difficulty. He was the first white man to see 
the extraordinary ruin called Casa Grande, near the present 
town of Florence, and on the occasion of his first visit he took 
advantage of the structure to say mass within its thick adobe 
walls. This is probably the most remarkable ancient building 
within the limits of the United States. For a long time it was 
called the House of Montezuma, though, of course, Monte¬ 
zuma never heard of it. A similar ruin, called Casas Grandes, 
exists in Sonora. The construction is what is called cajon, 
that is, adobe clay rammed into a box or frame, which is lifted 
for each successive course as the work advances. In the dry 
air of that region such walls become extremely hard, and will 
endure for ages if the foundations are not sapped.^ Kino paid 
a second visit to the ruin of Casa Grande in 1697, this time 
accompanied by Captain Juan Mateo Mange, an officer de¬ 
tailed with his command to escort the padres on their peril¬ 
ous journeys. 
The method of the authorities was to establish a military 
post, called a presidio, at some convenient point, from which 
protection would be extended to several missions. The sol¬ 
diers in the field wore a sort of buckskin armour, with a dou- 
ble-visored helmet and a leathern buckler on the left arm. 
Kino was as often without as with the guardianship of these 
warriors, and seems to have had very little trouble with the 
natives. The Apaches, then and always, were the worst of all. 
In his numerous entradas he explored the region of his labours 
pretty thoroughly, reaching, in 1698, a hill from which he saw 
how the gulf ended at the mouth of the Colorado; and the fol¬ 
lowing year he was again down the Gila, which he called Rio 
de los Apostoles, to the Colorado, now blessed with a fourth 
name, the Rio de los Martires. ''Buena Guia,” “del Tizon,” 
‘See The North Americans of Yesterday, by F. S. Dellenbaugh, p. 234; and 
for complete details see papers by Cosmos Mindeleff, Thirteenth An. Rep. Bu. 
Eth. and Fifteenth An. Rep. Bu. Eth. ; also Font’s description in Coues’s Garces, 
P- 93. 
