162 
SCENES IN THE PACIFIC. 
the lonely missions in the neighborhood of the Indians in the 
upper country, called Pimeria Alta, a district extending three 
hundred miles to the northward of Senora, and embracing the 
vallies of the Gila and the Colorado. He went alone among 
these wild Indians; learned their language; formed them into 
communities; prevailed upon them to cultivate grains and raise 
cattle; and, by the aid of subordinate agents, has reformed their 
civil polity; and indoctrinated them in the mysteries and 
hopes of the Catholic faith. And such is the reverent love of 
these savages for the excellent Padre that they greet him 
everywhere as little children do a kind parent, who comes 
to bless and love them. This influence he uses only for their 
good. He procures from his Sovereign an edict against their 
being seized by the Spaniards and immersed in the mines to 
labor till dead ! He acquaints the Vice-Royal Government at 
Mexico that the military powers often accuse them of rebel¬ 
lion, and make war upon them for the base purpose of taking 
them captives to dive for pearls and dig in the mountains for 
the precious metals, and procures a cessation of such barbari¬ 
ty. This is a great work of mercy. For previously, in all 
those regions, it has been customary for the civil and military 
authorities to make the Indians labor on the lands or in the 
mines five years after their conversion. They pay for Chris¬ 
tianity in their hearts by the servitude of their bodies. And 
seldom do the poor Indians live to be free again, after this 
chain of avarice is put upon them. Very many are the clus¬ 
ters of little wooden crosses, near these mines, which stand 
over the graves of those who have been worked to death in 
their deep and dismal depths ! Padrf. Kino gives them liber¬ 
ty; builds them houses and chapels; teaches them agricul¬ 
ture and many other useful arts. Their animals now range on 
a thousand hills; their ploughs turn the soil of a thousand 
fields; and their belfries send their peals for prayer and praise 
up a thousand vales! 
Such is the result of the labors of Padre Kino in Pimeria, 
and such the happy condition of the numerous tribes of In- 
