TRAVELS IN THE CALIFORNI AS. 
165 
mg charities for California, and with heightened expectations 
of saving the lives of his friends at Loretto, ships himself 
and them in the old long-boat San Xavier at the mouth of 
the river Hiaqui, and arrives at Loretto the latter end of 
April, 1701. Joy fills the camp on the arrival of the good 
Padre ; and earnest thanksgivings are offered in the chapel by 
his spiritual children on account of his return. 
Here we leave California for a brief space to* follow good 
old Padre Kino through the labors of his last days. In No¬ 
vember of 1701 he takes another excursion to San Marcello 
by a new route, and thence onward to the Gila. He fords 
this river at San Dionysio near its junction with the Colorado ; 
and having viewed the neighboring country, repasses the Gila 
and descends the Colorado twenty leagues, among the villages 
of the Yumas and Quinquimas. Here vast numbers of Indians 
come to see the Padre and hear him speak of the white man’s 
God. The Colorado at this place is two hundred yards wide. 
The Indians swim it. If they desire to take anything across, 
it is placed in a water-tight basket, made of rushes and herbs 
called Corysta, and floated along before them. Padre Kino 
crosses the river on a raft made of tree-tops, and finds on the 
other shore, great numbers of Quinquimas, Coanopas, Bagio- 
pas and Octguanes Indians, to whom he explains, by means 
of interpreters, the nature of the true God and the after state. 
He travels on foot three leagues to the residence of the chief 
of the Quinquimas. The country over which he passes is 
level, and covered with a soil fit for tillage and grazing. He 
calls the place Presentacion de Nuestra Senora. In this neigh¬ 
borhood he sees ten thousand Indians. Padre Kino is very 
desirous of travelling to Monterey and Cape Mendocino. 
But it being impossible for his animals to ford the river, he 
reluctantly gives up the hope of progressing farther, and 
returns to his missions in Pimeria. 
In February, 1702, Padre Kino journeys in company with 
Martin Gonzales. On the twenty-eighth they arrive at San Dio¬ 
nysio, at the junction of the Gila and Colorado. On the way 
