116 
FRUITLESS ATTEMPTS TO SUBJUGATE THE MOQUINOS. 
country of the Sobaypuris, or Fimas, now called Papagos, extending along the river Glila, to 
the country of the Coco-Maricopas, who were professed infidels, and perpetually at war with the 
Nijoras, selling their Nijoran prisoners to the Pimas, and these to the Spaniards.” Nothing, 
however, was done until 1742, when the order for the reduction of Moqui was renewed, and 
Father Ignacio Keler, missionary of Santa Maria Suamca, directed to make the attempt. This 
father, in the preceding years, had been several times as far as the river Gila, both to visit his 
neophytes, and to keep up a friendship with the Indians, who were enemies to the Apaches. In 
September, 1743, he set out from his mission with a very small guard; came to Rio Gila, and 
continued his journey some days further to the northward, till he came among rancherias, 
where a different language was spoken, and the people were quite unknown. By these Indians 
he was attacked, and driven hack to his mission. 
In October, 1744, Father Jacob Sedelmayer set out upon a similar expedition from his 
mission of Tibutama, and, after travelling eighty leagues, reached Rio Gila, where he found 
six thousand Papagos, and near the same number of Pimas and Coco-Maricopas, dwelling in 
different rancherias. These Gila Indians threw so many obstacles in the way of his going to 
Moqui, that Father Sedelmayer was obliged to abandon the attempt. But, with consent of the 
Coco-Maricopas, he took a view of the whole territory they inhabited on each side of the Gila, 
went into the inward parts of their country, and returned from thence to the river Colorado 
and the country of the Yumas, who were enemies of the Coco-Maricopas, though in all appear¬ 
ance a branch of their nation, for the interpreter av1io accompanied the party sufficiently 
understood the language of the Yumas. The accounts of Father Sedelmayer show that the 
banks near the source of Rio Gila are inhabited by Apaches. At some distance below, that 
river is joined by the Azul, which is thought to issue from the mountains, and water the 
pleasant and fruitful country of the Nijoras till its influx into the Gila. Afterwards, on both 
sides of this river, there is an uninhabited tract of about twenty leagues, at the end of Avliich 
are three large rancherias of Pimas, the greatest of Avhich, called Judac, occupies fourteen 
leagues of a pleasant, fertile country, well watered by means of trenches, which, the country 
being level, are easily carried from the Gila. TAvelve leagues further toAvards the northeast 
(NAY. ?) is the new-discpvered river De la Assumption, composed of two rivers, namely, El 
Salado and El Verde, which, in their way to the Gila, run through a very pleasant, level 
country of arable land, inhabited by the Coco-Maricopas, Avho are separated from the Pimas by 
a desert, though united to them in consanguinity. Their kingdom is bounded on the west by 
a desert and mountainous country extending to the rancherias of the Yumas, Avho live along 
the river Colorado, but beloAV its junction with the Gila. Over the desert, the Coco-Maricopas 
pass to the river Colorado, though there is a much shorter way by the conflux of the tAvo rivers. 
Across this desert they led Father Sedelmayer, who, it seems, did not visit the above-men¬ 
tioned junction of the rivers, Avhich Father Kino saw and named SanDionysio; nor did he 
know anything of the Achedomas, who, according to Kino, inhabit the eastern shore of the 
Colorado, northward from that place. The Yumas are inveterate enemies of the Gila Coco- 
Maricopas ; yet the two tribes speak the same language. On the western side of the Colorado, 
there are likeAvise rancherias of Coco-Maricopas, allied to those of the Gila, and living in a val- 
ley thirty-six leagues in length, and for the space of nine leagues remarkably fertile and 
pleasant, cultivated for kidney beans, calabashes, melons, and other esculent vegetables, and 
by their industry well watered. * * * * * * * 
The Apaches are those within the circular tract of ground extending from the river Chi- 
guagua, by the garrison of Janos Fronteros, Anterenate or Guevavi, to the Gila. It is 
bounded on the north by the country of the Moqui and NeAV Mexico ; on the east by the garrison 
of Paso ; and on the south by the garrison of Chiguagua. AVithinthis circuit of three hundred 
leagues, the Apaches reside in their small rancherias, erected in the valleys and the breaches of 
mountains. The country also is of very difficult access, from the cragginess of the mountains 
and the scarcity of water. According to some prisoners Avho have been ransomed, they are 
