Chap. V. SANTA CRUZ. 493 
CHAPTER V. 
River and Valley of Santa Crnz — Landscape Scenery — Hacienda de la Cala- 
basa and its German Inhabitants — Fights with the Apaches — The old 
Mission of Tumacacori — Travelling Companions — Sagnarro, or the Giant 
Cactns — San Xavier del Bac — Old Acquaintances — Christian Pimas — 
European Adventurers in the Service of a Sonora private Gentleman — 
Tubac — Tucson — A Desert of Dust and Clay — Isolated Pyramid of Rock 
— Scenes in the Desert — Gila Lagoon — Heathen Pimas — The Mezquite 
Bean — Idyllic Scenes, and Character of the Pimas. 
The valley of Santa Cruz, a few miles below the town, 
makes a great bend ; and the small stream through it, 
which in the upper part runs south, takes in the lower part 
a north-west and north course. To judge from this direc- 
tion, it appears inclined to unite with the Gila ; but, before 
reaching this river, it is lost in the desert a few miles below 
Tucson. 
The town of Santa Cruz, a small dilapidated place, with 
a population who cultivate their cornfields at the risk of 
their lives, lies in this valley, just at the western foot of 
that wild and rugged mountain which obliged us to retrace 
our steps. It is said to be the highest inhabited place in 
Sonora : at all events it belongs to the " tierra fria " (the 
cold region) of Mexican climatology. Snow falls here in 
winter : the summer rains come on at the end of June or 
the middle of July, and with them begins the second growth 
of vegetation, and the summer grass-crop, unless where 
springs or an artificial irrigation renders the soil able to 
dispense with rain. In October there is frost again. The 
climate is, to a northerner, unquestionably one of the most 
beautiful, as it is one of the healthiest in the world ; and is 
