He Built His Little Camp Fire, Cooked
His Frugal Meal, And Slept There During The Night, Doubtless Committing
Himself And The People Who Refused To Receive Him To The Protecting
Mercies Of God.
The next day the chiefs of the town came to him, clothed in
their ceremonial costumes and feathery head-dresses, and bade him leave the
place.
He held up his crucifix as an index of his mission, and endeavored
to tell them that he came solely to do them good. But they would have none
of him, and on the following day, the memorable Fourth of July, they
expelled him peaceably but forcibly from their town. He returned to the
Colorado River again on July 25, and soon to San Xavier, his mission, a
failure.
Establishes Missions among the Yumas. Now he threw his whole heart into the
two missions which the authorities had decided to place among the Yumas.
Captain Palma, a Yuma chief, who had been very friendly, had urged it
repeatedly, and now the desires of both were to be fulfilled. In 1779,
Garces went to prepare the way, and the following year the establishment
took place. The missions were eight miles apart; one was named La Purisima
Concepcion; the other, San Pedro y San Pablo de Bicuner. Garces and
Barraneche took charge of the upper mission, and Diaz and Moreno of the
lower.
Garces Is Killed. The missions were a failure from the start. The few
Spanish soldiers sent to guard the padres were obliged to utilize some of
the best lands which were tilled for their own benefit. The appropriations
from the treasury were too small to permit of anything but the rudest and
simplest of structures, and Palma and his friends soon became disgusted
with the whole affair. On July 17 the Indians, many of whom had been
hostile from the first, arose and massacred both colonies of white men, as
well as a small force of soldiers under former Governor Rivera, of
California, who was encamped temporarily on the western side of the river.
At first, Garces' life was spared, but before the day was over he and his
co-laborer were beaten to death, and his unselfish mission on earth ended.
In my book "In and Out of the Old Missions of California", I give this
interesting and tragic history in fuller detail. This, then, is the man
whose name is given to the railway building at Needles, in order that his
heroic labors for the Indians of the Colorado River region may not be
forgotten.
CHAPTER XXVI. Powell's And Other Explorations Of The Grand Canyon
In the chapters on Tovar and Cardenas, Fray Marcos and Garces, I have given
some idea of the history of the Spanish explorations of the Grand Canyon
region. In this chapter is presented an account of the brave work done by
later explorers, until now the Grand Canyon and the whole canyon system of
the Colorado River is as well known as the course of many a less dangerous
stream.
Early American Trappers. Who can know whether any of those daring souls,
the trappers of the earliest days of American history, ever penetrated to
the depths of these canyons in their expeditions after the pelts of
fur-bearing animals? These men were the true pioneers. They ever kept
thrusting the frontier line further forward. As civilization, with people,
villages, towns, cultivated lands, advanced westward, still further west
pushed the trapper. Civilization was a hindrance to his business. The wild
animals he sought fled from the presence of many men. Though the Indian had
penetrated more or less to all these secluded regions, the Indian has
enough of the reserve of outdoor life not to disturb any of the animals. It
is the imperious, self-willed, noisy white man who drives away the shy
creatures of the wild.
United States Purchases New Territory. In 1815, the small nation known as
the United States had become eager to grow, and Jefferson had made his
memorable purchase of all the territory north of the Red River, the
Arkansas and the forty-second parallel, as far as the British boundary or
Canadian line, then still unsettled, and the disputed region of Oregon.
Lewis and Clark had made their wonderful expedition, and the world, through
the publication of their report, knew a little of the immense territory now
acquired. In the previous century, the Spaniards had discovered the value
of the pelts of the fur-bearing animals of California, and a few
venturesome spirits were soon to learn that the western mountains, forests
and rivers abounded in the same profitable game. In his interesting and
illuminative American Fur Trade of the Far West, Chittenden has shed a
flood of light on these early-day operations.
Trappers Seek Riches. Padilla, Kino, Garces, Escalante, and others of the
brave Spanish padres, had penetrated into some portion of these unknown
territories, but they had gone with the vow of poverty upon them. No greed
for gold blinded their eyes to the rights of others. A hunger for the
salvation of souls was their only hunger; the glitter of the golden harps
and crowns in heaven the only glitter that attracted them. But the trappers
had a different purpose. They were a different kind of men. Rough and
ready, venturesome to the last degree, turbulent as the raging Colorado,
imperious in their high-handed dealing with all who stood in their way,
they were about to enter the conflict for the sake of gold, and gold is the
most remorseless driver, the most soul-destroying master man ever has had.
Trappers the Primary Cause of Indian Wars. It has been the trappers who
largely have given to us our notions of the American Indians of the West.
For they were the first men to come into conflict with them. They were the
first to dispute with them about water-holes and springs, about "rights,"
about "property." Is it necessary to ask what kind of a report such men
would bring of any who stood in their way?
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