Church and Mission of San Xavier del Bac, Arizona.
Mission Founded 1699. The Church Here Shown was Finished in 1797.
The year Coronado returned Cabrillo coasted north on the Pacific, touching here and there along what is now California, and died at the Santa Barbara Islands, the command then falling to Ferrelo, who explored as far as what is now the southern line of Oregon. The famous English pirate, Drake, thirty-seven years later, with his vessel filled with Spanish plunder, sailed north from the west coast of Mexico endeavouring to find a water passage to the Atlantic. He repaired his ship in a bay, and to-day, just north of the Golden Gate, a small bay is known as Drake's Bay. Another thirteen years and a Greek, Juan de Fuca, discovered the strait which is now known by his name, as well as the great arm of the sea called Puget's Sound. Four years after this Vizcaino was sent with three vessels to explore the northern coast, but he did not then go beyond the Gulf of California.[46]
Then Philip III. came to the throne and adopted more vigorous measures than his predecessor. Vizcaino was again sent forth, in 1602, with a command to make a close examination of the coast, and this expedition had fruitful results in breaking the Wilderness in that direction. Vizcaino entered the harbour of San Diego, which had earlier been visited by Cabrillo. Here he heard accounts of the New Mexican settlements from the natives. Then he sailed past the Santa Barbara Islands, turned Cape Concepcion, which he named, and made a general examination, covering the same course as Cabrillo, which convinced him that the land was fertile and a good place for colonies. He finally obtained permission to organise and settle the region, but died before he could execute his plans. Many years then rolled away with no attempt to open the rich Californian lands. It was not till 1697 that any settlement was made, and this was in Lower California, on the east side, and was called Loreto, the beginning of Friar Salvatierra's Jesuit missions, in which enterprises he was assisted by friars Kino, Piccolo, Ugarte, and others, who, with great labour, extending over a period of sixty years, founded and maintained sixteen missionary settlements, all on the east side of the peninsula and none in Upper or Alta California. Kino had established in Sonora, in 1687, the mission of Dolores, and from this place he passed back and forth to the missions of Lower California, learning the topography of the region around the mouth of the Colorado and making, in 1701, a fairly accurate map of the head of the Gulf. He was the first white man to see the now famous Pima ruins, called Casa Grande, a huge adobe mass of thick walls built in prehistoric times.
On the Yuma Desert.
Character of the Country around the Head of the Gulf of California.