CASA GRANDE OF THE GILA.
Padre Jacobo Sedelmair visited the Casa Grande in 1744, but in his narrative he copies Mange's account. He went further, however, and discovered other ruins.[XI-6]
AUTHORITIES ON THE CASA GRANDE.
Lieut C. M. Bernal seems to have been military commandant in Kino's expedition, and he also describes the ruin in his report.[XI-7] Padres Garcés and Font made a journey in 1775-6, under Capt. Anza, to the Gila and Colorado valleys, and thence to the missions of Alta California and the Moqui towns. Both mention the ruin in their diaries, the latter giving quite a full account. I know not if Padre Font's diary has ever been printed, but I have in my collection an English manuscript translation from the original in the archives at Guadalajara,—perhaps the same copy from which Mr Bartlett made the extracts which he printed in his work.[XI-8] Font's plan is not given with the translation, but in Beaumont's Crónica de Mechoacan, a very important work never published, of which I have a copy made from the original for the Mexican Imperial Library of Maximilian, I find a description of the Casa Grande, which appears to have been quoted literally from Font's diary, and which also contains the ground plan of the ruined edifice. I shall notice hereafter its variations from the plan which I shall copy.[XI-9] A brief account was given in the Rudo Ensayo, written about 1761, and by Velarde in his notice of the Pimería, written probably toward the close of the eighteenth century; but neither of these descriptions contained any additional information, having been made up probably from the preceding.[XI-10]
Finally the Casa Grande has been visited, sketched, and described by Emory and Johnston, connected with Gen. Kearny's military expedition to California in 1846; by Bartlett with the Mexican Boundary Commission in 1852; and by Ross Browne in 1863.[XI-11]
The descriptions of different writers do not differ very materially one from another, Bartlett's among the later, and Font's of the earlier accounts being the most complete. From all the authorities I make up the following description, although the extracts which I have already given include nearly all that can be said on the subject. The Casa Grande stands about two miles and a half south of the bank of the Gila;—that is all the early writers call the distance about a league; Bartlett and Emory say nothing of the distance, and Ross Browne says it is half an hour's ride. The Gila valley in this region is a level bottom of varying width, with nearly perpendicular banks of earth. Opposite the ruin the bottom is about a mile wide on the southern bank of the river, and the ruin itself stands on the raised plateau beyond, surrounded by a thick growth of mesquite with an occasional pitahaya. The height and nature of the ascent from the bottom to the plateau at this particular point are not stated; but from the fact that acequias are reported leading from the river to the buildings, it would seem that the ascent must be very slight and gradual.
The appearance of the ruins in 1863 is shown in the cut as sketched by Ross Browne. Other sketches by Bartlett, Emory, and Johnston, agree very well with the one given, but none of them indicate the presence of the mesquite forest mentioned in Mr Bartlett's text. The material of the buildings is adobe,[XI-12] that is, the ordinary mud of the locality mixed with gravel. Most writers say nothing of its color, although Bernal in 1697 pronounced it 'white clay,' and Johnston also says it is white, probably with an admixture of lime, which, as he states, is abundant in the vicinity. Mr Hutton, a civil engineer well acquainted with the ruins, assured Mr Simpson that the surrounding earth is of a reddish color, although by reason of the pebbles the Casa has a whitish appearance in certain reflections. This matter of color is of no great importance except to prove the identity of the building with Castañeda's Chichilticale, which he expressly states to have been built of red earth.[XI-13] The material instead of being formed into small rectangular or brick-shaped blocks, as is customary in all Spanish American countries to this day, seems in this aboriginal structure to have been molded—perhaps by means of wooden boxes—and dried where it was to remain in the walls, in blocks of varying size, but generally four feet long by two feet in width and thickness. The outer surface of the walls was plastered with the same material which constituted the blocks, and the inner walls were hard-finished with a finer composition of the same nature, which in many parts has retained its smooth and even polished surface. Adobe is a very durable building-material, so long as a little attention is given to repairs, but it is really wonderful that the walls of the Casa Grande have resisted, uncared for, the ravages of time and the elements for over three hundred years of known age, and of certainly a century—perhaps much more—of pre-Spanish existence.
