[XI-5] In Doc. Hist. Mex., série iv., tom. i., pp. 282-3. Mange's description is as follows:—'One of them is a large edifice, the principal room in the centre being four stories high, and those adjoining it on its four sides, three stories; with walls two varas thick, of strong argamasa y barro [that is, the material of which adobes are made] so smooth on the inside that they resemble planed boards, and so polished that they shine like Puebla pottery. The corners of the windows, which are square, are very straight and without supports or crosspieces of wood, as if made with a mold; the doors are the same, though, narrow, and by this it is known to be the work of Indians; it is 36 paces long by 21 wide, and is well built. At the distance of an arquebuse-shot are seen twelve other buildings half fallen, also with thick walls; and all the roofs burned out except one low room, which has round beams apparently of cedar, or sabino, small and smooth, and over them otates (reeds) of equal size, and a layer of hard mud and mortar, forming a very curious roof or floor. In the vicinity are seen many other ruins and stories, and heaps of rubbish which cover the ground for two leagues; with much broken pottery, plates, and ollas of fine clay painted in various colors and resembling the Guadalajara pottery of New Spain; hence it is inferred that the city was very large and the work of a civilized people under a government. This is verified by a canal which runs from the river over the plain, encircling the settlement, which is in the centre, three leagues in circumference, ten varas wide and four deep, carrying perhaps half the river, and thus serving as a defensive ditch as well as to supply water for the houses and to irrigate the surrounding fields.'
[XI-6] Sedelmair, Relacion, in Doc. Hist. Mex., série iii., tom. iv., p. 847. Orozco y Berra, Geografía, pp. 108-10, takes this description from Sedelmair's MS. in the Mexican archives, as being written by one who was 'almost the discoverer,' but it is a literal copy of Mange's diary. Mange's diary, so far as it relates to the Casa Grande, is translated in Schoolcraft's Arch., vol. iii., p. 301; and Bartlett's Pers. Nar., vol. ii., pp. 281-2.
[XI-7] 'Y vimos toda la vivienda del edificio que es muy grande de quatro altos, cuadradas las paredes y muy gruesas como de dos varas de ancho del dicho barro blanco, y aunque estos jentiles lo han quemado distintas veces, se ven los quatro altos, con buenas salas, aposentos y ventanas curiosamente embarradas por dentro y fuera de manera que están las paredes encaladas y lisas con un barro algo colorado, las puertas muy parejas. Tambien hay inmediatas por fuera once casas algo menores fabricadas con la propia curiosidad de la grande y altas ... y en largo distrito se ve mucha losa quebrada y pintada; tambien se vé una sequia maestra de diez varas de ancho y quatro de alto, y un bordo muy grueso hecho de la misma tierra que va á la casa por un llano.' Bernal, in Doc. Hist. Mex., série iii., tom. iv., p. 804.
[XI-8] Padre Garcés says, 'on this river is situated the house which they call Moctezuma's, and many other ruins of other edifices with very many fragments of pottery both painted and plain. From what I afterwards saw of the Moqui, I have formed a very different idea from that which I before entertained respecting these buildings,' referring to Padre Font for more details. Doc. Hist. Mex., série ii., tom. i., p. 242. Font's account is substantially as follows:—'We carefully examined this edifice and its ruins; the echnographical plan of which I here lay down [The plan does not accompany the translation, but I have the same plan in another MS. which I shall presently mention] and the better to understand it I give the following description and explanation. [Here follows an account of the building of the Casa by the Aztecs when the Devil led them through these regions on their way to Anáhuac]. The site on which this house is built is flat on all sides and at the distance of about one league from the river Gila, and the ruins of the houses which composed the town extend more than a league towards the East and the Cardinal points; and all this land is partially covered with pieces of pots, jugs, plates, &c., some common and others painted of different colours, white, blue, red,' &c., very different from the work of the Pimas. A careful measurement made with a lance showed that 'the house forms an oblong square, facing exactly the four Cardinal points ... and round about it there are ruins indicating a fence or wall which surrounded the house and other buildings, particularly in the corners, where it appears that there has been some edifice like an interior castle or watch-tower, for in the angle which faces towards the S.W. there stands a ruin with its divisions and an upper story. The exterior place [plaza] extends from N. to S. 420 feet and from E. to W. 260 feet. The interior of the house consists of five halls, the three middle ones being of one size and the two extreme ones longer.' The three middle ones are 26 by 10 feet, and the others 38 by 12 feet, and all 11 feet high. The inner doors are of equal size, two by five feet, the outer ones being of double width. The inner walls are four feet thick and well plastered, and the outer walls six feet thick. The house is 70 by 50 feet, the walls sloping somewhat on the outside. 'Before the Eastern doorway, separate from the house there is another building,' 26 by 18 feet, 'without counting the thickness of the walls. The timber, it appears, was of pine, and the nearest mountain bearing pine is at the distance of 25 leagues; it likewise bears some mezquite. All the building is of earth, and according to appearances the walls are built in boxes [moldes] of different sizes. A trench leads from the river at a great distance, by which the town was supplied with water; it is now nearly buried up. Finally, it is perceptible that the Edifice had three stories, and if it be true what the Indians say it had 4, the last being a kind of subterranean vault. For the purpose of giving light to the rooms, nothing is seen but the doors and some round holes in the middle of the walls which face to the East and West, and the Indians said that the Prince whom they call the "bitter man" used to salute the sun through these holes (which are pretty large) at its rising and setting. No signs of stairs remain, and we therefore suppose that they must have been of wood, and that they were destroyed when the building was burnt by the Apaches.' Font's Journal, MS., pp. 8-10; also quoted in Bartlett's Pers. Nar., vol. ii., pp. 278-80; also French translation in Ternaux-Compans, Voy., série i., tom. ix., pp. 383-6.
[XI-9] Beaumont, Crón. Mechoacan, MS., pp. 504-8. See an abridged account from the same source in Padilla, Conq. N. Galicia, MS., p. 125; Arricivita, Crónica Seráfica, pp. 462-3.
[XI-10] Sonora, Rudo Ensayo, pp. 18-9; same also in Doc. Hist. Mex., série iii., tom. iv., pp. 503-4; Velarde, Descrip. de la Pimería, in Doc. Hist. Mex., série iv., tom. i., pp. 362-3. This author speaks of 'algunas paredes de un gran estanque, hecho á mano de cal y canto.' Similar account in Alegre, Hist. Comp. de Jesus, tom. ii., pp. 211-12.
[XI-11] Emory's Reconnoissance, pp. 81-3; Johnston's Journal, in Id., pp. 567-600; Browne's Apache Country, pp. 114-24; Bartlett's Pers. Nar., vol. ii., pp. 271-84. Other authorities, containing, I believe, no original information, are as follows: Humboldt, Essai Pol., pp. 297-8; Baldwin's Anc. Amer., p. 82; Mofras, Explor., tom. ii., p. 361; Gondra, in Prescott, Hist. Conq. Mex., tom. iii., p. 19; Mayer's Mex. Aztec, etc., vol. ii., p. 396, with cut; Id., Observations, p. 15; Id., Mex. as it Was, p. 239; Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. ii., p. 197; Conder's Mex. Guat., vol. ii., pp. 68-9; Buschmann, Spuren der Aztek. Spr., p. 297; Cutts' Conq. of Cal., pp. 186-8; Domenech's Deserts, vol. i., pp. 381-4; Möllhausen, Tagebuch, pp. 309-14; Lafond, Voyages, tom. i., p. 135; Larenaudière, Mex. et Guat., p. 12; Long's Amer. and W. I., pp. 180-1; Malte-Brun, Précis de la Géog., tom. vi., pp. 453; Mill's Hist. Mex., pp. 192-3; Monglave, Résumé, p. 176; Mühlenpfordt, Mejico, tom. ii., pt. ii., pp. 435-6; Müller, Amerikanische Urreligionen, p. 532; Gallatin, in Nouvelles Annales des Voy., 1851, tom. cxxxi., pp. 284-6, 261; Froebel, Aus Amer., tom. ii., pp. 451-2; Gordon's Hist. and Geog. Mem., pp. 86-7; Id., Ancient Mex., vol. i., p. 104; Shuck's Cal. Scrap-Book, p. 669; Robinson's Cal., pp. 93-4; Velasco, in Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin, tom. xi., p. 96; Thümmel, Mexiko, p. 347; DeBercy, L'Europe et L'Amér., pp. 238-9; Ruxton, in Nouvelles Annales des Voy., 1850, tom. cxxvi., pp. 40, 46, 52; San Francisco Chronicle, Jan. 15, 1875; Schoolcraft's Arch., vol. iii., pp. 299-300; Hughes' Doniphan's Ex., p. 219.
[XI-12] Adobes are properly sun-dried bricks without any particular reference to the exact quality or proportions of the ingredients, many varieties of earth or clay being employed, according to the locality and the nature of the structure, with or without a mixture of straw or pebbles. But adobe is a very convenient word to indicate the material itself without reference to the form and size of its blocks or the exact nature of its ingredients; and such a use of the word seems allowable.
[XI-13] Smithsonian Rept., 1869, p. 326; Castañeda, in Ternaux-Compans, Voy., série i., tom. ix., pp. 41, 161-2.
[XI-14] 36 by 21 paces, Mange, in Doc. Hist. Mex., série iv., tom. i., p. 283; 70 by 50 feet, outer walls 6 feet thick, inner 4 feet, Font's Journal, MS., pp. 8-9; walls between 4 and 5 feet thick, Bartlett's Pers. Nar., vol. ii., p. 272; 60 feet square, Emory's Reconnoissance, p. 81.