[78] The province of Biscay was, properly speaking, Nueva Vizcaya. Originally extensive, and including Sonora, it by this time comprised only the present states of Chihuahua and Durango. Hanas is doubtless Janos (named for an Indian tribe), one of the fortified towns of Chihuahua, situated on the Casas Grandes River.—Ed.
[79] The mountains crossed were the Sierra Madre. Bavispe (Barbisca) was a presidio in the northeastern part of Sonora; it is situated on the river of the same name, one of the main forks of the Yaqui, the largest Sonoran river, which follows a southwest course and falls into the Gulf of California below Port-Guaymas. The village was destroyed by an earthquake in May, 1887.—Ed.
[80] The Yaquis Indians, living along the Yaqui River, have been difficult to keep in subjection; they revolted in 1740, and again in 1825. At present constituting the laboring class of Sonora, although living apart from whites, in their own villages, they are much employed in the gold mines, in which Sonora abounds, being one of the richest mining districts in the world. The mine described by Pattie was evidently near the present village of Tepache, northeast of the centre of the state, which is still strewn with abandoned shafts.—Ed.
[81] Sonora has had several capitals, and it is uncertain to which Pattie here refers. The present executive town is Hermosillo, on the Sonora River. Its earlier rival was Ures, some miles up the same river.—Ed.
[82] Pattie sees here the Gulf of California, whose principal port is still Guaymas, with a population of about five thousand five hundred.—Ed.
[83] The Mexican revolt against Spain began with the rising of Hidalgo in 1810, and was carried on with varying success until apparently quelled in 1817. But the Spanish revolution of 1820 was the signal for a new and successful outbreak, and Mexico became independent the following year.—Ed.
[84] These were probably the mines of Cosihuiriachi, located in the Sierra de Metates, about ninety miles west of the capital of Chihuahua. Accidentally discovered at the end of the eighteenth century, they became highly profitable, the number of persons living there in Spanish times being estimated at ten thousand. As in the case of the copper mines, the plundering of the Apache caused a decline, and by 1850 most of them had been abandoned. For further details, see Wislizenus, "A Tour to Northern Mexico" (Senate Misc., 30 Cong., 1 sess., 26, pp. 51-53).—Ed.
[85] Chihuahua, the capital of the state of that name, is attractively situated in a valley of the Sierra Madre Mountains, about a hundred miles west of the Rio Grande River. It was settled about 1691, the population being considerably greater in Spanish than in Mexican times. The most noteworthy building is the cathedral, perhaps the richest and most beautiful in Mexico. A second large church was begun by the Jesuits, but never completed; it served as a prison for the patriot Hidalgo before his execution. See Wislizenus, op. cit., pp. 60-63.—Ed.
[86] San Buenaventura was originally a Franciscan mission about a hundred and eighty miles northeast of Chihuahua. It was frequently disturbed by Apache attacks, and about 1775 was moved a short distance and made one of the frontier presidios.—Ed.
[87] From its location this river would seem to be the Santa Maria, a small stream which rises in the mountains south of San Buenaventura, and flowing northward loses itself in a lake not far from El Paso.—Ed.