While the makers of the later of these maps were engaged in perpetuating the vestigial features, erroneous and otherwise, of the Kino map, the Jesuits of peninsular California employed themselves in reexploration of the western coast of the gulf, a particularly productive expedition being that of Padre Ferdinando Consag, in 1747. The padre’s map represents the western coast in considerable though much distorted detail, and depicts “I. del Angel de la Guarda” as a greatly elongated body, a third of the way across the gulf from the western coast; next in size is “I. d S. Lorenzo”; then come “ I. d S. Esteban” in the middle of the gulf, and in the same transverse line, but quite near the eastern coast, “I. d S. Agustin”, the two being approximately equal in size, while above and about equidistant from them is “I. de S. Pedro”, about half so large as either. These, with four smaller islands near the western coast, bear the general designation “Islas de Sal, si puedes”, which in this case may be translated “Salt (possibly) islands,” though later forms of the name imply a quite different meaning, i. e., “Islands of Get-out-if-(you-)can”, or “Get-out-if-canst”.[72] The eastern coast shows two deep indentations named “Tepoca” and “Bahia d S. Juan Bautista” bounding a peninsula corresponding in position to insular Seriland.[73] It is evident that the cartography of the eastern coast is based on that of Kino, that the island of San Agustin is hypothetic, and that the land-mass of Tiburon proper is not separated from the mainland, while San Pedro island is apparently the Isla Patos of the present. The more general map by Venegas combines details of the Consag, Kino, and other maps; “I. del Angel de la Guarda” is greatly magnified and placed somewhat too far northward, while both San Lorenzo and San Esteban are made much larger than “I. San Agustin”, which is represented as scarcely larger than “I. de S. Pedro”; the mainland is indented to great depth by Kino’s “Pto. de Sta. Sabina” and “Bahia de Sn. Juan Baptista”, in such wise as to define a decided peninsula, while the “Seris” are located 2° farther southward and below Rio Sonora, and the “Guaimas” still farther down the coast.[74] Another illustration of the chaotic notions of the time is afforded by the Baegert map, published in 1773, and credited largely to Consag.[75] The sheet locates the author’s routes of arrival (1751) and departure (1768), the former overland from far down the coast to the mouth of “Torrens Hiaqui,” and thence directly across “Mare Californiae”, via “Tiburon” (lying just off the mouth of the river, in latitude 28°), with the usual congeries of islands, headed by “I. S. Ang. Gart” (Angel de la Guarda), in latitude 30°-31°, and the usual shore configuration above the debouchure of Rio Sonora; “Los Seris” are located in the interior between Rio Sonora and “Torrens Hiaqui”, while just above the mouth of the latter lies “Guaÿmas M.[ission] destr. per Apostatas Seris”. The Pownall map of 1786 incorporates Padre Consag’s results on reduced scale, but omits the islands toward the eastern shore of the gulf.[76]
On the whole the cartography of a century indicates that the striking explorations of Ulloa, Alarcon, and Diaz were utterly neglected; it indicates, too, that Kino’s observations were promptly adopted, but that his erroneous identification of the island seen from Nazareno occasioned confusion; yet there is nothing to indicate definite knowledge of Escalante’s discoveries. Apparently the cartographic tangle began with the failure to discover the narrow strait traversing Seriland, coupled with hearsay notions of an insular Seri stronghold; it was complicated by Kino’s erroneous identification of the hearsay island; and it grew into the mapping of a traditional islet about the position of Tiburon, and the extension of the mainland into a peninsula embracing the actual land-mass of that island[77]—the islet lying about the site of the modern Isla Tassne, and often appearing under the name San Agustin.[78] Accordingly, so far as maps are concerned, Escalante’s discoveries were no less completely lost than those of Ulloa.
The recorded, history of the Seri Indians during the earlier two-thirds of the eighteenth century is largely one of zealous effort at conversion on the part of the Jesuit missionaries, who repeatedly approached the territory by both land and sea; yet the records touch also on events of exploration and on the characteristics of the tribe.
One of the earliest chroniclers was Padre Juan Maria de Sonora, who in 1699-1701 inspected many of the missions of Lower California and Sonora and acquainted himself in exceptional degree with the neophytes and their wilder kindred. About the beginning of 1701 he crossed with great danger (“pasé con grande peligro”) from Loreto to the eastern coast, and, accompanied by two “Indios Guaymas, caciques,” proceeded among the Sonoran settlements.[79] On February 18 he was at the new town of Magdalena (de Tepoca), “where, with great labor, Padre Melchor Bartiromo had gathered more than a hundred souls of the maritime nation of Tepocas”, and where the visitors were accorded an enthusiastic reception. He went on to say:
It is notable that where the Tepocas and Salineros are located the sea is populous with islands [muy poblado de islas], and the first of these toward the coast contains foot-folk [gente de á pié], who live on it. Then there are two islands much nearer the mainland of California, and it is said that they [the Tepoka] are able to navigate in their barquillas [balsas] to the adjacent coast; and the possession of these Tepocas, who are all Seris by nation, of certain words of the Cuchimies of [Lower] California, who occupy the opposite coast, indicates that they have communicated in other times.[80]
This record is especially significant as indicating the affinity between the Seri and the Tepoka, as establishing the transnavigation of the Gulf by the Seri craft, and as explaining the possible passage of loan words from the Cochimi to the Seri, and presumptively from the Seri to the Cochimi.
A notable visitor to the shores of Seriland was Padre Juan Maria Salvatierra, who had previously “made a peace betwixt the Seris cristians, and the Pimas”, soon violated by the former “in the murder of 40 Pimas”. In August, 1709, he essayed the recovery of a vessel wrecked “on the barren coast of the Seris”, which these Indians were engaged in looting and breaking up for the nails; and, by dint of his “persuasive elocution ... not a little forwarded by the respectable sweetness of his air”, aided by timely explosions of the bark’s pateraroes (mortars), he induced restitution, the restoration of peace, and the reinstatement of several of the robbing and murdering Seri as communicants.[81] Padre Salvatierra observed the distinctive character of the Seri tongue, but made no extended exploration of Seriland, either coastwise or interior.
The next noteworthy visitor was Padre Juan de Ugarte, who, at the instance of Salvatierra, undertook an exploration of the gulf coast complementary to Kino’s land explorations about its northern terminus. Ugarte was the Hercules of Baja California history; he awed the natives by slaying a California lion, unarmed save with stones, and enforced orderly attention to his catechizing by seizing an obstreperous champion by the hair, lifting him at arm’s length, and shaking him into submission; and under incredible difficulties due to absence of material and distance of timber, he built the first vessel ever constructed in California, the bilander (two-master) El Triunfo de la Cruz—a fit prototype of the Oregon of nearly two centuries later—which proved to be the finest craft ever seen on the coast, and played an important role in later history.[82]
On May 15, 1721, Ugarte embarked at Loreto (Lower California) and skirted the coast northward to the Islas de Salsipuedes, whence he crossed the gulf to “Puerto de Santa Sabina, ó Bahia de San Juan Bautista” near the islands “en la Costa de los Tepoquis, y Seris”.[83] The Indians soon appeared and, in excess of amity (ascribed to the display of the cross), threw themselves into the sea and swam to the ship, and afterward aided in taking water; for “early next day the Indians appeared in troops, and all with water-vessels; the men each with two in nets hanging from a pole across their shoulders, and the women with one.”[84] After watering, the Ugarte party, accompanied by two of the Indians, set sail in the bilander with a pinnace and a canoe, and in the early morning found themselves in a narrow channel apparently separating the island from the mainland; the pinnace and the canoe were dispatched to courier the larger craft; but “the channel, besides being narrow and crooked, was so full of shoals that ... the bilander stuck and was in danger of being lost”, while the canoe and the pinnace were caught by the currents and carried “to such a distance as not to be seen”. Finding it impossible to return, the party pushed on, and “after three days of continual danger, they reached the mouth of the channel, where they found the boat and pinnace”; when they were surprised to find the strait opening, not into the gulf, but into a great and spacious bay. Approaching a landing, they were met by Indian archers wearing feather headdresses and comporting themselves in a threatening manner; but these were pacified by the two Indians brought from the watering-place. Here Ugarte was taken ill, and the islanders made thirteen “balsillas” on which fifty Indians passed to the bilander and urged him to land on the island, where they had prepared a house for his reception; this he did, despite severe suffering, and was received with great ceremony. After a short stay, the party explored the coast northward, stopping off Caborca to lay in supplies, and discovered (anew and independently) the mouth of the Colorado; then, despite repeated risk and much suffering from the exceeding tides, severe storms, and the terrible tiderips off Islas Salsipuedes, they finally made return to Loreto.