[IV'-34] Before undertaking to answer this query, it would be well to ascertain the fact. The scorpions which Pike describes are known by the Spanish name alacran, and I presume are closely related to the widely distributed Androctonus biaculeatus, if not the same species. Kendall's Narrative of the Texan Expedition of 1841, pub. Lond., 1845, II. p. 114, cites Pike in this connection, and also has: "I believe that the city of Durango is somewhat celebrated for the beauty and talent of its women—I know that it is noted for the numbers and venomous qualities of its alicrans, or scorpions. Frequently, while travelling through the State of Durango, were we regaled with Mexican stories of the swarms of poisonous alicrans which infest the capital.... A bounty of some three or six cents ... is paid by the authorities for each insect secured, and according to some of the stories told us, no inconsiderable business is carried on in catching and bottling the much dreaded scorpions." When Gregg was in Durango, March, 1835, he noted that city "as being the headquarters, as it were, of the whole scorpion family. During the spring, especially, so much are the houses infested by these poisonous insects, that many people are obliged to have resort to a kind of mosquito bar, in order to keep them out of their beds at night. As an expedient to deliver the city from this terrible pest, a society has already been formed, which pays a reward of a cuartilla (three cents) for every alacran (or scorpion) that is brought to them. Stimulated by the desire of gain, the idle boys of the city are always on the look-out; so that, in the course of a year, immense numbers of this public enemy are captured and slaughtered. The body of this insect is of the bulk and cast of a medium spider, with a jointed tail one or two inches long, at the end of which is a sting whose wounds are so poisonous as often to prove fatal to children, and are very painful to adults. The most extraordinary peculiarity of these scorpions is, that they are far less dangerous in the north than in the south, which in some manner accounts for the story told Capt. Pike, that even those of Durango lose most of their venom as soon as they are removed a few miles from the city," says Gregg, very sensibly, Comm. Pra., II. 1844, p. 89. Hughes, Doniphan Exp., p. 128: "the soldiers would sometimes shake their blankets, toss ... the lizards and alacrans, exclaiming angrily, 'd——n the scorpion family!'"
[IV'-35] Gregg, Comm. Pra., II. 1844, p. 114, cites Pike in his own description of Chihuahua, as it appeared to him in 1839, and the two accounts may be here brought together. Noting the regularity of the city in comparison with Santa Fé, the dressing of the best buildings with hewn stone, the paving of some of the streets, and the population of about 10,000, this author continues:
"The most splendid edifice in Chihuahua is the principal church, which is said to equal in architectural grandeur anything of the sort in the republic. The steeples, of which there is one at each front corner, rise over 100 feet above the azotea [roof]. They are composed of very fancifully-carved columns; and in appropriate niches of the frontispiece, which is also an elaborate piece of sculpture, are to be seen a number of statues, as large as life, the whole forming a complete representation of Christ and the 12 Apostles. This church was built about a century ago, by contributions levied upon the mines (particularly those of Santa Eulalia, 15 or 20 miles from the city), which paid over a percentage on all the metal extracted therefrom; a medio [6¼ cents], I believe, being levied upon each marco of eight ounces. In this way, about a million of dollars was raised and expended in some 30 years, the time employed in the construction of the building. It is a curious fact, however, that, notwithstanding the enormous sums of money expended in outward embellishments, there is not a church from thence southward, perhaps, where the interior arrangements bear such striking marks of poverty and neglect. If, however, we are not dazzled by the sight of these costly decorations for which the churches of Southern Mexico are so much celebrated, we have the satisfaction of knowing that the turrets are well provided with bells, a fact of which every person who visits Chihuahua very soon obtains auricular demonstration. One, in particular, is so large and sonorous that it has frequently been heard, so I am informed, at the distance of 25 miles.
"A little below the Plaza Mayor stand the ruins (as they may be called) of San Francisco—the mere skeleton of another great church of hewn stone, which was commenced by the Jesuits previous to their expulsion in 1767, but never finished. By the outlines still traceable amid the desolation which reigns around, it would appear that the plan of this edifice was conceived in a spirit of still greater magnificence than the Parroquia which I have been describing. The abounding architectural treasures that are mouldering and ready to tumble to the ground bear sufficient evidence that the mind which had directed its progress was at once bold, vigorous, and comprehensive.
"This dilapidated building has since been converted into a sort of state prison, particularly for the incarceration of distinguished prisoners. It was here that the principals of the famous Texan Santa Fé Expedition were confined, when they passed through the place, on their way to the City of Mexico. This edifice has also acquired considerable celebrity as having received within its gloomy embraces several of the most distinguished patriots, who were taken prisoners during the first infant struggles for Mexican independence. Among these was the illustrious ecclesiastic, Don Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, who made the first declaration at the village of Dolores, September 16, 1810. He was taken prisoner in March, 1811, some time after his total defeat at Guadalaxara; and being brought to Chihuahua, he was shot on the 30th of July following, in a little square back of the prison, where a plain white monument of hewn stone has been erected to his memory. It consists of an octagon base of about 25 feet in diameter, upon which rises a square, unornamented pyramid to the height of about 30 feet. The monument indeed is not an unapt emblem of the purity and simplicity of the curate's character.
"Among the few remarkable objects which attract the attention of the traveller is a row of columns supporting a large number of stupendous arches which may be seen from the heights, long before approaching the city from the north. This is an aqueduct of considerable magnitude which conveys water from the little river of Chihuahua, to an eminence above the town, whence it is passed through a succession of pipes to the main public square, where it empties itself into a large stone cistern; and by this method the city is supplied with water. This and other public works to be met with in Chihuahua, and in the southern cities, are glorious remnants of the prosperous times of the Spanish empire. No improvements on so exalted a scale have ever been made under the republican government.... ¡Ojalá por los dias felices del Rey!"
[IV'-36] Sonora then was nearly the same as the present State of that name, but lost a northern strip (the Gadsden Purchase) to our Arizona, and also lost its New Mexican line. For the present boundary between it and the United States, running on lat. 31° 20´ N. to long. 111° W., see [note32, p. 645]. In Mexico, Sonora is now bounded on the E. by Chihuahua, on the S. by Sinaloa, and on the W. by the Gulf of California, except the short extent to which the Colorado r. separates it from Lower California. Area, 77,550 sq. m.; pop. 140,500; capital, Hermosillo, pop. 7,000; principal seaport, Guaymas, pop. 5,500, situated in lat. 27° 56´ N., long. 110° 36´ W.
[IV'-37] The whole Sonoran water-shed is Pacific, and the river-system runs on general S. and S. W. courses to the Gulf, in a series of somewhat parallel streams. The northernmost one of these, of any size, which Pike calls Ascencion r., I find lettered Rio Altar; its main branch is Rio Magdalena; some of its ultimate sources are in Arizona, in the country about Arivaca, Tubac, and old Fort Mason; it discharges between George's bay and Cape Tepoca. The Sonora is much larger, with a main branch called San Miguel; it discharges opposite Tiburon isl. Arizpa, which Pike speaks of as near the head of the Yaqui, is high up on the right bank of the Sonora; lower down is Hermosillo (lat. 29° 10´ N., long. 110° 45´ W.). The Yaqui is the largest Sonoran river, falling into the Gulf below Guaymas and above Point Lobos. It has two main forks, Rio Moctezuma and Rio Bavispe. Rio Matape, a small river, is the one that falls in at Guaymas, and not the Yaqui. Another small one, Rio Mayo, falls in below Vacamora and Point Rosa. Rio Alamos, which heads in Sonora, falls over the Sinaloan boundary.
[IV'-38] Arizpe is now a small place, with a population of probably 4,000, and is of interest chiefly to the antiquarian. The original mission of Arizpe was already over 150 years old in Pike's time, and the place is believed to have been an Opata village as early as 1540. The derivation of the name is given as the Opata word arit, meaning "ant." The name Arizpe suggests the obvious conjecture, that the root of the word Arizona, the derivation of which has been so much mooted, may be here found. How this may be, I do not know; but Arizona does not appear to be Spanish, and certainly any such etymology as Lat. arida zona, which has been adduced among others, is fictitious.
[IV'-39] Tubson is now Tucson, Ariz. San Cruz is Santa Cruz, also in Arizona, on or near the branch of the Gila of that name. Tubac is likewise now Arizonian, being a place about on long. 111° W., N. W. of Nogales, and not far from old Forts Mason and Crittenden. Altac is Altar, on the Sonoran river of that name. "Fiuntenas" I take to be a misprint for Fronteras, a place on one of the headwaters of the Yaqui, about lat. 31° N. Bacuachi is on one of the branches of the Sonora r., above Arizpe. Bavista is Bavispe, a place high up on the river of that name, close to the eastern border of the State. Horcasites, to judge from its location on Pike's map, was on or near the Sonora r., in the vicinity of present Ures; but I have not found the place. Near it Pike locates a Presidio San Antonio, omitted from the text. Buenavista is a place low down on the Yaqui r.; the present road from Punta de Agua on Rio Matape goes through it to Batacoso, Alamos, and so on.