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Chapter Five Apaches, Livestock, Politics, and Jesuits Midnight Marauding De dhas sierras espian los cavallos mulas y rezes q andan en los campos y de noche recogen y los lleban y si ven pasar algunas personas por algunos puertos estrechos salen a matarlos—Juo Baupta de Anssa (rúbrica) . . . From the said mountains they spy out the horses, mules, and cattle grazing in the fields, and by night they gather and drive them off, and if they should see anyone passing through the narrow canyons, they ride out to kill them—Juan Bautista de Anza (rubric)1 The territory for which Juan Bautista de Anza found himself responsible as captain of the presidio at Fronteras was so vast as to stagger the imagination of any European of his day. It was ten times the size of his native Basque country. It was twice the size of Portugal and one-third the size of the entire country of Spain. It covered over 100,000 square miles. And he was expected to protect it with fifty men! His area of responsibility ran north from Fronteras past the Chiricahua Mountains to the Gila River in present-day Arizona.2 It ran west to the Colorado River and the Gulf of California. It went south at least as far as present-day Guaymas, Sonora, and east to the present-day border of the state of Chihuahua. It contained numerous river valleys that drained down immense canyons to the Gulf of California . Some of the rivers ran directly south and west to get there. Others like the Santa Cruz and the San Pedro ran north for 150 miles before connecting with the Gila, which then ran west and south to empty into the gulf. It crossed at least a halfdozen mountain ranges, and its lower elevations were composed of extensive inhospitable desert. Most of the land in the north and west was unexplored and had been seen only by a few soldiers on reconnaissance expeditions or punitive forays. Don Juan, in his wildest dreams, also could have never imagined the many tribes of indigenous peoples who lived there. In the northwestern corner of the territory lived the tribes the Spaniards called the Yuma,3 O’opa, Cocomaric O’opa,4 and Papabi O’otam, or Papagos.5 People known to the Spaniards as the Seri Indians lived in the southwest section, along the coast of the Gulf of California.6 South and east 115 of Fronteras were the Opatas and Eudeves,7 and in the center of it all were the Pimas .8 This last group comprised several subgroups, recognized by the Spaniards as Pimas Altos (Piatos), Sobaipuri,9 and Pimas Bajos (Sibubapas). Another group with whom Anza dealt was the Yaqui.10 They seemed to be everywhere in Sonora but were not indigenous to this northern country. And, of course, from the northeast came the dreaded Apaches.11 The Apaches were the scourge of the Spanish frontier. Mounted on horseback, they seemingly appeared out of nowhere and were gone just as fast, leaving death and destruction in their wake. They were guerrilla fighters, and no effective means of combating such tactics had ever been developed. As presidial captain at Fronteras, Captain Anza dealt with them, or the consequences of their activities, on an almost daily basis. The pressure never let up. Both preventive and punitive expeditions and campaigns had to be mounted constantly. It was a job that would keep him busy for the rest of his life. And when he was gone, it would occupy his son for most of his life. It was the captain’s greatest challenge—one that would prove fatal in the end. In a report to Governor Manuel Bernal de Huidobro in 1735, Juan Bautista de Anza related many of the difficulties that he had experienced as captain of Sonora’s only presidio. “Only those who have attempted it know how difficult it is to apprehend [the Apaches],” he lamented. “Our troops usually march in search of them at night so they cannot discover us by the dust of our horses.”12 It is even likely that Captain Anza and his soldiers learned the technique of traveling by night from the Apaches. In fact, Rowland translated the above statement of Anza’s as, “[the Apaches’] entrance when they invade our territory is customarily made at night so they will not be revealed by the dust raised by their horses.”13 Either translation is correct, depending on...

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