The weather was beautiful all the way down and their ride was a delightful one. They heard of Apaches at one or two points, but it was always a fortnight before, or several miles ahead, and they went through unmolested.

The Tucsonians had heard of their coming and had, according to custom, held a town meeting, in which an organization was made to give them a grand reception. A band of string instruments was arranged for, and an orator was chosen for the occasion, but before the committee completed its arrangements, our travelers entered the Old Pueblo with their jaded teams, much to the disgust of the old settlers who proposed to make it a kind of a holiday or general fiesta, with a procession and accompaniments.

General Rusling says:

"Tucson we found to be a sleepy old town, of a thousand or so inhabitants, that appeared to be trying its best to take things easy, and succeeds in doing so.

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"The town itself is built wholly of adobe, in thorough Mexican or Spanish style, and its population fluctuated. During the rule of Maximilian in Mexico, there was a considerable influx of Liberals here from Sonora, so that the town at one time numbered perhaps fifteen hundred souls. But with his 'taking off,' and the rise again of Juarez, many had returned thither; so that the population was then only about a thousand or so, as above stated, of whom fully two-thirds or more were Mexicans, originally or by descent. Its streets are unpaved, and all slope to the middle as a common sewer, as in Spain. It boasted several saloons, one rather

imposing, and some good stores; but had no bank, newspaper, schoolhouse, or church, except a rude adobe structure, where a Mexican padre officiated on Sunday to a small audience, with much array of lights, images, drums and violins, and afterwards presided at the customary cockfight. As specimens of ruling prices, grain (barley and wheat) sold at $3 per bushel, hay at $40 per ton, lumber at $250 per thousand, all coin, and other things in proportion. The lumber came from the Santa Rita Mountains, fifty miles away, and was poor and scarce at that.

"The basis of Tucson's existence, it appears, is the little Santa Cruz river, which flows along just at the edge of town, and irrigates some hundreds of surrounding acres, green just then (March 13th-18th), with wheat, barley, oats, etc. There is a good breadth of fine land here, and near here, and the river ought to be made to irrigate the whole valley. No doubt with proper husbanding and utilizing of the little stream, thousands of acres might be cultivated, and the whole region, both above and below Tucson, be made to produce largely. Peach trees were in bloom down by the river side when we were there; the grape, the orange, and the olive appeared in many gardens; and both climate and soil seemed all the most fastidious could wish. But Tucson lacks energy and capital, and besides, it seemed, the Apaches claim original, and pretty much undisputed, jurisdiction over most of the country there. Merchants complained that the Apaches raided on their teams and trains en route, and ranchmen, that the wily

rascals levied contributions regularly on their livestock, as soon as it was worth anything, and did not hesitate to scalp and kill, as well as steal, if it came in their way. Farming or grazing under such circumstances, it must be conceded, could hardly be called very lucrative or enticing, and the Tucsonians are entitled to the benefit of this explanation.

"The livest and most energetic things, however, that we saw about Tucson were its innumerable blackbirds, that thronged the few trees about the street, and awoke us every morning with their multitudinous twittering and chattering. How those birds did chatter and sing, from daylight well on into the morning; and what a relief they were to the dull and prosy old town! The men and women, wrapped in their serapes or blankets, sunned themselves by the hour in the doorways. The dogs and cats, the goats and pigs, slept on in the streets, or strolled lazily about at will. But these plucky birds sung on and on, with all the heartiness and abandon of the robin or mocking bird in the East; and Tucson should emulate their intrepidity and zeal. She should shake off somewhat of the spirit of Rip van Winkle, and remember she is under Yankee Government now, and in the latter half of the nineteenth century.

Evidently Tucson did wake up, for when the capital was moved there about a year after this writing, she began to put on cosmopolitan airs. Large mercantile firms located there and it became the distributing point for all merchandise to the military posts in the southern part of the territory, and a trade centre for large business

with Sonora. The stores for Camps Wallen, Cameron, Lovell, Bowie, Goodwin, and Grant were all received there from Fort Yuma by contractors' trains, and then re-distributed by army teams to these posts as needed. This, of itself, gave a renewed impulse to the business of the town,

Of the Mission of San Xavier del Bac, General Rusling says:

"South of Tucson, some ten miles, on the road to Tubac and Mexico, on the banks of the Santa Cruz still, is the famous church of San Xavier del Bac, a venerable relic of the former Spanish rule in Arizona. The road thither leads through dense mesquite and palo verde bottoms, with water enough in the Santa Cruz to irrigate them all; but, as yet, they were unbroken by husbandmen. The church itself seems to have been built about a hundred years ago, and, though abandoned, is still in a good state of preservation. It is not of adobe, but of large, red, kiln-burnt brick, rough-coated with a yellowish cement that seems well nigh indestructible. It is cruciform in style, with thick and solid walls, and its antique front and towers have originally been decorated with saints, angels, griffins, etc., in niche or bas-relief, though many of these are now mutilated or destroyed. Inside it is handsomely frescoed, and was no doubt once rich in paintings, ornaments, relics, etc., though these have now mostly disappeared. Its roof seems to be a sort of asphaltum or concrete, and appears as tight and firm as when first laid. In one of the towers, there is still a fine chime of bells, that came no doubt originally from Castile

or Arragon. The age of the church is variously reported, but from a cursory examination it appeared to have been erected about the year 1797, although we were shown a mutilated register of marriages, birth, deaths, etc., that began in 1752. This last, however, seemed to antedate the church, as if it had been in use by the Spanish settlement here in early times, before they were able to achieve such an edifice. This church was no doubt a link in the chain of Spanish Missions, that the Jesuits a century or more ago established, from the City of Mexico to Northern California, and was abandoned like the rest of them, with the subsequent collapse of their priestly power. No doubt, in its time, it was the centre of a considerable community there; but now, only a squalid village of Papago Indians crouches at its feet, who regard the aged structure with a superstitious reverence, and will not permit its fine chime of bells to be removed to Tucson, for fear of Our Lady's displeasure. The padre at Tucson comes down and says mass occasionally, and baptizes their young children; but he cannot cajole them out of their bells, and doubtless they would fight, rather than lose them. Altogether, this church is now the best and oldest civilized structure to be found in Arizona. Very slight repairs would fit it for occupancy and worship again; but, unfortunately, there are no inhabitants there now to occupy and worship in it, except the Papagos aforesaid and as specimens of good clean Christians, they don't amount to much now-adays, whatever they were once.