Arizona weekly citizen., 1894-12-22
TUCSON:
City of Ages, and Queen of Climatic
 Perfection.

City Of Ages, and Queen of Climatic Perfection.
 The city of Tucson will ever form a
 subject of eurpassing interest to the student of antiquity, and as the yeaIs
 go by, its honorable, venerable name
 wi.l grow brighter on the national es-
 cutcheon of fame. It's early aspect,
 however, is fast disappearing under the
 ruthless hand of our modern civilization,
 and many of the ancient landmarks
 have been metamorphosed into monu-
 ments Of modern progress. The old
 adobe walls that formed the battlements
 of the ancient pueblo have almost en
 tirely crumbled away, and in their
 place have arisen the habitations Of an-
 other race. The city, however, is not
 without the remnants of this bygone
 age, for some of the identical wall IS
 still remaining, and the very disposition
 of the tout ensemble, the narrow irregu-
 lar streets, and the crumbling walls oJ
 it's oldest adobe dwellings, diffuse an
 air impregnated with musty memories
 and vivid contrasts. It is the city of
 ages and notwithsta ding its years, it
 has been imbued with the gift of per
 petual vigor and robust youth. It grows brighter, better and bigger with each succeeding year, and the stimulous of its increasing prosperity is coursing
 n every artery of its social and commer- cial life.
 Ever since the morn of its iucipiency,
 when Indian chants alone blended with
 the gentle zephyrs of the skies, and the daily siesta was un noroken io the sunny silence, 1t hes watched the passing of the uneventful years with hstless gaze.
 Bound around with mud built walls its healthful expansion was duly prevented for centuries; it's dusky inhabitants re- veled in the luxury of condolences and drew their dreamy intoxication from the
 balmy ozone of the skies. Save when the ordeals of hostile Indian as- saults bestIrred to action the encom- passed denizens, no vigor of life or en- terprise disturbed the even tenor of their way. And as late as fifty years ago the semblance of the town was put little changed from what it had always b. en in it's earliest days.
 Its survival is one of the curiosites of this land of ancient mervels-e land pregnant with the reIicts of 8 civiliza- tion long since passed away. Its history IS principally entombed in the caverns of the earth, buried by seismic process of unwritten years and shrouded by the debris of of accumulated centuries. What has been ushered into the light of the present civilization through archae- ological research, and deciphered from u hieroRlyphics thus obtained. must increase and forever retain a profound interest is this sun-kissed land.
 The early history of the city of Tue son, however, has been divested of its chiefest claims. The text books of and history that are scattered over the land bear with them much in- formation that is wrong. The dates and suppositions in relation to Tucson placed it second in years to the vener- able Florida settlement, the city of St. Augustine, this being claimed as the oldest city in the United States It is therefore not generally known that Tucson began its "ancient and honor able" career thirteen years before St. | Augustine was more than streak of sand shimmering in ths sunlight and l lapped by the slvery slop of the Allan | tic surf. But such was the case and the l proof of 1t Is contained in stained and | timeworn document of vellum signed | by their Catholic maiestles Ferdinand | and Isabella, and countersigned by the | viceroy of Mexico ard General Coronado l who raised the flag of Spain, and laid | the foundation of Tucson with his own | hands. This important raper was lost | from that time until recently when it was discovered amorg the relics of the ancient mission San Xavier del Bac, | nine miles south of Tucson. For safe | keeping it was forwarded to the librar- ian at Washington, in whose custody it | now is. The date of Cornnado's exped- 1 ition is recorded in popular works as having begun in April. I540, and the | date of the vellum mar uscript referred | to is 1852, twelve years later. Accom- psnying the document is an interesting | account of the journey which resulted | in the founding of Tucson, and IS writ i ten in the round hand of Frisr Marcos | Niza. Padre Nizn YVES Jesuit of Intel- | lectual strength and his account has l been deemed worthy of acceptance.
 The records of the padres who accorl- | panied Coronado on his expedition say | a vision appeared to hIm in which he | the form and features of St. | Francis Xavier. and this was taken as fn | order to establish a mission of the |