The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1901-01-13
ALL NON IS LOST
Missions in the South With
out Known History.
WERE BUILT LONG AGO
And Their Builders Murdered
by the Indians.

Flagstaff, Ariz., Jan. 12-There are sew
era1 ruins Of Jesuit missions in the south
west territories of Arizona and New
Mexico about which hangs peculiarly
romantic atmosphere. The bravery Of the
little bands Of young priests, who, edu~
Gated in the great universities Of Spain,
left for their homes and all to cast for
ever their lots among savage Indians in
the scarcely known new world. appeals
to every one who has knowledge of az
fairs in the southwest 800 and $50 years
ago. This history Of every Jesuit mis-
sion in this region has its chapters Of
savage, rebellous, murderous uprisings
and thrilling adventures. Nearly every
ruined mission has its own particular
myths concerning golden treasure buried
/ beneath its walls when warning tribes
made onslaught and the priests and
acolytes fed in horror before the destroy
ers. The ruins Of stone and adobe mis-
/ eions are found all the way from Chihua-
/ hua, Mexico to Taos in New Mexico.
| The ruins consist Of crumbHng walls of
| adobe and stone. ponderous oaken tim
| bers lying beneath drifJed sands and the
! dust of years, amid barren wastes re-
mote from the beaten paths of travel
There is no dispute that the Gran Qui-
vira in the valley Of the Rio Grande.
/ three days hard travel 10 the north
among the Sandia mountains from AIbu-
! querque, is the most interesting and re-
/ markable in the southwest Many ruins
/ Of ancient pueblos and Spanish missions
/ are larger than that of Gran Quivira,
] but no other is so weird, and about none
J are there so many extravagant tales if
| hidden riches and barbaric treasure.
/ When Francisco Vosquez de Coronado
marched to the conquest Of the seven cit
les Of Cibola in 1910 he was told Of the
! incalculable quantity Of gold silver, and
| precious stones that had been gathered
/ by the natives through generations at
the Gran Quivira. Coronado never
! reached the SPOT. for he soon discovered
| that he had been deceived by the Indians
/ at Pecos, N. NJ, who had only sought to
star% him and his army of conquesta-
dorAi on a wild goose chase far away
froe their own pueblo.
The Gran Quivira was occupied in those I
days by a tribe Of wandering Indians
the old Tompiros-who called the spot
Tabira. Fray Chamaecado visited the
spot in 1881, and he found ruins Of two
mighty prehistoric temples that stin re-
main on the arid. sunburnt mountain /
sides. The mission was established there
about 1903 and its ruined walls yet stand
six and seven feet high above the drifted
earth and sand. At one time there must .
h,
this ancient town among the desolate.
sullen mountains Of New Mexico That
they were well civilized IS shown by the
character of the great ruins, acres and
acres in area that phoject above the bak-
ed mountainsides.
The myth that vast treasure lies buried
beneath the stones and adobe still OBJ
tains just as it was told to Coronado $50
years ago for the stone walls of the enor-
nous ruins Of the temple and the adobe
walls Of the mission have been honey
combed and rended by men with blasting
powder and picks and shovels searching
for aboriginal treasure Only last sum
mer several miners spent fortnight in
working about the ruins of the Gran Out
vira to test the sincerity Of the ancient
romance of the dead city. The Next
cans in Sonora have a. legend. which has
come down through many generations, to f
the effect that once a year the spirit Of
Montezuma comes down from out the
Sandia mountains, and walks about the
ruins Of the Gran Quvira- lamenting the
destruction of his great cathedral. They
believe that deep down I'm secret caverns
beneath the foundation waU are cleaning
heaps OF golden ineots stored there by
the pious natives with the hope IF some
day using it in the building Of the most
magnificent religious edifce in all the
world.
The fast disappearing ruins Of the great
Jesuit mission at Pecos is cnveIoped in
sanguainarv romance. FRAY Aurelio
sandoval and two young priests fresh
from the university at Toledo came to
the very old mission ct Pccos in 1870 to
spend their lives fin ministerinE to the
srirituaI wants Of the Indians. They
boldly settled down among some son saw
ages. over 200 miles from the nearest
white man Tn twenty years the Span
ism missionaries had taught thea5orrineS
sufficient Christianity to infIse a desire
for a church-thb largest probably IN
what is now the territory in New Mexico.
The Pueblo Indians have a tradition that
the Pecos church was nine years IN
course of construction and that the great
massive timhars for it's roof were carried
on the naked backs oc the Indians from
the mountains. across desert and canyon.
for over eighty miles; that the red sand
stone blocks stiu seen n the 5o7~wsvs
and steps u The ruin were eu1rr.e7 many
miles farther away. and were carried 70
p