Bisbee daily review., 1904-06-02

1 zora. In the valley were early built the famed and beautiful mission of San Xavier del Bac. the one at Tue son, and some minor ones. and hi.asr and hence came and departed for gen eratiors jealous Jesuit fathers and | fine cid cutthroat Spanish cavaliers and their freebooting followers. | mines of the whole Spanish perio', and here is centered the Spanish his tory of the territory. Daring the .h'ee hundred years proceeding the Amert can occupation. there was practically no exploitation of tue rest of Arizona. and no discovery and development of mineral wealth elsewhere.
 In general way, the story of silver [ mining in this regicn is one with the history of mining across the present border to the south. There were greater mines in the latter field, but those opened in Santa Cruz valley were many and rich, though none were as deep as some to the south Little of reliable detail is available. 1 the mines were many" and one writer puts the number opened at two hundred. They were among the mountain ranges on both sides of the valley. and the mining region to the west was one quite populous. The mines cn the east were in the Santa Rita Range. The Americans found twenty-five on the big Arivaca ranch, and remains of many crude furnaces and arrastras here and there.
 These widely distributed mines are credited with great quantities of sil. yer by Mexican tradition, and they were long famous in Mexico and Spain. They doubtless did afford much wealth during three centuries of operations from rich surface ores. Though silver was really a precious metal, these ores were necessarily ricA to pay largely in such a distant arid region with crude methods. It was not far south of them that fam ocqis mnes yielded wonderful balls or silver and they were flourishing when. in 1741. Philip V. sued for royal duties on 4033 pounds of silver. al ieging that the delinquent had not | paic tax on one mass of silver weigh ing 2.700 pounds. He also declared the mines of the district royal prop erty.
 The Spanish began silver mining in tnls portion of Arizona before 1900 and pursued it most actively and use cessfully during the seventeenth cen. turies About 1872 the Apache h. dians. who had not been armed or stirred to systematic hostilities. be- gan their three hundred years of raid ano' massacre. They were held in check for about hundred years. but but by 17S0 the Indian hostilities be. came so severe and persistent that before long thers was a practical abandonment of mines, missions and military posts. Some mining was Kept up. but there was a very long period of decay and abandonment pre- 1 NN NHNAy Ol llt iUuOmlfaDle American. After the Mexican rev. olution the remnants of missions were suppressed and the romantic tale of three centuries was ended. The Spaniard had left but slight impress of the future destiny of Arizona which passed under the American flag slightly known desert wilder. ness. about one corner of which there vas halo of half-mythical glory from the past. The romantic glory that so ended was in wonderful con -rast 70 t'.e ore ,har c:e,s.a
 The treaty of 1s4S gave the vict- roious Uuited States New Mexico. and the one of 1853 added to it the Gads- den Purchase, comprins'ng a Ia ge portion of what is now Arizona. The whole region was quickly invaded by the Boundary Commission and other representatives of the government and much exploration was carried on during the ffties, valuable reports of which stirred public interest. Tn 1853 there was no white settlement north