Norwich bulletin., 1916-07-19
THE WAR PRIMER By National Geographic Society

SonoTa-"If Americas National ! Guard secs foreign service in it's patrol l duty aIoug the northern sonora border 1 tho boys in khaki will be in a Mexican state where fact and fable are fas- CInaJIn&lE 1nlerWoFeu in the accounts of its vast mineral wealth. says to- 1 cay $ war geography bulletin issued from Washington by the National Geo. graphic Society.
 "Iven the name Sonora is said by a peculiarly musical and 's0u0rous' 1 quality possessed by certain marbles | Cuarried in the state.
 "WiJliu a decade after C0rtez landed l or Mexican soil and conquered the fol | lowers of GOntezuma the Spaniards had launched expeditions by seq and started exploration parties over the mountains to find that region which ] two centuries before. according to tra- l dliOn, had supplied the Aztecs with 1 great stores of gold and silver when i they passed through the land in their 1 tribal migration to the vale of Ana l huaC. By 1880 Aluiudcz Chirin0s had 1 proceeded up the coast as far as the mouth of the Aaqui river, and he was l followed by de NaCa. who brought back 1 a report that gold and silver could be l Dlucked from the ground in unbeIfeva- ] b.e quantities. One of de Naca's fol l lowers was Sebastian, muIatCO who i had remarkable gifts of Imagination. i Among the places he saw were the l Seven Cities of CibOla, ruled by King l TataraE, whose wonderful, bejeWeled 1 robes daZZled the eye as he WOrShiDDed l each morning in his magnificent palace ! before a golden cross. Mermaids also i figured in SebaStian's narrative aS al- l turing marVels of the Sonora coast.
 Among the Sonora mines about l which romance and reality are strange l ly mingled is that of SenOr Armada of 1 Quintera. The owner is said to have | celebrated the marriage of his faVOTite l daughter by paneling the bridal cham | Der with plates of silver, and paving | the road from his home to the church l with bars of the precious metal.
 l The legend concerning the DOna
 Maria mine is that its owner, the | widow of Q Spaniard, de ROdriques, | laDOrGd for years saving neggetS of | gold until she had a treasure which | required Q caravan of 40 mules to con- 1 Mexico City. It was a long and ar l duOuS journey, and the widow was con- 1 stantly in fear of being robbed. When 1 she finally reached the capital she i would not rest content untoI the | fortune had been placed in the safe l keeping of the Spanish vicerOy A few l days later the widow herself disap- 1 peared and the vast store of gold was 1 appropriated by the government treas l ury and that treasUry's custodian.
 An equally pathetiCs story is told of | the PIanchas de Plata CSilver Plates) | mine which, according to Jesuit ac- 1 counts, was discovered by a Yaqui h. l dian during the first half of the eigh- i teenth century. From a deep canyon l the JesuitS are said to have taken | great globules of silver ore, weighing ] from 20 to 50 pounds. One mammoth 1 nugget of pure silver, weighing a ! quarter of ton, was discovered and proved the undOing of both the priests 1 and the Indians. This treasure rock
 was with great difficulty loaded be- l tween two pack mules and taken to the l capital where it was seized for the
 crown. After years of litigation the
 authorities decided that not only this | nugget but all other ore from the can-
 | yOn belonged to the state. Whereupon
 | JeSuits and Indians cOnspiTed success
 fully to lose the mine.
 Just 39 miles south of the Arizona | line and midway between the border 1 towns of FNogales and NacO, is Cananea,
 the center of one of the richest copper regions in the world, while to the 1 south is Magdalena station, east of ] which is the Santo Domingo canyon
 l with it's placer gold deposits which are 1 said to have furnished the cargo for many of SpaiT's treasure galleons.
 | '1n addition to copper, gold and sil-
 1 yer, the mines of Sonora produce lead coal, antinOny, mercury, iron, zinc, salt l and telIurum. The graphite deposits o1 | the state are said to be the finest in | the world, producing an even better
 grade than the famous mines of Siberia ! and JaQaD