Sinaloa

“ Spanish settlements.—By the end of the seventeenth century Sinaloa had passed beyond the frontier stage. The population of pure Spanish blood numbered only six hundred families in 1678, but the half-caste Christian population was much larger, there being twelve hundred persons of Spanish or mixed blood at San Felipe alone. In Sonora the people of Spanish or mixed blood numbered about five hundred families. Mining and stock-raising were the principal and by no means inconsiderable industries in both districts. ”

“ Sinaloa is chiefly inhabited by Indians, though there are numbers of mining stations established; and the province bids very fair to be well colonized. The natives are a warlike race, and were with great difficulty brought to submit to the dominion of the Spaniards. They have caciques or chiefs, whose authority is however very limited, being confined to heading warlike expeditions. It is [91] chiefly by valour displayed in battle, or hunting, that they obtain this distinction; sometimes indeed the interest of a powerful family elevates one of their number to the caciqueship. ”

“ Grazing receives considerable attention in the uplands, where the temperature is favourable and the pastureage good, and hides are largely exported. Mining, however, is the chief industry, Sinaloa being one of the richest mineral-producing states in the republic. ”

“ Sinaloa is regarded as a productive State, and yields good crops of grain in the portions which are easily irrigated. Wheat, Indian corn and barley, together with some cotton, sugar and tobacco, are cultivated successfully; whilst all sorts of fruits and vegetables are found in abundance.
The principal towns are Mazatlan, a port with anchorage on the west coast, which is much visited by European and American vessels, and has been the seat of a very large smuggling trade in which the wares of India and of northern nations were exchanged for the precious metals of Mexico, her grain and skins. ”

“ Development of Nueva Vizcaya.—Shortly after Ibarra left Sinaloa the Indians of San Juan revolted, drove out the encomenderos, and murdered the friars; the settlement was therefore moved to the Petatlán (Sinaloa) River, and named San Felipe. In the last decade of the century a presidio and an Aztec-Tlascaltec colony were founded at San Felipe, and Jesuit missions were planted in the vicinity. East of the mountains, in Durango and southern Chihuahua, mining, stock raising, and agriculture developed side by side. ”

“ Yucatan, and Zacatecas,—and the Territories of Old and New California, Colima, New Mexico, and Tlascala. In 1830 the State of Sinaloa and Sonora, separated into its natural divisions, since which each has been a distinct, independent State. ”

“ The souls of the Sonora Indians dwell in the caves and among the rocks of the cliffs, and the echoes heard there are their clamoring voices. [XII-54] Ribas declares that in one part of Sinaloa a future state was ignored, yet he says that they acknowledged a supreme mother and her son, who was the first man. [XII-55] In Nayarit we come upon the Mexican idea of different heavens, determined by the mode of death. Thus, children and those who were carried off by disease went to one place; those who died a violent death, to the air regions, where they became shooting stars. ”

“ Others were sent to colonization enterprises in Sinaloa and still others set to work in convict gangs in Sonora. To those who were disposed to settle down to a peaceful life the government supplied farming implements, farm animals, and poultry in Sinaloa. [28] The Indians, however, continued to cross into Arizona towns "to work," where they replenished their ammunition supplies and then returned to Mexico to start trouble again. The local authorities were instructed to furnish escorts to Americans when they went outside the settled districts. ”

“ Mazatlan, a little further down the coast, is the largest city and principal port of Sinaloa. It is a picturesque place, with its cathedral [430] spires outlined against the sky, and cocoanut palms and thatched roofs below. The blue Cordilleras in the distance complete the picture. A lighthouse at the north entrance is said to be the highest lighthouse in the world, with the exception of the one at Gibraltar. It is a city of about twenty thousand inhabitants, and the largest city on the Pacific coast. ”

“ The levels begin in the west near the boundaries of Jalisco, and stretch out their broad sand-wastes to the town of Alamos and the river Mayo, until they are lost in the State of Sonora. This region is scorched with a blazing sun, and is of course but thinly peopled and little cultivated. Near the city of Alamos a more genial country begins. The central and eastern parts of Sinaloa are rich in table lands and values, while the slopes of the mountains are thickly wooded. In the interior the rains are not heavy nor the warmth intense. A mild and genial air prevails during the whole year ”

“ Nearly parallel with the Pacific seaboard, and dividing the states of Sonora and Sinaloa from Chihuahua and Durango, runs the great central Cordillera; further to the eastward, passing through Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, and San Luis Potosí, and following the shore line of the Mexican Gulf, the Sierra Madre continues in a southerly direction, until it unites with the first-named range at the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. All of these mountains abound in mineral wealth. ”

“ The colonists of Sinaloa and Nueva Galicia, who had formerly, in small vessels and with great danger, made occasional visits to the pearl beds, built larger vessels and made more frequent visits without apprehension. The skilful Yaqui and Mayo Indians were employed or impressed as divers, just as natives of the Bahamas had served in the fisheries of Venezuela. ”

“ Timber, Plains, and Soil. No timber; soil similar to that of Senora.
Animals. Domestic only.
Population and Chief Towns. Its population may be estimated at 60,000, not more than three-twentieths of whom are Spaniards; the remainder Creoles, Metifs, and Indians.
Sinaloa is the capital, but its population, extent, etc., to me is unknown.
Trade and Commerce. Unacquainted with. 775
Agriculture. The same as Senora.
Aborigines. None who are not civilized.
Government and Laws. Unacquainted with.
Military Force. One hundred dragoons for expresses, and a guard for the governor. ”

“ I find no record of any ancient monuments in Sinaloa, and across the gulf in the state of Lower California, with the exception of some idols, said to have been brought to the priests by the natives they were attempting to convert, and a smooth stone about six feet long, bearing a kind of coat of arms and some inscribed characters, [X-52] the only accounts of antiquities relate to cave and cliff paintings and inscriptions, which have never been copied, and concerning which consequently not much can be said. ”

“ Cebreros crossed the Mayo, proceeded in 1532 into the present Sonora, and although he had hardly twenty men reached the Rio Yaqui. He did not venture to go farther than to the north bank of that river, but returned to Sinaloa. The Indians there were in active revolt, and the Spaniards had great difficulty in maintaining themselves in the weak settlement of San Miguel Culiacan. They had found on their northern excursions fertile intervales inhabited by warlike tribes. Beyond these tribes lived a people who built their houses of clay. ”

“ The General commanding Sonora and Sinaloa, the two states most exposed to the depredations of the Indians, saw that he must oppose to the Indians a man who, through a lengthened residence on the borders, had acquired great experience as to their way of fighting and the tricks they employ. Only one officer fulfilled these conditions, and that officer was Captain de Niza; he, therefore, received orders to quit the post of San Miguel after dismantling it, and proceed immediately to the Mineral of Quitoval. ”

“ The integral parts of the Federation are: the States of Aguascalientes, Colima, Chiapas, Chihuahua, Durango, Guanajuato, Guerrero, Jalisco, Mexico, Michoacan, Nuevo Leon and Coahuila, Oajaca, Puebla, Querétaro, San Luis Potosi, Sinaloa, Sonora, Tabasco, Tamaulipas, Tlascala, Valle de Mexico, Veracruz, Yucatan, Zacatecas, and the Territory of Lower California. Article 44. The States of Aguascalientes, Chiapas, Chihuahua, Durango, Guerrero, Mexico, Puebla, Queretaro, Sinaloa, Sonora, Tamaulipas, and the Territory of Lower California shall preserve the limits which they now have. ”

“ The audiencia of New Galicia, aware of the great wealth of the mines in Sinaloa, Durango, and elsewhere, with the view of adding area to its rule, and of controlling those rich deposits, resolved in 1552 to undertake the conquest of the whole region, beginning with the rich sierras of Guaynamota, Guazamota, and Jocotlan, situated some fifteen leagues from Compostela. ”

“ We are informed that some of those who returned in July, like those who came back in April, expect to go again to Sinaloa as soon as the Company is in shape to push its work. We wish to say to these friends that all who have proven themselves to be thoroughly with the movement will be welcomed in our midst, but that we positively order—and in this we have the support of every director and every good colonist—that every person who goes to our settlements hereafter shall apply for and obtain permission from the New York office. ”

“ But he stooped to conquer, for under shelter of this purchased peace missionaries crept forward to fasten a gradually tightening bond, secured at different points by military colonies. This policy did not succeed.in every quarter, nor was it effected elsewhere without occasional struggles. The resolute opposition of the Sinaloa tribes to the encroachments of the Spaniards served to animate also adjoining peoples who had already submitted and found just cause for discontent in the oppression and outrages practised by miners and others. ”

“ The tribe of the Sonoran group which reached the point furthest to the south was the Coras, who dwelt in the Sierra of Nayarit, in the State of Jalisco. From their location they are sometimes called Nayerits. They were a warlike but agricultural people, about the same level as the Tepehuanas.
The Tubares were a peaceable nation living in the Sierra of Sinaloa. They received the missionaries willingly and seem to have been an industrious tribe, their principal object of commerce being articles of clothing. ”

“ Sonora and Sinaloa, Durango, Zacatecas, Guadalajara, San Luis Potosi, Guanajuato, Valladolid, Mexico, Oajaca, Puebla, Vera Cruz, and Mérida; besides the three provinces of New Mexico, Antigua California, and Nueva California. ”

“ Horcasites, to judge from its location on Pike's map, was on or near the Sonora r., in the vicinity of present Ures; but I have not found the place. Near it Pike locates a Presidio San Antonio, omitted from the text. Buenavista is a place low down on the Yaqui r.; the present road from Punta de Agua on Rio Matape goes through it to Batacoso, Alamos, and so on.
[IV'-40] Sinaloa or Cinaloa is practically the same as it was, but would be now said to be bounded by Sonora, Chihuahua, Durango, and Jalisco; its whole S. W. length is sea-coast, on the Gulf of California and Pacific Ocean. ”

“ But Sonora and Mexico are rapidly passing into a new day whence all that has been will be as yesterday, and to-morrow will be bright with promise.
The world now touches the sunshine of Southern California, eating its sun-kissed oranges, its sun-dried figs, its new seedless raisins, and the fruit of its alligator pear trees, transplanted from Mexico. Its deep valleys are raising the finest cotton; its motor highways are jewels in the crown of a State promoting intercourse over wide reaches betwixt its peoples. ”

“ Speaking in general terms, Northern Sonora and Southern Arizona (at this point) are much more fertile than Northern Arizona and Southern Sonora.
The frontier town of Sonora, where the railroad enters, is Nogales, simply a double row of slab shanties and mud huts, the former being American, the latter Mexican. The customs officials of both republics may be found here, who make a pretence of examining one's luggage. As soon as the Border is crossed, you are impressed with the difference between American energy and Mexican thriftlessness. ”

“ The city was flooded with sunshine, and crowded with a pack-train going to Sonora; the animals restlessly protesting against the heat and flies; their Mexican drivers in the pulqueria, spending their last peso with their compadres, or with the escort of soldiers which was to accompany them—a little squad of small, lithe men, with round, yellow, beardless faces, bearing in a singular degree the stamp of being native to the soil. ”

“ Tuolumne to Placerville. Charm of Sonora and Fascination of San Andreas and Mokelumne Hill.
Sonora is nine miles distant from Tuttletown, and I reached it in the early afternoon. Perhaps of all the old mining towns, Sonora is the most fascinating, on account of the exceeding beauty of the surrounding country. No matter from what direction you approach it, Sonora seems to lie basking in the sun, buried in a wealth of greenery, through which gleam white walls and roofs of houses. Even its winding streets are so shaded by graceful old trees that buildings are half hidden. ”

“ We stand on Mexican soil. We are on the seaward skirt of its westernmost State of Sonora, in the wild lands almost washed by the Californian Gulf, which will be the formidable last ditch of the unconquerable red men flying before the Star of the Empire. ”