The notes referred to above contain the names and localities of
more than a hundred silver and gold mines which were worked with
great success by the Spaniards. The survey of the Jesuit priest
about 1687 was repeated in 1710 with renewed discoveries, and
consequent accession of population. From this time up to 1757 the
conquest and settlement of the country was prosecuted with vigor,
both by the Jesuits' Society and Spanish government.
The missions and settlements were repeatedly destroyed by the
Apaches, and the priests and settlers massacred or driven off. As
often were they re-established. The Indians at length, thoroughly
aroused by the cruelties of the Spaniards, by whom they were
deprived of their liberty, forced to labor in the silver mines
with inadequate food, and barbarously treated, finally rose,
joined with tribes who had never been subdued, and gradually
drove out or massacred their oppressors. A superior civilization disappeared before their devastating career, and to day there is
scarcely a trace of it left, except scarcely visible ruins,
evidence everywhere, of extensive and hastily-deserted mining
operations, and the tradition of the country. The mission of San
Xavier del Bac, and the old towns of Tueson and Tubac, are the
most prominent of these remains. The labors of the Jesuits to
civilize the Indians are still evident in the mission Indians,
the Papagos and Pimas, who live in villages, cultivate crops of
corn and wheat, and who, in the Christian and human elements of
good faith and charity, are, to say the least, in no way inferior
to the Mexicans.
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