Don Juan Bautista de Anza

Don Juan Bautista

By DR. FRANK C. LOCKWOOD, University of Arizona ANZA was of pioneer stock, both his father and his grandfather having served with conspicuous ability and devotion on the remote frontiers of Sonora. Two hundred years ago his grand-father was the King's representative in this very region; and it was he who seized for His Majesty (on the ground that they were created by miracle) the famous plates of virgin silver discovered in 1736 at Arizonac-the silver mine from which Arizona derived its name. Some of these balls of pure silver weighed more than three thousand pounds. Anza's father was captain of the Presidio of Fronteras, in Sonora, and was killed in battle by the Apaches.

Juan was born at Fronteras in 1735, so was just three years younger than George Washington. He had been trained as a soldier, an Indian fighter, and a daring desert rider from boyhood. At seventeen he was a volunteer soldier and at twenty had won the rank of lieutenant. He made a campaign against the Gila Apaches in 1758, and one year later was placed in command of the Presidio of Tubac. He was married in 1761; and, in 1766, led another campaign against the Apaches.

In 1773, while commander of the PreIn 1773, while commander of the Pre-sidio of Tubac, a rumor came to the ears of this alert, hard-riding Spanish captain that Indians had crossed the deserts and mountains between the Colorado River and the Pacific Ocean for purposes of trade. If Indians could cross to the coast, so could white men, thought Anza. Aware of the sore need of his countrymen newly in California, a devout servant of the church and a loyal subject of the King, Anza conceived the idea of establishing connection overland with these struggling outposts on the Pacific. Bold as he was ambitious and intelligent, he wrote at once to Bucareli, the Viceroy of Mexico and offered to open a road overland from Sonora to Monterey. The Viceroy authorized the exploring expedition.

Anza made a brilliant success of it, and, the first white man ever to cross from Mexico to the Pacific overland, marked a way for future travel. Upon his return, he rode to the City of Mexico and reported to Bucareli in person, assuring him at the same time that he thought it feasible to lead a Spanish colony from Sonora over the route he traversed. It had become the prime ambition of Bucarell to take possession of San Francisco Bay and plant a mission and a presidio there in order to block the advance of the Russians. Anza was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel and commissioned to carry out this new undertaking.

It was in the successful execution of this second overland expedition to California that Anza attained fame. It was an heroic and epic achievement. Ilis party was made up of soldiers and priests, men, women, and children from Sinaloa and Sonora. The final point of assembly was Anza's Presidio of Tubac, forty-five miles south of Tucson. The company comprised 200 souls. There were included ten families with five children each, and two families with nine children cach. There were more than 1,000 animals, 695 horses and mules and 365 beeves these latter for food on the way and for breeding in California. From this stock, California's later enormous cat.leraising industry sprang. The distance to be traveled was 1,000 miles; and most of the colonists had already come five or six hundred miles before reaching Tubac. There was not a wheel in the expedition. Men, women, and children either rode horseback or walked.

Anza was commander; Father Pedro Font was chaplain and observed latitudes; Padre Garces, founder of Tucson, saint, sage, scout, and friend of all mankindsavage and civilized accompanied the expedition, and Eixarch went as companion priest to Garces, to be left on the Colorado as a missionary to the Yuma

FEBRUARY, 1936 ARIZONA HIGHWAYS De Anza The Romantic Tale of a Great Trail Blazer Who Traversed Arizona Centuries Ago

Indians. Brave Moraga brought up the rear as lieutenant. The march was begun October 23, 1775. October 26, the expedition reached Tucson and at 1:00 o'clock made camp a league north of Tucson, "on the western bank of a shallow lagoon formed by the broadening of the river. The site is a quarter of a mile west of the Southern Pacific Railroad tracks, on the old Vado del Sauce Road. The camp was an imposing affair for those days, and must fairly have awed the simple Indians. A large bell tent housed the colonel and served as headquarters for the expedition. Another was set aside for Padre Font, whilst Frays Garces and Eixarch shared a third. Lieutenant Moraga was assigned to a tent somewhat smaller than that of the colonel, and nine others covered the families of the settlers. The soldiers and camp servants slept in the open, wrapped in their cloaks and zarapes. A field altar was set up under a little ramada, where mass was said at eventide and in the early morning, before commencing the day's March." * Christmas Day, 1776, found the hardy vand almost freezing to death in a California canyon, and January 4 marked their joyous arrival at San Gabriel. Only one death occurred among the 240 pioneers during this terrible two month's struggle with heat, cold, hunger, thirst, and fatigue that of a mother in childbirth. The infant boy survived, as did two other babies born on the trail between Tubac and San Gabriel. The incidents of the journey are of supreme human interest and are set forth with great fullness in the various journals kept by the leading members of the expedition. These diaries have been translated and published by Dr. Herbert E. Bolton in five volumes, entitled "Anza's California Expeditions." The result of this expedition was the founding of San Francisco, at the Golden Gate, in 1776. Thus it was that Arizona, with beneficent spirit, conferred its favors upon California; just as it today affords warmth, and solace, and other innumerable blessings to the shivering, harassed citizens of that commonwealth who seek safety, comfort and happiness here.

Upon his return from California, Anza a second time made the long ride to Mexico City to report in person to the Viceroy. Here he met the great Spanish soldier, El Cavallero de Croix, commander-general of the Interior Provinces of Mexico; and, in, February, 1777, was appointed by him commander of the armed forces of Sonora. In the summer of 1778, he went to Chihuahua to attend a council of war that Croix had called in that city. In August, while at Chihuahua, he took the oath of office as Governor of New Mexico, and then departed almost immediately for his new post at Santa Fe, probably arriving there before January 1, 1779.

Anza's first task was to suppress the destructive Comanches of the north. In this he was successful and later was able even to win them as Spanish allies against the Apaches. During the years 1783-87 he made solid gains in his conflict with the Apaches. During 1785 the united attacks upon the Apaches were so destructive that, alarmed and depressed, they sought an alliance with the Navajos. They were successful in their overtures, and re-enforced by 500 Navajo warriors they returned to the south and stormed both Tucson and Janos.

It was all-important that this Apache-Navajo alliance should be broken, and to Anza fell the task of bringing this about. The Navajos had entered into a treaty with the former governor of New Mexico and Anza was directed to force the Navajos to adhere to this treaty. At once he actively exerted himself to this end. He warned them that unless they stood by their former agreement the protection of the Spaniards would be withdrawn from them, and that they would eventually be driven from their country by the Spanish. Thus admon-ished, the Navajos went out to battle against the Apaches-but not very wholeheartedly. Anza was ordered to bring still stronger pressure on the lukewarm Navajos, and at once rudely brought them to terms. They now expressed a desire to take a hand in hostilities against the Gila Apaches; and June 5, 1785, they began the first of several suc-cessful attacks and campaigns against their old allies. During 1786, they cooperated still more strongly. So success-ful was their warfare that some of the Apaches petitioned for peace. Anza won great praise for his skill in effecting an alliance with the Comanches, and then in mastering Comanches, Navajos, and(Continued on Page 27)