Читать книгу The History of Spanish America - Sir Richard Henry Bonnycastle - Страница 20

Pimeria is the most northern district of this extensive division, and is bounded on the north by The Rio Colorado, by New Biscay on the east, by the Californian gulf on the west, and by Sonora on the south.

Pimeria received its name from the Pimas, a tribe of Indians who inhabit this tract of country. It is subdivided into high and low Pimeria, and extends about three hundred miles to the north of Sonora. The climate is cold and moist, and the rains often last a week without intermission in the winter season, and torrents from the mountains during that period descend in all directions.

Pimeria is very little known, being inhabited chiefly by the native tribes, the Spanish colonists frequently deserting it on account of the irruptions of a warlike race of savages, who inhabit the neighbouring country of Apacheria in New Mexico.

The river Colorado is the principal river of the uncolonized country north of Pimeria. This river has been also called Rio Colorado de los Martyres. The course of the Colorado may be computed in a straight line at 200 leagues, or 600 miles, and it is generally from north-east to south-west. It is called Colorado, or coloured, from the water being tinged red by the clay of its banks. This river rises in the Sierra Verde, it is navigable for a considerable distance, and very deep where it is joined by the Rio Gila, which issues from the same mountains in Pimeria, further to the south. This latter river, though broad and large, has no depth, and the country which lies between these streams is a desert of high land, without water or grass. The savages who inhabit the northern side of the Colorado, are termed Cocomaricopas, and are celebrated for their dexterity in swimming the river with a piece of wood in their left hand to support their goods and weapons above the water, and steering with their right, the women carrying their infants on a basket work attached to their bodies. Their side of the river is fertile, and they are an industrious people. The Colorado meets many other rivers which rise in the same chain; the chief of these is the Zaguananas, which rises in those mountains, in about 40° north latitude. There is a large lake near this branch, called Buenara, in 39° north latitude, on the frontier, but of this lake nothing certain is known. The Colorado empties itself by an immense estuary into the northern part of the gulf of California. The Rio Gila is the next river of importance of this country, but both this and the Rio Colorado are north of the actual intendancy of Sonora.

There are several rivers in Pimeria, but so imperfect are the accounts relative to this province, that nothing can be advanced with certainty about them. The Rio Ascension is the chief, on whose banks live a tribe of warlike Indians, named Seris.

Higher Pimeria contains the fort of Ternate and Lower Pimeria, the fort of Buenavista. The province contains much gold in grains, but it is not sought after, owing to many causes, amongst which the incursions of the warlike Indians of the neighbouring country is the principal one.