Memoir of the Proposed Territory of Arizona | Page 9

great. The vicinity of the Colorado, and the abundance of wood and
water, give the proprietors facilities for conducting their operations at
small cost.
Silver mining is also carried on in the vicinity of Mesilla Valley, and
near the Rio Grande. Many other mining operations are constantly
being commenced; but the depredations of the Apache Indians have
almost entirely snatched success from the hard-working miner, who,
besides losing his all, is often massacred in some ferocious manner.

ŒNo protection, either civil or military, is extended over the greater
portion of Arizona. This checks the development of all her
resources--not only to her own injury, but that of California and the
Atlantic States--by withholding a market for their productions, and the
bullion which she is fully able to supply to an extent corresponding to
the labor employed in obtaining it.
A. B. Gray, Esq., late U. S. Surveyor under the treaty of Guadalupe
Hidalgo, for running the Mexican Boundary, and subsequently
Exploring Engineer and Surveyor of the Southern Pacific Railroad, has
probably seen more of the proposed Territory of Arizona than any other
person, his statements in reference to that region, embodied in a report
to the Hon., the Secretary of the Interior, from actual field
reconnoissances six years ago, will be read with much interest,
particularly as since then, repeated developments in that country have
proved the correctness of his judgment; his opinions are, therefore, of
much importance, as expressed in his able report. It will be recollected
that this was then Mexican Territory. Colonel Gray says:
"The public, I think have been misled by misrepresentations made in
regard to the resources of the region of country lying along the Gila and
upon the line proposed for a railroad at or near the parallel of 32
degrees north latitude. That portion of country east of the Rio Grande I
can say but little of from personal observation, having been over but
apart of the ground near the eastern division in Texas, and that in the
vicinity of El Paso. At both these points, however, a fine country exists.
Upon the Gila river grows cotton of the most superior kind. Its nature is
not unlike that of the celebrated Sea Island cotton, possessing an
equally fine texture, and, if anything, more of a silky fibre. The samples
I procured at the Indian villages, from the rudely cultivated fields of the
Pimas and Maricopas, have been spoken of as an extraordinary quality.
Wheat, corn, and tobacco, together with beans, melons, etc., grow
likewise upon the banks and in the valleys bordering the Gila and its
tributaries. The sugar cane, too, I believe, will be found to thrive in this
section of the country west of the Rio San Pedro. A sort of candied
preserve and molasses, expressed from the fruit of the cereus giganteus
and agave Americana was found by our party in 1851, as we passed
through the Pinal Llano camps and among the Gila tribes, to be most
acceptable. The candied preserve was a most excellent substitute for

sugar. It is true that there are extensive wastes to be encountered west
of the Rio Grande, yet they are not deserts of sand, but plains covered
at certain seasons of the year with luxuriant grass, exhibiting green
spots and springs not very remote from each other at all times. There is
sufficient water in the Gila and its branches for all the purposes of
irrigation when it is wanted, the streams being high during the season
most needed. The Rio Salado, a tributary of the Gila, is a bold and far
more beautiful river than the Gila itself, and, from the old ruins now
seen there, must have had formerly a large settlement upon its banks.
"To many persons merely travelling oremigrating across the country,
with but one object in view, and that the reaching their destination on
the Pacific, the country would generally present a barren aspect. But it
will be recollected that the most productive fields in California, before
American enterprise introduced the plough, and a different mode of
cultivation from that of the natives of the country, presented somewhat
similar appearance. Many believed, at first, from the cold and sterile
look of the hills, and the parched appearance of the fields and valleys,
over which the starving coyote is often seen prowling in search of
something to subsist on, that California could never become an
agricultural district, but must depend upon her other resources for
greatness, and trust to distant regions for the necessaries of life required
for her increased population. It was natural enough, too, that this
impression should be created in those accustomed to a different State of
things, and particularly when it is considered that the very season of
blossom and bloom of our Atlantic States was