Page:EB1911 - Volume 02.djvu/587

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
548
ARJUNA—ARK
  

and embellishing rather than clearing up its mysteries. All this has left traces in still living myths about the early history of the South-west. Early in the 17th century considerable progress had been made in Christianizing the Pimas, Papagoes and Moquis. Following 1680 came a great Indian revolt in New Mexico and Arizona, and thereafter the Moquis remained independent of Spanish and Christian domination, although visited fitfully by rival Jesuits and Franciscans. In 1732 (possibly in 1720) regular Jesuit missions were founded at Bac (known as an Indian rancheria since the 17th century) and at Guevavi. The region south of the Gila had already been repeatedly explored. In the second half of the century there was a presidio at Tubac (whose name first appears 1752) and some half-dozen pueblos de visita, including the Indian settlement of Tucson.

A few errors should be corrected and some credit given with reference to this early period. The Inquisition never had any jurisdiction whatever over the Indians; compulsory labour by the Indians was never legalized except on the missions, and the law was little violated; they were never compelled to work mines; of mining by the Indians for precious metals there is no evidence; nor by the Jesuits (expelled in 1767, after which their missions and other properties were held by the Franciscans), except to a small extent about the presidio of Tubac, although they did some prospecting. Persistent traditions have greatly exaggerated the former prosperity of the old South-west. The Spaniards probably provoked some inter-tribal intercourse among the Indians, and did something among some tribes for agriculture. Their own farms and settlements, save in the immediate vicinity of the presidio, were often plundered and abandoned, and such settlement as there was was confined to the Santa Cruz valley. From about 1790 to 1822 was a period of peace with the Apaches and of comparative prosperity for church and state. The fine Indian mission church at Bac, long abandoned and neglected, dates from the last decade of the 18th century. The establishment of a presidio at Tucson in 1776 marks its beginning as a Spanish settlement.

The decay of the military power of the presidios during the Mexican war of independence, the expulsion of loyal Spaniards—notably friars—and the renewal of Apache wars, led to the temporary abandonment of all settlements except Tubac and Tucson. The church practically forsook the field about 1828.

American traders and explorers first penetrated Arizona in the first quarter of the 19th century. As a result of the Mexican War, New Mexico, which then included all Arizona north of the Gila, was ceded to the United States. California gold discoveries drew particular attention to the country south of the Gila, which was wanted also for a transcontinental railway route. This strip, known as the “Gadsden Purchase” (see Gadsden, James), was bought in 1854 by the United States, which took possession in 1856. This portion was also added to New Mexico. The Mexicans, pressed by the Apaches, had, in 1848, abandoned even Tubac and Tamacácori, first a visita of Guevavi, and after 1784 a mission. The progress of American settlement was interrupted by the Civil War, which caused the withdrawal of the troops and was the occasion for the outbreak of prolonged Indian wars.

Meanwhile a convention at Tucson in 1856 sent a delegate to Congress and petitioned for independent territorial government. This movement and others that followed were ignored by Congress owing to its division over the general slavery question, and especially the belief of northern members that the control of Arizona was an object of the pro-slavery party. A convention held in April 1860 at Tucson undertook to “ordain and establish,” of its own motion, a provisional constitution until Congress should “organize a territorial government.” This provisional territory constituted all New Mexico south of 34° 40′ N. Officials were appointed and New Mexican legislation for the Arizona counties ignored, but nothing further was done. In 1861 it was occupied by a Texan force, declared for the Confederacy, and sent a delegate (who was not admitted) to the Confederate congress. That body in January 1862 passed a formal act organizing the territory, including in it New Mexico, but in May 1862 the Texans were driven out by a Union force from California. By act of the 24th of February 1863 Congress organized Arizona territory as the country west of 109° W. long. In December an itinerant government sent out complete from Washington crossed the Arizona line and effected a formal organization. The territorial capital was first at Prescott (1863–1867), then at Tucson (1867–1877), again at Prescott (1877–1889), and finally at Phoenix (since 1889).

There have been boundary difficulties with every contiguous state or territory. The early period of American rule was extremely unsettled. The California gold discoveries and overland travel directed many prospecting adventurers to Arizona. For some years there was considerable sentiment favouring filibustering in Sonora. The Indian wars, breeding a habit of dependence on force, and the heterogeneous elements of cattle thieves, Sonoran cowboys, mine labourers and adventurers led to one of the worst periods of American border history. But since about 1880 there is nothing to chronicle but a continued growth in population and prosperity. Agitation for statehood became prominent in territorial politics for some years. In accordance with an act of Congress, approved on the 16th of June 1906, the inhabitants of Arizona and New Mexico voted on the 6th of November 1906 on the question of uniting the territories into a single state to be called Arizona; the vote of New Mexico was favourable to union and statehood, but these were defeated by the vote of Arizona (16,265 against, and 3141 for statehood). In June 1910 the President approved an enabling act providing for the admission of Arizona and New Mexico as separate states.

Bibliography.—For the Colorado river and the Grand Canyon see those articles; for the Sonoran boundary region, Report of the Boundary Commission upon the Boundaries between the United States and Mexico (3 vols., Washington, 1898–1899, also as Senate Document No. 247, vols. 23-25, 55 Congress, 2 Session); for the petrified forest of the Painted Desert, L. F. Ward in Smithsonian Institution Annual Rep., 1899; for the rest of the area, various reports in the U.S. Geological Survey publications, bibliography in Bulletin Nos. 100, 177.—Fauna and Flora: U.S. Department of Agriculture, North American Fauna, No. 3 (1890), No. 7 (1893); U.S. Biological Survey, Bulletin No. 10 (1898); publications of the Desert Botanical Laboratory at Tucson; also titles under archaeology below, particularly Bandelier’s “Final Report.”—Climate, Soil, Agriculture: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Climate and Crop Service, Arizona, monthly reports, annual summaries; Arizona Agricultural Experiment Station, Bulletins.—Mineral Industries: U.S. Geological Survey publications, consult bibliographies; The Mineral Industry, annual (New York and London).—Government: Arizona Revised Statutes (Phoenix, 1887); Report of the Governor of Arizona Territory to the Secretary of the Interior, annual.—Archaeology: An abundance of materials in the Annual Report, U.S. Bureau of Ethnology for different years; consult also especially A. F. A. Bandelier, “Contributions to the History of the South-western Portion of the United States,” in Archaeological Institute of America, Papers, American Series, vol. 5 (Cambridge, 1890); “Final Report of Investigations among the Indians of the South-western United States,” ib. vols. 3 and 4 (Cambridge, 1890–1892); other material may be found in Smithsonian Institution, Annual Report, 1896, 1897, &c., and many important papers by J. W. Fewkes, F. W. Hodge, C. Mendeleff and others in the American Anthropologist and Journal of American Ethnology.—History: H. H. Bancroft, History of Arizona and New Mexico (San Francisco, 1887); A. F. A. Bandelier, “Historical Introduction to Studies among the Sedentary Indians of New Mexico,” in Archaeological Institute of America, Papers, American Series, vol. 1 (Boston, 1881); The Gilded Man (El Dorado) and other Papers (New York, 1893); G. P. Winship, “The Coronado Expedition,” in U.S. Bureau of Ethnology, 14th Annual Report (1892–1893), pp. 339-613, with an abundant literature to which this may be the guide. The traditional errors respecting the early history of the Spanish South-west are fully exposed in the works of Bancroft and Bandelier, whose conclusions are supported by E. Coues, On the Trail of a Spanish Pioneer, Francisco Garcés (2 vols. New York, 1900).

ARJUNA, in Hindu mythology, a semi-divine hero of the Mahabharata. He was the third son of Pandu, son of Indra, His character as sketched in the great epic is of the noblest kind. He is the central figure of that portion of the epic known as the Bhagwad-gita, where he is represented as horrified at the impending slaughter of a battle and as being comforted by Krishna.

ARK (a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Ger. Arche, adapted from the Lat. arca, chest, cf. arcere, to shut up, enclose), a chest, basket or box. The Hebrew word tebah, translated in the A.V. by “ark,” is used in the Old Testament (1) of the box made