California was an island received further confirmation. Without going
across to the sea beyond the mountains, which would have dispelled
the error, Onate returned to the Rio Grande by the outward route,
suffering so greatly for food that the party were forced to eat some
of their horses, a source of relief often resorted to in future days
in this arid country. A few years after Onate's expedition Zalvidar
(1618), with Padre Jiminez and forty-seven soldiers, went out to
Moki, and from there fifteen leagues to the Rio de Buena Esperanza,
but they evidently encountered Marble Canyon, and soon returned.

Another name closely linked with the early history of the Colorado is
that of Padre Eusibio Francisco Kino,* an Austrian by birth and a
member of the Jesuit order. This indefatigable enthusiast travelled
back and forth, time and again, over the whole of northern Sonora and
the southern half of Arizona, then comprised in Pimeria Alta, the
upper land of the Pimas, and Papagueria, the land of the Papagos. His
base of operations was a mission he established in Sonora; the
mission of Dolores, founded in 1687. For some thirty years Kino
laboured in this field with tireless energy, flinching before no
danger or difficulty. He was the first white man to see the
extraordinary ruin called Casa Grande, near the present town of
Florence, and on the occasion of his first visit he took advantage of
the structure to say mass within its thick adobe walls. This is
probably the most remarkable ancient building within the limits of
the United States, For a long time it was called the House of
Montezuma, though, of course, Montezuma never heard of it. A similar
ruin, called Casas Grandes, exists in Sonora. The construction is
what is called cajon, that is, adobe clay rammed into a box or frame,
which is lifted for each successive course as the work advances. In
the dry air of that region such walls become extremely hard, and will