the trees shimmer and gleam like a transformation scene, and then, stealing up to the window where we were sitting, glorified the face bending over me, as the lips parted to prefer the request. The dear, beautiful face! How I wish you could see it as I saw it at that moment. The rippling golden hair, brown in the shadow, silvery in the moonlight; the dancing, laughing eyes of blue, the sweet, womanly mouth; the parted lips, through which gleamed the white, even, perfect teeth. In the open palm lay a ring, two diamonds shooting out steely bluish rays, and between them, beating, throbbing, smouldering, like a soul in pain, sometimes red as the fiercest heart of flame, then paling until almost colorless, was an opal. Watching its heart of fire, the story came to me: The vesper bells chimed softly out through the twilight of a sultry day, echoing down the narrow valley, throbs of silvery sound dying away among the foot-hills, waves of sweet silence. The door of the little church stood open, and one form after another glided softly in, and kneeling before the shrine of some best-loved saint, made, with trembling fingers, the sign of the cross over a breast mayhap weary of battling with the pains and disappointments of life, and, closing eyes full of unshed tears, mumbled, with quivering lips, a prayer. Around the altar hung clouds of incense, the lamp that is ever burning shone like a star amid the dusk and shadow, and the tones of the organ beat through the silence like the anguished throbs of a stricken soul. Just as the last tremulous tones were dying away, from the window of the confessional, in a shadowed niche at the side of the chancel, gleamed, for a single moment, a glance from eyes that seemed to search every nook and corner, and penetrate every dusky shadow. It was only for a moment, and was instantly withdrawn, as a tall, slender figure entered, shrouded in lace, despite the closeness of the evening, and, passing rapidly up the aisle, along which her trailing skirts swept with a ghostly sound, knelt at the confessional, and buried head and face in the tightly clasped hands. They were small shapely hands, covered with sparkling jewels, and as, after a moment of silence, she raised her head, the lace partially falling, you could see tresses dark as night and a cheek satin smooth, crimson and hot with intense feeling the glorious eyes, full of dangerous fire, the red lips trembling with excitement. It cannot be religious fervor; it is no holy enthusiasm that calls that panting fear into those eyes, that makes the breath come in quick, short gasps, and the bosom heave like a frightened bird. Listen, she speaks! The voice is so low the waiting priest bends his head lower to listen : I "Angelo, be quick; I can stay but a moment. have brought the jewels; here they are. Take them, and I must go. I may be watched and followed. Oh, what would become of you-of us both-if we are discovered!" While she speaks, she has torn the sparkling rings from her fingers, the diamonds like drops of liquid light from her ears; and unclasped from the slender throat a necklace of opals, wondrous, priceless stones, that gleam even through the shadow with a red, dangerous light. Over the dark, bared head bend locks that are fair; into the dusky eyes shoot glances from others, blue as the spring-time violets, but beaming with all a man's passionate adoration. The voice that answers hers shakes with its fathomless depth of feeling; and her tiny hands are clasped so hard that she almost cries out as she strives to draw them away, "My darling, my poor frightened dove, what is there to fear? Surely no one would follow you to the confessional. See! I have the jewels-Gods! what are these stones that jeer and gibe at me? There is something mocking in their gleam." "My opals! Oh, Angelo, they were his wedding gift to me. 'Tis said they bring misfortune. What if he suspect? It will be death to us both." "How nervous you are, my own. Courage, courage, now just as we need it most, when we have but to take a single step and we may belong to each other. Oh, the heaven of that thought! My brain whirls with its mad delight. Let me have one kiss to assure me it is true, and I am not dreaming." As he touched her lips, she almost shrieked, as she shrunk away from him, shuddering, as with cold. "I must not wait longer. Be careful of the jewelsthey are our all. At ten precisely, in the acacia grove. Till then, adieu; do not fail me. I tremble-I am afraid." "Benedicite, daughter!" and the curtain of the confessional fell, and the graceful form moved quickly, noiselessly away. Left alone, the young priest, with trembling hands, removed his surplice, and stooped to gather up the jewels and place them in an inner pocket of his long coat. As he touched the opals, he started suddenly, dropping them again in nervous haste. "Pshaw how foolish I am; and yet I could swear they laughed at me. 'Tis but a superstition-there is nothing in it. We cannot be discovered. Don Pedro knows nothing-does not even suspect that I love his beautiful wife. Only a few hours more, and she will be forever my own-my own-my own." He picked up the jewels, placed them securely in his pocket, and went out, carefully closing and locking the door. He passed swiftly along, singing softly, as was his wont, an Ave Maria, not surely because holy thoughts filled his mind, for his heart beat fiercely with mad, uncontrollable passion. Stop! Was that a stealthy footstep? He is passing the acacia grove, from which, in a short hour, he is to fly, carrying his heaven with him; he shivers with a sudden fear- -a sense of some undefined presence, some unseen danger. He is no coward, and turns to meet it, only to find himself held in a grasp strong as death, and confronted by the husband of the woman he loves. "Now make your peace with heaven, if so be you can, for, by my soul, in one instant I will send you into eternity. The Spaniard is not blind-he can see; but he can wait until he strikes surely. Give me the jewels. They were my gift to her when she became mine, and she shall never be yours-never, never. Now pray, if your guilty lips can frame a prayer. I raise my hand; when it falls, you die." It had come, then; it was as she said—the opals had brought misfortune. By the moon's soft light, which was just then rising, he could see them lying where the haughty Spaniard had thrown them, gleaming at him with their impish faces. How tender the moonlight seemed! He wondered if she sat where it could illuminate her wondrous beauty. His lips moved to frame a prayer. It was only this: "My love! my love!" Even in this supreme moment, his thought was of her. He grasped the merciless hand that was stretched high above him: "Wait! I have a favor to ask. Spare her; she is innocent; I alone am guilty." The face of a demon could not be darker than the one that bent above him: "Spare her? I will send her to you; you shall not be separated long." And swiftly the uplifted hand descended. The moon rose higher and higher, its soft radiance piercing the densest shadows of the acacia grove, where a face fair and peaceful lay upturned to its caresses. The musical, silvery chimes struck ten. Almost at the same instant a veiled, shadowy figure entered the wood, and stole noiselessly along toward its deepest shade. The dark eyes were filled with a slumberous light; one burning spot burned on either cheek; the breath came in quick, choking gasps, and the slender fingers that held the lace covering round the shapely head and throat clasped and unclasped in a quick, spasmodic way. "I am sure no one saw me, and yet I cannot rid myself of the idea that I am followed. Why can I not shake off this horrible depression? Oh, my love! my love! What would I not dare for you?-what would I not give for you? My life, if needs be, a thousand times over!" The heart of the wood is reached. It is all so still,' so dark, she is afraid. She whispers, scarcely above her breath: "Angelo! Angelo !" "He is here, my love!" and from behind a dark acacia a tall form comes quickly toward her. What is this sudden terror? She cannot speak; she is dumb. One glance into the face bending over her, one shriek, and she turns to flee. A grasp like iron holds her and drags her swiftly back. "You come to seek Angelo. He is here. Look, he is waiting for you. He trusted you so fully, you know; he was so sure you would come; he is sleeping while he waits. And see! he has brought you jewels for your bridal. Look how they gleam-how like their red hearts are to drops of blood! Let me clasp them on your neck, my beauty, that he may see them when he wakes." In a dark horror, as of one in a dream, she gropes to where his fair dead face smiles up to her. She tears the opals from her throat. Yet they gleam red-red with blood his blood! No need for the murderous knife to do its work. With one wild cry startling the stillness of the night, she goes to join her lover, while the pale moonbeams rest tenderly on two white faces in the heart of the acacia wood. But what became of the opals? Rap, rap, at the door. "Will you have the gas lighted, madam?" Flash after flash shoots up, and falls upon the ring still lying in the outstretched palm. Is it fancy, or does change and darken, like a drop of blood? HINTS TO CONTRIBUTORS. A. 1. Write your article in ink, on one side only of the paper. 2. If you cannot write legibly yourself, have your article copied. Pay particular attention to proper names and technical phrases. 3. If you desire your article returned, inclose stamps for that purpose. 4.-Condense. A NOCTURNAL CONCERT. The voice of Nature never yet was still. When comes the night, and darkness, deep, profound, Clothes all the earth, then list. A noisy sound, From some deep-sleeping pool, your ears will fill; Ten thousand hammers, worked with sturdy will On muffled anvils, seem to strike and pound Like that clink, clank, of hammers when they bound From hardened steel. At intervals a shrill And nearer note disturbs your listening ear: These are the sounds that issue from the throats Of those wet warblers of the tarns and fensThose chorus singers of the marsh and mere, Who serenade the stars with their harsh notes, In symphonies no mortal creature kens. ALVAH PENdleton. COMPENSATION. I thought she had all things to make her life Seeing the one great joy my life doth hold, She cries, "O niggard Fate, you've given me naught!' HARVEST. The valley slopes lie smiling in the sun, And wandering breezes lightly lift my hair. ANNOUNCEMENT. " Commencing with the May number, THE CAliforNIAN passed into the hands of its present owners, The California Publishing Company. It was not deemed expedient to change the name of the firm publishing the magazine until the commencement of a new volume. We take this opportunity, however, to say that we are encouraged by the success which has attended our efforts, and that in every legitimate manner we shall endeavor to improve the magazine. The high appreciation which has met our efforts shows conclusively the existence of a literary taste in this community, which we shall strive to please by making THE CALIFORNIAN the spiciest, breeziest, and best periodical in the country. Mr. A. Roman will continue as Business Manager. THE CALIFORNIAN. A WESTERN MONTHLY MAGAZINE. VOL. II.-AUGUST, 1880.-No. 8. CASA GRANDE. Eastern States of the Union, the works of the ancient mound-builders-of whom we have no history are being as carefully investigated and preserved. Over the entire Pacific Coast, also, works of ancient man have been found. Although but little interest has been taken in them by our gold-hunting people, they are being collected by the wholesale to enrich the museums of other lands, when they should be preserved in our own. There is no subject of greater interest to the intelligent mind than the unwritten history of the human race. We look back to our ancestors, who were probably no better than our selves, with an innate veneration, common to all mankind. It is human to inquire into the past. We have a strong natural desire to know the early history of man as an inhabitant of the earth, and to speculate on the future. To us it is a subject of absorbing interest to inquire how we came to be here, and why. Were we created in our present shape, or are we the result of evolution from lower forms? It is now gen-mains of a prehistoric civilization in the most erally conceded that the human race has walked the earth for a much longer period than was formerly supposed. Darwin's well known theory of gradual advance from the lowest types to the highest is now assumed by many educated minds, and the subject has become so interesting that earnest men, in various parts of the world, are devoting their lives to its study. It is to a certain extent humiliating to visit the British Museum, or to pass through the extensive galleries of the Louvre at Paris, and view the relics of ancient civilization there shown. It humbles our pride to be compelled to admit that in some things the ancients were our superiors, and that they had in daily service articles of use and ornament that we cute Yankees have reinvented and consider new. But there is a period still more ancient, of which we have but vague ideas, and of which we know but little. In Europe, evidences of the age of prehistoric man are being carefully collected, and all new facts bearing on the subject studied with the greatest interest. In the Vol. II.-7. The ubiquitous prospector, while searching for gold and silver, is often surprised to find re unexpected localities. There is little doubt that the whole country, including the widespread desert and mountain cañon, has been a scene of activity in years long past. And it is difficult to account for the facts, such as we find them, unless we assume that the unknown race was one of gold-hunters, like ourselves. There is no better theory to account for their selecting, with evident forethought, such a sterile and desolate country for an abiding place. Moreover, there are reasons to believe that they led a roving life, and were constantly changing. There is said to be a tradition among the Pueblo Indians of the south, to the effect that another race, known as the Montezuma tribes, went to Mexico in very ancient times from the north; and that the emigration was gradual, as if the nomadic race had been slowly driven southward by some unknown cause. In evidence of this, it has been shown that a line of ruins extends from the Gila River quite to the City of Mexico, with rather more obscure traces northward. At certain points [Copyright by THE CALIFORNIA PUBLISHING COMPANY. All rights reserved in trust for contributors.] co for the State Museum, where they may be examined by those interested. the movement seems to have been for a time | teresting relics have been sent to San Francischecked, and a stand made, which must have occupied a long period of years; for it may be shown that the ancient people built cities, engineered irrigating canals, erected casas grandes, prospected the hills for gold, silver, and copper, strewed the ground with broken pottery, lost their stone axes and shell ornaments, built mounds, and buried their dead. iards listened eagerly to stories, invariably rosetinted, which came to their ears from time to time. The El Dorado had not yet been discovered, in the existence of which the civilized world at that period had the most implicit faith; as a proof of which, the voyages of Sir Walter Raleigh, in 1595 and 1617, may be cited, and a number of Spanish expeditions well known to historians. It is not strange, therefore, that the Spaniards in Mexico should willingly equip expeditions to the unknown land. Rumors of cities of great wealth and splendor, and mines of gold, silver, and precious stones, reached Mexico from various sources. It is unnecessary to repeat here what has been so well told in a former number of this magazine. A well written and very interesting account of the expedition of Coronado, with a map of the route he took, may be found in the annual report of the regents of the Smithsonian Institution, for the year 1869, to which the reader is referred. The following extracts bearing on the history of Casa Grande are in part from that source. The ancient building known as Casa Grande, on the banks of the Gila River, is at the present time the most interesting of all the ruins left by the prehistoric people. Although there are many other ruins of less note which are worthy of careful study, this one is the best It is historical that the Spaniards in Mexico known, and is identified with the history of the found a mixture of races at the time of the con- country. The events which led to the discovquest. The Pueblo Indians planted corn, beans, ery of Casa Grande may be briefly stated. and pumpkins, and lived almost wholly on the When the Spaniards had conquered Mexico, fruits of agriculture, while the Montezumas were and the first excitement was over, they began to rich in gold, silver, and copper. Modern min- turn their attention to the unknown north couners and prospectors have discovered a relation try. As we, at the present day, allow our imbetween these ruins and deposits of the pre-aginations to color the mental picture we paint cious metals—a clew to the richest spots in Ari- of unexplored lands, so the victorious Spanzona and New Mexico, revealed by the marks left by the ancient gold-hunters. Wherever | they have found old ruins may be discovered, in nearly every case, valuable mines. A similar experience was made by the early explorers of the wonderful copper mines of Lake Superior. The best mines and the largest deposits of copper had been discovered and worked by an ancient and unknown race; in Arizona and New Mexico, old workings are not uncommon. Several instances are fresh in the mind of the writer. In the Valeria Mine, Arivaca District, Pima County, Arizona, a human skeleton, with tools of copper and stone, was found in an old shaft, from which a quantity of native silver has lately been taken. In the Pinal District, Pinal County, tons of litharge have been found, which in all human probability is the refuse of ancient furnaces, which have fallen into decay and all traces of them been lost. The same substance has been found elsewhere in Arizona. Another discovery of this nature has lately been made at a locality twenty-six miles north-east of Prescott, Yavapai County, Arizona, at the copper mines of Head & Richards. An old shaft | was discovered, which had become obscured and nearly filled in by drifting sands. When cleared out it was found to be twenty feet deep, with a drift at the bottom fifteen feet long, in which lay hammers and gads of stone. J. J. Vosburgh, agent of Wells, Fargo & Co. at Globe City, was prospecting, in 1879, in the White Mountains of Arizona. On the highest peak, twelve thousand feet above the level of the sea, he built his evening camp-fire. In doing so, he noticed some Indian arrow-heads on the ground. Stooping to pick them up, he saw, scat-conquering these cities in the name of Spain. tered among the loose earth, a quantity of stone beads, some of them in an unfinished condition, an examination of which is a key to the mode of their manufacture. Some of these in In the year 1530, Nuno de Guzman, President of New Spain, became interested in a statement made to him by a slave, to the effect that he had seen in his native country, lying to the north of Mexico, cities nearly as large as the City of Mexico, in which streets were exclusively occupied by artisans in gold and silver. The Indian also stated that a desert intervened, which would require at least forty days to cross. The President having allowed his imagination to get the better of his judgment—a mistake too common at the present day-organized an army with the intention of When, however, he had reached Culiacan, a point in Mexico near the Gulf of California, in the present State of Sinaloa, he found the difficulties so much greater than he had expected that he abandoned the undertaking, and contented himself with making a settlement. Culiacan at the present day contains more than twelve thousand inhabitants. About six years afterward, in 1536, a party of Spaniards came to Mexico from the north. With them came also an Arab, or negro, named Stephen. This party was a remnant of the expedition of Pamphilo de Narvaez, which sailed from the West Indies, in 1528, with four hundred men and eighty horses, in four ships, to explore Florida, of which Narvaez was Governor, under commission from Spain. The expedition ended most disastrously. Shipwrecked, taken captive by hostile Indians and enslaved for years, treated with the greatest cruelty by their captors, this small party of four-probably the only survivors-finally made their escape, and reached Mexico as above stated, having crossed the continent northward, thence traveling southward through New Mexico and Arizona to Culiacan. was built of red earth, was the work of civilized people, who had come from afar." This seems to be the first historical notice of Father Kino, in 1694, one hundred and fifty years later, visited the Gila River and Casa Grande. He found traditions among the Pima Indians dating back four hundred years. It was then a ruin. Another priest, whose name is not given, visited these ruins in the year 1764. Father Font was at Casa Grande on the third of October, 1775. He says: "The Casa Grande must have been built five hundred years previously, in the thirteenth century, if we may believe the accounts given by the Indians. The house is seventy feet from north to south (Spanish feet), and fifty feet from east to west. The interior walls are six feet thick. We found no trace of stairways. We think they must have been burned when the Apaches destroyed the edifice.". In modern times, Casa Grande has been more frequently visited, and descriptions of it given. An interesting account may be found in Notes of a Military Reconnoissance from Fort Leavenworth, in Missouri, to San Diego, California, by W. H. Emory, published in Washington, in 1848. On the eleventh of November, 1846, Lieutenant Emory was encamp the Pimos Villages. A party visited the Casa Grande, called by him Casa Montezuma. While riding, Lieutenant Emory asked the interpreter if the Indians knew the origin of these buildThe reply was, "No. In truth, we know nothing of their origin. All is wrapped in mystery." The following is from his narrative: These men caused an excitement by the stories they told of cities they had seen, and of mythical mines of gold and silver, which led to the expedition of Coronado, in the year 1540. The adventures of this expedition have ofttimes been related-how the negro, Stephen, and a Franciscan friar, Marcos de Nica, with a party, were sent out in advance, to learned, with his command, eight or ten miles from whatever could be ascertained of the seven cities; how the negro was killed, and the remainder of the party returned without discovering anything of special importance, yet feeding the flames by drafts on their imagination, invent-ings. ing stories of golden splendors they had never seen; and how Coronado marched northward nearly to the present site of Omaha, and returned disappointed. All this is a matter of great interest, but has little bearing on the subject of this paper, and is only mentioned here on account of its connection with a secondary expedition, which was sent by Coronado, and commanded by Captains Melchior de Diaz and Juan de Saldibar, to explore a portion of the country. This party had extended its exploration as far as Chichilticale, on the edge of the des "About the time of the noonday halt, a large pile, which seemed the work of human hands, was seen to the left. It was the remains of a three-story mud house, sixty feet square, pierced for doors and windows. The walls were four feet thick, formed of layers of mud two feet thick. Stanly made an elaborate sketch of every part, for it was, no doubt, built by the same race that had once thickly populated this territory, and left behind the ruins. We made a careful search for some specimens of household furniture or implements of art, but nothing was found except the corn-grinder always met with among the ruins and on the plain. Marine ert, six hundred miles from Culiacan. They shells, cut into various ornaments, were also found met Coronado at Chiametta, and gave very discouraging accounts of what they had seen. This did not, however, deter Coronado from repeating the exploration, and visiting Chichilticale in person, which is described in the records in the following language: "He was especially afflicted to find this Chichilticale, of which so much had been boasted, to be but a single ruined, roofless house, which at one time seemed to have been fortified. It was easy to see that this house, which here, which showed that these people either came from the sea, or trafficked there. No traces of hewn timber were discovered; on the contrary, the sleepers of the ground floor were round and unhewn. They were burned out of their seats in the wall to the depth of six inches. The whole interior of the house had been burned out, and the walls much disfigured. What was left bore marks of having been glazed. On the wall, in the north room of the second story, was found some hieroglyphics, which were carefully drawn, but the drawings have been lost." |