History
of
Arizona.
By Thomas Edwin Fairish, Arizona Historian.
Two volumes. (Phoenix: Printed and Published by Di-
rection of the Second Legislature of the State of Arizona,
A. D., 1915. Pp. xii, 392; viii, 348.)
1
The background of Arizona history is large. On the one side
one may trace it from the Spanish conquest of Mexico through
the northward advance of missionaries and conquistadores in the
early sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, and on the
other from the English settlements of the Atlantic seaboard through
the westward movement of American pioneers in the seventeenth,
eighteenth, and early nineteenth centuries. But in the period
covered by these volumes, that is, down to 1863 or 1864, there is
little distinctive, individualistic history for the region. It is
mainly incidental, episoclal. Spanish priests and explorers; Amer-
ican fur-traders, prospectors, and soldiers, generally destined else-
where, passed through the country and recorded their experiences—
frequently stirring enough to make a thrilling tale;—but of col-
onization and purposeful development of a commonwealth there
was none.
These volumes are a fairly skillful and quite entertaining com-
pilation of quotations from Bancroft and Bandelier on the Spanish-
Mexican period and from the reminiscences and reports of Amer-
ican pioneers and military officers thereafter. Three-fourths of
the text is quoted. Six chapters are devoted to "Early Spanish
Explorations" and "Early Spanish Missions and Missionaries";
but Kino, the only missionary who ever gave his primary attention
to Arizona, gets but four pages. Following the American eon-
quest three chapters are given to railroad surveys and transporta-
tion projects, three to "Early Mines and Mining," three to the
contest for Arizona during the Civil War, two to territorial organi-
zation, eight to Indians, and nine to early setttlers and settlements.
A list of chapter titles illustrates the absence of any plan of organi-
zation, except, to some extent, a chronological one: interspersed
with other chapters, the Indians appear under "Troubles with the
Indians," "Indian Raids and Outrages," "the Navajos," "the
Crabb Massacre," "Indians--Massacres--Outrages--Raids," "In-
dian Hostilities," "the Navajos." American pioneers appear under
"Early American Occupation," "Early Settlements and First At-
tempts at Organization of Territory," "Early Days in Arizona,"
"Early Pioneers and Settlers" (six chapters). In that portion of
the text written by the compiler a few inaccuracies are noted: in
the light of the researches of Professor Adams and Mr. Rives it
requires hardihood to assert without qualification that England
"was preparing to seize" California in 1846 (Preface, vi, and
1:149), not Abarcón (1:19), but Kino, a hundred and forty years
later, settled the fact that California was not an island; the Dem-
ocratic platform of 1844 claimed to 54 40', not to 59 40' (1:119).
This, of course, may be a misprint. It was Tyler's pleasure to
notify Texas of the passage of the joint resolution for annexation,
not Polk's "first official act" (1:119). Each volume is separately
and adequately indexed, but there is neither bibliography nor
bibliographical notes. There are illustrations, but no map. These
are omissions which subsequent volumes in the series should supply.
FOOTNOTES:
ber, 1916.
Eugene C. Barker.
How to cite:
"History of Arizona", Volume 20, Number 2, Southwestern Historical Quarterly Online, http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/publications/journals/shq/online/v020/n2/review_DIVL3225.html
[Accessed Tue Nov 24 4:07:58 CST 2009]
