Of notable interest is the fact that certain members of the Jones
expedition were so deeply interested in what they saw that they made
request for immediate return. So, October 18, 1876, there started
southward, from Salt Lake, at the direction of the Church Presidency,
another expedition, in character missionary, rather than for exploration.
It embraced Helaman Pratt, Jas. Z. Stewart, Isaac J. Stewart, Louis Garff
and George Terry. Meliton G. Trejo joined at Richfield. Phoenix was
reached December 23, there being found several families of the Church who
had come the previous year. The day the missionaries arrived happened to
be exactly thirty years after the date on which the Mormon Battalion
passed the Pima villages on the Gila River, just south of Phoenix. The
members of the party worked all over southern Arizona, especially among
the Mexicans and Indians.
In February of 1877 headquarters were at Tubac. In April, after a Mexican
trip, a letter was received from President Brigham Young asking that
Sonora be explored as a country for possible settlement. Later in May the
Stewarts started eastward, in continuing danger from hostile Apaches
after they had crossed the San Pedro. On the road, while the missionaries
were passing, a mail rider was killed. At Camp Bowie the Apaches were
found beleaguering the post. East of that point the Stewarts had to
replace a wagon tire just as they were passing a point of Apache ambush.
Return to Utah was in December, 1877. It was concluded that border
settlements better had wait on Indian pacification.
Trejo was a remarkable character. He was of aristocratic Castilian birth
and had been an officer in the Spanish army in the Philippines. It would
appear that he became interested in the Mormon doctrine, which, in some
manner, had reached that far around the earth, and that he resigned
his commission and straightway went to Utah. There his knowledge of
Spanish, backed by good general schooling, made him valuable as a
translator, though his English was learned in the Jones family. His later
work was in Arizona and Mexico, as a missionary, his home in 1878 moved
to Saint David on the San Pedro, where he died a few years ago. He was a
fluent writer and sent many interesting letters to the Deseret News. In
January, 1878, he wrote from Hayden's Ferry:
"We are now between the Salt and Gila Rivers, on a very extensive rich
plain, covered with trees and small brush, watered in some places by
means of canals from the two rivers named. The river dams and canals are
very easy made, on account of the solid bottoms of the rivers and pure
farming clay of the plain. In fact, the people who are now living here
find it very easy to get good farms in one or two years without much hard
labor. They unite as we do in making canals. The climate is one of the
most delightful in the world and until a few years ago, one of the most
healthy too, but lately the people have been troubled with fevers, which
nobody seems to know the cause. The water is good and the sky is clear,
there being no stagnant pools; the ground is dry and the winds blow
freely in every direction. I don't believe these fevers are naturally in
the country, but are caused by the people not taking proper care of
themselves."
An interesting letter has been found, dated at Tubac, March 4, 1877,
addressed to President Brigham Young and written by Elder Jas. Z.
Stewart. It told that the country is "better than the north part of the
Territory, from the fact that the land is as good, if not better, the
water is good and regular and the climate more pleasant." He referred
to the ruins of whole towns, to the rich mines, to the abundance of game
and to the drawback of Apache raids. He described the southern Arizona
Mexicans as "all very poor, having no cows, horses, houses nor lands and
but very little to live on. Though they live for days on parched corn,
they are willing to divide their last meal with a stranger. They are
industrious, but ignorant, it being seldom you can find one who can
write."