oronado's expedition is very scanty, and the exact route followed has
not yet been determined and probably never will be. So far as these data
go, however, they are against the assumption that the Chichilticale of
Castaneda is the Casa Grande of today. Mr. A. F. Bandelier, whose
studies of the documentary history of the southwest are well known,
inclines to the opinion that the vicinity of Old Camp Grant, on the Rio
San Pedro, Arizona, more nearly fill the descriptions. Be this as it
may, however, the work of Castaneda was lost to sight, and it is not
until more than a century later that the authentic history of the ruin
commences.

In 1694 the Jesuit Father Kino heard of the ruin, and later in the same
year visited it and said mass within its walls. His secretary and usual
companion on his missionary journeys, Mange by name, was not with him on
this occasion, but in 1697 another visit was paid to the ruin and the
description recorded by Mange[1] in his diary heads the long list of
accounts extending down to the present time.[2] Mange describes the ruin
as consisting of--

A large edifice, the principal room in the center being four stories
high, and those adjoining it on its four sides three stories, with
walls 2 varas thick, of strong argamaso y baro (adobe) so smooth on
the inside that they resemble planed boards, and so polished that
they shine like Puebla pottery.

[Footnote 1: An English translation is given by H. H. Bancroft,
Works, iv, p. 622, note. Also by Bartlett, Personal Narrative, 1854,
vol. ii, pp. 281-282; another was published by Schoolcraft, Hist.
Cond. and Pros. of Am. Ind., vol. iii, 1853, p. 301.]

[Footnote 2: Quite an extensive list is given by Bancroft
(op. cit., pp. 622-625, notes), and by Bandelier in Papers Arch.
Inst. of Amer., American series, i, p. 11, note.]

Mange also gives some details of construction, and states that in the
immediate vicinity there were remains of twelve other buildings, the
walls half fallen and the roofs burned out.

Following Mange's account there were a number of descriptions of no
special value, and a more useful one written by Padre Font, who in 1775
and 1776 made a journey to Gila and Colorado rivers and beyond. This
description[1] is quite circumstantial and is of especial interest
because it formed the basis of nearly all the accounts written up to the
time when that country came into our possession. According to thi