This is a 1762 engraving in English of Kino's ca. 1701-1702 manuscript map. The map was first published in 1705 in French in Lettres Edifantes..., Paris. This small map is a great monument in the unfolding of the mysteries of the West. It includes discoveries made along his overland route to California which enabled him finally to dispel the theory of California as an island. Pimeria and Sonora appear for the first time as distinct regions, as do many placenames in the region, including Mission San Xavier as "S. Francis Xavier du Bac". Tucson is located by its earlier village name "S. Augustin". The Colorado River first appears by its modern name. Six other manuscript maps of the region are known to have been produced by Fr. Kino: 1683, 1685, 1695- 96, 1696-97, 1702, and 1710. Fr. Kino (1644-1711) was the great figure of the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in the far northwestern reaches of New Spain. He was a Jesuit missionary assigned in 1687 to the Pimeria, Viceroyalty of Mexico, and as leader of Jesuit missionaries in that region, he labored not only to minister to the Indians but to explore and make known the land. By 1687 Fr. Kino had established missions in what is now Sonora, but the northern region between the Altar and Gila Rivers remained largely unexplored. In 1691, with Fr. Salvatierra, Kino entered what is known today as Arizona and discovered notable sites such as the Casa Grande ruin. During a 1701 journey, Kino reached the mouth of the Colorado River and proved--to his own satisfaction, at least--that California was not an island.
