Juan Bautista de Anza in his Own Words

Statue of Juan Bautista de Anza located in Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico.

To commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Anza expedition, we share with you this unique opportunity to read Anza’s own words describing himself in terms of his professional career. The following is the military service report he made in 1767 from the Presidio Real de San Ignacio de Tubac in today’s southern Arizona.

My name is Juan Bautista de Anza.

I am Captain of the Company at the Royal Presidio of Tubac.

I was born at the Royal Presidio of Fronteras in Sonora. My age is thirty-three years.

My lineage is Spanish.

The total length of my service to date is twelve years and two months.

I began service as a lieutenant on July 1, 1755.

I was promoted to captain on December 12, 1759.

I commenced my service as a lieutenant at the Royal Presidio of Fronteras. There, I took part in five general campaigns against the Apaches under Captain Gabriel de Vildósola. I was entrusted with the most arduous and dangerous patrols. We killed forty of the enemy and captured more than 200 members of their families. During the last of these campaigns, I was under orders to lead a detachment of soldiers and Indian allies to take a stronghold in the Chiricahua Mountains, garrisoned with 180 of the enemy.

Anza departing the Tubac Presidio.

I stormed the stronghold and retreated with six of their stolen cattle. When the Apaches tried to impede us from recovering the rest of the livestock, I was able to single-handedly capture the captain of the Indian band. The rest of the enemy then retreated to the stronghold, leaving myself and another soldier with only minor wounds.

In two other campaigns which I commanded while at that presidio, I killed twenty-nine Apaches during the various skirmishes and captured 114 members of their families. I was able to recover over 500 head of livestock that were stolen from various parts of the province.

Also while attached to the Fronteras presidio, I was sent south under the command of Juan de Mendoza, colonel and governor of these provinces, to take part in five campaigns against the Seris. His satisfaction with my conduct is reflected in the report he made when I was promoted to captain.

When I took over my present command in 1760, my section of the frontier was faced with an uprising of over a thousand Papagos. After launching various campaigns to subjugate them, I attacked them personally on May 10, 1760, and took the lives of Ciprián, their captain, and nine others. All of the rest then capitulated and renounced the inconstancy that has been plaguing the Piman nation.

During that same year of 1760, I was sent down to the Seri frontier five times and led three campaigns. I killed thirty in 1762 and captured many members of their families. I received orders just last year from the present governor [Juan de Pineda] to return to that southern frontier to command the campaign there. Besides winning over twenty families of Sibúbapas or Suaquis [Lower Pimas] to obedience to the king, I surprised the horse herd of the rebel Seris and Pimas and captured it despite their massive attack to recover it.

Urrutia map of early Tubac.

I can declare on this first day of September of the year 1767, In this my company and presidio of San Ignacio at Tubac, that my comportment in each and every one of the battles of my service is attested to by all of the governors and commanders under whom I served.

Juan Bautista de Anza

Translated from the original on folio 263 of volume 47 of the Provincias Internas section of the Archivo General de la Nación in Mexico City.

Source: McCarty, Kieran. Desert Documentary. Tucson: Arizona Historical Society, 1976.

Want to learn more about Anza and his expedition in the place where the history happened?

Click here to join us for an upcoming Anza Trail Heritage & Nature Walk.