ROJAS' SILVER BELL
Posted: Wed Dec 09, 2009 6:33 am
Hello Jim,
The more I read in the these forums the more I become entranced by it all, and I cannot help but be reminded of an experience I had in Phoenix a few months ago when my wife and I were visiting our daughter there.
One of the places we visited during our stay was a Catholic Church in downtown Phoenix. One of the things that we were most impressed with were some statues of Priests. As we were admiring them a Priest came across the courtyard and paused for a moment to speak with us as. We asked him who the Priests were in the statues. I remember him saying that the one was Father Kino (which we both had assumed) and another was Father Rojas.
He spoke for several minutes about the Priests and we were spellbound as we listened. When he finished my wife inquired about the Bell below Father Rojas. This was where the story became really interesting. He explained that just as the horse that Father Kino stands over is his trademark, the bell that Father Rojas stands over is his. Father Rojas was from Arizpe, Mexico and was assigned to Jesuit activities in the Northern Primeria Alta, specifically overseeing Indian labor involved with the mines owned and operated by Spain in the regions south and east of modern day Phoenix. During his involvement with the operations, Father Rojas desired to build a church in the high mountains to the east for the Indian laborers to attend.
Father Rojas had acquired a Silver Bell for a church he had planed to build. It was used to call the laborers from the mines all around for church services in the mountains, which were temporarily being held on top of a high flat plateau. At this time the King of Spain was experiencing a smaller and smaller income from the mines in the Primeria Alta, and there were growing tensions between him and the Jesuit Priests in charge of the labor there. The King apparently felt that the Jesuits were holding out on him and not giving him the full amount due to him. He said that the Rojas was told that the King was sending his men after him and he told the laborers to dig a hole and hide the bell until Rojas returned. Rojas was arrested and returned to Spain during the expulsion of 1776 and the bell is still hidden somewhere in the mountains near the mines. That is why the statue of Rojas has a bell at his feet.
Does any of this make sense to you or fit in with anything you are working on in connection with the stone maps and Jesuit mines or treasures hidden in the mountains?
Joey
The more I read in the these forums the more I become entranced by it all, and I cannot help but be reminded of an experience I had in Phoenix a few months ago when my wife and I were visiting our daughter there.
One of the places we visited during our stay was a Catholic Church in downtown Phoenix. One of the things that we were most impressed with were some statues of Priests. As we were admiring them a Priest came across the courtyard and paused for a moment to speak with us as. We asked him who the Priests were in the statues. I remember him saying that the one was Father Kino (which we both had assumed) and another was Father Rojas.
He spoke for several minutes about the Priests and we were spellbound as we listened. When he finished my wife inquired about the Bell below Father Rojas. This was where the story became really interesting. He explained that just as the horse that Father Kino stands over is his trademark, the bell that Father Rojas stands over is his. Father Rojas was from Arizpe, Mexico and was assigned to Jesuit activities in the Northern Primeria Alta, specifically overseeing Indian labor involved with the mines owned and operated by Spain in the regions south and east of modern day Phoenix. During his involvement with the operations, Father Rojas desired to build a church in the high mountains to the east for the Indian laborers to attend.
Father Rojas had acquired a Silver Bell for a church he had planed to build. It was used to call the laborers from the mines all around for church services in the mountains, which were temporarily being held on top of a high flat plateau. At this time the King of Spain was experiencing a smaller and smaller income from the mines in the Primeria Alta, and there were growing tensions between him and the Jesuit Priests in charge of the labor there. The King apparently felt that the Jesuits were holding out on him and not giving him the full amount due to him. He said that the Rojas was told that the King was sending his men after him and he told the laborers to dig a hole and hide the bell until Rojas returned. Rojas was arrested and returned to Spain during the expulsion of 1776 and the bell is still hidden somewhere in the mountains near the mines. That is why the statue of Rojas has a bell at his feet.
Does any of this make sense to you or fit in with anything you are working on in connection with the stone maps and Jesuit mines or treasures hidden in the mountains?
Joey