The Mission of Guevavi on the Santa Cruz River in what is now southern Arizona served as a focal point of Jesuit missionary endeavor among the Pima Indians on New Spain"s far northwestern frontier.For three-quarters of a century, from the first visit by the renowned Eusebio Francisco Kino in 1691 until the Jesuit Expulsion in 1767, the difficult process of replacing one culture with another - the heart of the Spanish mission system - went on at Guevavi. Yet all but the initial years presided over by Father Kino have been forgotten.Drawing upon archival materials in Mexico, Spain, and the United States - including accounts by the missionaries themselves and the surviving pages of the Guevavi record books - Kessell brings to life those forgotten years and forgotten men who struggled to transform a native rancheria into an ordered mission community.