1767 to 1774

Soon after the Jesuit expulsion, the Franciscans from the Queretaro College took over the Missions of Pimeria Alta: Atil, Caborca, Guevavi, San Ignacio, San Xavier del Bac, Saric, Suamca and Tubutama, as well as the Visitas of Busanic, Cocospera, Imuris, Magdalena, Oquitoa, Pitiquito, Santa Ana and Santa Teresa, and the Presidios of Altar, Terrenate and Tubac.

To Atil went Jose Soler, to Caborca Juan Diaz, to San Ignacio Diego Martin Garcia, to San Xavier del Bac Francisco Garces, to Saric Jusn Jose Agorreta, to Suamca Francisco Roche, and to Guevavi Gil de Bernabe, while to Tububama arrived Mariano Buena, who would also be the first President of Pimeria Alta Missions. He would be accompanied by Jose del Rio. They would have to deal with the worsening of Apache attacks.

Fray Juan Crisostomo Gil de Bernabe arrived at Guevavi on May 1768, and less than a month later his Visita of Sonoita was attacked by the Apaches, while on the morning of October 2, San Xavier del Bac was also attacked. Two soldiers who were defending that mission, together with the Indian Governor, went after the attackers, but were ambushed and killed in Cebadilla Pass (today´s Reddington Pass).

Soon after Father Roche arrived at Suamca, when he saw that his Mission was exposed to the Apache attacks, he would move to Cocospera. On November 19, 1768, the Apaches attacked Suamca, burning the church and the houses, leaving the town in ruins. Then, Roche took the survivors with him to Cocospera, and Suamca was abandoned. As McCarty tells us:

"The Pima settlement of Santa Maria Suamca, located at the headwaters of the river that flows past Tucson, wasn´t anymore. The Santa Maria river had lost it´s name. Some twenty years later, Spanish troops would occupy this strategic point. They would name their Presidio as Santa Cruz, the same name with which we know today this important river of Sonora and Arizona. In the meantime, Santiago de Cocospera would remain as the Mission headquarters of Suamca District, for three quarters of a Century, until the end of the Mission period"

On February, 1769, the Apaches attacked Tumacacori, and three days later, again San Xavier. Gil de Bernabe would witness, besides the Apache attacks, another measles epidemic on March 1770, as well as another Apache attack in Calabasas, on May. Seven lives lost.

In Tucson, Captain de Anza ordered that same year of 1770 a wall to be built to defend the Presidio, and soon afterwards he started a campaign against the Apaches, with the death of 2 men, 2 women, and 7 children captured.

In revenge, the Apaches attacked Sonoita, killing 19 people, among them the Indian Governor of the town, and his wife. To revert the decreasing Indian population of the Missions, now the Franciscans would go out to collect the Pima and Papago living near the Missions, although each time with less success.

On October 1772, the Apaches dared to steal more than one hundred cattle from the Presidio of Tubac, killing a soldier at the same time. A few weeks later they stole 257 more from Terrenate.

Gil would remain at Guevavi until 1771, when he was removed, due to sickness, and later would be sent to Carrizal, near today´s Kino Bay, where he would be killed by the Seri Indians in 1773. His place at Guevavi was taken by Bartolome Ximeno.

Two years after his arrival, this second Franciscan would write from Tumacacori, where he had moved his headquarters, that in Guevavi: "the old headquarters" as he called the place, there were only nine families living, and he asked it to be abandoned.

A year later, Tumacacori had 98 inhabitants, of which 19 were Europeans, while at Calabazas there were 138, all of them Indians.