250 



CALIFORNIA. 



California, can hardly be considered as dialects of a small num- 

 * - v - ' ber of mother tongues. The nations of 'the Kumsen 

 and Escelen, who form the population of the presi- 

 dio and village of Monterey, speak totally different 

 languages ; while the languages of the different tribes 

 of the Matalans, Salsen, and Quirotes, who live 

 in the vicinity of San Fancisco, are evidently derived 

 from a common root. 



The language of the Rumsen is proportioned to 

 the feeble developement of their understandings. They 

 have few words to express abstract ideas, or even to 

 distinguish the several species of animals or vege- 

 tables. Their moral epithets are, in general, borrowed 

 from the sense of taste, the gratification of which is 

 their greatest delight ; so missich signifies both a 

 good man, and savoury food ; and leeches a wicked 

 man, and tainted meat. The Escelen, however, have 

 a richer idiom ; and what is particularly curious, it 

 has a greater resemblance to the languages of Eu- 

 rope than to those of America. The labials, of which 

 the American languages are in general deficient, are 

 used by the Escelen, particularly the letter F, which 

 is pronounced by them in the same way as by Euro- 

 peans. If we should be inclined to conclude from 

 this, that the Escelen are strangers to this part of 

 America, " it must at least be admitted," says La Pe- 

 rouse, " that they have been inhabitants of it for a 

 long time past ; for, in colour, features, and in gene- 

 ral all the exterior forms, they differ nothing from 

 the other people of this country." To shew the ex- 

 treme difficuly of giving exact vocabularies of savage 

 languages, and the impossibility of acquiring any 

 adequate knowledge of them from the representation 

 of travellers, we shall present to the curiosity of our 

 readers, the numerical terms of the Rumsen and Es- 

 ceJen, as given by Humboldt and La Perouse. 



ESCELEN. 



RUMSEN. 



It has been attempted by some travellers to esta- California 

 blish a resemblance between the Mexican or Aztec """v-*"-'" 

 language, and the idioms of the north-west coast of 

 America ; but they have completely failed. These 

 languages differ in the most essential points , and even 

 in their numerical words it is impossible to trace the* 

 smallest similarity. The Californians are totally unac- 

 quainted with the use of written characters. They 

 have neither the symbols and hieroglyphics of the 

 Mexicans, nor the letters of the most eastern nations 

 of Asia ; and by this means the origin of their nation 

 is involved in equal obscurity with the origin of their 

 language. If they ever possessed any invention to 

 perpetuate their history, they have now entirely lost 

 'it. They are even destitute of every method of dis- 

 tinguishing the years, or the intervals of time, as the 

 Mi-x'.cans did by means of their cycles of fifty years ; 

 and all that can be found among them, consists mere- 

 ly in some obscure oral traditions, probably more and 

 more adulterated by a long succession of time. Ac- 

 cording to these traditions, their ancestors, being dri- 

 ven from their native settlements in the north, remo-. 

 ved down to California, which they say was owing to 

 a quarrel between two great men, who divided the 

 nation into two opposite factions, and, after a bloody- 

 battle, the side which was defeated flew towards the 

 south, and being eagerly pursued, was compelled to 

 seek for saftty among the mountains and islands of 

 the sea. This is all the information which the Spa- 

 nish missionaries have ever been able to procure con- 

 cerning the origin of this people ; and though the 

 most probable conjecture is, that they, as well as all 

 the other nations of America, have passed over from 

 Asia since the dispersion of the nations, yet it must 

 be admitted, that not one single monument has 

 ever been discovered throughout the whole of the 

 American continent, to authenticate clearly their 

 Asiatic origin. 



The Californians are of a more tanned and swarthy 

 complexion than the other Indians of New Spain ; 

 but their faces are far from being disagreeable, and 

 they are in general robust, vigorous, and of a healthy 

 countenance. They seem, however, of all the Ameri- 

 can savages, to be nearest to a state of nature. " Their 

 characteristics," says Father Venegas, " are stupidity 

 and insensibility ; want of knowledge and reflection ; 

 inconstancy, impetuosity, and blindness of appetite ; 

 an excessive sloth, and abhorrence of all labour and 

 fatigue ; an incessant love of pleasure and amusement 

 of every kind, however trifling or brutal ; pusillan- 

 imity and relaxity ; and, in fine, a most wretched 

 want of every thing which constitutes the real man, 

 and renders him rational, inventive, tractable, and 

 useful to himself and society ; for even in the least 

 frequented corners of the globe, there is not a nation 

 eo stupid, of such contracted ideas, and so weak in 

 mind, as the unhappy Californians." Their utmost 

 des're is to get the present day's food with as little 

 fatigue as possible ; and unless stimulated by hunger, 

 they will remain whole days btretched out on the 

 warm sand. Their life passes away in a perpetual 

 langour and detestation of labour, except when 

 roused to mix in the diversions of dancing or gaming, 

 for which they seem to have a most inordinate pas- 

 sion. Some spirit of emulation, however, has been dis- 

 covered among them j and they have sometimes been 



