12 ETHNO-BOTANY OF THE CO AH VILLA INDIANS 



My own examination of this collection has been pretty fruitless of any 

 results, but Mr. Gatchet professes to have found them useful in deter- 

 mining the distribution of Indian languages at the beginning of this 

 century. These prayers may also be found printed in the sixth vol- 

 ume of the Proceedings of the Philological Society of London? where they 

 are discussed in an inconclusive manner. 



Mr. Horatio Hale, while a member of the United States Exploring 

 Expedition, under command of Captain Charles Wilkes, in the years 

 1838-42, collected several vocabularies from Indians at the California 

 missions, among them the "Netela," spoken at Mission San Juan 

 Capistrano, and " Kizh," spoken at Mission San Gabriel. These vocab- 

 ularies contain approximately ninety words each and constitute very 

 important records. Mr. Hale's commentary upon them is significant, 

 although he hesitated to take decidedly the position, assumed some 

 years later by Professors Turner and Buschmann, of classifying the 

 Indians speaking these languages with the Indians of the great Rocky 

 Mountain basin. Mr. Hale's words are as follows : 



The similarity which exists between many words in these two languages 

 and in the Shoshone is evident enough from a comparison of the vocabularies. 

 The resemblance is too great to be attributed to mere casual intercourse : 

 but it is doubtful whether the evidence it affords will justify us in classing 

 them together as branches of the same family. The fact that the Comanches 

 of Texas speak a language closely allied to, if not identical with, that of the 

 Shoshones, is supported by testimony from so many sources that it can hardly 

 be doubted. 2 



In 1846 there was published a very interesting little book by an 

 American, to which all those interested in the early life of Spanish 

 California, as well as in the Indian inhabitants, can well be referred. 

 This book is entitled : Life in California : During a Residence of Several 

 Years in that Territory, etc. By an American. To which is annexed a 

 Historical Account of the Origin, Customs, and Traditions of the Indians 

 of Alta California. Translated from the original Spanish Manuscript? 

 The author of this volume was a Mr. Alfred Robinson. His account 

 of his own travels in California is interesting reading, but possibly no 

 more valuable than that of several other early visitors to the state, 



1 LATHAM, " On the Languages of New California," Proceedings, 1852-53, Vol. VI. 



2 HORATIO HALE, " United States Exploring Expedition" Ethnology and Philology, pp. 566, 

 567. Philadelphia, 1846. 



3 The publishers of the first edition were Wiley & Putnam, New York, 1846. The edition is scarce, 

 and a copy sells from $8 to $10. The Life in California has been reprinted by Mr. William R. Doxey, 

 San Francisco, but without the Account . ... of the Indians by FATHER BOSCANA. The Chinig- 

 chinich is reprinted entire in the California Farmer, Vol. XIII. 



