WHITE INDIANS. 199 



lively, taking themselves as the true representatives of that race, when in 

 reality their own color, by constant exjjosure to the weather, had acquired 

 a much darker hue than ordinary ; then drawing their conclusions from a 

 false standard, they were led to pronounce the fair natives much fairer, as 

 a body, than the whites. 



By information derived from various sources, I am enabled to present the 

 following statement relative to this interesting people : 



The Munchies are a nation of white aborigines, actually existing in a 

 valley among the Sierra de los Mimbros chain, upon one of the affluents of 

 the Gila, in the extreme northwestern part of the Province of Sonora. 



They number about eight hundred in all. Their country is surrounded 

 by lofty mountains at nearly every point, and is well watered and very fer- 

 tile, though of limited extent. Their dwellings are spacious apartments 

 nicely excavated in the hill-sides, and are frequently cut in the solid 

 rock. 



They subsist by agriculture, and raise cattle, horses, and sheep. Their 

 features correspond with those of Europeans, though with a complexion, 

 perhaps, somewhat fairer, and a form equally if not more graceful. 



Among them are many of the arts and comforts of civilized life. They 

 spin and weave, and manufacture butter and cheese, with many of the lux- 

 uries known to more enlightened nations. 



Their political economy, though much after the patriarchal order, is purely 

 republican in its character. The old men exercise the supreme control in 

 the enactment and execution of laws. These laws are usually of the most 

 simple form, and tend to promote the general welfare of the community. 

 They are made by a concurrent majority of the seniors in council, — each 

 male individual, over a specified age, being allowed a voice and a vote. 



Questions of right and wrong are heard and adjudged by a committee 

 selected from the council of seniors, who are likewise empowered to redress 

 the injured and pass sentence upon the criminal. 



In morals they are represented as honest and virtuous. In religion they 

 difler but little from other Indians. 



They are strictly men of peace, and never go to war, nor even, as a com- 

 mon thing, oppose resistance to the hostile incursions of surrounding na- 

 tions. On the appearance of an enemy, they immedialely retreat, with their 

 cattle, horses, sheep, and other valuables, to mountain caverns, fitted at all 

 times for their reception, — where, by barricading the entrances, they are at 

 once secure without a resort to arms. 



In regard to their origin they have lost all knowledge or even tradition, 

 (a thing not likely to have happened had they been the progeny of Europeans 

 at any late period, — that is, since the time of Columbus;) neither do their 

 characters, manners, customs, arts, or government savor of modern Eu- 

 rope. 



Could a colony or party of Europeans in the short period of three centu- 

 ries and a half lose all trace of their origin, religion, habits, arts, civilization, 

 and government ? Who, for a moment, would entertain an idea so estranged 

 to probability? 



And yet the Munchies cannot be real Indians, — they must be of Euro- 

 pean descent, though circumstances other than complexion afford no evi- 



