RISSEI.I.] 



ANNALS 55 



The Pinias went on a campaign against the Salt River 

 Apaches soon after a licavy rain. Wlien they reached the 

 SaU river it was too high to be safely forded, so tliey built 

 a raft and tried to take their saddles and blankets across 

 upon it. The raft sank and they lost all their effects. 

 Some of the party who had not engaged ui the raft enter- 

 prise fountl a safe ford and contumed on their raid, in -which they 

 killed several of the enemy, and near Four Peaks captured an 

 Apache lad." 



1874-75 



t _ ri Gila Crossing. A man trying to catch his pony approached 

 11 from the rear so that he coidd reach its tail, which he probably 

 thought it ad^^sable to lay hold on until he could fasten the rope 

 around the animal's neck. One end of the lariat was attached to his 

 waist, the other he tied to the horse's tail. The animal broke away 

 and dragged him to death.'' 



Blackwater. The Apache White Hat killed a Pima. 



1875-78 



(Gila Crossing. In tliis year sickness prevailed in the village of 

 Rsanftk, apparently the same as in 1866. when the principal symp- 

 tom of the disease was shooting pains through tiie bodj'. Two medi- 

 cine-men were suspected of having caused the trouble by magic means, 

 and they were killed to stop the plague. 



e ft I Blachwater. For a short time the Pimas were free from 

 " " ' Apache attacks, and they ventured into the mountains to 

 gather mescal. While there, a race took place between a man and a 

 woman, in which the woman won. 



Later in the season there was a general gathering of the villages 

 to witness a race with the kicking-ball. 



1876-77 



/Gila CrossiiKj. There was an Apache village called Havany 

 Kas at the junction of the Gila anil Salt rivers while a truce 

 existed between the Pimas and Apaches. During this year an epi- 

 demic of smallpox prevailed in that village, as well as in all those of 

 the Pimas and Maricopas. 



« He afterwards became known as Doctor Montezuma, now a prosperous physician practising in 

 the city of Chicago. 



1) This, tho only event of the year in the Gila Crossing record, is unimportant in itself, and yet it lllu.'*- 

 trates a phase of Pima character that is worthy of notice. In handling horses they exhi)>it a i)atient 

 subtlety resembling that of the snake creeping upon its prey, until they have gotten a rope or halter 

 on the animal, when their gentleness disappears. Yet in all their harnessing or saddling they mani- 

 fest an innate tendency toward canHessness. They always work up on the right instead of the left 

 side of a horse, and they also mount from that side. 



