Mr,:EE] TI[E KNCINAS WARS l,srj5-1865 111 



aud larger boues, sucked up the blood staiu.s, aud buried tlic few 

 remaius hi cactus thickets, impenetrable save by their own hardy 

 limbs and bodies. Nor did any of the tribe except the two restrained 

 neophytes ever really enter the collective life of the patriarchal group 

 headed by Don Pascual; they attended no industrial or social or 

 churchly functiou save in response to reminder and solicitation; they 

 craved the white man's medicines in slight disorders, but rejected them 

 in extremis; and the dying or dead were spirited away to be inluuned 

 and mourned, according to their wont, in their harsh but beloved 

 motherland. 



During this period of mutual toleration the Seri were so deeply 

 influenced by the white contact that, for probably the only time in their 

 history, they voluntarily allowed an alien free entry into their terri- 

 tory; and Don Pasc^ual explored the coast of Bahia Kino, projected a 

 port, aud even visited Isla Tiburon twice or thrice, in one of these 

 visits he was ferried over Boca Infierno on a balsa, but, finding him- 

 self unable to keep pace with the swift-footed Seri on their billy path- 

 ways, he returned for his saddle mule; halfway across, the poor animal 

 swimming behind the balsa suddenly plunged and struggled, and, on 

 landing, hobbled out on three legs— the fourth having being snapped 

 by a shark. Warned by this incident, Don Pascual abandoned a half- 

 formed plan of stocking the island, and afterward brought up a small 

 vessel from Gruaymas in which he carried across a dozen caballeros 

 (including Don Yguacio Lozania, who had visited the island with the 

 Andrade expedition); and this party examined the southeastern cpiar- 

 ter of the island, watering two or three times at Tinaja Anita, and 

 pushing as far westward as Arroyo Carrizal. On this trip he studied 

 the Seri house-building, aud was the first to note the large use of 

 turtle-shells aud sponges in the process.' 



About the middle fifties it became apparent that the Seri were divid- 

 ing into a parasitical portion clustered about the rancho (as their for- 

 bears gathered about Populo and Pueblo Seri long before), and a more 

 independent faction clinging to their rugged ranges and gale-swept 

 fishing grounds; and it became evident, too, that the thievery of the 

 dependent faction would soon ruin the rancho if not checked, or at 

 least greatly diminished. Accordingly the passive policy was modified 

 by introducing a more active ])olice service. At first the penalties for 

 theft and misdemeanors were light, and the system promised well— 

 esjjecially as even a slight punishment was equivalent to banishment, 

 the criminal fleeing to Tiburon on his escape or immediately after the 

 crime; yet the experience of a year or two proved that the escaped 

 parasites seldom resumed the hard customs of their tribal life, but gen- 

 erally returned to the borderland and there preyed on the wandering 

 stock from the rancho. Finally, driven to extremity, and supported 



"Typical Seri jacales, as described by Don Pascual iu 1894, were observed ou Tiburon by the 1895 

 expedition, as sbown by the photographs reproduced iu plates vii, vm, and ix. 



