McoKE] EXTENT OF THE TRIBE 135* 



the tribe is prolific and well-fitted to survive unless cut off in conse- 

 quence oftlie hereditary antii)atliy toward alien blood and culture. 



The population estimates of the past are naturally vague. In 1645 

 Kibas spoke of the tribe as " a great people'' ; and a century later Villa- 

 Seuor expressed himself in somewhat similar terms, and described 

 their range in such manner as to indicate a population running into 

 thousands. A few years after Villa-Seiior (in 1750), Parilla claimed 

 to have annihilated the entire tribe, with the exception of 28 captives; 

 but according to Velasco's estimates, the people numbered fully 2,000 

 some thirty years later, when the tribe was, however, once more nom- 

 inally annihilated. In 1824 Troncoso estimated the Seri at over 1,000, 

 and two years later Retio reckoned the po])ulation of Isla Tiburon 

 alone at 1,000 or 1,500, while Hardy thought the entire tribe might 

 number 3,000 or 4,000 at the utmost. About 1841 De Mofras put the 

 aggregate population at 1,500; and at the time of the vigorous inva- 

 sion by Audrade and Espence (1844), wlien a considerable number of 

 the tril)e were captured and a few slain, the total population was esti- 

 mated at about 550 — though it is jjrobable that a good many tribesmen 

 were left out of the reckoning. According to the chroniclers, a number 

 of the Seri were slain after, as well as before, this invasion ; and in 1846 

 Telasco estimated the tribe at less than 500, including 60 or 80 war- 

 riors. This estimate was in harmony with that made by Sefior Encinas, 

 who reckoned the tribe at 500 or 600 at the beginning of his war, in 

 which half the tribe lost their lives. The figures of Vclasco and Enci- 

 nas correspond fairly with the reckoning by Mashem in 1894, due 

 allowance being made for natural increase and for the losses through 

 occasional skirmishes; and Mashem's count is shown not to be exces- 

 sive by the considerable number of jacales and raucherias and well- 

 trodden pathways found throughout Serilaud in 1895. 



On the whole it seems jirobable that the Seri population extended 

 well into the thousands at the time of the Caucasian invasion ; it seems 

 probable, also, that the body was then too large for stability under its 

 feeble institutional bonds, and hence threw oft' by fission the Guayma 

 and Upanguayma fractions, and the Angeles, Populo, and Pueblo Seri 

 fragments. Furthermore, it seems probable that the prolific grouj) 

 fairly held its own against these normal losses and rejjeated decima- 

 tions by battle up to the Migueletes-Cimarrones war of 1780, despite 

 the vaunted annihilation in 1750; but that thenceforward the death- 

 rate due to increasingly fi'equent encounters with incoming settlers 

 exceeded the birth-rate, gradually reducing the tribe from some 2,000 

 to the 250 or 300 surviving the Encinas conflict. Finally, it seems 

 probable that the tribe has again held its own and perhaps increased 

 slowly under the renewed isolation of the last decade or two. 



