CLIMATE — INDIANS. 



107 



Among the curiosities of the country are its aborigines. On the road from San Diego to 

 Fort Yuma we passed through several Indian settlements of the Diegeno tribe, at San Tasqual, 

 Santa Isabella, San Felipe, &c. These Indians were converted by the Jesuits, who many years 

 ago organized missions throughout this country ; they became partly civilized, and were indus- 

 trious and happy, and collected many comforts about them. Naturally lazy, and incapable of 

 self-government, and deeply imbued with all the traits of the wild Indian, they easily degen- 

 erated after the missions had fallen from under the rule of the church, and have become abso- 

 lutely worse than in their original condition. Then they were simply children of nature, 

 following the bent of their inclinations, with few comforts, and fewer wants ; now they have 

 learned suificient to be exceedingly avaricious and unscrupulous— a herd of drones and beggars 

 their dispositions thievish, and forever on the watch to commit some petty larceny. They call 

 themselves '' Christianos/' The degradation of the Indian woman is only surpassed hy that of 

 those off-scourings of creation, the male white population who wander over the country. 



The women are heautifully developed, and superhly formed, their bodies as straight as an 

 arrow ; their features, however, are coarse and uninviting, their persons filthy, and their actions 

 still more disgusting. They imitate the whites in dress, and in a single Indian group you see 

 the odds and ends of clothing from all parts of the glohe most fancifully and grotesc^uely worn. 

 Don Tomas, the chief of the Santa Isabella Pueblos, is quite a fine-looking person, and has con- 

 siderable reputation as a man and warrior. He goes about dressed in a full-dress soldier's coat 

 and shirt, but no breeches ; carries an old sabre as a sword of justice and rod of correction, 

 judging from the way I saw him use the flat of it on the back of a drunken Indian. 



The opposite picture is a lithograph of a Diegeno, wife and child — the one leading and the 

 other riding a mule — as we met them travelling to the ^^ Agua Caliente," near Warner's 

 rancho. 



There are many Indian tribes scattered throughout this part of California ; but I will con- 

 fine my remarks particularly to those dwelling on the Colorado and Gila. From about sixty 

 miles above Fort Yuma to within a few miles of the most southern point of that part of the 

 Colorado forming the boundary, live the Cuchanos^ or Tumas. A belt of land of some few 

 miles in width, forms neutral ground between them and the Cocopas ; the latter living below, 

 and near the mouth of the Colorado, w^ithin the limits of Mexico^ and the former almost entirely 

 in the United States. These, together with the Maricopas, who now live up the Gila among 

 the Pimos, originally formed one tribe. Disagreeing upon the choice of chiefs, they separated ; 

 until recently, they have been deadly enemies, carrying on a war of extermination to the knife. 

 The continued warfare with each other has compelled them to manifest a seeming friendship for 

 the whites, has occasioned great loss of life and property, and been detrimental to their 

 increase. In consequence of their great suffering, the Cuchanos have found it necessary and 



* 



expedient to live near the post ; every day, numbers are seen loitering about the parade-ground, 

 and through the quarters of officers and men. These tribes speak the same dialect, follow 

 the same habits and customs, and dress in the same manner and of the same materials. The 

 Maricopas, however, are fast becoming embodied with the Pimos, and seldom visit their kins- 



men. The Yumas and Cocopas are said to be very treacherous races ; they conquer not by 

 fair and honorable contest, but by craft and cunning, and midnight attack ; they steal upon 

 their enemies under the cover of night, and beat out the brains of their unsuspecting foes with 

 clubs ; or, under the garb of friendship and peace, invite each other to feasts, and suddenly 



