X. DocrNo. 41 



601 



^JSTovemher 12. — Atvoke this fnorning to hear the crowing of the 

 cock and the baying of the watch-dbg, reminding me of civiliza- 

 tion afar off in the green valley of our country; we waited until 

 9 before starting; left some mules witii the chief, Don Antonio, 

 whose Indian name is Banbutt, and marched down through the set- 

 tlements of the Pimos and Cqco Maricopas, which are all south of 

 the Gilaj and encamped beyond them, (distance 15 miles,) under 

 ' the base of a mountain lying west of the villages. The houses of 



these Indians are all built alike: a rib worlf 

 of poles 12 or 15 feet in diameter is put 



'■^'■i^iS 



up, thatched with straw, and then covered 

 on top with dirt, in fhe centre of this they build their fires; this is 

 the winter lodge: they make sheds with forks, and cover them with 

 flat roofs of willow rods for summer shelter??. The heat is no doubt 



h 



-Yery intense here in summer, so that at midday one could scarce 

 ▼enture out on the soil barefoot. 



on 



The Indians exhibit no symp* 



vent » to their 



the contrary, give 



laughing and chatting to- 



toms of taciturnity; but, 

 thoughts and feelings without reason, 



gether; and a parcel of young girls, with long hair streaming to 

 their waists, and no other covering than a clean white cotton blanket 

 folded around their middle and extending^to their knees, were 

 nierry as any group of like age and sex to be met with in our own 

 country. The Piraos and Coco Maricopas have only recently got 

 together. The fable of the Pimos is, that their first parent was 

 caught up to heaven, and frorn that time God lost sight of them, and 

 they wandered to the west; that they came from the rising sun; the 

 others found themselves on the Colorado, and have since gradually 

 got here by following the Gila. They are evidently a different 

 race, speak entirely different tongues, but have adopted the same 



costume, and apparently the same 



habits; their 



houses are alike, 



and they unite in good principles. The chief of the Pimos said to 



the 



eneral that God had placed him over his people, and he en- 

 deavored to do the best for them: he gave them good a^dvice, and 



r.^ 



they had fathers and grandfathers who gave them good advice also; 

 they were told to take nothing but what belonged to them, and to 

 ever speak the^truth; they desired to be at peace with every one; 

 therefore would not join us or the Mexicans in our difficulties. 



He shook hands with and bid 



us wefcome, and hoped 



we 



might 



tave good luck on our journey.- He said we would find the chief 

 of the Maricopas a man like himself, and one who gave similar 



On 



our road, the interpreter of the Mari- 



counsel to his people. 



copas said the flat land we could see across the Gila, towards the 

 ^naountainss through which debouch the Salt^ and San Francisco 

 rivers, is filled with ancient ruins, and that sofne of the houses are 

 still standing; that their people know nothing of the builders of 

 them. Our route lay through the 

 riot cultivated, with Freaiontia or mesquite, &c. A string of cot- 

 ton-woods border the river, and throughout the country there are 

 ^o other trees. The road was dusty and dry; our camp in an ex- 

 tensive pasture, reaching'for miles under the mountains. The vast 

 number of p^dple who once lived in this country, as shown by the 



plain, overgrown, when 



it was 



.r 



m. 



