124 THE TAMAJABS (MOJAVES) AND OTHER COLORADO TRIBES.—THE BENEME/ INDIANS. 
at 33° of latitude. They are more civilized than the three nations which have been spoken of, 
and raise in abundance the same productions. 
3. The Tamajabs have an equal number of people, are settled on the left bank of the Colo- 
rado from 34° of latitude to 35°. They are the best of the race that are known to inhabit this 
celebrated river. They are not thievish, nor are they troublesome; but they evince a high 
spirit, and, of all that people, are the most civil. The men go almost entirely naked, having 
nothing on them but a kind of blanket or robe made of the skins of conies or nutrias, which 
they get from the nations to the west-northwest. They show this disregard of covering in the 
severest part of winter, declaring that by so doing they are made hardy—as, in fact, they are, 
suffering hunger with constancy, and thirst for three or four days together. They are sound 
of health, and of fine stature. The women possess more manner and grace than the females 
of the other nations. They dress in an under skirt, and have covering like the Yuma women. 
The language is very strange; it is spoken with violent utterance and a lofty arrogance of 
manner; and in making speeches, the thighs are violently struck with the palms of the 
hands.* 
4. The Talchedums live on the right bank of the Colorado, and their tribes first appear in 
latitude 33? 20'. "They have the same customs as the other nations low down the river. 
5. The Cucápas, Talliguamays, and Cajuenches speak one tongue; the Yumas, Talchedums, 
and Tamajabs have a distinct one; with the difference, that this last nation accompany their 
speeches and opinions with the gesticulation and haughtiness of manner that has been spoken of. 
6. In consequence of the information given by several father missionaries, from visits made 
by them, at different times, to the nations of the lower part of the Colorado, representing and 
giving proofs of the disposition and desire of all those Indians to have missions introduced 
among them, a royal order was obtained that they should be undertaken ; but, before it was issued, 
the principal chief of the Yumas, named Palma, came to Mexico, and, with many of his nation, 
received the sacrament of baptism, and afterwards returned to introduce their desired missions. 
These were established at the end of the year 1780, with the invocation of our Lord of the Con- 
ception, and of Saint Peter and Saint Paul of Vicuñez; but the natives soon became displeased 
with those permanent establishments, and, before the end of the year, they destroyed them, 
killing, perfidiously, four of the religious order, a troop of protection, and some persons in the 
vicinity who were to have been the first colonists in that new country. The women and boys 
were taken into captivity, but the greater part of them were relieved by expeditions set on foot 
to punish their conduct. From that time, nothing further has been known of the nations of 
the river Colorado; and their distance froith Sonora has not permitted them to commit any 
injury in that province. 
7. Journeying from the nation of the Tamajabs, to the west quarter northwest, at the end of 
twenty leagues begins the nation of the Benemé. They are an effeminate race; the females 
little cleanly ; the dress no more than blankets of otter or rabbit skins. The rity they 
occupy is a fine pasture land, and has beautiful forests. Wild grape-vines are in the greatest 
quantity, and the plains are covered with hemp-grass. The people are very numerous, and 
continue to near the coast. They are peaceful and kind to strangers. A common demonstra- 
tion of their satisfaction and good will is to cast at the passenger many of the white beads they 
get on the shores of the Gulf of California, and some of the acorns that grow wild in their 
country. 
8. On the ridges of the northwest of the Benemé, and about thirty leagues from where the 
© Cabeza de Vaca, in bis wandering from Florida to Sonora, between the years 1528 and 1536, speaks of this strange cus- 
tom as existing seemingly among some Indians to the east of the Mississippi river 
‘At sunset we reached a hundred Indian habitations. Before we arrived, all the people who were in them came out to 
receive us, with such yells that were terrific, striking the palms of their hands violently against ve thighs. They 
brought out gourds bored with holes, and having pebbles in them—an instrument for the most important occasions, and 
produced only at the dance, and to effect cures, and which none but they who have them dare touch. " — Naufragios, 
chap. xxvii. 
