f 



4 



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li 1 AZTEC MIGEATION NOETHWABD, 925 



viz., through the proyinces now called Sinaloa and Sonora, 

 west, of course, of the main Cordilleras, to the Gila yalley, 

 and thence northward, along the tributary streams of that 

 riyer towards the Great Canon of the Colorado. Some 

 followed the Gila, across the Gila desert, to its mouth, and 

 thence up the Colorado, until, attracted by the fertility of 

 some of its yalleys, they planted a colony on its banks, and 

 appear to have fraternised to a great extent with the native 

 tribes of that district. And thus it was that Captain Pemando 

 Alar9on, who, in 1540, discovered the Eio Colorado, "haying 

 passed various tribes," as he ascended the stream, "without 

 being able to communicate except by signs, at length reached 

 a people who understood the language of an Indian he had 

 brought with him from Mexico, and told him of a similar 

 people who dwelt far to the eastward in great houses built of 

 stone, wore long white robes, and came yearly to the river to 

 ^ buy maize ; for their fields were small, whereas the lands 

 - along the Colorado being subject to an annual overflow, 



produced food in abundance." 

 r^ The main stream of emigration evidently flowed northward; 

 01 the rich bottom-lands along the Gila were occupied and 

 placed under irrigation; the valleys of the Eio Verde, 

 Salinas, and other 'streams were taken possession of; and the 

 Apaches, who probably carried on agriculture to some extent 

 along their banks, were driven into the mountains. These 

 savages were probably treated by the Aztecs as barbarian 

 hordes, whom they found it impossible thoroughly to subdue, 

 hut who harassed them perpetually, and obliged them to 



k^' ^ 



i 



^ 



• The tribe here spoken of may be the Mojaves; if so, contact with the 

 neighbouring tribes must have caused them sadly to degenerate, for at present 

 they are polygamists, like the other Colorado tribes, and do not seem superior 

 to them in intellect or manner of living. 



VOL. I. Q 





