MOJAVE VALLEY——PRECARIOUS. NATURE OF THEIR CROPS. 73 
It is somewhat remarkable that these Indians should thrive so well upon the diet to which 
they are compelled to adhere. There isno game in the valley. The fish are scarce and of 
very inferior quality. They subsist almost exclusively upon beans and corn, with occasional 
watermelons and pumpkins, and are probably as fine a race, physically, as there is in existence, 
Before leaving Washington, the late Secretary of War, Mr. Davis, proposed to me to ca 
out varieties of seeds for distribution to the Mojave tribe, and in accordance with this humane 
suggestion I provided an assortment of vegetable and fruit seeds, and have given them to the 
chiefs and some of the leading men, who have promised to try this season the experiment of 
planting them. 
The annual overflow of the river enables them to raise, with little labor, an abundant supply 
of provisions for the year, which they improvidently consume, allowing the future to take care 
of itself. The failure of a crop is, therefore, an irremediable calamity. During one season, a 
few years since, the Colorado did not overflow its banks; there were consequently no crops, 
and great numbers of the Mojaves perished from starvation. It is quite possible that such 
visitations are of periodical occurrence, and are among the means adopted by nature to prevent 
the population of the valley, as there is no outlet for it nor room for its expansion, from 
increasing beyond the capacity of the country to sustain it. There is no question but that for 
several centuries, since the first visits of the early Spanish explorers, there has been little or 
no increase in the number of inhabitants. This number is apt to be overrated. I have dis- 
covered that the crowds seen collected at the different points passed during our progress up 
the river have been. composed, to a considerable extent, of the same set of individuals, and 
suspect that the chiefs in their first formal visits have enhanced their apparent state and 
importance by borrowing recruits from their neighbors. 
A system of irrigation and an improved method of sgetoaltuce would make the valley far 
more productive, but it is not certain that it could ever be a profitable place for white settle- 
ments. The shifting of the river bed, which, to the Indians who have a certain community of 
property, is a matter of little importance, would occasion serious embarrassment to settlers 
who had established permanent locations and improvements. The rapidity and extent of the 
changes in the position of the Colorado can scarcely be imagined by one who has not witnessed 
them. 
Having an opportunity to compare the condition of things at present with what it was four 
years ago, I have been able to appreciate the transformations that are liable to occur, and am 
satisfied that there are few places in the bottom lands that may not, during any season, be 
overrun, 
Our camp is fifty-two miles from the foot of the valley by the course of the river, though 
little more than half that distance in a direct line. A few places have been encountered where 
the navigation is difficult. A rapid, over a gravelly shoal, occurs near the head of the Mojave 
about twenty-five years of age. She was as beautiful as any Indian woman I have ever seen, tall, graceful, and lady-like in 
eT appearance. 
“A noisy meeting was held, and the night spent in one of their victory dances, during which they would dance around 
her, shout in her ears, and spit in her face. The next morning a post was firmly planted in the ground, and about eight feet 
foun the bottom a cross beam attached. They then drove rough wooden spikes through the palms of their captive’s hands, 
and by these raised her to the cross-beam, and drove the, spikes into the soft wood, extending her arms as far as : they would 
reach. Then with pieces of bark stuck with thorns they tied her head firmly back to the upright post, drove spikes through 
her ankles, and for a time left her. 
‘They soon returned, and placing me, with their other captives, near the sufferer, bid us keep our eyes upon her until she 
died. Then they commenced running around the stake in circles, hallooing and stamping like demons. After a while rem 
supplied themselves with bows and arrows, and at every circlet they would shoot an arrow into her quivering flesh. 
sionally she would utter piteous cries, which would awaken from the mocking crowd taunting yells. _ 
‘*‘ For two hours she hung in this dreadful condition, bleeding and sighing, her body mangled in a shocking manner. 
Whenever she would scream aloud they would stuff rags in her mouth to silence her. After she was dead they took her body 
to a funeral pile and burned it.’’—Olive Oatman’s Ne 
10——1 
