AND THE CASAS GRANDES. 277 
interesting patterns are represented in the accompany- 
ing engraving. 
The origin of these buildings is shrouded in mys- 
tery. They were found much as they now appear by 
the earliest explorers of the country, who were told 
by the Indians that they had been built five hundred 
years before. One thing is evident, that at some 
former period the valley of the Gila, from this ruin to the 
western extremity of the rich bottom-lands now occu- 
pied by the Pimos and Coco-Maricopas, as well as the 
broad valley of the Salinas, for upwards of forty miles, 
was densely populated. The ruined buildings, the 
irrigating canals, and the vast quantities of pottery of 
a superior quality, show that, while they were an agri- 
cultural people, they were much in advance of the 
Present semi-civilized tribes of the Gila. But this civi- 
lization extended far beyond the district named. 
From information given me by Leroux, it appears that 
ruins of the same sort exist on the San Franci&co or 
Verde River; and Captain Johnston and Major Emory 
both saw similar evidences of wide-spread population 
far above the district in question. What connection 
this ancient people had with the Moquis and Zuiiis, 
and with the “seven cities of Cibola,” visited by Marco 
de Niza and Coronado, remains to be settled. This is 
strictly an ethnological question, requiring evidences 
and arguments which do not properly belong to this 
Work. So with regard to the identification of particu- 
lar tribes yet in existence as the descendants of thi 
ancient race, philology renders us the most reliable 
aid. But I have omitted speaking of philological ana- 
logies, as they belong to another topic, and would 
