DETENTION AT URES. 443 ° 
a bit of cloth around their loins, and a straw hat upon 
their heads, making the adobes or sun-baked brick, 
‘and laying them in the walls. Others were laboring 
in the fields; and, in fact, the hard work whatever it 
was, seemed to be performed by these men. They 
are also the fishermen and the famous pearl divers of 
the Gulf of California. These Indians were in the 
early history of the country extremely warlike ; but 
on being converted to Christianity, their savage nature 
was completely subdued, and they became the most 
docile and tractable of people. In the civil wars of 
the State, some thirty years since, they took part with 
one of the factions; and when this strife had passed 
away, it was not easy to subdue again the dormant 
propensities for war which had thus been aroused. 
They are now very populous in the southern part of 
Sonora. 
The Yaquis were among the first to be converted 
by the Jesuits; who used them as it is said the Egyp- 
tians did the Israelites, making them perform all the 
manual labor of the missions. They became excellent 
mechanics, and built the churches and missionary estab- 
lishments of the country, as well as the presidios or 
garrisons. In addition to the tithes, they were also 
made to pay tribute, either in labor or the products of 
the soil. When their old masters were banished the 
country, “the name of Jesuit was converted into that 
of cura, and slavery was by the same ingenious artifice 
changed to servitude. Priests, who from bad charac- 
ters were suffered to reside no where else, obtained 
their living from a Yaqui congregation; and it was as 
common in Mexico to banish a friar to a Yaqui eccle- 
