26 Botaniz sing on the Colorado Desert. [January, © 
After some eight or ten miles of sand came another change of 
soil, and the creasote bushes gave place to the mezquit, a small” 
tree of considerable importance in the Southwest. This was the 
first mezquit wood I had ever seen; I therefore turned aside from — 
the road to walk among the trees, wishing to inspect somewhat” 
carefully the characteristics of the species. Very suddenly my 
attention was called to certain objects interesting in quite a differ-_ 
ent way. The noonday silence was broken by a shout, and turn-_ 
ing toward the quarter whence the voices had seemed to emanate, — 
I discovered a dozen naked savages, some standing, others sitting _ 
under a mezquit tree. After a little experience of travel in West- 
ern wilds, one learns not to be always afraid of Indians; yet E 
confess on this particular occasion a full inventory of the trav-_ 
eler’s feelings might have shown some fears. I was alone, 
unarmed, and at a rather unsafe distance from any habitation of 
civilized men. If the barbarians should, for any purpose, see fit 
themselves. They were stalwart fellows, quite different in appear ; 
ance from the members of any Western tribe with which I was 
familiar ; moreover they had displayed unusual boldness in thei 
yelling out and commanding me, as they did by word and ges-_ 
ture, to leave my own course and come and pay to them m} 
respects. But whoever upon finding himself in the power ¢ 
savages feels any timidity had best conceal it. I, therefore, wi 
an air of calmness and confidence marched forward and seated 
myself in the sand in the midst of the swarthy group. Fora 
while no one spoke. Indeed, their knowledge of the learn 
languages was presumably not much more extensive than mi 
of the dialect of the Yumas. But the Yumas have inquisitt 
eyes, and they studied their visitor in silence. Presently 
oldest looking one among them discovered something which evi- 
dently interested him. It was a plain heavy ring, rather specially 
valuable to me as having been made from a nugget of Australian 
gold which a friend from that far off southern coast had give 
me. The Indian pointed to this and asked if it was “ord, 
Feigning a confidence which I was far from feeling, but judgin 
the wisest thing to do under the circumstances, I slipped the t 
from my finger and passed it over to him. He placed it upon | 
1 Spanish for gold. 
