Reason and Instinct, 



6315 



country. The brutish cunning and animal instinct of these wretches 

 is such, that although arrant cowards, their attacks are more feared 

 than those of bolder Indians. These people — called the Yamparicas 

 or Root Diggers — are, nevertheless, the degenerate descendants of 

 those tribes which once overran that portion of the Continent of North 

 America now comprehended within the Boundaries of Mexico, and 

 who have left such startling evidences in their track of a comparatively 

 superior state of civilization. They now form an outcast tribe of the 

 great nation of the Apache. The Apaches and the degenerate Diggers 

 pursue a cowardly warfare, hiding in ambush, and shooting the passer- 

 by with arrows ; or dashing upon him at night when steeped in sleep, 

 they bury their arrow to the feather in his breast." — (Id. J81). 



Such then is the effect of moral and physical retrogression — for 

 both these tribes, I repeat, are known to have retrograded in the scale 

 of humanity — upon the human creature. He becomes all but an 

 inferior animal in his obedience to instinctive impulses, and scarcely 

 more raised above the brute by any exercise of the higher gifts of 

 Reason, than are some of the craftier and more intelligent brutes over 

 the remainder of the great family they belong to. That is the accom- 

 plished result of the downward movement continued until it seems to 

 approximate towards completion. 



The earlier stages are seen in the accounts given of the class of men 

 referred to a little above; the class, I mean, of "Mountain men" or 

 " Trappers." Here is a description of one of them : — The last in 

 height, but the first in every quality which constitutes excellence in a 

 {i Mountaineer," whether of indomitable courage, or perfect indifference 

 to death or danger ; with an iron frame capable of withstanding hun- 

 ger, thirst, heat, cold, fatigue and hardships of every kind; of wonderful 

 presence of mind, and endless resources in times of peril ; with the 

 instinct of an animal and the moral courage of a man." — (Far West, 

 235). Again, " The trappers of the Rocky Mountains belong to a 

 " genus " more approximating to the primitive savage, than perhaps 

 any class of civilized man. Their lives being spent in the remote 

 wilderness of the mountains, with no other companion than Nature 

 herself, their habits and character assume a most singular cast of 

 simplicity mingled with ferocity, appearing to take their colouring from 

 the scenes and objects which surround them. Knowing no wants 

 save those of Nature, their sole care is to procure sufficient food to 

 support life, and the necessary clothing to protect them from the 

 rigorous climate. When engaged in their avocation, the natural 

 Instinct of primitive man is ever alive, for the purpose of guarding 



