452 
ILLNESS AND 
plain to the Governor of the attacks made on them by 
the Yumas of the Colorado and the Apaches, and to 
beg that they might be furnished with fire-arms to de- 
fend themselves against the common enemy. These 
Indians had a totally different appearance from any I 
had seen. They were entirely destitute of clothing 
save a breech-cloth of coarse stuff of their own manu- 
facture. They wore no covering on their heads, and 
were without any protection to their feet. Their hair 
seemed never to have been cut, but was clubbed up in 
a great bundle, and hung about half-way down their 
backs. In front, it was cut off straight across the 
eye-brows, while the earlocks were suffered to fall 
down by the side of their faces. On being informed 
by Governor Cubillas, that there was one among them 
who spoke Spanish well, and acted as the interpreter 
of the band, I requested that he would do me the favor 
to send the man to me. He readily complied with my 
request, and in the after part of the day the Indian, 
with several of his naked companions, presented him- 
self at my quarters. I kept them a couple of hours, 
taking down a vocabulary of their language ; at the 
end of which time, they exhibited much drowsiness, 
and said they were hungry. I sent out for some bread, 
but asked them to wait until I got through before eat- 
ing it. They could not be restrained, however ; and 
finding it no easy matter to take down their words 
while they were munching their food, I was obliged to 
give up the task, with a request that they would call 
on me again in the morning. These men readily an- 
swered all my questions about the Gila ; and I learned 
from them that, a short time before, a party of Ameri- 
