| OCR Text |
Show 602 Ex. Doc. No. 41. , ruin , proves 1hat, by irrigation, it might sustain a numerous peopl~; but its resources will not be rallrd l!ltO play by our people until thousands of ocres of unoccupit•d land bas been taken up elsewhere, unlef's this shoultl gt>t a value as a bigl~way between ~he two oceans-a thing no doubt perfectly f,,vorable, 1f a man of cap1tal and energy shoulcl un<ler~ake to open a ~oute between G~lveston :'~d China. The long hatr of the mrn. of t?e Ptmos and .coco .Man~opas is rcmarkab!P, reaching to thelf wa1sl"; they. put 1t up m tw1st, and coil it over their heads at times, at others 1t hangs down the back; it is cut straight across the forehead in meJl and women, and protects their eyes from the sun. The men and women both have long hair, but the m(•n the longest; thry somettmes put 1t up as a turban, with mud; it grows very thick. . November 13.-Laid in camp until 12, preparatory to tak1ng the journey o( 40 mi.les without water. The sec?nU chief of th.e Co-co Maricopas v1stted the general, the first betng lame; he saul we had seen his pcopl e, that t}H·y d iJ not stea 1; they were probably better than some the general had seen; all his people had so\<1 us provisions, it was good to do so, as people shoulcl exchange when they bad articles to trade; but if we had come here hungry and poor, it would ba ve been his pleasure to gi v~ us all 'Ye wantetl without compensation. Aftl'rwards the first clnef came 1n, and. offered like expre sions of friendship and peace. For want of an interpreter, an olJ woman with a fwe countenance was taken; she baJ ha .f a waterme1lon in her arms, and was naked, except a cloth from her waist to htr knees-a state of nudity which wou I d seem inconsistent with modesty, but here she proved that modesty is indepenl\ ent of refine<l taste, for ~he took upon herself the office of interpreter, atHl performt>d it reluctantly, but with a very becoming modesty of manner. After making the chief a small present, we prepar d to start, bringing our animals up and watering them at a well which we had l1ug, some of them drmking three pai1s full of water, as if in anticipation of a long reach without it; we started at 12 to cross the Tcsotal, or forty miles without water or grass. Our route lay to the south of the mou11tain~, below the Pimos, on the south side of the river Gila; for the first two miles we had a grass plain of salt grass, the gr ound in places crusted with salt and occasional pools of water. As we rose the slo-pe of the higher g r o u n a we f o u n <l the g r a v e I o f a eli g i n t e g rate d gran it e , b u t no granite in siter, which was our footing for many miles, bushes an<l pitabaya growing upon i t, but no grass. After progressing four or five mil~s, the eye turned ba~k, took in at a glanee the vast plain, the mountains ou the S.u1 Francisco, the Salt river, and the monntajns towards Tuc~on, limiting, except in a few gnps, the southeast, where it was boundPd by the horizon. This plain had once been the home of a mighty pt>oplr, whose existence is ever a fable to the presC'nt dwelle1 s on the soil. We co ntinued our march west, and laid by at Jark, and tied our animals fJ.Rt to the ~tink-wood bushts, for there was no grass; here we rested until 3 o'clock in the morning. Ex. Doc. No. 41. 603 November 1~.-WhC'n we ~a<ldlecl. by the light of the moon and set out, t h ~ n 1f was very clnll y u n t 11 sunrise ; we passed a g a p in ih~ mountaws, ~n d e.merg.rd about sunrise upon another vast plain ymg towards the Gda,w1th a mountain at some distnnce on either s1de; the sun P.ro~luced wonderful effects with mirag C' ; at the distan ce of the hiints of the horizon, domes, walls, palisades, stee-ples, houses, a: nd lakes were exhibited to us • Ab(J U t 10 o ' c 1o c k we came to the nver, and found our animals more anxious for grass ~han water, some of them did not <lrinlc Along this stretch there IS po growth but bushes and cactus, even a bait of grass could scarce be founo? alth,ough there were pI aces where grass had tried t? gror~' ~ttd faded for want of rai~. I~ a contrivance for pro<lu~ Ing ralll 1s ever put .to test,_necess1ty will invet.t it hcrP; the idea IS no~ abs~r.U of n~ak1ng a ram-I have done it. Aft .r stoppin at the nvcr for ~ whlle to water, we marched down about four angd a h.al f or five. m des and en cam peel on good grass half a mi I e from the d1ver 1 , the cltstllnce 44~ miles, the road firm and plainly marked, evi-ent Y .;ery _old. Near.w~erc .we struck the river is the sign of an In.d1an village, but It IS cvHlently recent probably one of the s~o~pwg plarcs of the. Coco Maricopas on {heir progre~s up the nvc~; they wer~ here ~n 1827, when Dr. Anderson passed to Californta, and f.unnshed l11m with guicle ·. The camp we left 15 miles ~elow the Ptmos, Dr. A.nderson calls the Salineta; the end of the ornado he calls Te.sotal. The mountains here, as elsewhere in this country, stand oif In scattered peaks, scar cely taking any ranges· some peaks to the nort.hwest of u · are appart'ntJy V('ry high . ' Nov~mb~r 15.-It ra1nrcl on us quite briskly last night-the second .r.ain smce we left Santa Fe; the .storm -cloud made its appear-~ ncc 1n tlte northwest, on the r~'lotmtatns; the wind southeast; so it IS pr?bable the mass of the nun lay to the north of us. We may find It to haYe water~d the deser~ on the north siue of the Colorado; 1 ~ Y bY all d a y , to g 1 v e o u r arum a 1 s a chan c e to r e c r u it a I i tt ] e ; ktll~ed a. bC'ef 1.n the evening; we ha~e two .left, not being very succes. ful m buywg th~m. from the Ptmos; mstea<l of eight, we got four; thry were unwdhng to sell them for anything but beads I forgot to ask the P.imos for numerals bt>yoncl 10; but, as (I have never yet ~een a tnbe (I llavc sC'en hundreJs) which di1l not make use of decimals? compounding all higher numbers from 10 as we dd?i. whether tlus refers to the first invention, or to the 'natural tglt8, I know not. . November 16.-~ar ch~d at half past 8, and continued Jown the nver, thP road b ~ 1ng still an Indian tra11, old and well beaten thr~ug~ the allu~~al bottom of th~ river, which, instead of being ~ blat;k .o.am, mo1st w1th water, IS here, as we have found it all a_long, stdl a ~ed of dr.y d~st off the road, burrowt!d in every direction by field-rnt ce , maktng It uncomfortable f.or man or bra ·t to leave th~ beateu track; the country thinly covered , as usual with mesh 1 t ~ bush e s, ~tin k-wood , & c. , an d the bare pI ace s-t h rt ~- f om t h s of t e and-. destttute of all vegetation. We passed about nine miles out, a htt1c grass in a dry slough· and 12 mi1cs out wP found enou b(r h of coca rs· e gra. ss t o h a1t to noo' n upon; about two' nu. les from |
