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Show ASTONISHING ROUGHNESS OF THE COUNTRY. 351 north some smokes, which my companions said were those of the Indians whom they name Payuches, who live on the other side of the river. I am astonished at the roughness of this country, and at the barrier which nature has fixed therein. The Indians took down the beasts to give them water in those caxones, but I did not see any ( water) myself. 80 There were awaiting us here three families, in order to go in our company; because this road was for them very hazardous, on account of the war that they wage with the Yabipais Tejua and Napao; 51 in September, 1540; and what is more, the Colorado in that situation was about that time correctly identified with the Rio del Tizon or Firebrand river of Melchior Diaz. " So Garces is at a dry camp. This makes me think he has not reached Canon spring, the terminus of the modern wagon road on the plateau. It does not follow, however, that, because the Indians took the beasts down somewhere to water, therefore they were at a place where the river itself was accessible. The animals probably drank at some spring or waterhole in a side- canon. w There seems to be no question that the " Napao " tribe of Garces and the Navajo or Navaho of the present time are one and the same. The origin of the name is not known with certainty, although its derivation is variously explained. Their own name is D£ ne. Although classified linguistically as Athapascan, the tribe is composed of many small bodies of Indians either related by language or bearing no relationship with the Athapascan nucleus with which they became consolidated at one time or another during several generations, by voluntary adoption or through capture. Their original range extended from |
