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Show INDIANS OF NEW MEXICO. 181 I ble and authentic. These Indians carry on a considerable barter and sale in the disposition of buffalo-robes. There are many traders who 1 visit the plains for this purpose. It will thus be seen that there are fromforty to fifty thousand wild and hostile Indians in, and contigu-ous to, New Mexico. And now the questien arises, What line of policy is best calculated for the management of these Indians? It is l a question not easily answered, but is pregnant with embarrassment and fraught with difficulty. Nevertheless, the governnlent ail1 have to meet it. The sooner the better. It is daily advancing in import-ance. The means of subsistence of the Indians are gradually gruaing less every Fear; whilst the aggregate numbers of the Indians are not &minishing, yet they seem not to be much on the increase, if any. The circle of country upon which they have been accustomed to con-duct the hunt and the chase is rapidly contracting. The white man is advancing with a rapid step towards their accnstomed haunts, and the? and the buffalo are alike driven back. In fact, the pressure upon them is now coming in two opposite directions, from the Pacific as \re11 as from the Atlantic, and thus lessening the space upon which tbey stand. To extcrnlinate the aborig,ines of the forest and the mountains is a policy that uo enlightened c~tizeno r statesman will propose ur allvo-cate. That this race, the aborigines of America, are destinccl to a speedy and final extinction, ilccord'i~lg to the laws now in force, either I ciril or divine, or both, seems to admit of no doubt, and is equally beyond the control or management of any human agency. All that can be expected from an enlightened and Christian government, such as ours is, is to graduate and smooth the pass-way of their final exit from the stage of human existence. How is this to be done? This is the great question for solution, but which I will not undertake to solve. The government of the United States has adopted a munifi-cent srstem of distributing annual and semi-annual presents to her indigenons Indians, and has attempted to induce them to a1)andon their wandering pursuits of the hnnt ancl the clrase, and to induce then1 to engage in agricultural aroeaticsns as a incans of subsistence; but this humane and benevolent policy has nut met with that success which the facts and the circomstances seem to have warranted. ; Still, this system should not be abandoned; but, on the contrary, it should be vigilantly and with energy pressed forward. And if notlting substantial comes out of this policy, all hope of bettering the condition of the Indian seems to be lost. The Indians of New Mexico, when under the management of the Mexican government, were ac-customed to set her authority at defiance, and to roam and pillage at pleasure. This we have attempted to check and stop, and I regret to say have hen only tolerably successful. These Indians n111st live; and w11e11 tl~e lnnnntains and the forest cease to suppl!- t!~em with food they vill ~ l ~ ~ u l ~steleeks ist from those who have it; and if not to be had peaceably, the>- will attempt to obtain it by force. Xo animal creature, whether civilized or not, will perish for the want of food when the means of suLsirtence is \vithin his reach: and if not to be had without force, it will Iw had with it. All history and erery I man's own instinct confirm this view of the subject, and itis justified |
