Report of an expedition down the Zuni and Colorado rivers / by Captain L. Sitgreaves.

  • United States. Army. Corps of Topographical Engineers.
Date:
1853
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of an expedition down the Zuni and Colorado rivers / by Captain L. Sitgreaves. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    and talking and laughing with every appearance of friendship. In the evening the camp was crowded with them, bringing in for barter small quantities of pumpkins, beans, corn, and, in one or two instances, of wheat, which seem, to be the staples of their food, for no animals, except a few horses, were seen among them; and the few sheep we had left were the objects of great admiration, especially to the women. The appearance of the Mohaves is striking, from their unusual sta- ture, the men averaging at least six feet in height; and their stalwart and athletic figures offered a convincing proof of the excellence of a vegetable diet. Almost all the men were naked, with the exception of the breech-cloth. The hair, cut square across the brows in front, hung in loose braids behind, reaching frequently as low as the waist; occa- sionally it was matted on the top of the head into a compact mass with mud, for the purpose of destroying the vermin that infest them. The only garment worn by the women was a long fringe of strips of willow- bark wound around the waist, and falling as low as the knees. No covering to the feet was worn by either sex. Their arms are the bow and arrow, the spear and the club. The arrow is formed of two pieces— that to which the barb is attached, of hard wood, seven inches long, or one-fourth the entire length; and the other of a light reed that grows profusely along the banks of the river, feathered, as usual, at the ex- tremity. The custom still prevails among them of carrying a firebrand in the hand in cold weather, which is mentioned in the account of Coronado’s expedition in 1540, and induced those discoverers to give to the river the name of Rio del Tizon. Their lodges are rectangular, formed of upright posts imbedded in the ground, and rudely thatched on the top and three sides; a portion of the interior altitude being sometimes obtained by excavation. I saw none of so great a size as those described in the account just referred to. November 8, Camp No. 34.—A large crowd of men, women, and children continued to follow us, many of them carrying beans and pumpkins, and all urgent for us to encamp among them, for the pur- pose, as they gave us to understand, of trading. I was myself auxious to obtain supplies from them; but their numbers and importunity had been so troublesome the day before, that it was resolved to exclude them from the camp, and to adopt some plan which should free us from a repetition of the annoyance. Before unpacking the mules, therefore, a chain of sentinels was placed around them, with instructions to pre- vent the entrance of the Indians, and places were designated on the outside where they might hold their market. This arrangement gave