Page:All the Year Round - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/504

494[April 24, 1869] wheat, and cotton are the crops raised by this peaceful and intelligent race of people; all had just been gathered in, and the stubbles showed that they had been luxurious. The cotton was picked and stacked for drying on the tops of the sheds. The fields are subdivided by ridges of earth into rectangles of about two hundred by one hundred feet, for the convenience of irrigating. The fences are of sticks, wattled with willow and mezquite, and in this particular are an example of economy in agriculture worthy to be followed by the Mexicans, who never use fences at all.

"In front of each dome-shaped hut is usually a large arbour, on the top of which is piled the cotton in the pod for drying. To us it was a rare sight to be thrown in the midst of a large tribe of what is termed wild Indians, surpassing many of the Christian nations in agriculture, little behind them in useful arts, and immeasurably before them in honesty and virtue. During the whole of yesterday our camp was full of men, women, and children, who sauntered amongst our packs unwatched, and not a single instance of theft was reported.

"I saw a woman seated on the ground under the shade of one of the cotton sheds; her left leg was tucked under her seat, and her foot turned sole upwards; between her big toe and the next was a spindle about eighteen inches long, with a single fly of four or six inches. Ever and anon she gave it a twist in a dexterous manner, and at its end was drawn a coarse cotton thread. This was their spinning jenny. Led on by this primitive display, I asked for their loom, by pointing to the thread and then to the blanket girt about the woman's loins. A fellow stretched in the dust sunning himself, rose up leisurely and untied a bundle which I had supposed to be a bow and arrows. This little package, with four stakes placed in the ground, was the loom. He laid open his cloth, and commenced the process of weaving."

The pottery manufactured by the Pimas varies in colour from red to dark brown; the articles made are limited to those which are absolutely necessary for domestic purposes. They consist of ollas or vases of every size, the largest containing about two pailfuls, the smallest half a pint; jars with small apertures resembling bottles, and basins of different sizes and shapes, from a milkpan to a saucer. All are more or less ornamented, and painted with black lines arranged in geometrical figures.

The basket-work is the most meritorious of all their native arts, for although the baskets are made only of willow twigs or of grass, so closely are they woven that liquids are placed in them as a matter of course, and seldom a drop escapes through the sides. A wicker rim is always fastened at the bottom, by which the larger baskets can be carried on the head like the vases, and the smaller ones can stand securely on the floor. They are of all sizes, and together with the pottery, form the great articles of exchange between this people and other tribes, the Mexicans being about the best customers of all. Their only native weapons are bows and arrows, but they readily adopt all modern appliances either in the shape of fire-arms or implements of agriculture. The United States government has, through its agents, supplied to them a considerable quantity of the latter during the last few years, by which means the annual produce of their farms has been greatly increased. As the ground is soft and friable, hoes, spades, and shovels are more in vogue than ploughs, and when one part of the valley shows signs of exhaustion they give it rest, repair the old acequias which had previously been abandoned, and thus bring a reinvigorated patch of waste land again under cultivation.

Altogether, I may safely say that the present state of these industrious people is very satisfactory. Want is unknown amongst them; they are happy and contented; they are of great assistance to the colonists as well as to the government, for they help to confine the Apaches to their mountain retreats, and they supply the emigrants and troops with large quantities of corn. By the table of population already given, it will be seen that the women and children form a very fair proportion of the population; as for the latter, my friend Colton tells me that the whole valley swarms with them, and that these little monkeys are as full of fun as they can be. All this is encouraging, and leads us to hope that this people may escape the general destruction which, in North America especially, has fallen upon the aboriginal tribes with the advance of the Anglo-Saxon race. That so desirable a consummation should be attained, two things are absolutely necessary:

First, that the government should make their lands by law inalienable.

Secondly, that the high standard of morality which has ever been remarkable amongst the Pimas and their neighbours, the Pueblo Indians, should not be broken down by any close intercourse with white men and their fire-water.