Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume V.djvu/136

 132 COMANCHES COMAYAGUA is abundant. The chief productions in 1870 were 3,368 bushels of wheat, 39,292 of Indian corn, 1,722 of sweet potatoes, and 28 bales of cotton. There were 275 horses, 17,246 cattle, and 5,337 swine. Capital, Comanche. II. A S. W. county of Kansas, bordering on the In- dian territory ; area, 780 sq. m. ; yet unsettled. It is intersected by the Nescatunga and Cimar- ron rivers. COMANCHES, a tribe of American Indians be- longing to the great Shoshone family. They are a roving race, living in skin lodges with no fixed villages, roaming when first known from the head waters of the Brazos and Colorado to those of the Arkansas and Missouri, and in some bands penetrating to Durango in Mexico and to Santa Fe in New Mexico. They are great hunters and warriors, and have been at war with the Spaniards, and with the Osages, Pawnees, and other tribes of the plains, from A Comanche Warrior. an early period. Their traditions are vague, but they claim to have come from the west. They believe in a supreme being called Niatpo (my father), and have medicine men called puhacan. They call themselves Naiini (" live people ") ; but the Kansas called them Padou- cas, the name adopted by the French, and the Spaniards Comanches, a term adopted in the United States. They are divided into eight bands. The Comanches have a martial air, and, though rather heavy and ungraceful on foot, are splendid on horseback. They pro- cured horses from the Spaniards at an early day by theft, accident, or purchase, and be- coming expert riders acquired additional power. The French under Dutisn6 first reached their country in 1719, and began to buy horses from them. In 1724 an expedition under De Bourg- mont visited their principal bands and made a treaty with them. They were then scattered over a tract of 200 leagues, those near the Spaniards in villages more or less fixed, those remote moving as game required. One village visited by De Bourgmont contained 140 lodges, 800 warriors, 1,500 women, and 2,000 children. Both sexes were then and have always been more decently dressed than Indians generally, the men wearing a regular pantaloon and good moccasins, those of the women extending up till they reached the tunic. They had long and bloody wars with the Spaniards till Anza in 1783, in a vigorous campaign, defeated and killed 30 chiefs, among them the great war chief Tabivonaritgante, called by the Spaniards Cuernoverde. This established peace for some time, and a chief named Maya sent his son to Mexico, who after receiving a little education returned to succeed his father, and thus kept up the good feeling. Morfi, the historian of Texas, about 1780 estimated them at 5,( warriors. In 1816 they lost 4,000 by smalli and in 1822 were estimated at about 9,000 all ; but Catlin some years later put their m bers much higher. President Burnet in II estimated them at 10,000 or 12,000, 2,000 2,500 being warriors. They have always b( dangerous and troublesome. They were at time on a reservation in Texas, but were pelled and have since been unrelenting enemi* of that state. The United States governing has collected some of them on a new res vation in the western part of the Indian ritory. One part, the Quauhada, or Stak< Plain Comanches, ridicule the idea of settlii _ down, but were chastised by Col. McKenzie at McClellan's creek in 1872. The Comanches were estimated in 1872 at 3,218, the rovh bands numbering perhaps 1,000 more. Th< individual property was estimated at $400, ( They have consequently lost greatly, their nui bers not being recruited as formerly by you] Mexican captives of both sexes. COMAYAGUA. I. A department of Hondui Central America; area, 4,800 sq. m. ; about 75,000. It occupies the S. central tion of the state, and consists chiefly of plains of Comayagua and of Espino, b< watered by the Humuya river. In the S. part are the mountains of San Juan or Gi jiquero, occupied exclusively by Indians d< scended from the aboriginal Lencas, who ci tivate the cereals and the fruits of the high< latitudes, and raise a fine and hardy race mules. The soil is rich, and the plains well adapted for the production of cochii coffee, and the other staples of semi-tropi< regions. Like the rest of Honduras, it p< sesses great mineral wealth, which however neglected from want of enterprise and capit Eich silver mines exist in the mountains, copper ores abound. There are also vast d< posits of blue and veined marble and inej haustible beds of ochre of various colors ai fine quality. Pine and oak abound on hills, and mahogany, cedar, li^numvitaa, other useful woods are found in the valle]