From the frozen, wind-swept plains of Alaska to the malaria-haunted swamps of Darien, there is not a fairer land than California; it is the neutral ground, as it were, of the elements, where hyperboreal cold, stripped of its rugged aspect, and equatorial heat, tamed to a genial warmth, meet as friends, inviting, all blusterings laid aside. Yet if we travel northward from the Isthmus, we must pass by ruined cities and temples, traces of mighty peoples, who there flourished before a foreign civilization extirpated them. On the arid deserts of Arizona and New Mexico is found an incipient civilization. Descending from the Arctic sea we meet races of hunters and traders, which can be called neither primitive nor primordial, living after their fashion as men, not as brutes. It is not until we reach the Golden Mean in Central California that we find whole tribes subsisting on roots, herbs and insects; having no boats, no clothing, no laws, no God; yielding submissively to the first touch of the invader; held in awe by a few priests and soldiers. Men do not civilize themselves. Had not the Greeks and the Egyptians been driven on by an unseen hand, never would the city of the Violet Crown have graced the plains of Hellas, nor Thebes nor Memphis have risen in the fertile valley of the Nile. Why Greece is civilized, while California breeds a race inferior to the lowest of their neighbors, save only perhaps the Shoshones on their east, no one yet can tell.
When Father Junípero Serra established the Mission of Dolores in 1776, the shores of San Francisco Bay were thickly populated by the Ahwashtees, Ohlones, Altahmos, Romanons, Tuolomos, and other tribes. The good Father found the field unoccupied, for, in the vocabulary of these people, there is found no word for god, angel, or devil; they held no theory of origin or destiny. A ranchería was situated on the spot where now Beach street intersects Hyde street. Were it there now, as contrasted with the dwellings of San Francisco, it would resemble a pig-sty more than a human habitation.
On the Marin and Sonoma shores of the bay were the Tomales and Camimares, the latter numbering, in 1824, ten thousand souls. Marin, chief of the Tomales, was for a long time the terror of the Spaniards, and his warriors were ranked as among the fiercest of the Californians. He was brave, energetic, and possessed of no ordinary intelligence. When quite old he consented to be baptized into the Romish Church.
YOSEMITE VALLEY INDIANS.
It has been suspected that the chief Marin was not a full-bred Indian, but that he was related to a certain Spanish sailor who was cast ashore from a wrecked galeon on a voyage from Manila to Acapulco about the year 1750. The ship-wrecked Spaniards, it has been surmised, were kindly treated by the natives; they married native wives, and lived with the Tomales as of them, and from them descended many of their chiefs; but of this we have no proof.
Yosemite Valley was formerly a stronghold to which tribes in that vicinity resorted after committing their depredations upon white settlers. They used to make their boast that their hiding place could never be discovered by white men. But during the year 1850, the marauders growing bold in their fancied security, the whites arose and drove them into the mountains. Following them thither under the guidance of Tenaya, an old chief and confederate, the white men were suddenly confronted by the wondrous beauties of the valley. The Indians, disheartened at the discovery of their retreat, yielded a reluctant obedience, but becoming again disaffected they renewed their depredations. Shortly afterward the Yosemite Indians made a visit to the Monos. They were hospitably entertained, but upon leaving, could not resist the temptation to drive off a few stray cattle belonging to their friends. The Monos, enraged at this breach of good faith, pursued and gave them battle. The warriors of the valley were nearly exterminated, scarce half a dozen remaining to mourn their loss. All their women and children were carried away into captivity. These Yosemite Indians consisted of a mixture from various tribes, outlaws as it were from the surrounding tribes. They have left as their legacy a name for every cliff and waterfall within the valley. How marvelous would be their history could we go back and trace it from the beginning, these millions of human bands, who throughout the ages have been coming and going, unknowing and unknown!
In the Southern Californians, whose territory lies south of the thirty-fifth parallel, there are less tribal differences than among any people whom we have yet encountered, whose domain is of equal extent. Those who live in the south-eastern corner of the State are thrown by the Sierra Nevada range of mountains into the Shoshone family, to which, indeed, by affinity they belong. The chief tribes of this division are the Cahuillas and the Diegueños, the former living around the San Bernardino and San Jacinto mountains, and the latter in the southern extremity of California. Around each mission were scores of small bands, whose rancherías were recorded in the mission books, the natives as a whole being known only by the name of the mission. When first discovered by Cabrillo in 1542, the islands off the coast were inhabited by a superior people, but these they were induced by the padres to abandon, following which event the people rapidly faded away. The natives called the island of Santa Cruz Liniooh, Santa Rosa Hurmal, San Miguel Twocan, and San Nicolas Ghalashat.
As we approach the southern boundary of California a slight improvement is manifest in the aborigines. The men are here well made, of a stature quite up to the average, comparatively fair-complexioned and pleasant-featured. The children of the islanders are described by the early voyagers as being white, with light hair and ruddy cheeks, and the women as having fine forms, beautiful eyes, and a modest demeanor.566 The beard is plucked out with a bivalve shell, which answers the purpose of pincers.
DRESS IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.
A short cloak of deer-skin or rabbit-skins sewed together, suffices the men for clothing; and sometimes even this is dispensed with, for they think it no shame to be naked.567 The women and female children wear a petticoat of skin, with a heavy fringe reaching down to the knees; in some districts they also wear short capes covering the breasts.568 On the coast and, formerly, on the islands, seals furnished the material.569 The more industrious and wealthy embroider their garments profusely with small shells. Around Santa Barbara rings of bone or shell were worn in the nose; at Los Angeles nasal ornaments were not the fashion. The women had cylinder-shaped pieces of ivory, sometimes as much as eight inches, in length, attached to the ears by a shell ring. Bracelets and necklaces were made of pieces of ivory ground round and perforated, small pebbles, and shells.
Paint of various colors was used by warriors and dancers. Mr. Hugo Reid, who has contributed valuable information concerning the natives of Los Angeles County, states that girls in love paint the cheeks sparingly with red ochre, and all the women, before they grow old, protect their complexion from the effects of the sun by a plentiful application of the same cosmetic.570 Vizcaino saw natives on the southern coast painted blue and silvered over with some kind of mineral substance. On his asking where they obtained the silver-like material they showed him a kind of mineral ore, which they said they used for purposes of ornamentation.571
They take much pride in their hair, which they wear long. It is braided, and either wound round the head turban-like,572 or twisted into a top-knot; some tie it in a queue behind. According to Father Boscana the girls are tattooed in infancy on the face, breast, and arms. The most usual method was to prick the flesh with a thorn of the cactus-plant; charcoal produced from the maguey was then rubbed into the wounds, and an ineffaceable blue was the result.573
DWELLINGS AND FOOD.
Dwellings, in the greater part of this region, differ but little from those of the Central Californians. In shape they are conical or semi-globular, and usually consist of a frame, formed by driving long poles into the ground, covered with rushes and earth.574 On the