as the product of great labor and skill. Langsdorff also notices the same articles, and says he counted in one of these bandeaux four hundred and fifty feathers from the tails of golden woodpeckers. As each of these birds has but two such feathers-and it is probable that every bird killed did not have both in perfect condition-it must have required much application to obain materials for such an ornament.

Forbes credits them with extraordinary skill in the construction of their baskets, bows and arrows; some of the former, made of the filamentous bark of a tree, were plaited so closely as to be perfectly watertight, and although made of very combustible materials, were used for roasting their grain before it was ground. Many of their baskets were ornamented with the scarlet feathers of the Oriolus phoeniceus, or with the black crest feathers of the mountain quail, and were really very handsome.

Father Palou says the men had wooden swords, that cut almost like steel, and formidable clubs, as well as bows and arrows, as weapons of warfare.

With reference to their physique, there appears to be considerable discrepancy between the statements of different authorities. Venegas thought them "equal to any race"; Captain Rogers says, "they were tall, robust, and straight as pine trees;" Captain Beechey says, "they were generally above the standard of Englishmen, in hight." In after years, some of the half-breeds were quite remarkable for their hightreaching nearly seven feet.

Langsdorff, surgeon of the Russian admiral Kotzebue's ship, which arrived at San Francisco in September, 1824, states that "many of them had full, flowing beards." La Pérouse also says, "about half the males he saw had such splendid beards that they would have made a figure in Turkey, or in the vicinity of Moscow." It is a very remarkable fact that none of the present race of Indians have any beards.

The foregoing brief outline of the condition and habits of the aborigines of California, before and since their contact with the white race, would appear to justify the belief that they were capable of reaching a higher plane of civilization, than that on which they were placed by the missionaries.

Eminent men of science, from England, France, Russia, and the United States, who visited the coast, and saw the unfortunate natives under the mission regime, in its palmiest days, all bear witness to the wretched state of bodily and mental bondage in which they were held. Captain Beechey considered the method adopted by the Fathers, to

obtain "converts," as but "little better than kidnapping.' Both men and women were flogged, or put into the stocks, if they refused to believe or to labor: other witnesses corroborate this statement.

All the Indian men, except those employed as vacqueros, or herdsmen, wore no other clothing than a coarse woolen shirt and a breech cloth. The vacqueros had pants and shoes, more for the sake of enabling them better to ride the unbroken mustangs than for decency. The women had a woolen chemise and petticoat, but neither shoes nor stockings. Both men and women were required to work in the fields every day, except those who were carpenters, blacksmiths, or weavers. None of them were taught to read or write, except a few who were selected to form a choir, to sing and play music, for each mission. The only instruments were the violin and guitar. They never received any payment for their labor, except food, clothing, and instructions in the catechism. The single men and women were locked up in separate buildings, every night. Both sexes were severely punished with the whip, if they did not obey the missionaries or other white men in authority. The Fathers themselves wore but one garment, which reached from their neck to their heels; this was never washed, but was worn continually until worn out.

There is no room to doubt that the degradation of the existing race, is in some degree, the result of the mission system, which has deprived them of the instincts that Nature had implanted, and left them no dependence but upon the will of the Fathers, which was impotent to save them from extermination by the irresistible force of a higher civilization, in which they are unfitted to participate.

The Spanish Government appears to have acted with much liberality towards the aborigines, and intended that they should have had every opportunity to become civilized. It granted them tracts of land for cultivation, and lots in the pueblos for homesteads. Much of the land on which the city of San Francisco now stands, was granted to partially civilized Indians, prior to the year 1820; but a higher power than earthly Governments had destined that site to be occupied by a different race.

The most implacable Indian-hater must contemplate with astonishment, not unmixed with awe, the destruction that has overtaken the native Californians within the past forty years. When their country was first discovered, it was thickly populated with tribes, speaking a variety of dialects, the very names of which have been forgotten.

Mr. Gilroy, the first real settler in the State, who landed at Mon

terey in 1814, gives us the following vivid picture of this so-called mission civilization.

Kit Carson says, when he came to California, in 1829, the valleys were full of Indian tribes. They were thick everywhere. He saw a great deal of some large and flourishing tribes that then existed. When he went there again, in 1859, they had all disappeared, and in answer to inquiries about them, the people residing in the localities where he had seen them, told him they had never heard of them. Yount, who settled in Napa Valley in 1830, says it then contained thousands of Indians; it has but few now.

No estimate appears to have been made of their number until 1823, when they numbered 100,826, although it was known they had already decreased extensively. In 1863 they were counted by the Indian Department and found to number only 29,300 men, women and children. It is doubtful if there are 20,000 remaining, at the close of 1867. At this rate of decrease, in how few years we shall see the last of the California aborigines! Their rapid disappearance is not to be attributed wholly to their contact with the white race. That mysterious law of Nature, which has caused the destruction of so many races of created beings at various epochs in the world's history, as we find recorded in the stony leaves of the but partially opened book of the rocks, has willed the end of the Indian tribes of America, as well as of the aborigines of other countries, and no human power can avert it. The census of the Cherokees, the most intelligent and best educated of all the American aborigines, taken in May last, exhibits a decrease of 20,000 during the preceding five years. In Tasmania, New South Wales, there were but four of the aborigines of the country remaining in 1866. Among the Sandwich Islanders, where education, religion and amalgamation are more general than among the aborigines of any other country, the same law is in progress of execution. The race is rapidly passing The census of 1866 exhibits a decrease of 9,000 during the preaway. ceding five years, out of a population of but little more than 60,000.

Our Federal and State Governments have made liberal provision for the support of the remnant of the aboriginal Californians. The first State Legislature passed a law for their protection, and they are probably much better off under the existing state of affairs than when under the rule of the missions. In most of the southern counties they reside on rancherias, or independent villages, where they raise a few cattle, sheep, and hogs, and sufficient grain, vegetables, and fruit to supply their own wants. In San Diego County there are twenty-eight rancherias, containing altogether about 2,000 natives. None of the

other southern counties contain as many, but there are a number of rancherias in each. There are also several reservations provided by the United States government for the protection of those who reside in counties in which the settlers object to their locating. The Superintendents of these reservations report the natives residing on them as being cheerful, contented and obedient, performing all the labor required of them in a satisfactory manner. Seven hundred and fifty of them, residing on the Tule River Reservation, in 1866, cultivated and gathered a crop of 10,000 bushels of wheat, 50,000 pounds of barley, and a large quantity of vegetables; dug a ditch five miles long, of sufficient capacity to convey water to irrigate the entire reservation; made a wagon road twenty-five miles in length, besides performing other less important labors in the neighborhood.

On the Round Valley Reservation, seven hundred of them raised 6,318 bushels of wheat, 1,127 bushels of barley, 8,000 bushels of corn, 2,150 bushels of oats, 1,500 bushels of potatoes, besides large quantities of vegetables, hay, etc. They also made 30,000 fence rails, with which they inclosed 2,700 acres of land; erected a barn, 70x60, with sheds on either side, 12x70; and two frame granaries, 40x60-cutting all the lumber for the same by hand.

On the Hoopa Valley Reservation, about six hundred of them raised a valuable crop of wheat and barley.

On the Smith River Reservation, about five hundred of them raised sufficient to maintain themselves.

There are other reservations in Los Angeles, Tehama, Klamath, Mendocino, and Fresno counties-each containing about 25,000 acres.

The above results would seem to prove, that under judicious management, these reservations may be made self-sustaining, while the Indians on them would be far more comfortable than when permitted to roam through portions of the State, where they can obtain subsistence by no other means than the charity of the inhabitants.

Having traced the condition and characteristics of the aborigines of California, from their discovery by the Spaniards, till they fell under the protecting care of the United States, it will be pertinent to the subject to make a few remarks concerning their origin, which is really the most remarkable chapter of their history, as well as that of the State.

The investigations of ethnologists and philologists who have studied the Hindoo, Chinese, and Japanese annals during the present century, have brought to light such a chain of evidence as to place beyond doubt that the inhabitants of Mexico and California, discovered by the Spaniards, were of Mongolian origin.

There is no real cause for surprise at such a discovery, when we remember that the Greeks and Romans-the compilers of our records of the world's early history-knew nothing of the countries west of the shores of Africa, or on the east, beyond the 120th degree of longitude west of Greenwich. It was not until the thirteenth century that Marco Polo discovered Japan, and more than a century after that event, before Columbus discovered America-literally a new world to the chroniclers of that history.

It was not until Magellan, on the 21st of October, 1520, made a passage through the straits that now bear his name, that the spherical form of the earth was demonstrated to the savans and philosophers of Europe. If they knew so little about the earth itself, it is not surprising that they knew so little about its inhabitants, as to compel us to seek for information concerning the early history of the aborigines of California, in countries which were ancient and civilized when Europe was inhabited by savages.

The Hindoo, Chinese, and Japanese annals all correspond in recording the fact, that about the year 1280, Genghis Kahn, a great Mongul Chief, whose name was a terror in Europe, at the same time, invaded China with hordes of barbarians from Tartary, and subjugated its people, whom his descendants hold in subjection at the present time. Having accomplished this object, he fitted out an expedition consisting of 240,000 men, in 4,000 ships, under command of Kublai Kahn, one of his sons, for the purpose of conquering Japan. While this expedition was on the passage between the two countries, a violent storm arose, which destroyed a great part of this fleet, and drove many of the vessels on to the coast of America. (The writings of Marco Polo contain much information concerning this event.)

Grotius says, "the Peruvians were a Chinese colony, and that the Spaniards found at the entry of the Pacific Ocean, on coming through the straits of Magellan, the wrecks of Chinese vessels."

There are proofs clear and certain, that Mango Capac, the founder of the Peruvian nation, was the son of Kublai Kahn, the commander of this expedition, and that the ancestors of Montezuma, of Mexico, who were from Assam, arrived about the same time.

But for the fanaticism of the Spanish priests, who destroyed all the Mexican records, when Cortes captured the city, there would be less obscurity on this interesting subject than exists at present.

Every custom of the Mexicans, described by their Spanish conquerors, proves their Asiatic origin. They had no written language, but kept their records by means of quipos-bundles of strings, with knots of