stone. This is only a conjecture; but here, at least, is work for the archaeologist and antiquarian, as well as at so many other points in Arizona."

Aside from the mesquite, ironwood and palo verde trees, scattered here and there along the Gila and its bottom, the entire country from Yuma to Tucson was treeless. Sagebrush and greasewood abounded as throughout the great internal basin of the continent generally. On the uplands were to be found the saguaro, or giant cactus, in full vigor and maturity, increasing in height and bulk until when they reached the Maricopa Desert they were to be found thirty to forty feet in height, by two or three feet in diameter, with perpendicular branches half way up, nearly half as large as the main stem. General Rusling says:

"This variety is a green fluted column, with its edges armed with semi-circular thorns, and bears a cluster of apples on top, from which the Indians extract a rude molasses or sugar. (This fruit was also highly prized by the Mexicans.) Inside, it is a frame work of reedy poles that serve many useful purposes in that woodless region. These immense cacti dot the country over to Tucson, and beyond-indeed, down to Mexico, and largely through it-and are a leading feature of southern Arizona.

* * *

How such a gigantic vegetable or immense plant can thus flourish here, where nothing else comparatively will grow, is a continuing mystery and perpetual astonishment. It would seem more fit for a luxuriant soil and a tropical

climate. Yet here it is, magnum opus, mocking the naturalist apparently to scorn.

At Maricopa Wells they entered the Pima and Maricopa reservation. The reservation was described as some twenty-five miles long by four or five miles wide, embracing both sides of the Gila, and in it were twelve different villages, two of them occupied by Maricopas and the rest by the Pimas.

"Both tribes are a healthy, athletic, vigorouslooking people, and they were decidedly the most well-to-do aborigines we had yet seen. Unlike most Indians elsewhere, these two tribes are steadily on the increase; and this is not to be wondered at, when one sees how they have abandoned a vagabond condition, and settled down to regular farming and grazing. They have constructed great acequias up and down the Gila, and by means of these take out and carry water for irrigating purposes, over thousands of acres of as fine land as anybody owns. Their fields are well fenced with willows, they had been scratched a little with rude plows, and already (March 9th) they were green with the fast springing wheat and barley. In addition, they raise corn, beans, melons, etc., and have horses and cattle in considerable numbers. One drove of their livestock, over two thousand head, passed down the road just ahead of us, subsequently when en route to Tucson, and we were told they had many more. The year before these Indians had raised and sold a surplus of wheat and corn, amounting to two millions of pounds, besides a large surplus of barley, beans, etc. The most of this was bought by Indian

traders, located at Maricopa Wells, and Pima Villages, at from one to two cents per pound, coin, in trade; and then resold to the government, for the use of the troops in Arizona, at from six to seven cents per pound, coin, in cash. This is a specimen of the way in which the old Indian Ring fleeced both the Indians and the government, and I give it as a passing argument in favor of the new policy. These Indians, it appears, have practiced agriculture somewhat from time immemorial, and they should be encouraged in it, as there is no surer way of 'pacifying' or civilizing them. During the Rebellion they furnished two companies to the Union volunteers in Arizona, and the most of these had just re-enlisted, to serve as scouts against the Apaches. These wore a mongrel uniform, half Indian, half soldier; but the rest, only the traditional breechclout."

The general evidently refers to the two companies of Indians who composed a part of the Arizona volunteers for the subjugation of the Apaches, of which we have treated in a preceding volume.

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"Their wigwams are oval shaped, wicker work lodges, made of poles, thatched with willows and straw, and this in turn overlaid with earth. An inverted washbowl, on an gerated scale, would not be a bad representation of one of them. They are usually five or six feet high in the centre, by fifteen or twenty in diameter, and would be very comfortable dwellings were it not for their absurd doors. These are only about thirty inches high, by perhaps twenty wide, and consequently the only mode

of entrance is on your hands and knees. While halting at the Pima villages for a day, we managed to crawl into one, for the sake of the experience; but the smoke and dirt soon drove us out. There was a dull fire in the centre, but with no means of exit for the smoke, except the low doorway. Rush or willow mats covered the rest of the floor, and on these three or four Pimas lay snoozing, wrapped in hides and blankets. Various articles of rude pottery, made by themselves, were stowed away under the eaves of the roof; and at the further side, suspended from a roofpole in a primitive cradle, was a pretty papoose sound asleep. As we crawled in, the venerable head of the family, raising himself on his elbow, saluted us with: ""Ugh! White man?'

"To which we, in true Arizona dialect, responded:

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"How! Buenos dias, Senor!'

"His dignified and elegant answer was: "Heap good! Bacco? Matches?'

"We gave him some of each, and shook hands all round, when the aged aborigine was pleased to add:

"Pimas! Americanos! Much friends! Mui Mucho!'

"These Indians had long been quiet and peaceable, and it would seem are already on the road to civilization. What they need is schoolhouses and religious teachers. They had an agent, an ex-officer of volunteers, who seemed honest and capable. But his hands were tied as to many essential things, and as a rule he was powerless for good. The Indian Bureau, with

its then accustomed wisdom, continued to send him fishing lines and fish hooks, although there was not a palatable fish in the Gila-I suppose because the Indians formerly on the Ohio and the Mississippi needed them; but persistently refused him carts and wagons, although these were constantly called for to enable him to haul their crops and fuel. As it was, we found the poor squaws gathering their scanty fuel as best they could often miles away-and lugging it home to their villages on their backs and heads from far and near. A single cart or wagon to a village would be invaluable to these poor creatures, and would do more to ameliorate their condition than a carload of fish hooks, or a cargo of trinkets and blankets. Religiously their ideas seemed confused and vague, except that they believed, in a general way, in some sort of a supreme being, whom they call Montezuma. On the mountains to the west of them, clear-cut against their azure sky, is a gigantic profile, which they claim is Montezuma asleep. It bears, indeed, a striking resemblance to our own Washington, and is a marked feature of the landscape for many miles."

The trip from thence to Tucson, nearly a hundred miles, was traveled over a good road, but there was a want of water everywhere. Frequently our travelers went from twenty to thirty miles before reaching a stream or spring. In the early days of Arizona there was less population on that road than on the Gila until they struck the Santa Cruz near Tucson, where ranches again thickened up and flocks and herds on a moderate scale were not infrequent.