Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1846-12-09
=
MISCELLANEOUS.
From, the N. 0, Commercial Tinef.
WHITE NS--ANCIENT MEX.



y. ICANS.
| Among a large number of volumes
which have recently appeared on the
SUBJECT of Oregon, California and the
neigbboring reglons-called forth, in a
great measure, by the interest attached to
The recent controversy with Great Britain
aud The present war with Mexico-we
have i lived much information from an
nonymous publication entitled ".Scenes
IN the Rocky Mountains, Oregon, Califor-
mia. New Mexico, Texas and Graud Prai.
ries; or notes by The way during an excuf-
sion of three years: with description of
the countries passed through" The work
processes 10 furnish the results Of personal
observation, and in most respects, is a
very full aud clear transcript Of scenes
and events in the countries Of which little
is positively known, and that little vague
and nconclusive. The facts conlained
iu the book are valuable and Interesting,
the style ambitious, bombastc. und ex-
,remely faulty. Fortunately. in the pres
ent instance, the garb in which the author
has chosen to convey his impressions is Of
minor consequence. The public have
only TO deal with the material, aud This,
as we observed. will abundantly repay
earnes, altenlion and analysis.
While adjourning in California, the
author had occasion TO become familiar
with race of savages, Of which the few
loose and imperfect accounts hitherto fur
nished have inspired general desire for
more ample information. We allude to
the white Indians" or "Munchics as
they are called. A synopsis of the details
given by the writer may be interesting TO
our readers.
The Munchies are nation Of white
aborigines, actually existing in valley
among The Sierra de los Mimbros chain.
one of the atfluents Of The river Gila, in
the extreme North western part Of The
provice Of Sonora. They number about
eight hundred in all. Their features are
If the Caucasian type, with fair COM
plexion and graceful form. They are
pstriarchal in their habits. peaceful in
:heir character, aud possessed Of many
Of the arts and comforts of civilized life.
They spin and weave, subsist by asricul-
ture, raise cattle. horses aud sheep. Theira
laws are few and simPlss hey asssr9aels
by the seniors Of, Iha,sris{ Il.
mentsi EsSss sIa!S
c0ercive. III morals they pfeeenteaS
as honest and virtuous. III religion they
are said to differ but little from other In.
diaus. The country inhabited by this
singular and anomalous people is difficult
of access and enclosed ly lofty mountains.
Hence. perhaps, The sparseness and obscu
r,y Of all previous accounts of them.
Their dwellings are spacious apartments.
nicely excavatcd in the hill side. and are
frequently cut in the solid rock, they know
little or nothing Of war, aud when per-
| chance, an enemy crosses the rocky bar
rier which surrounds them, they retreat
| with all their valuables 10 caverns in the
mountains, and their remain till the dan
ger be past.
Ofther origin, We are told, they have
los: all knowledge, aud even the dim light
Of tradition has failed to cas-, a ray upon
the darkness which enshrouds the history.
The few writers whu have spoken Of this
tribe, are disposed to conclude that the
Munchies are The progeny of Europeans,
and must have settled in Mexico since the
time of The discovery of America. Such
an inference, though warranted by their
by color, their gent'eness of character,
pacific, habits. aud comparative advance
in the civilization, is nearly irreconcilea.
BILE with their utter ignorance OF their own
origin. tits highly improbable that colo
ny of European stock would, in the space
Of three centuries, have lost all RECOLLECTION
ofthe original country Of their ancestors.
Their language might aid in removing
the doubt and difficulties which environ
the subject. but neither the author of The
work iu question, nor the scattered notices
which we have encountered elsewhere,
afford any satisfactory Information on this
head. That they do mol spring from the
source which has given birth to the other
tribes of Indiane, is sufficiently manifest.
The Munchies differ from the latter in
every respect. But this even admitted,
the Ethnographist does not advance O
single step, but is left in the boundess field
Of speculation aud conjecture, without
chart or compass.
To the above given curious sketch oi
the Munchies, the work we have cited
adts another deeply interesting account
of various circumstances related to him
by trappers aud travellers, which go to
prove that the unfrequenled part Of the
eastern boundary Of Sonora, there is a
popuIus town, of which neither historians
nor geographers have made mention
Stevens, in his incidents Of Travel ia
YucataD, admits The possibility of the
existence Of cities in the unexplored parts
of Mexico, similar to those Of which he
discovered the remaias in Uxmal aut
Palenque, and Inhabited probably by the
same race Of people. From tho narralions
of the travellers referred to, such a com