The weekly Placer herald., 1853-10-08

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which can possibly he looked upon as in
habitable, is small indeed, in all not more
than 375 square miles, or one-twentieth
part. With the exception of the places
above mentioned there is little or no tim
ber throughout the length and breadth of
the whole valley. The Indians through
out this valley, (and the same may be said
of those in all this part of California, APP
pear to have no particular name for any
of their lakes, rivers, plains, or noun
tains, but call that one, or that portion OF
either, occupied by them, after the name
of the particular tribe or rancheria living
there.
The Indians that live in this valley,
reside for the most part of the time,
along the base of the mountains. They
have no permanent residences down in
the plains, on account of the great annoy
ance which they experience from the
mosquitoes, ants and other insects. They
come down, however, at the proper sea-
son to fish and gather the roots of the
Tula, wild rice and grass seeds, for food; !;
upon these, together with the
acOrns in the mountains and a little game
which they contrive to kill, they manage
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when very hard off for they are compelled
to resort to theft. They have the reputa
ton of being most accomplished thieves,
but know, from the best authority, that
a great deal of the credit they havs oh
tanned for this kind Of rascality, is justly
due to class of Americans stopping on
the four creeks Kings River,and at some
other parts as far north as Stockton; par
ticularly as to the stealing Of horses, mules
and cattle.
The Indian thieves live along the east
side of the Coast Range from the Cajon
Pass, up as far as the Tejon Pass, AMI then
along the east side of the Sierra Nevada,
as far north as the head waters of the
Merced and Tuoumne rivers. These
Indians are all connected together, but the
largest and worst band live just north of
the head waters of Kern river, in the vi
cnity of large Lake, probably the one
put down on Fremont's map, (Fremont
never was there, though portion of his
party was,) as Owens Lake. They are
called the Sey-pantese tribe, and in the
Indian language the Mez-tene-os, Cor bad
indians) When in the Tejon Pass to
the north you have the great Tulare AMI
San Joaquin Valleys; to the east, the cas-
tern slope of the Coast Range; and to the
south west and west, the passes of San
Francisco and Wa ker's Pass, leading to
Los Angeles and Santa Barbara respec-
lively. (This last pass is named after an
Indian chief called Wal-ke-ra, and hy
Americans perverted into Walker, and is
the Walkers Pass of the Coast Range,
not of the Sierra Nevada. He is from
the river Severn, and the most expert
horse thief in California;; he is Eutaw
chief, speaks Spanish, and has large
band with him, and several of the ran
cheros, amongst whom is Willams-pay
him tribute or black mail.) From this
point you can go with wagons in each of
the directions mentioned, except to Santa
Barbara. Bear in mind the fact that the
mountain Indians are those who steal and
commit all the depredations Ohough those
in the plains may be cognizant of the nct,)
and also that they live On the east side of
the mountain range. They go to the
southern country, steal animals, run them
out of the Cajon or San Francisco passes,
bring them north, run some of them into
the Iulare alley through the IejOn Pass,
dispose of them to traders, (many of
whom are deserters from the army and
take the rest on north and cache them
near the head waters of the Merced and
Tuolumne rivers, and then at their leisure
dispose of them to these or other Ameri
cans or Californians. A large proportion
of the animals stolen are killed for food or
used by the Indians as saddle animals.
Among these horse thieves are great
many Indians who were brought up on
the missions, they speak the Spanish Ian
guage, and are commonly great rascals.
Git is said, with what truth know not,
that horses are stolen from the north and
taken to the south by the same route.) ln
fact, for all movements against these In
dians living between the Cajon Pass, on
the south, and Carson Valley on the north,
the Tejon, or Walkers Pass (though
think the former by far the preferable To-
cation appears to be the two bests points
from which to start, and as the great sand
plain on the east, and Coast Range on the
west, necessarily force all travellers By
land, between the above mentioned limits,
to 60 by this point, it is most admirably
adapted for all the purposes of frontier
post There is an amount of good land
sufficient for raising a supply of grain or
supporting IL number of animals adequate
for all practicable purposes. The dis
tance from San Pedro to Los Angeles is
twenty seven miles, and from Los Angeles
to the Tejon Pass but eighty five, and all
but few miles, a most excellent and lev
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