The Camden weekly journal. [volume] (Camden, South-Carolina) 1853-1861, 1854-11-28
MiarRllauRullg.
TIL e MOQUIs..


head quarters of Gila River, lives John Bridg-
er, trapper of the plains and mountains for
more than 40 years. 1t is admitted by all
trappers that he is better acquainted than any
living man with the intricacies of all the hills
and streams that lose themselves in the great
basins. While trapping OH the tributaries of
the Colorado, an Indian offered to guide Mr.
Bridger and party to people living far up the
desert, with whom he could barter.
The proposition was accepted; and after
providing themselves with dried meat and wa.
ter, they struck right out into the heart Of that
great desert, where no white man has before
or since trodden, and which the hardy noun
taineers will only venture to skirt: After five
days travel the party arrived at three noun
tains or buffers, rising in grandeur in that sol-
tary waste, These mountains were covered
with diversity OF forest and fruit trees, with
streams of the purest water ripling down their
declivities. At their base was a numerous ag
ricultural people. surrounded with waving fields
of corn and a proflsion of vegetables. The
people were dressed in leather; they knew no
thing Of firearms, using only the bow and ar
row and for mile after mile crcling those
buttes were adobe houses twp and thee stories
high. Mr. Bridger was not allowed to enter
any of their towns ur hou Ses, anu after reilau-
ing three days, bartering scarlet cloth and i'"n
for their furs he left them, not, howerer, before
being given to understand that they had no
communication beyond their desert home.
That these are the people that once inhabited
the banks Of the Gila and the Colorado, and
left these monuments of. wonder, the "Casse
Grand" which so deeply attracted the follow
ers Of Fremont and Donaphan, aud then van
ished like dream, there can no longer he
donbt.
Months after this conversation with Bridger,
I hnd another with Mr.. 'Papn, the agent of the
American Fur Company. He told me that an
other of the party, MIR. Walker, the mountain.
eer, after whom one of the mountain passes is
named, and who is known to he nau OF truth,
had given him the same description of these
isolated people, and in my mind there is not a
shadow of doubt of their existence.
According to Capt. Walker, through the
very centre of the Great Basin runs the Ri"
Colorado Chiquito, or Little Red River 1t
takes its rise in the mountains that skirt the
right bank of the Rio Grande, flows almost due
west, and empties into the Colorado at point
on the same parallel Of latitude with Walkers
Pass. About one hundred miles north of this.
and running almost parallel with it, is the river
San Juan Each of these streams is about 25O
miles long. Between them stretches an I'M
mense table land, broken occasionally by sier.
ras of no great length, which shoot up above
the geueral elevation. About half way be
tween the two rivers, and midway in the viii
derness, between the Colorado and the Rio
Grande, ,isthe country of the Moquis. From
the midst Of the plain rises abruptly on all
sides butte of considerable elevation; the top
of which is as fiat as if some great power had
sliced off the summit. Away up here the Mo
quis have built three large villages, where they
rest at night perfectly secure. from the attacks
of the fierce tribes who live to the North and
East Of them. The sides of this table moun
tain are almost perpendicular cliffs, and the top
can only be reached up steep Of steps cut in
the solid rock. Around its base. is plain of
arabic land which the Moquis cultivate with
great assiduity. Here they raise, all kinds of
grain, melons, and vegetables. They have al
so number of orchards, filled with many
kinds of fruit trees. The peaches they raise,
Captain Walker says, are particularly fiife.-
They have large Aocks of sheep and goats, but
very few beasts of burden and cattle: They
are harmless, inoffensive race, kind and hos
pitable to strangers, and make very little resis
tance when attacked.
The warlike navajoes, who dwell in the noun
tains to the northwest of them, are in the habit
of sweeping down upon them, every two or
three years, and driving off their stock. At
such times they gather up all that is movable
from their farms and fly for refuge to their
mountain stronghold. Here their enemies dare
not follow them. When stranger approaches
they appear on the top of the rocks aud houses
watching his movements. One Of their villages,
at which Capt Walker stayed for several days,
is FIVE or six hundred yards long. The houses
are generally built of stone and mortar some
of them adobe. They are very snng and com
Portable, and many of them are two and even
three stories high. The inhabitants are consid
erabiy advanced in the arts, and manufacture
excellent woolen clothing, blankets, leather,
basket work and pottery. Unlike most of the
Indian tribes in this country, the women work
within doors, the men performing all the farm
and out door labor. As race they are lighter
in color than the Digger Indians of California.
Indeed, the women are tolerably fair, in conse
quence of not being so much exposed to the
sun. Among them Capt Walker saw three
perfectly white, with white hair and light eyes.
He saw two others Of the same kind at the
Zuni villages, nearer the Rio Grande. They
were no doubt Albinos, and probably gave rise
to the rumors which have prevailed Of the ex
istenee of white indians in the Basin.
The Moquis have probably assisted nature
in leyeling the top Of the mountain asa site for