The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-02-08
AMERICAN NEGRO IN MEXICO
4 VERY CURIOUS COLONY FOUND
 ED
Many Years Ago by Fugitive Slaves
 and Indians From Florida.

and Indians From EIOrlun.
 Fifty-three years ago a band of Sem
 mole and Kickapoo Indians escaped
 from their uncongenial and enforced
 home in Florida where they had been
 located by the United States govern
 ment, and wandered westward seek
 ing a place to settle where the white
 man would not be able to indicate the
 boundary lines and where they could
 make laws to suit their traditions
 says a correspondent of the Kansas
 City Star. Accompanying this Indian
 band was contingent of men, women
 and children, full blooded negroes who had escaped the slave drivers and taken refuge in the Florida swamps,
 and again lapsed into the savagery of
 their African ancestry. In the aggre-
 gate, the negro element in this band
 represented many thousands of dollars
 worth of property to the slave own
 CTS of Florida and the neighboring
 states.
 For many months this motley band
 moved westward. They traversed the gulf states into Texas, and then, bear
 ing toward the south, followed the COaSC llIle lO lIe ItlO 1IelIlue. Luty
 crossed this stream into Mexico and landed at a point where the thriving city of Porflrio Diaz now stands, They were seeking shelter and hid- ing place. The long, dreary stretch of plains in every direction discouraged them, but they kept on their south ward way. After a few days travel their eyes were gladened by the sight of range of mountains far to the southeast. With renewed hope they Quickened their pace, and soon reached the fertile valleys at the foot of the Santa Rosa hills, where their descend ants live to-day, far from the beaten paths of travel and safe from the eyes of all except those of the most adven- turous travellers.
 Railroads found their way into northern Mexico, but they left these mountains far to the eastward, and he who would visit the primitive and peaceful settlement of Naciamento must go by rail to Boroteran and thence by wearisome stage journey fifty miles into the interior Here in the valleys of the clear spring creeks that form the head of the great Sabi- mas river will be found a colony of full -blooded Africans, descendants of those who escaped fifty years and more ago. Soon after the arrival of the wandering band of Indians and ne- groes on the spot chosen by chance for their future home, the band separated naturally and without friction into it's component parts. The negroes formed colony by themselves The Kicka- poos settled in another valley about two miles from the negro settlement, and the restless Seminoles remained but a short time, and soon wandered back to the north and joined the Indi- ans of Texas.
 The negroes are known in Mexico to- day as Seminoles, but this is errone- GUS, as they are full -blooded Africans and have retained the language, of the American negro and all the habits and the characteristics of their ancestry and for the past fifty years they have been engaged in the peaceful pursuit | of agriculture, self-supporting and | practically ndependenti of the outside world.
 X TRie negro settlement of Naciamento | is complete surprise to the traveller | in Mexico After many days of expe-
 
 country, with their ways and tastes strange to an American, their low l adobe huts and chimneyless ''jacals," this group of negro cabins, typical of ante bellum days in the south, looks queerly out of place. Primitive sim plicity rules in the lives of these peo- pie. There are sixty or seventy cab ins in the settlement, and they are To- 411 s~, Il, 1of, tx, habited by family. The principal cabin in the group is that of the head of the clan, and he is their leader ad- wiser and representative. His author ity is absolute within his own baili- wick, and he acknowledges no higher ruling except that of the patriarch, the | ruler of the entire colony, who is re- :, eponsible alone to the general govern ment of Mexico.
 These negroes are strong, able bodied, long-lived people, and extreme ly industrious. Their fields are located a short distance from the cabins and are worked separately each family having a certain amount of land in From the Mexicans they have learned the art of irrigation, and in this country of variable seasons their crops never fail them. In per sonal characteristics they are a faith full reproduction of the type known in the south as the plantation negro. They are grossly ignorant and ex- tremely religious. Their language among themselves is the broad negro dialect of the south, and they also speak Spanish and Kickapoo. The re- suit of their cosmopolitan surround ngs has been to produce patois, a mixture of English, Spanish and Indi- an. that is the language of the colony, :, and would puzzle an expert linguist to classify It is lapguage born of ne- ; ,essity, and will eventually be sup 1lemented by the Spanish language of he country. II At present the colony is in a fairly ( condition. Some of the original stock is still alive, the oldest nhabitant being one hundred and ten , Jears old, and a number of them , 'anging between eighty and one hun , fred, but the majority of the original I settlers have been laid to rest in the behind the little odd church $ If colony. The ruler of these people is z Andrew Washington, who was a strap l 'ing boy of twelve years when his peo- ( Laf,