The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1909-02-13
Oswald Crawford,

fmeSt program ever given.
Oswald Crawford.
BY Path and Trail" Oswald Craw-
ford leads us. in his latest work,
through Sonora, Cal, and the unex-
plored regions of Arizona. The author,
in his opening chapter, anticipates the
question, And where is Sonora?" 1t
is in a northern corner of the terri
torially great republic of Mexico,
Just south of the line separating Ari-
iona from Mexico and washed on its
western limits by the waters of the
Gulf of California" 1t is one of the
richest regions of the world, yet it is
practically an unknown land and
almost unknown to the MeXicans them
Selves Unfortunately this region is
terrorized by the unconquerable va
quis, barbaric and savage, who have
def1ed the armies of Spain and still re-
slSt the armies of Mexico.
They live. Oswald Crawford tells US,
like eagles. in heights almost inaccessi-
bic, and swoop down on their prey in
true eagle fashion. Their numbers are
recruited by children of both sects who
are stolen from their homes and
adopted into the tribe. One-third of
the Yaquis are pure white and another
third are half-breeds. It is a curious
reversal of former conditions that
these ageS-many of them pure
white-are hunted and destroyed in
their mountain retreats by Mexican
soldiers who are full-bIooded Indians
The Yaquis, by the way. came from
Canada. They dwelt, centuries ago, on
the banks of the Athabasca. Proceed
ing southwark they cut their way
through many hostile tribes until they
arrived i'll what is now the territory of
Arizona. Here they found Indians,
peaceful and civilized, engaged in hus-
bandry and numbering some $4,000 peo-
pie. Incredible as it may seem. these
warriors from the northwest soon drove
them into the recesSes and dark places
OF the Grand canyon or to the inaccess-
IDLE cliffs, where the Spaniards found
them and called them 'burrow people,
and where hundreds of years after
wards the American discovered them
and christened them cliff jewellers"
The conquerors, who were later on
called the Apaches, were finally con-
quered by the United States army, but
long before the United States existed, a
number of them had migrated to Mex
leo and were known as the Yaquis
You may conquer me and my empire"
Montezuma is said to have told Cortez,
JON VIM III ~ OOhluNl lllC L o.
quiS.'
The Yaqui brave is a famous runner.
The author tells us:
"A Yaqui runner not long since Gov
cred 100 Spanish miles, equal to ninety
of ours, over hills and broken ground.
IN eleven hours and twenty minutes.
In recent times, RoWell of Eng
land, in 1882, Travelled $50 miles in TWEEN
ty-two hours and thirty minutes, and
Fitzgerald, in Madison Square Garden,
on q quarter-mile circular track, ran
ninety miles in twelve hours. Long
boat, the Oneida Indian from the Brant-
ford reservation. won the Boston Mar
athon, twenty-siX miles, in two hours
and twenty-four minutes. These mod
ern feats, however, were performed
over carefully prepared courses and
ought not to take rank with the rough
mountain and desert races of the va
quis''
An interesting chapter in this inter-
aStlng book deals with Lower Cali
fornia, that peculiar peninsula which
belongs to Mexico and is separated
from the mainland by the Gulf of Cali
fornia or the Gulf of Cortez," as the
MeXicans call it. Here the Digger In
dams were found, and they are among
the most degraded of savages. They
are described by the Spaniards as "a
ong-haired, Withholding people,
scorched into negro blackness, naked
and not ashamed. They bored
holes in the ears, lips and nose, insert
ing in the opening bones, shells and
sticks Without fixed abodes, they
roamed the country in search of food
life on snakes, roasted
and ants, on Wild fruit
and roots dug from the cacti bed, and
because of this roofing habit they were
called by the Spaniards "Cavadores"-
1.-THE Diggers."
The author in his tales of travel can
not but give us a glimpse at his per-
and a charming one it is. He
naturally gives prominence to the
heroic work done by the Spanish mis-
sionaries but he complains that while
Padre .Junipero Sierra has been accord
I'd recognition by the state of Califor-
MIA. and the Franciscans have been
celebrated. in prose and poetry by Ban
croft Helen Hunt Jackson, Bret Harte
ceded the F'ranciscans, have been neg
ected They have found no Parkman,
rs did the Jesuits in Canada, and the
Mexican government has not published
heir Relations" which would doubt
ess be a treasure trove to the students
If history. no less valuable than the
Relations published by the Dominion
government.
We congratulate Oswald Crawford
lpon by Path and Trail" One who
begins to read it will not pause until
lie has read it through, and we venture
he prediction that many people will
cad it many times and find it ever a
ountain of inspiration and delight
Chicago Newspaper Union. 1908. $3.50.
For sale at Intermountain Catholic
,ffice. Price $1.25.