Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1914-01-30

Thus q man writes MS lie III HE
physique, and thus the angels dis
cover his autobiography in his struc-
ture.'"
HOME OF THE YAoUIs
Country of Mexican Indians OF Primi-
tive Character.
The Yaquis, now reported as haV-
ing Joined the Mexican Constitutional
lists, have been reputed for genera
tions the best savage fighters south
of the Rio Grande. For the better
part of four centuries they have re-
sisted Spanish-American civilization,
though they have had a sort Of ma
tive civilization that enabled them all
the better to battle the Mexican au-
thorities. The last serious uprising
of the Yaquis occurred in 1900, when
they nearly destroyed a force Of Mex
lean troops, and the Mexicans took
terrible revenge by Staying many OF
the Yaquis, men, women and chill
dren, ard carrying off nearly ESQ OF
them into virtual slavery in Yuctan.
Some authorities say that the Yaquis
numbered 10000 in the middle Of the
eighteenth century, and less than 15,-
600 at the close Of the nineteenth,
a shrinkage due to almost continual
wars. There has been, however, q
good deal of guess work as to these
Indians, and until comparatively re-
cent times, although official maps of
Mexico pretended to plat the Yaquis
territory, much Of it had never been
surveyed. 1t would take q pretty
spry census enumerator to count and
classify the Yaquis Of the wild noun
tains.
The chief historic home Of the va
quis is the central mountain region
Of Sonora, through which the Yaquis
river flows into the Gulf Of Califor-
mia. There is a loose employment of
the term Yaquis, however, and 1t is
applied by some persons to almost any
OF the shy, wild Indians living in
western Mexico. The Pima and the
Opata Indians Joined with the Yaquis
in at least one war, that Of 1882, when
a Yaqui chief conceived the notion Of
forming the Sonoran tribes into an In
dian state. There had been a formid-
able rising Of the Yaquis, seven years
before, as there was a little more
than 20 years later. Between wars
the Yaquis on the edge Of civiliza-
ton maintain trade relations with the
Mexicans and some Of them are en-
ployed in various occupations even in
the cities. A Yaqui, however, is es-
sentially a man of the wild, shy
creature, stunning the stranger, and
resenting the intrusion of the white.
The Yaquis raise some crops and
make crude pottery and excellent
woven articles, but they have no
more than Walt Whitman, the pas
sion for owning things" They also
hate superfiuous clothing. When
Mexico passed a law requiring all men
to wear trousers, the Yaquis resented
1t as an outrage. After that law was
passed it was no uncommon thing to
see Yaqui clad in natures garb, and
little else, approaching a city with his
trousers in a neat bundle on his head,
and his wares brought for sale perch
ed on top. Near the entrance Of the
town, the good man would don his
trousers and having entered the
place, transacted his business, and
started back to his wilds, would pause
outside Of the police zone to remove
the encumbering garments, so that
he could make the better speed home
ward. An adventurous American,
now soberly employed in highly re-
spectacle business on Long Island,
when travelling some years ago across
Mexico to the Gulf Of California, en-
countered a fellow traveller, who per-
suaded him to make a detour into the
Yaqui country.
The stranger professed to believe
that there were mines in the Yaqui
territory worth prosecuting there.
That has long been a belief and Som
ora is rich in silver. There is also a
persistent popular notion that the wild
recesses Of the Yaqui hide an old
Mexican city in an excellent state Of
The two travellers in
this instance, soon got into the edge
Of the Yaqui country and found that
the inhabitants made no resistance to
their advance, but fled before them.
Women and children could be seen
fading into the thicket as the strang-
ers approached. Thatched huts were
found with the embers still warm on
the earth, but not human being was
in sight. The huts were absolutely
bare of food, and without other furni-
ture than a few rude untensils and
here and there a woven mat.
Being we'll mounted, the travellers
took a rough mountain trail and fol-
lowed 1t for some hours. The narrator
Of the story says that he saw no sign
of Yaquis except that as they advanc-
ed they encountered from time to
time at critical places in the trail,
obstacles recently thrown up to ar
rest their progress. Sometimes two
or three trees were felled across the
trail, sometimes rocks or earth were
thrown down from above to block the
way. At one point where they halted
his companion knelt behind a rock,
took careful aim down the trail. and
fired. They rode back a short dis
tance and found a dead Yaqui with a
a bullet hole in his forehead. The
man had been dogging their footsteps
for two or three hours, with intent,
his slayer explained, either to kill
them or to catch them unawares and
carry off one or both Of their horses.
To be left without a mount in that
country was pretty nearly equivalent
to a sentence of death.
The tenderfoot was a bit uncom-
Portable by this time, but he helped
toss the dead Yaqui over a precipice