wheat, and cotton are the crops raised by
this peaceful and intelligent race of people;
all had just been gathered in, and the
stubbles showed that they had been luxurious.
The cotton was picked and stacked
for drying on the tops of the sheds. The
fields are subdivided by ridges of earth into
rectangles of about two hundred by one
hundred feet, for the convenience of
irrigating. The fences are of sticks, wattled
with willow and mezquite, and in this
particular are an example of economy in
agriculture worthy to be followed by the
Mexicans, who never use fences at all.

"In front of each dome-shaped hut is
usually a large arbour, on the top of which
is piled the cotton in the pod for drying.
To us it was a rare sight to be thrown in
the midst of a large tribe of what is termed
wild Indians, surpassing many of the
Christian nations in agriculture, little behind
them in useful arts, and immeasurably
before them in honesty and virtue. During
the whole of yesterday our camp was full
of men, women, and children, who
sauntered amongst our packs unwatched, and
not a single instance of theft was reported.

"I saw a woman seated on the ground
under the shade of one of the cotton sheds;
her left leg was tucked under her seat, and
her foot turned sole upwards; between her
big toe and the next was a spindle about
eighteen inches long, with a single fly of
four or six inches. Ever and anon she
gave it a twist in a dexterous manner, and
at its end was drawn a coarse cotton thread.
This was their spinning jenny. Led on by
this primitive display, I asked for their
loom, by pointing to the thread and then to
the blanket girt about the woman's loins.
A fellow stretched in the dust sunning
himself, rose up leisurely and untied a
bundle which I had supposed to be a bow
and arrows. This little package, with four
stakes placed in the ground, was the loom.
He laid open his cloth, and commenced the
process of weaving."

The pottery manufactured by the Pimas
varies in colour from red to dark brown;
the articles made are limited to those which
are absolutely necessary for domestic
purposes. They consist of ollas or vases of
every size, the largest containing about two
pailfuls, the smallest half a pint; jars with
small apertures resembling bottles, and
basins of different sizes and shapes, from a
milkpan to a saucer. All are more or less
ornamented, and painted with black lines
arranged in geometrical figures.

The basket-work is the most meritorious
of all their native arts, for although the
baskets are made only of willow twigs or
of grass, so closely are they woven that
liquids are placed in them as a matter of
course, and seldom a drop escapes through
the sides. A wicker rim is always fastened
at the bottom, by which the larger baskets
can be carried on the head like the vases,
and the smaller ones can stand securely on
the floor. They are of all sizes, and
together with the pottery, form the great
articles of exchange between this people
and other tribes, the Mexicans being about
the best customers of all. Their only native
weapons are bows and arrows, but they
readily adopt all modern appliances either
in the shape of fire-arms or implements of
agriculture. The United States government
has, through its agents, supplied to
them a considerable quantity of the latter
during the last few years, by which means
the annual produce of their farms has been
greatly increased. As the ground is soft
and friable, hoes, spades, and shovels are
more in vogue than ploughs, and when one
part of the valley shows signs of exhaustion
they give it rest, repair the old acequias
which had previously been abandoned, and
thus bring a reinvigorated patch of waste
land again under cultivation.

Altogether, I may safely say that the
present state of these industrious people
is very satisfactory. Want is unknown
amongst them; they are happy and
contented; they are of great assistance to the
colonists as well as to the government, for
they help to confine the Apaches to their
mountain retreats, and they supply the
emigrants and troops with large quantities
of corn. By the table of population already
given, it will be seen that the women and
children form a very fair proportion of the
population; as for the latter, my friend
Colton tells me that the whole valley
swarms with them, and that these little
monkeys are as full of fun as they can be.
All this is encouraging, and leads us to
hope that this people may escape the
general destruction which, in North America
especially, has fallen upon the aboriginal
tribes with the advance of the Anglo-Saxon
race. That so desirable a consummation
should be attained, two things are
absolutely necessary:

First, that the government should make
their lands by law inalienable.

Secondly, that the high standard of
morality which has ever been remarkable
amongst the Pimas and their neighbours,
the Pueblo Indians, should not be broken
down by any close intercourse with white
men and their fire-water.