They entertain great dread of the whites, whose power to do them harm they have learned on several occasions by bitter experience. These painful lessons have generally been inculcated as follows: impelled by hunger, these miserable creatures have sometimes attempted to kill the animals of trapping parties; and the trappers, in order to prevent a repetition of such occurrences, have been accustomed to shoot down their rude assailants without mercy.
Since the practice of this summary mode of chastisement has obtained, those able to run will flee with the utmost consternation on the approach of a party of whites, —leaving the feeble and infirm in the rear, who employ their most piteous supplications and moving entreaties for mercy.
These Indians possess a capacity for improvement, whenever circumstances favor them. I have seen several, both of men and women, taken from among them while young, who, under proper instruction, had made rapid progress, and
even disclosed a superiority of intellect, compared with like examples from other nations, —a fact contributing much to prove that mankind need only to be placed in like conditions by birth and education to stand upon the same common level.
Most of them are represented as inoffensive in their habits and character, —never going to war, and rarely molesting any one that passes through their country.
Their arms are clubs, with small bows and arrows made of reeds — affording but a poor show of resistance to rifles, and a dozen mountaineers are rendered equal to a full army of such solders.
The Navijos occupy the country between the del Norte and the Sierra Anahuac, situated upon the Rio Chama and Puerco, —from thence extending along the Sierra de los Mimbros, into the province of Sonora.
They are a division of the ancient Mexicans that have never yet fully succumbed to Spanish domination, and still maintain against the conquerors of their country an obstinate and uncompromising warfare.
Like their ancestors, they possess a civilization of their own. Most of them live in houses built of stone, and cultivate the ground, —raising vegetables and grain for a subsistence. They also grow large quantities of horses, cattle, and sheep —make butter and cheese, and spin and weave
The blankets manufactured by these Indians are superior in beauty of color, texture, and durability, to the fabrics of their Spanish neighbors. I have frequently seen them so closely woven as to be impervious to water, and even serve for its transportation.
The internal regulations of this tribe are represented, by those more intimately acquainted with them, as in strict accordance with the welfare of the whole community. Lewdness is punished by a public exposure of the culprit; dishonesty is held in check by suitable regulations; industry is encouraged by general consent, and hospitality by common practice.
In their warfare with the Spaniards, they frequently exhibit a strange mixture of humanity and ludicrous barbarity.
