whose kindness and humane sympathy in dealing with all Indian matters which come under his notice it is not out of place here to make grateful mention. This Captain Pablo, with two of his head men, had walked a three days' journey to Los Angeles to see if he could get any help in the matter of lands which had been wrested from his people. His story was a pitiful one. Some six years ago a white man named Chatham Helm had come in at the head of their cañon, three miles above the site of their village, taken up a homestead claim there, cutting off the greater part of their water supply, and taking some of their cultivated fields, and leaving them restricted room for their stock. Since that time they had been growing poorer and poorer, but had managed to live by cultivating lands below the village near the mouth of the cañon, where there was an ther small stream. But now a new squatter had appeared below them, and filed on all the remaining lands, including the site of the village itself. The man Helm, above them, had patented his lands, built a good house, and was keeping considerable stock. The Indians could have no water except what he permitted to come down the cañon. Three years ago one of their number had been shot dead by Helm, who was set free on the usual plea of selfdefence. Since then the Indians had been in continual terror. The new squatter had threatened them with the same fate if they came near his enclosures. Between these two squatters the Indian village was completely hemmed in and cut off, and starvation stared them in the face. In fact, in the course of the last winter one little girl had actually died for want of food. Their countenances corroborated the tale. They were gaunt with hunger and full of despair. It would exceed the limits of this paper to give a full report of the interview with these Indians. It will not soon be forgotten by any one taking part in it, the solemn tones in which the Indians replied to the interpreter's questions, the intent and imploring gaze with which they studied all our faces and listened to all the words unintelligible to them in which we spoke with one another.

It was finally decided to forward to the Interior Department the affidavits of these Indians, setting forth the manner in which they had been robbed of their lands, and requesting that Cloos's entry be held for cancellation, and that Helm's patent be reopened. It was found, on looking the matter up in Washington, that several years ago this cañon had been withdrawn from market with a view to having it set off as a reservation for the Indians living in it, but the matter had slipped everybody's mind. On visiting the San Ysidro Cañon ourselves a few weeks later, we found that Cloos, taking time by the forelock, had sold out his homestead claim, his house, and what he was pleased to call his "improvements," for $600 to a poor old widow, Mrs. Pamela Hagar by name. We found Mrs. Hagar, with her son, on the ground, preparing to go into the bee business. She appeared very little sur

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prised at hearing that the claim she had bought was a questionable one, remarking: "Well, I mistrusted something was wrong; Cloos seemed in such a hurry to get his money." This woman appeared nearly as helpless as the Indians themselves. The deed she had taken from Cloos was not acknowledged; she had not got it recorded; her name was misspelled in it; and the enumeration of the sections, &c., in it did not agree with the list in the land office certificate. She begged us to ask the Government to refund to her the sum she had paid to Cloos, and signed by her mark a paper saying she would accept it. It is a small sum, and as the poor old woman made the transaction in good faith, knowing nothing about the Indians' presence on the place, it would seem not unreasonable that she should be paid. The next morning Cloos himself appeared on the scene, very angry and resentful. He said he had "a perfect right to file on that land; that "Indians were not citizens" and "had no right to public lands," and that "the stockmen of San Diego County were not going to stand the Indians' killing their stock much longer; that "the Government ought to put the Indians all together somewhere and take care of them," and that "there'd be a big fight with Indians in San Diego County before long, we might rest assured of that;" and much more of the same sort, which would not be worth repeating, except that it is a good illustration of the animus of the greater portion of Southern California ranchmen towards Indians. A few days after this we were gladdened by the news from Washington that Cloos's filing was held for cancellation, and that the Attorney-General had ordered proceedings to be begun in San Francisco for the vacating of Chatham Helm's patent. A few instances of such promptitude as this would change the whole status of the South California Indians, giving courage to them, and, what is still more important, making it clear to the perception of white men that the Indians' rights are no longer to be disregarded as they have been.

EXHIBIT F.

THE LOS COYOTES.

Five miles up from the head of the San Ysidro Cañon, to be reached only by a steep and narrow trail, lies a small valley on the desert side of the mountains. It is little more than a pocket on a ledge. From its rim one looks down directly into the desert. Few white men have ever penetrated to it, and the Indians occupying it have been hitherto safe, by reason of the poverty and inaccessibility of their home. No agent has ever visited them; they have supported themselves by keeping stock and cultivating their few acres of land. There are not more

than eighty acres all told in the valley. About three weeks before our arrival at Warner's Ranch a man named Jim Fane, a comrade of Helm, who had usurped the San Ysidro Cañon, having, no doubt, learned through Helm of the existence of the Los Coyotes Valley, appeared in the village and offered the Indians $200 for their place. They refused to sell, upon which he told them that he had filed on the land, should stay in any event, and proceeded to cut down trees and build a corral. It seems a marvellous forbearance on the part of a community numbering twenty-six able-bodied men and twenty-one women not to take any forcible measures to repel such an intruder as this. But the South California Indians have learned by long experience that in any contest with white men they are sure to be found in the wrong. Not an Indian laid violent hands on Fane. He seems to have gone about as safely in the heart of this Indian village, which he was avowedly making ready to steal, as if he had been in an empty wilderness. Mr. Kinney found him there, hard at work, his belt full of cartridges and pistols. He was a rough fellow, at first disposed to be defiant and blustering, but on being informed of the Department's action in the case of Cloos's filing, he took a milder tone, and signed a paper saying that he would take $75 for his "improvements." Later in the day, after consulting with his friend Helm, he withdrew the paper and announced his determination to stay in the valley. On inquiry at the land office at Los Angeles we found that his filing had been returned to him for correction of errors. We were therefore in time to secure the stopping of all further proceedings on his part through the land office. Nothing, however, but authorized and authoritative action on the part of the agent representing the Interior Department will stop his proceedings on the ground. Just before leaving California we received an urgent letter from the Los Coyotes' captain, saying that Fane was still there-still cutting down their trees and building corrals.

The Indians of this band are robust, active, and finely made, more nearly in the native health and strength of the race than any other band in the country. The large proportion of children also bore testimony to their healthful condition, there being thirty-five children to twenty-one women and twenty-six men. The captain had the lists of his people kept by three lines of notches on a stick, a new notch being made for each birth and crossed out for each death. They could count only up to five. Everything beyond that was "many." Their houses were good, built of hewn pine timber with thatched roofs made from some tough fibrous plant, probably the yucca. Each house had a thatched bower in front of it and stood in a fenced enclosure. These Indians raise beans, pumpkins, wheat, barley, and corn. They have twenty-five head of cattle and more horses. They say they have lived in this valley always, and never desire to leave it. The only things they asked for were a harness, chain, coulter, and five ploughs. They have now one plough.

This village is one of the best illustrations of our remarks on the need of itinerary labor among the Mission Indians. Here is a village of eighty-four souls living in a mountain fastness which they so love they would rather die than leave it, but where the ordinary agencies and influences of civilization will never reach, no matter how thickly settled the regions below may come. A fervent religious and practical teacher spending a few weeks each year among these Indians might sow seed that would never cease growing during the intervals of his absence.

EXHIBIT G.

THE SANTA YSABEL RANCH.

The Santa Ysabel Ranch is adjoining to Warner's Ranch. It is a well-wooded, well-watered, beautiful country, much broken by steep and stony mountains. The original grant of this ranch was confirmed March 17th, 1858, to one José Ortego and the heirs of Edward Stokes. The patent was issued May 14th, 1872. It is now owned by a Captain Wilcox, who has thus far not only left undisturbed the Indian village within the boundaries of his estate, but has endeavored to protect the Indians by allowing to the ranch lessee a rebate of $200 yearly on the rent on account of the Indians' occupancy. There is in the original grant of this ranch the following clause: "The grantees will leave free and undisturbed the agricultural lands which the Indians of San Diego are actually occupying."

We found on arriving at the Santa Ysabel village that an intelligent young Indian living there had recently been elected as general over the Dieguino Indians in the neighborhood. He showed to us his papers and begged us to wait till he could have all his captains gathered to meet us. Eight villages he reported as being under his control,—Santa Ysabel, Mesa Grande, Mesa Chilquita, San José, Mataguay, La Puerta, Laguna, and Anaha. He was full of interest and inquiry and enthusiasm about his people. "I want know American way," he said in his broken English. "I want make all my people like American people. How I find out American laws? When white men lose cow, lose pig, they come here with pistol and say we must find or give up man that stole. How we know? Is that alone out here. We got nobody show us. about. I make all my people work. We people; we ain't got work with; we ain't old broked ploughs for all these people. right here to go to. While you here white man very good; when you go away trouble same as before."

American law? We all Heap things I want ask can't work like American got wagon, harness; three What we want, some man

There are one hundred and seventy-one Indians in this village. They are very poor. Many of their houses are of tule or brush, their clothes were scanty and ragged, some of the older men wearing but a single garment. That they had not been idle their big wheat-field proved; between three and four hundred acres fenced and the wheat well up. "How do you divide the crops? we asked. "Every man knows his own piece," was the reply. They sell all of this wheat that they can spare to a storekeeper some three miles away. Having no wagon they draw the wheat there on a sort of sledge or wood triangle, about four feet long, with slats across it. A rope is tied to the apex of this, then fastened to the horn of a saddle on a horse ridden by a man, who steers the sledge as best he may. The Indians brought this sledge to show us, to prove how sorely they needed wagons. They also made the women bring out all the children and arrange them in rows, to show that they had enough for a school, repeating over and over that they had many more, but they were all out digging wild roots and vegetables. "If there was not great many them, my people die hungry," said the general; "them most what we got eat." It is a sore grievance to these Santa Ysabel Indians that the Aqua Caliente Indians, only twenty miles away, have received from the Government a school, ploughs, wagons, &c., while nothing whatever has deen done for them. Them Aqua Caliente Indians got everything," said the general; "got hot springs too; make money on them hot springs; my people got no chance make money."

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On the second day of our stay in this region we saw four of the young general's captains, those of Puerta San Felipe, San José, Anaha, and Laguna. In Puerta San Felipe are sixty-four people. This village is on a confirmed grant, the " Valle de San Felipe," confirmed to Felipe Castillo. The ranch is now leased to a Frenchman, who is taking away the water from the Indian village, and tells the captain that the whole village belongs to him, and that if any body so much as hunts a rabbit on the place he will put him in prison. These people are in great destitution and trouble, being deprived of most of their previous means of support. The Anaha captain reported fifty-three people in his village. White men had come in and fenced up land on both sides of him. "When he plants his wheat and grain the white men run their hogs into the fields;" and "when the white men find anything dead they come to him to make him tell everything about it, and he has not got anything to tell." The San José captain had a similar story. The Laguna captain was a tall, swarthy, well-to-do-looking Indian, so unlike all the rest that we wondered what there could have been in his life to produce such a difference. He said nobody troubled him. He had good land, plenty of water, raised grain and vegetables, everything he wanted except watermelons. His village contained eleven persons; was to be reached only by a steep trail, the last four miles. We expressed our pleasure at finding one Indian captain and