I found it an extremely harsh language, very difficult to express with our letters, and totally different from any aboriginal tongue I had heard spoken; ... but it was impossible for me, without a close philological comparison with other Indian languages, to arrive at any correct conclusion as to whether this people are allied or not to other aboriginal tribes. He also referred to a prevalent notion that “the Ceris were of Asiatic origin, in proof of which some statements were made too improbable to repeat. This idea seems to have originated from the resemblance between their name and that given by the ancients to the Chinese.” In order to obtain a Seri vocabulary, Commissioner Bartlett had a messenger dispatched “to a pueblo or village of these Indians near Hermosillo. The person sent for made his appearance in a few hours”; he was “a good-looking man, about 30 years of age. His complexion was fair, and resembled that of an Asiatic rather than an American Indian. His cheek bones were high, and his head round and well formed, though the anterior portion was somewhat angular and prominent. His hair was short, straight, and black. He was a full-blooded Ceris, and came originally from the island of Tiburon. In about three hours I completed the vocabulary quite satisfactorily to myself.”[177] The vocabulary was not printed with the narrative; nor were references made to the Seri population, either in the pueblo or in Seriland. [177] Ibid., pp. 463-464.