The Séris, a tribe inhabiting Sonora, forms, with its subtribes, a separate family. By their language, by their customs, and by their physiognomy, they are completely set apart from affiliation with the surrounding nations; and apparently they have lived in the district which they now occupy from times anterior to the establishment of the Pima race and its affines; their use of poisoned arrows recalls the Caribs of the islands, as well as of the continent, and it seems not unlikely, although very curious, that they are related to them. The Séris, known also as Tiburones, a name derived from the island of Tiburon in the Mar de Cortés, which serves them as a shelter, considered as parts of their tribe the Tepocas and the Salineros. The “Upanguaima” (a very small tribe occupying the Seri border) and the “Guaimas”, as well as the “Cocomagues” were combined chiefly on the authority of Jesuit writers.[189] In describing the State of Sonora he further wrote: [189] Ibid., p. 42. The Séris, bounded by the sea on the west, the Pimas Altos on the north, the Opatas and the Pimas Bajos on the east, and the pueblos of Rio Yaqui on the south, form the smallest nation of Sonora, but at the same time the most cruel and deceitful and the least capable of reduction to political organization. Hardly uniting with the smaller pueblos as at Populo and Belen, the rest of the nation engaged so constantly in cruel warfare that it was necessary to persecute and exterminate them.... Small as was the tribe, three divisions are known: the Salineros, extending to the confines of Pimeria Alta; south of them the Tepocas, nearest to the island of Tiburon; the Guaymas and Upanguaymas occupying the territory adjacent to the harbor of the same name, afterward added to the pueblo at Belen and blended with the Indians of Rio Yaqui. Ferocious and savage, they preferred to die in war against the whites rather than adopt their usages and customs; lazy and indolent, they so surrendered themselves to the passion of intoxication that mothers conveyed aguardiente from their mouths to the smallest babes. They are tall and well formed, the women not lacking in beauty. The poison with which they envenom their arrows is proverbial for deadly effect; they compound the venomous juice from a multitude of ingredients and fortify the compound by superstitious practices.[190] [190] Ibid., pp. 353-354.