The Seri Indians. (1898 N 17 / 1895-1896 (pages 1-344*))McGee, W J
History
The Seri Indians. (1898 N 17 / 1895-1896 (pages 1-344*))
McGee, W J
Seri Indians; Seri language; Yuman languages
“Tiburon” (lying just off the mouth of the river, in latitude 28°),
with the usual congeries of islands, headed by “I. S. Ang. Gart” (Angel
de la Guarda), in latitude 30°-31°, and the usual shore configuration
above the debouchure of Rio Sonora; “Los Seris” are located in the
interior between Rio Sonora and “Torrens Hiaqui”, while just above
the mouth of the latter lies “Gua mas M.[ission] destr. per Apostatas
Seris”. The Pownall map of 1786 incorporates Padre Consag’s results on
reduced scale, but omits the islands toward the eastern shore of the
gulf.[76]
[72] It seems probable that various early cartographers were misled
by the traditional lore of “salineros”, or salt-making Indians, in
combination with the unusual designation of these islands. In his text
Padre Consag rendered the term “Sal-si-puedes”, and strongly emphasized
the violent tidal currents and consequent dangers to vessels which
suggested the vigorously idiomatic designation to early navigators
(Venegas. Noticia de la California, III, p. 145); in the Venegas map
(ibid., tomo I, p. 1) the name is used without the qualifying comma,
and in the text it is hyphenated “Sal-si-puedes”, the author observing
concerning the local currents, “These currents run with astonishing
rapidity, and their noise is equal to that of a large rapid river
among rocks; nor do they run only in one direction, but set in many
intersected gyrations” (A Natural and Civil History of California,
p. 63). And the “Sacerdote Religioso”, whose letters place him among
the authorities on Lower California, wrote: “In the narrows of the
gulf are a multitude of islets, for the passage being so dangerous to
vessels they are called _Sal si puedes_” (Noticias de la Provincia
de Californias, Valencia, 1794, p. 11); while Hardy, who navigated
this portion of the gulf early in the present century (Travels in the
Interior of Mexico, London, 1829, p. 279), mentioned a passage “between
the islands called ‘Sal si Puedes’ (get back if you can)”. So, too,
Duflot de Mofras wrote of “les îles de Sal si puedes (Sors si tu peux)”
in his Explorations du Territoire de l’Orégon, Paris, 1814, p. 219.
Bancroft properly reduced the obscure connotive phrase to the single
denotive term “Salsipuedes,” and noted the signification as “Get out if
thou canst” (North Mexican States, vol. I, p. 444). In 1873-1875 Dewey
restricted the name to a single island and a channel, and emphasized
the currents in the latter “against which sailing vessels found it
almost impossible to make any headway” (The West Coast of Mexico,
Publication 56, U. S. Hydrographic Office, Bureau of Navigation, 1880,
p. 113), and rendered the name “Sal-si-puedes” in the text, “Sal si
puedes” on the charts. Hittell’s reference to “the group of islands
then known as Salsipuedes, the largest of which is now called Tiburon”
(History of California, vol. I, p. 225), doubtless expresses the early
use of the term precisely, save that the present Tiburon was long
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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