[210] In correspondence with Dr Gatschet, op. cit., p. 133.
[211] Dr. Gatschet has recently revised the data and recognized the distinctness of the Seri tongue (Science, new series, vol. XII, 1900, p. 556-558).
Herzog’s suggested classification, with Gatschet’s indorsement, was accepted even more promptly and widely than the earlier classifications of Pimentel and Orozco. It was tacitly adopted by Director J. W. Powell in his classic arrangement of Indian linguistic families of America north of Mexico;[212] it was explicitly approved by Adolph F. Bandelier in his “Final Report of Investigations”;[213] and it was implicitly accepted and fortified by Dr Daniel G. Brinton in his work on “The American Race”.[214] Brinton’s Seri words were “chiefly from the satisfactory vocabulary obtained by the late John Russell Bartlett”; of the 21 terms, about 8 (including that for the alien concept “house”) suggest affinity with the Yuman, chiefly in the Mohave dialect; the others are either wholly distinct or only superficially similar, e. g., in the concurrence of a consonant or two, or merely in the correspondence in number of syllables.[215]
[212] Seventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1885-’86; Washington, 1891, p. 137.
[214] The American Race: A Linguistic Classification and Ethnographic Description of the Native Tribes of North and South America; New York, 1891, p. 335.
[215] Mr. Hewitt’s discussion (postea, pp. 299-344) gives fuller details of this short vocabulary.
Stated briefly, the scientific researches relating to Seriland and the Seri during the fifty years from the fourth decade of the century to the middle of the last decade resulted in (1) a satisfactory survey of the coast, (2) the collection of two excellent Seri vocabularies, with a few others of less extent, and (3) two discrepant linguistic classifications of the tribe, both widely quoted and accepted.
During the half century of historical silence from 1844 forward, and pending the progress of the desultory researches, the Seri suffered a succession of external shocks more serious in their internal effects than any of those of the three centuries preceding; indeed it is just to say that during this half century the Seri range was curtailed, the Seri customs were modified, and the Seri population was diminished more effectively than during the preceding sesquicentury of fairly definite record. The chief factor in this transformation was an intrepid pioneer, who pushed actual settlement toward the Seri frontier more vigorously than any predecessor—Señor Pascual Encinas, a son of Sonora.[216]