The American Indians Part 27

AMACACHES, a nation of Indians of Brazil, of the province of Rio Janiero. They inhabit the mountains south of the city. They are numerous, and much dreaded, on account of the desperate incursions they have made into the Portuguese settlements. Their weapons are darts, and macanaw, a kind of club made of a very heavy wood. They poison their arrows and lances.

AMALISTES, a band of Algonquins, living on the St. Lawrence, and numbering 500 in 1760.

AMa.n.a.lCO, an Indian settlement of the district of Metepeque, Mexico, of 1224 families.

AMAPAES, a barbarous nation of Indians in New Andalusia, to the west of the river Orinoco, near the mountains of Paria. They are valiant and hardy; sincere and faithful in their engagements. They live by the chace and by fis.h.i.+ng. They make arms, which are tipped by vegetable poisons.

They are at war with the Isaperices. Their territory is called, after them, Amapaya.

AMAPILCAN, a settlement of Tlapa, Mexico, containing 15 Indian families.

AMATEPEC, an Indian settlement of Zultepec, Mexico, situated on the top of a mountain, consisting of 80 families. Another settlement, of the same name, in the district of Toltontepec, has 15 Indians families. Both have a cold temperature.

AMATICLAN, a settlement of Huitepec, in Mexico, containing 43 Indian families.

AMATINCHAN, a settlement of Tlapa, Mexico, containing 62 Indian families.

AMATLAN, a settlement of Tanzitaro, Mexico, containing 60 Indian families. Another settlement of San Louis, has 380 families. Another, in the district of Cordova, has 220. Another, in Zacatlan 248. Another, in Cozamaopan has 150. All these bear the same name, with the prefix of the dedicatory patron, Santa Ana.

AMBOY, a bay of New Jersey. This part of the state was occupied, in ancient time, by a tribe or band of the Minci, who were called Sauhikans.

AMEALCO, a settlement of Querataro, Mexico, containing 38 Indian families.

AMECA, a settlement of Autlan, Mexico, containing 43 Indian families.

AMECAMECA, a settlement of Chalco, Mexico, containing 570 Indian families.

AMECAQUE, a settlement of Calpa, Mexico, containing 275 Indian families.

AMERICA; no nation of Indians on this continent, had, so far as we know, ever generalized sufficiently to bestow a generic name on the continent.

The Algonquin terms "Our Country," AINDANUKEYAN, and "The West," KABEAN, were probably the most comprehensive which their intercourse or ideas required. Equivalents for these phrases might be, perhaps, successfully sought among all the most advanced tribes. The instances here given are from the Odjibwa dialect.

AMICWAYS, or AMICAWAES, a tribe or family of Indians, who are spoken of by the French writers as having formerly inhabited the Manatonline chain of islands in lake Huron. The term is from Amik, a beaver. The Ottowas settled here, after their discomfiture, along with the Adirondacks, on the St. Lawrence.

AMIK-EMINIS, the group of Beaver islands of Lake Michigan. The easternmost of this group is called Amik-aindaud, or the Beaver-house.

These islands are inhabited by Chippewas. In 1840, they numbered 199 souls, of whom 39 were men, 51 women, and 109 children. All were engaged in the chase, or in fis.h.i.+ng, and none in agriculture. Their chief was called Kinwabekizze.

AMIKWUG, a wild roving nation northwest of the sources of the Mississippi. See Beaver Indians.

AMILPA, a settlement of Xochimilco, in Mexico, containing 730 Indian families, who live by agriculture.

AMILTEPEC, a settlement of Juquila, M., containing 14 Indian families.

AMIXOCORES, a barbarous nation of Indians of Brazil. They inhabit the woods and mountains south of Rio Janerio. They are cruel and treacherous. They are at continual war with the Portuguese. Very little is known of the territory they inhabit, or of their manners.

AMMOUGKAUGEN, a name used in 1659, for the southern branch of the Piscataqua river.

AMOLA, or AMULA, a judicial district in Guadaxalara, Mexico. In the Mexican tongue, it signifies the land of many trees, as it abounds in trees. The change from o to u in the word, is deemed a corruption.

AMOLTEPEC, a settlement of Teozaqualco, Mexico, containing 96 Indian families.

AMONOOSUCK, an Indian name which is borne by two rivers of New Hamps.h.i.+re. Both take their rise in the White Mountains. The upper Amonoosuck enters the Connecticut River, at Northumberland, near upper Coos. The lower, or Great Amonoosuck, enters the same river above the town of Haverhill, in lower Coos.

AMOPOCAN, a settlement of Indians of Cuyo, in Chili, situated along the sh.o.r.es of a river.

AMOZAQUE, a settlement of Puebla de los Angelos, in a hot and dry temperature, containing 586 Indian families.

AMPONES, a barbarous nation of Indians, in Paraguay. They inhabit the forest to the south of the Rio de la Plata. They are of small stature.

They are divided into several tribes. They are courageous. They live on wild tropical fruits, and on fish which are taken in certain lakes. They preserve these by smoking. They enjoy a fine country and climate. They find gold in the sand of their rivers, and have some traffic with the city of Conception. Some converts have been made to the Catholic faith.

AMUES, a settlement and silver mine of San Luis de la Paz, in Mexico. It has 43 Indian families, besides 93 of Mustees and Mullatoes. They subsist by digging in the mines.

AMURCAS, a nation of barbarous Indians, descended from the Panches, in New Grenada. They live in the forests to the south of the river Magdalena. But little is known of them.

AMUSKEAG, the Indian name of a fall in the river Merrimack, New Hamps.h.i.+re, 16 miles below Concord, and 7 miles below Hookset falls.

ANA, SANTA. Of the fifty-five names of places in Mexico, or New Spain, mentioned by Alcedo, which bear this name, seven are the seat of a joint population of 544 Indian families. Of these, 31 are in Zaqualpa; 117 in Zultepec; 124 in Toluca; 134 in Cholula; 18 in Yautepec; 25 in Mitla; 70 in Amaqueca; and 149 in Huehuetlan.

ANAHUAC, the ancient Indian name of New Spain, or Mexico. The valley of Mexico, or Tenocht.i.tlan, is, according to Humboldt, situated in the centre of the cordillera of Anahuac. This valley is of an oval form. Its length is 18-3/4 leagues, estimating from the entry of the Rio Tenango into lake Chalco to the foot of the Cerro de Sincoque, and 12-1/2 leagues in breadth, from St. Gabriel to the sources of the Rio de Escapusalco. Its territorial extent is 244-1/2 square leagues, of which only 22 square leagues are occupied by lakes, being less than a tenth of the whole surface. The circ.u.mference of the valley, estimating around the crest of the mountains, is 67 leagues. This crest is very elevated in most parts, and embraces the great volcanoes of La Puebla, Popocatepetl, and Iztacchihuatl. There are five lakes in this valley, of which, that of Tezcuco is the largest. All are much diminished in the quant.i.ty of water they yield, since the 16th century, which is owing, in part, to the destruction of trees by the Spaniards, but most directly to the ca.n.a.l of Huehuetoco, cut through a mountain, by which the waters are drawn into the river Panuco, and thus find their way into the Atlantic.

By this work, the city of Mexico itself was freed from all effects of periodical inundation, and the site enlarged and rendered better suited to streets and carriages. The waters of lake Tezcuco are impregnated with muriate and carbonate of soda. Those of Xochimilco are the most pure and limpid. Humboldt found their specific gravity to be 1.0009, when distilled water at the temperature of 54 Fahrenheit, was 1.000, and that of Tezcuco 1.0215.

Of the five lakes mentioned, Xochimilco and Chalco contain 6-1/2 square leagues; Tezcuco, 10-1/10; San Christoval, 3-6/10; and Zumpango, 1-3/10.

The valley is a basin, surrounded by an elevated wall of porphyry mountains. The bottom of this basin is 2,277 metres, or 7,468 feet above the sea.

a.n.a.lCO, a settlement of Guadalaxara, in Mexico, containing 40 Indian families.

ANASAGUNTAKOOK, a band of the Abenaki, on the sources of the Androscoggin, in Maine.

ANCAMARES, a nation of Indians inhabiting the sh.o.r.es of the river Madera. They are very warlike and robust. In 1683 they attacked the Portuguese, and compelled them to give up the navigation of the river.

They are divided into different tribes. The most numerous are the Ancamares, who inhabit the sh.o.r.es of the river Cayari.

ANCAS, a nation of Indians in Peru, who, on the 6th January, 1725, were overwhelmed and destroyed by the ruins of a mountain which burst forth by an earthquake. Fifteen thousand souls perished on that occasion.

ANCE, or HANCE'S band of Chippewas, living at Point St. Ignace, on the straits of Michilimackinac, in Michigan. This band, in 1840, as denoted by the annuity pay rolls, numbered 193; of whom, 33 were men, 54 women, and 106 children. They subsist in part by hunting the small furred animals still existing in the country, and in part by fis.h.i.+ng. They migrate from place to place, as the season varies, plant very little, and are addicted to the use of ardent spirits.

ANCLOTE, an island on the southwest coast of Florida; also, a river flowing into the gulf at that locality, which is also called, in the Seminole dialect, the Est-has-hotee.

ANCUTERES, a nation of infidel Indians inhabiting the forests of the river Napo, in Quito. They are numerous, savage, treacherous, and inconstant.

ANDASTES, a nation formerly inhabiting the territory on the southern sh.o.r.es of lake Erie, southwest of the Senecas. They were extirpated by the Iroquois.

ANDAIG WEOS, or CROW'S FLESH, a hereditary chief of the Chippewa nation, living towards the close of the last century at the ancient Indian village of La Pointe Chegoimegon, on lake Superior. He possessed qualities, which, under a different phasis of society, would have developed themselves in marked acts of benevolence. Numbers of anecdotes, favourable to his character, are related of him, and have been handed down by tradition among the French residents on that remote frontier. Although a warrior, engaged in frequent expeditions against the enemies of his tribe, he opposed the shedding of the blood of white men who were encountered, in a defenceless state, in the pursuits of trade. He also resisted the plunder of their property. He had a strong natural sense of justice, accompanied with moral energy, and gave utterance to elevated and enn.o.bling sentiments in his intercourse.

ANDREAS, SAN, a settlement of Texupilco, in Mexico, containing 77 Indian families; another of Toluco, of 134; another in Tlatotepec, of 33; another in Tuxtla, of 1170; another in Guejozingo, of 15; another in Papalotepec, of 20; another in Hiscoutepec, of 68; another in Tepehuacan, of 40; all under the same dedicatory name.

ANDROSCOGGIN, the main western source of the river Kennebec, in Maine.

ANGAGUA, SANTIAGO DE, a settlement of Valladolid, Mexico, containing 22 Indian families.