Naturally most of the scientific inquiries of the time were, like those of Humboldt, based on tradition rather than on direct observation.
Toward the end of the first third of the century an important contribution to actual knowledge of Seriland and the Seri at last grew out of the pearl industry. In May, 1825, Lieutenant R. W. H. Hardy, R. N., was commissioned by the “General Pearl and Coral Fishery Association of London” to investigate the pearl fisheries of the Californian gulf; and his task was performed with promptness and energy. On February 13, 1826, he visited Pitic (under Hermosillo):
Half a league short [south] of it is another small place, called the Pueblo de los Céres, inhabited by a squalid race of Indians who are said to indulge in constant habits of intemperance and to have lost the fire of the warrior. In its stead they manifest the sullen stupidity peculiar to those who, feeling themselves unfitted for companionship, strive to vent their pusillanimous rage upon objects the most helpless and unoffending, such as women, children, and dogs, who appear to be the chief victims of their revenge.[141]
His chief object in visiting Pitic was to obtain information concerning Tiburon, its natives, and its pearl-oyster beds; and he was rewarded with characteristic accounts of the ferocity of the tribesmen and their use of poisoned arrows, which he received with some incredulity.[142]
After examining the principal pearl fisheries of the western coast, Lieutenant Hardy reached the “Sal si Puedes” in the throat of the gulf, and, on August 9, “got aslant of wind, which carried us up to the northwest end of Tiburow island”[143]—i. e., apparently over the precise route sailed by Padre Ugarte in 1721. Anchoring on the island, he had the good fortune first to meet a native able to speak Spanish, and later to successfully treat the sick wife of the principal chief, after which he was treated with great consideration, and—unwittingly on his part—adopted into the tribe as a member of the chief clan by the ceremony of face painting, the symbol being that of the turtle totem, to judge from the superficial description. Taking slightly brackish water, just as Ugarte had done one hundred and five years before, and arming his crew, he spent the night near the rancheria (evidently in Bahia Agua Dulce). Next morning he “traveled over the greater part of the island” (!) in fruitless search for pearls and gold, and in the afternoon “got under weigh, and stood into a bay of the continent to the northeast of the island,” discovering and naming “Sargent’s Point”, together with “Cockle Harbour”, and “Bruja’s bay” in the lee of the point, and also “Arnold’s Island”; this island being apparently the present prominent cusp of Punta Sargent, now connected with the mainland by a continuous wave-built bar rising a little way above reach of tide. Anchoring in the bay named from his vessel (La Bruja), he examined the adjacent shore, ascertaining that “there is no fresh water near the spot, except during the rainy season, which only lasts about a month or six weeks”, nor “any vestige of Indians to be seen except a solitary hut erected by the Tiburons to serve them when they go there to fish”; and, noting the report that Padre Kino had visited this point, he quite appositely questioned the truth of the tradition, partly on the ground of the absence of fresh water, partly because “the Tepoca Indian establishment” mentioned in the tradition “is many leagues farther to the northward.” Awakened by an approaching storm, he was under way next morning at daylight, and, getting out of the “bad holding ground”, was caught by a gale and carried back to his “old anchorage in Freshwater Bay”, where he found the Indians rejoicing over the success of a ceremonial incantation to which they ascribed his return. The reconnaissance map is ill-drawn, locating “Fresh Water B.” on the mainland side and apparently combining “Sargent’s Point” and “Arnold’s Island” as “Sargents I.”; “San Miguel Pt.” is properly located, and idealized route lines traverse the “Canal peligroso de San Miguel” (El Infiernillo), which is of greatly exaggerated width. The careful itinerary shows, however, that Hardy scarcely entered this strait, and made but three or four anchorages in the vicinity—i. e., in Bahia Agua Dulce, in Bahia Bruja, probably in Cockle harbor (or “Cochla Inlet”), and finally off Isla Patos.
Hardy’s notes on the Indians are first hand, and hence of exceptional value. He says:
The Indians on the island of Tiburon are very stout, tall, and well-built fellows, exceedingly like the Twelchii tribe of Indians in Patagonia, and with a language so like theirs that I imagined I was transported back into those wild regions. They by no means look so ferocious as they are represented, and there is something peculiarly mild in the countenances of the females. Their dress is a sort of blanket, extending from the hips to the knees. But most of the old women have this part of the body covered with the skins of the eagle, having the feathers turned towards the flesh. The upper part of the body is entirely exposed, and their hair is dressed on the top of the head in a knot which greatly sets off the effect of their painted faces. The men use bows and stone-pointed arrows; but whether they are poisoned I do not know. They use likewise a sort of wooden mallet called Macána, for close quarters in war. They have a curious weapon which they employ for catching fish. It is a spear with a double point, forming an angle of about 5 degrees. The insides of these two points, which are 6 inches long, are jagged; so that when the body of a fish is forced between them it cannot get away on account of the teeth.[144]
He saw “about fifteen or twenty canoes made of three long bamboo bundles fastened together”, and observed that, when engaged in turtle fishing, the Indian “paddles himself from the shore on one of these by means of a long elastic pole of about 12 or 14 feet in length, the wood of which is the root of a thorn called mesquite, growing near the coast”, this pole serving also as a harpoon shaft, provided with a harpoon head and cord, such as those still in use. Respecting the invocatory appurtenances, he says:
My attention was directed by the old women to a pile of bushes outside the hut, which had a staff of about 5 feet in length sticking up through the center. From the upper end of the staff was suspended by a cord 12 or 14 inches long a round stone ball, and to this ball was fastened another string furnished with bits of cork, surrounded with small feathers stuck into them at the distance of about 3 inches apart: the only use of the stone ball being to prevent the wind from blowing out horizontally the string which was furnished with feathers.... Upon examining the bushy pile, I discovered a wooden figure with a carved hat, and others of different shapes and sizes, as well also as leathern bags, the contents of which I was not permitted to explore.[145]