The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 86, July 1982 - April, 1983 Page: 411
616 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Journey to Mexico: A Review 411
and the Comanche, and he had much to say about these Indians. Much
of his information came from Jose Francisco Ruiz, a citizen of San An-
tonio who for eight years had lived voluntarily among the Comanche.
Berlandier commented on some of the Wichita groups (Tawakoni and
Kichai), and several Caddo groups, as well as certain immigrant Indians
from the United States, particularly the Cherokee, Kickapoo, and
Koasati. Berlandier wrote a separate manuscript report on Texas
Indians, and this has been published in translation by John C. Ewers
(The Indians of Texas in 183o, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1969).
Berlandier's Journey records details on Indians that do not appear in
the Ewers volume, which is generalized in nature and rarely describes
Indians in specific observational contexts. In his Journey Berlandier
mentions learning from a former missionary at Goliad that the Arana-
ma, Coco, and Karankawa spoke different languages, which now raises
a question about the commonly held belief that the Coco were of
Karankawan affiliation.
Berlandier was interested in archaeological sites, but he described
only sites of southern Mexico that were marked by visible architectural
remains. In his day little was known about the numerous encampment
sites of prehistoric hunting and gathering peoples, and so Berlandier
failed to recognize such sites as he must have passed over at times. Ber-
landier seems to have been the first European to describe certain im-
portant archaeological sites in southern Tamaulipas, which even in
his day were being heavily damaged by local treasure hunters.
Regardless of what his Geneva sponsors and other scientists of the
nineteenth century said about Berlandier, it is difficult to read the
Journey and not be impressed by his energy and physical stamina, his
intelligence, his scientific curiosity and objectivity, and above all by his
persistence in recording such a wide range of valuable information on
Mexico and Texas. For the European view of life in Mexico during
Berlandier's time, his Journey should be read along with Henry George
Ward's Mexico in 1827 and Frances Calder6n de la Barca's Life in
Mexico During a Residence of Two Years in That Country. Berlan-
dier tells us more about what life in Mexico was like on one of its
northern frontiers. It is sad to learn that in 1834, when Berlandier left
Matamoros to make his last tour in Texas, he intended to proceed
northwestward from San Antonio to Santa Fe, New Mexico, and had
received official permission for the trip. His change in plans has prob-
ably deprived us of what Walter Prescott Webb would have called a
classic description of the southern Great Plains.
It is unfortunate that the original collection of Berlandier's manu-
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 86, July 1982 - April, 1983, periodical, 1982/1983; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101209/m1/459/: accessed March 29, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.