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THOMAS] INDIAN LANGUAGES OF MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 13
''El P. Christobal de Villalba [Villalta] (lib. 5, cap. 15, p. 324) sabia
excelentemente la lengua de los Maquis, y propia de los cinaloas,"
adds ''por lo que lengua Maqui, y lengua cinaloa es una inisma cosa."
On the preceding page (322) he also identifies the Cinaloa and Hiaqui
(Yaqui) as one and the same— "Cinaloa 6 Hiaqui." Now Ribas
(284) locates the Hiaquis on the lower portion of the "Rio Hiaqui"
(en las doze ultimas a la mar) , but places the Cinaloas on the Fuerte,
or, as he calls it, Rio Cinaloa or Rio Zuaque. He says (142) the river
is called by various names, sometimes the Cinaloa, sometimes Tegueco,
and sometimes Zuaque; that the four principal nations on this
river are the "Cinaloas, Teguecos, Zuaques, y Ahomes," and that the
Cinaloa dwell in the mountains at the head of the river. It is evident
from this and many other similar statements in his work that Ribas
considered the "Cinaloas" as distinct from the Hiaqui (Yaqui), the
Mayo, Telmeco, and Zuaque, though linguistically related to them.
If there was a tribe of this name, which is possible, it is most likely
they were absorbed by the other tribes on the upper Rio del Fuerte.
Therefore Hervas's identification of the Sinaloas with the Yaquis is an
evident mistake, as Orozco y Berra points out. As to the appKcation
of the name Cinaloa by Ribas to the Rio del Fuerte there is this
evidence. Alegre (i, 230) says
—
El Zuague, A cuya rivera austral estuvo en otro tiempo la villa de S. Juan Bautista
de Carapoa, que despues fabricado el fuerte de Montesclaros, se Uamo Rio del Fuerte,
y el padre Andres Perez [Ribas] llama por antonomasia el rio de Sinaloa.
The geographical position as given by Ribas is sufficient without
any other evidence to show that he used the name Cinaloa to desig-
nate the Rio del Fuerte and not the stream which now bears the
name Sinaloa. Nothwithstanding this and abundant other evidence
that the Yaqui and the Mayo resided on the rivers that bear their
respective names, and the Tehueco and Zuaque on the Fuerte river,
Bancroft (i, 608) says, "The Zuaques have their villages between the
Mayo and Yaqui rivers," and so locates them on his map (471).
Possibly he refers to a more recent date, though apparently not.
Hamy, probably by mistake, places on his map the "Hiaquis" on
the Rio Mayo and the Mayo on the Rio del Fuerte.
That the Yaqui, Mayo, and Tehueco spoke dialects of the same
language is now well known from liistorical evidence, vocabularies, etc.
However, the following proof from older writers is added: "La nacion
Hiaqui y pbr consecuencia la Mayo y del Fuerte . . . que en la
sustancia son ima misma y de una propria lengua" (Cancio, 2: 246),
"Esta tribu [Mayos] es de la misma raza que la del Yaqui, y solo se
distingue por el titulo de su rio. Su idioma [Mayo and Yaqui] por
consiguiente es el mismo, con la diferencia de unas cuantas voces"
(Velasco, 1:302). Pimentel (i, 485) says the "Cahita" language is
divided into three principal dialects—Mayo, Yaqui, and Tehueco;