Adventures of the Ojibbeway and Ioway Indians in England, France, and Belgium; Vol. 1 (of 2)
by George Catlin · English · Gutenberg #44776 · 702,162 chars · public domain (US)
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Title: Adventures of the Ojibbeway and Ioway Indians in England, France, and Belgium; Vol. 1 (of 2)
Author: George Catlin
Release date: January 28, 2014 [eBook #44776]
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CATLIN'S NOTES
OF
EIGHT YEARS' TRAVELS AND RESIDENCE
IN EUROPE,
WITH HIS
NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN COLLECTION.
VOLUME I.
[Illustration]
ADVENTURES
OF THE
OJIBBEWAY AND IOWAY INDIANS
IN
ENGLAND, FRANCE, AND BELGIUM;
BEING NOTES OF
EIGHT YEARS' TRAVELS AND RESIDENCE IN EUROPE
WITH HIS
NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN COLLECTION,
BY GEO. CATLIN.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. I.
With numerous Engravings.
_THIRD EDITION._
LONDON:
PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR,
AT HIS INDIAN COLLECTION, NO. 6, WATERLOO PLACE.
1852.
PREFACE.
The reader of this book, being supposed to have read my former work,
in two volumes, and to have got some account from them, of the
eight years of my life spent amongst the wild Indians of the "_Far
West_," in the forests of America, knows enough of me by this time
to begin familiarly upon the subject before us, and to accompany me
through a brief summary of the scenes of eight years spent amidst the
civilization and refinements of the "_Far East_." After having made an
exhibition of my Indian Collection for a short time, in the cities of
New York, Boston, and Philadelphia, in the United States, I crossed
the Atlantic with it--not with the fear of losing my scalp, which I
sometimes entertained when entering the Indian wilderness--and entirely
without the expectation of meeting with excitements or novelties enough
to induce me to commit the sin of writing another book; and the thought
of doing it would never have entered my head, had not another of those
untoward accidents, which have directed nearly all the important moves
of my life, placed in my possession the materials for the following
pages, which I have thought too curious to be withheld from the world.
After I had been more than four years in England, making an exhibition
of my collection, and endeavouring, by my lectures in various parts
of the kingdom, to inform the English people of the true character
and condition of the North American Indians, and to awaken a proper
sympathy for them, three different parties of Indians made their
appearance, at different dates, in England, for the purpose of
exhibiting themselves and their native modes to the enlightened world,
their conductors and themselves stimulated by the hope of gain by their
exertions.
These parties successively, on their arrival, (knowing my history
and views, which I had made known to most of the American tribes,)
repaired to my Indian Collection, in which they felt themselves at
home, surrounded as they were by the portraits of their own chiefs and
braves, and those of their enemies, whom they easily recognised upon
the walls. They at once chose the middle of my Exhibition Hall as the
appropriate place for their operations, and myself as the expounder
of their mysteries and amusements; and, the public seeming so well
pleased with the fitness of these mutual illustrations, I undertook
the management of their exhibitions, and conducted the three different
parties through the countries and scenes described in the following
pages.
In justice to _me_, it should here be known to the reader, that I did
not bring either of these parties to Europe; but, meeting them in the
country, where they had come avowedly for the purpose of making money,
(an enterprise as lawful and as unobjectionable, for aught that I
can see, at least, as that of an actor upon the boards of a foreign
stage,) I considered my countenance and aid as calculated to promote
their views; and I therefore justified myself in the undertaking, as
some return to them for the hospitality and kindness I had received
at the hands of the various tribes of Indians I had visited in the
wildernesses of America.
In putting forth these notes, I sincerely hope that I may give no
offence to any one, by endeavouring to afford amusement to the reader,
and to impart useful instruction to those who are curious to learn the
true character of the Indians, from a literal description of their
interviews with the fashionable world, and their views and opinions of
the modes of civilized life.
These scenes have afforded me the most happy opportunity of seeing the
_rest_ of Indian character (after a residence of eight years amongst
them in their native countries), and of enabling me to give to the
world what I was not able to do in my former work, for the want of an
opportunity of witnessing the effects which the exhibition of all the
ingenious works of civilized art, and the free intercourse and exchange
of opinions with the most refined and enlightened society, would have
upon their untutored minds. The reader will therefore see, that I am
offering this as _another Indian book_, and intending it mostly for
those who have read my former work, and who, I believe, will admit,
that in it I have advanced much further towards the completion of a
full delineation of their native character.
I shall doubtless be pardoned for the unavoidable want of system and
arrangement that sometimes appears in minuting down the incidents of
these interviews--for recording many of the most trivial opinions and
criticisms of the Indians upon civilized modes, and also the odd and
amusing (as well as grave) notions of the civilized world, upon Indian
manners and appearance, which have got into my note-book, and which I
consider it would be a pity to withhold.
I have occasionally stepped a little out of the way, also, to advance
my own opinion upon passing scenes and events; drawing occasional
deductions, by contrasting savage with civilized life (the modes of the
"Far West" with those of the "Far East"); and, as what I have written,
I offer as matter of history, without intending to injure any one, I do
not see why I should ask pardon for any possible offence that may be
given to the reader, who can only be offended by imagining what never
was meant.
During the series of lectures which I had been giving in various parts
of England, and in my own country, wherein I had been contending for
the moral and religious elevation of the Indian character, many of my
hearers have believed that I had probably been led to over-estimate
it, from the fact that I had beheld it in the wilderness, where there
was nothing better to contrast it with. But I venture to say, that
hundreds and thousands who read this book, and who became familiar with
these wild people whilst in the enlightened world, and in the centre
of fashion, where white man was shaking the poor Indian by the hand,
and watching for his embarrassment while he was drawing scintillations
from him, as the flint draws fire from the steel, will agree with me
that the North American Indian rises highest in the estimation of his
fellow-men, when he is by the side of those who have the advantage of
him by their education, and nothing else.
Contemplated or seen, roaming in his native wilds, with his rude
weapons, lurking after game or his enemy, he is looked upon by most
of the world as a sort of wild beast; but when, with all his rudeness
and wildness, he stands amongst his fellow-men to be scanned in the
brilliant blaze of the Levée into which he has been suddenly thrown,
the dignified, the undaunted (and even courteous) gentleman, he there
gains his strongest admirers, and the most fastidious are willing to
assign him a high place in the scale of human beings.
Into many such positions were these three parties of the denizens of
the American forest thrown, during their visits to the capitals and
provincial towns of England, Scotland, Ireland, France, and Belgium;
and as I was by their side, their interpreter, at the hospitable
boards, the Soirées and Levées to which they were invited by the
gentry, the nobility, and crowned heads of the three kingdoms, I
consider it due to them, and no injustice to the world, to record the
scenes and anecdotes I have witnessed in those hospitable and friendly
efforts of enlightened and religious people, to elicit the true native
feelings of, and to commune with, their benighted fellow-men.
THE AUTHOR.
CONTENTS OF VOL. 1.
CHAPTER I.
The Author embarks at New York, with his Indian Collection,
and cage with two grizly bears, for England, in the fall
of 1839--Packet-ship Roscius, Captain Collins--Gale
in the middle of the ocean--A ship dismasted and in
distress--The Captain and twenty-eight men taken off and
saved--The shipwrecked Captain and his faithful dog--"My
man Daniel"--Sailor's nose taken off by grizly bear--Dr.
Madden--Terrible gale--Sea-sickness of the grizly
bears--Alarm on deck--"Bears out of their cage"--Passengers
rush below and close the hatches--A _supposed_ bear enters
the cabin!--Great excitement--The explanation--The gale
subsides--Amusing mistake--The Author in the steerage--Two
eccentric characters--Arrival in Liverpool Page 1
CHAPTER II.
Howling of the grizly Bears--Alarm and excitement about
the docks--Scuffle for luggage--Scene at the Grecian
Hotel--Landing the grizly bears--Author's journey to
London--Ibbotson's Hotel--First sally into the streets--First
impressions of London--Adventure in the fog and mud--Amusing
occurrence in the street--Beggars at the crossings of the
streets--Ingenious mode of begging--Rich shops--No pigs
in the streets--Soot and smoke of London--Author returns
to Liverpool--Daniel's trouble with the bears--Passing
the Indian Collection and grizly bears through the
Customs--Arrival in London with Collection and bears--Daniel
in difficulty--Howling of bears passing through the
Tunnel--The "King of New York," and "King Jefferson" 12
CHAPTER III.
Letters of introduction--Driving a friend's horse and
chaise--Amusing accidents--English driving--"Turn to the
_right_, as the law directs"--A turn to the _left_--A fresh
difficulty--Egyptian Hall--Lease for three years--Arrangement
of Collection--Bears sold and removed to Regent's Park
Zoological Gardens--Their fates 28
CHAPTER IV.
Indian Collection arranged for exhibition--Description of
it--The Hon. Charles Augustus Murray--Collection opened to
private view--Kindness of the Hon. Mr. Murray--Distinguished
visitors--Mr. Murray's explanations--Kind reception by the
Public and the Press--Kind friends--Fatigue of explaining
and answering questions--Curious remedy proposed by a
friend--Pleasures and pains of a friendly and fashionable
dinner 34
CHAPTER V.
Author's illness from overtalking in his Collection--Daniel's
illness from the same cause--Character of Daniel--His
labour-saving plan for answering one hundred questions--His
disappointment--Daniel travels to Ireland for his
health--Author prepares to publish his Notes of Travel
amongst the Indians--John Murray (publisher)--His reasons
for not publishing the Author's work--His friendly
advice--Author's book published by himself at the Egyptian
Hall--Illustrious subscribers--Thomas Moore--Critical notices
in London papers 45
CHAPTER VI.
The Author's wife and two children arrive in the
British Queen, from New York--First appreciation of
London--Sight-seeing--Author lectures in the Royal
Institution--Suggests a _Museum of Mankind_--Great
applause--Vote of thanks by members of the Royal
Institution--The "_Museum of History_"--Author lectures
in the other literary and scientific institutions of
London--Author dines with the Royal Geographical Society, and
with the Royal Geological Society--Mrs. Catlin's travels in
the "Far West"--Her welcome, and kind friends in London 60
CHAPTER VII.
The Author dines with the Royal Highland Society--The Duke of
Richmond presides--His Grace's compliment to the Author
and his country--Sir David Wilkie--His compliment to the
Author--Charles Augustus Murray and the Author at the
Caledonian Ball (Almack's) in Indian costumes--Their
rehearsal--Dressing and painting--Entering the ball--Alarm
of ladies--Mr. Murray's infinite amusement (_incognito_)
amongst his friends--War-dance and war-whoops--Great
applause--Bouquets of flowers--Scalp-dance--Brooches
and bracelets presented to the chiefs--Trinkets
returned--Perspiration carries off the paint, and Mr. Murray
recognised--Amusement of his friends--The "Indians" return
to Egyptian Hall at seven in the morning--Their amusing
appearance 66
CHAPTER VIII.
Their Royal Highnesses the Duke of Coburg and Prince Ernest
visit the Collection--His Royal Highness the (little)
Duc de Brabant visits the Collection with the Hon. Mr.
Murray--The Author presents him an Indian pipe and pair of
mocassins--Visit of His Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex to
the Collection--His noble sympathy for the Indians--He smokes
an Indian pipe under the wigwam--The Author takes breakfast
with the Duke of Sussex in Kensington Palace--The Duke's
dress and appearance--John Hunter, the Indian traveller--The
Duke's inquiries about him--Monsieur Duponceau--Visit to
the Bank of England--To Buckingham Palace--To Windsor
Castle--Author visits the Polish Ball with several friends in
Indian costumes 79
CHAPTER IX.
Consequent troubles for Daniel in the exhibition-rooms--Daniel's
difficulty with an artist making copies--Takes his
sketch-book from him--Tableaux vivans commenced--List of the
groups--Hon. Mr. Murray attends, with His Royal Highness the
Due de Brabant--The Author presented to Her Majesty and His
Royal Highness Prince Albert, by the Hon. Mr. Murray--Indian
Collection removed to Liverpool--Biennial exhibition of
Mechanics' Institution--22,000 children admitted free to the
Indian Collection in one week--The Indian tableaux vivans in
the provincial towns for six months--Collection opened in
Sheffield--In Manchester--Nine Ojibbeway Indians arrive, in
charge of Mr. Rankin--His proposal to the Author 90
CHAPTER X.
Difficulty of procuring lodgings for the Indians--The Author
pays them a visit--Is recognised by them--Arrangement
with Mr. Rankin--Crowds around their hotel--First visit
of the Ojibbeways to the Author's Collection--Their
surprise--Council held under the wigwam--Indians agree to
drink no spirituous liquors--The old Chiefs speech to the
Author--Names of the Indians--Their portraits--Description of
each--Cadotte, the interpreter 103
CHAPTER XI.
Ojibbeways visit the Mayor in Town-hall--They refuse
wine--Distress of the kind and accommodating
landlord--Indians' first _drive_ about the town of
Manchester--Their curious remarks--Saw some white people
drunk--Many women holding on to men's arms and apparently
not sick--Saw much smoke--Vast many poor people--Indians
commence dancing in the Author's Collection--Effects of the
war-dance and war-whoop upon the audience--Various amusements
of the evening--A rich present to the old Boy-Chief--And
his speech--Numerous presents made--Immense crowd and
excitement--Indians visit a great woollen-factory--Casts
made from their heads by a phrenologist--Visit to Orrell's
cotton-mill at Stockport--Their opinions of it--The party
kindly entertained by Mr. Hollins and lady 111
CHAPTER XII.
Indians on the housetops--Great alarm--Curious excitement--People
proposing to "take them" with ropes--Railway to London--The
"Iron-horse"--"The Iron-horse (locomotive) stops to
drink"--Arrive in London--Alarm of the landlady--Visit from
the Hon. Mr. Murray--Interview with His Royal Highness the
Duke of Cambridge--Old Chief's speech--War-dance--The Duke
gives them ten sovereigns and ten pounds of tobacco--Indians
ride about the city in an "omnibus and four"--Remarks on what
they saw--The smoke--"Prairies on fire"--Lascars sweeping
the streets--Visit from the Reverend Mr. S.--Impatience to
see the Queen--Great medicine-feast to gain Her Majesty's
consent--Curious ceremony--Hon. Mr. Murray's letter comes
in--The Queen's appointment to see them--Great rejoicing 123
CHAPTER XIII.
Preparations for visiting the Queen--Amusing interview with
Sykes, the porter--Mistaken by the old Chief for Prince
Albert--Meet the Hon. Mr. Murray--The waiting-room--The
Author conducts the party before Her Majesty and the Prince
in the Waterloo Gallery--Their reception--Introductions and
conversations--Indians give the war-dance--A smoke--The
old Chief's speech to the Queen--Pipe-dance--Her
Majesty and the Prince retire--Indians at a feast
in the waiting-room--Drinking the Queen's health in
Champagne--Indians call it "_Chickabobboo_"--Story of
_Chickabobboo_, and great amusement--Indians return
to London--Evening-gossip about the Queen and her
_Chickabobboo_--First evening of the Indians in Egyptian
Hall--Great excitement--Alarm--Tremendous applause--Old
Chiefs speech--Hon. Mr. Murray's letter to the old Chief,
enclosing £20 from the Queen and other presents--Speech of
the War-chief--Pipe-dance--Shaking hands--Curious questions
by the audience--Ale allowed to the Indians at dinner and
after supper--Their rejoicing--They call it _Chickabobboo_ 134
CHAPTER XIV.
Rev. Mr. S---- and friend visit the Indians again--A day
appointed for a _talk_ about religion--Indians go to
the Thames Tunnel--Give the medicine-dance (wabeno)
under it--Kind treatment there, and _Chickabobboo_--The
exhibition--Egyptian Hall--Debate about the propriety of the
Indians dancing to make money--Great crowd--Woman screaming
and lifted on to the platform by Cadotte (afterwards
called the "_jolly fat_ dame")--She gives Cadotte a
beautiful bracelet--Her admiration of Cadotte--Evening
gossip after their exhibition--The amusements of the
evening and sights of the day--A clergyman asks an
interview with the Indians and gets offended--Exhibition
rooms at night--Great crowd--The "jolly fat dame" in full
dress--She talks with Cadotte--Indians meet the Rev. Mr.
S---- and friend by appointment--Old Chief's speech to
them--Gish-ee-gosh-e-ghee's speech--Reverend gentlemen thank
them and take leave 150
CHAPTER XV.
Exhibition rooms--Great crowd--The "jolly fat dame"--Her
interview with Cadotte--She gives presents to all the
Indians--Excitement in the crowd--Women kissing the
Indians--Red paint on their faces and dresses--Old
Chief's dream and feast of thanksgiving--An annual
ceremony--Curious forms observed--Indians invited to
the St. George's archery-ground--They shoot for a gold
medal--They dine with the members of the club--The "jolly
fat dame" and Cadotte--She takes him to his lodgings in her
carriage--Cadotte (or the "Strong-wind") gets sick--Is in
love with another!--Daniel unfolds the secret to her--Her
distress--She goes to the country--The "jolly fat dame"
returns--Cadotte's engagement to marry--Rankin promotes the
marriage--The Author disapproves of it 167
CHAPTER XVI.
Mr. Rankin resolves to take the Indians to the provincial
towns--Exhibition advertised to close--the wedding in
St. Martin's church--Great excitement--Its object--Grand
parade through the streets in omnibuses--Rankin advertises
"the beautiful and interesting bride" to appear on the
platform at the Indians' exhibitions--Public disgust and
indignation--Condemned by the Press--Rankin begins his
exhibition--Denies Cadotte admission to the Indians' rooms,
and dismisses him from his service--Rankin leaves London
with the Indians---Author getting out his large work--The
Indian portfolio--The "jolly fat dame" makes a visit to
Daniel in the exhibition rooms--A long dialogue--Illustrious
subscribers to the Author's large work--Emperor of Russia
and Duke of Wellington review 10,000 troops at Windsor--The
Emperor presents the Author a gold box--Author takes out a
patent for "disengaging and floating quarter-decks, to save
lives on vessels sinking or burning at sea" 185
APPENDIX.
APPENDIX--A.
Opinions of the Press Page 205
APPENDIX--B.
Museum of History 246
A Descriptive Catalogue of Catlin's Indian Collection 248
CATLIN'S NOTES IN EUROPE,
_&c. &c._
CHAPTER I.
The Author embarks at New York, with his Indian Collection,
and cage with two grizly Bears, for England, in the fall
of 1839--Packet-ship Roscius, Captain Collins--Gale
in the middle of the ocean--A ship dismasted and in
distress--The Captain and twenty-eight men taken off and
saved--The shipwrecked Captain and his faithful dog--"My
man Daniel"--Sailor's nose taken off by grizly bear--Dr.
Madden--Terrible gale--Sea-sickness of the grizly
bears--Alarm on deck--"Bears out of their cage"--Passengers
rush below and close the hatches--A _supposed_ Bear enters
the cabin!--Great excitement--The explanation--The gale
subsides--Amusing mistake--The Author in the steerage--Two
eccentric characters--Arrival in Liverpool.
In the fall of the year 1839 I embarked at New York on board of the
packet-ship Roscius, Captain Collins, for Liverpool, with my Indian
collection; having received a very friendly letter of advice from
the Hon. C. A. Murray, master of Her Majesty's household, who had
formerly been a fellow-traveller with me on the Mississippi and other
rivers in America; and who, on his return to London, had kindly made
a conditional arrangement for my collection in the Egyptian Hall, in
Piccadilly.
Mr. George Adlard, an Englishman, residing in the city of New York, had
also exerted a friendly influence for me in procuring an order from
the Lords of Her Majesty's Treasury for passing my collection into the
kingdom free from the customary duties; and under these auspices I was
launched upon the wide ocean, with eight tons freight, consisting of
600 portraits and other paintings which I had made in my sojourn of
eight years in the prairies and Rocky Mountains of America--several
thousands of Indian articles, costumes, weapons, &c., with all of which
I intended to convey to the English people an accurate account of the
appearance and condition of the North American tribes of Indians.[1]
On board also, as a part of my heavy collection, and as a further
illustration of the rude inhabitants of the "_Far West_" I had, in
a huge iron cage, two _grizly bears_, from the Rocky Mountains;
forming not only the heaviest and most awkward part of my freight, but
altogether the most troublesome, as will be seen hereafter.
The wind was kind to us, and soon drove us across the Atlantic, without
more than an incident or two worth recording, which I had minuted
down as follows:--About the middle of the ocean, and in the midst
of a four or five days' heavy gale, we came suddenly upon a ship,
partly dismasted, with signals of distress flying, and water-logged,
rolling about at the mercy of the merciless waves. We rounded-to with
great danger to our own craft, and, during the early part of the
night, succeeded, with much difficulty, in taking off the captain
and crew of twenty-eight men, just before she went down. This was a
common occurrence, however, and needs no further notice, other than
of a feature or two which struck me as new. When the poor, jaded,
and water-soaked fellows were all safely landed on the deck of our
vessel, they laid down upon their faces and devoutly thanked God for
their deliverance; and last of all that was lifted on board from their
jolly-boat was their keg of rum, the only thing which they had brought
with them when they deserted the ship. "This," good Captain Collins
said, "you will not want now, my boys," and he cast it into the sea.
[1] If the reader has forgotten to read the Preface, it will take
him but a moment to run his eye over it, and by turning back to
it he will find it an useful key to what follows.--_Author._
Captain James, a bland and good-natured Scotsman, commander of the
Scotia, the unfortunate vessel, was invited by Captain Collins to the
cabin of the Roscius, and into his state-room, where he was soon put
into a suit of dry and warm clothes, and afterwards seated at the
table; where, suddenly, a sullen resistance to food, and contemplative
tears rolling over his cheeks, showed his rough shell to contain a
heart that was worthy of the fondest affections of a dear wife and
sweet little ones--none of which was he blessed with, if I recollect
aright. But when his grief found utterance, he exclaimed, "My God! I
have left my poor dog tied to the mast of my old craft. There he is,
poor fellow! When we took to the jolly-boat I never thought of my poor
Pompey!"
The briny tears seemed to burn this veteran's hardened features as they
ran over his cheeks; and hunger and fatigue, and all gave way to them
and grief, until sleep had dried them up, and taken the edge from his
anguished mind.
The next morning, his recital of the affectionate deeds of the life of
his faithful dog, "who had made eighteen voyages across the Atlantic
with him, and who would always indicate land a-head by his nose sooner
than the sailors could discern it from the mast-head--whom he had,
in kindness, lashed to the mast for his safety, and in carelessness
abandoned to his unavoidable fate," brought tears of pity in my own
eyes. Poor man! he often wept for his faithful dog--and I as often
wept for him, on our way from the middle of the ocean to Liverpool. We
were, at this time, still in the midst of the terrible gale, which was
increasing in its fury, and had already become quite too much for the
tastes and the stomachs of the _grizlies_--a few words more of whom
must go into this chapter.
These two awkward voyageurs from the base of the Rocky Mountains, which
I had reared from cubs, and fed for more than four years--for whose
roughness in clawing and "chawing" I had paid for half a dozen cages
which they had demolished and escaped from, and the prices of as many
dogs "used up" in retaking them, had now grown to the enormous size
of eight or ten hundred pounds each; requiring a cage of iron so large
that it could not be packed amongst the ship's cargo below, but must
needs occupy a considerable space on the deck, in the form and size
somewhat of a small house.
The front of this cage was formed of huge iron bars, kindly indulging
the bruins to amuse themselves with a peep at what was progressing
on deck, whilst it afforded the sailors and steerage passengers
the amusement of looking and commenting upon the physiognomy and
man[oe]uvres of these rude specimens from the wilderness of America.
This huge cage, with its inmates, had ridden into and partly through
the gale with us, when the bears became subjects of more violent
interest and excitement than we had as yet anticipated or could
have wished. What had taken (and was taking) place amongst the sick
and frightened group of passengers during this roaring, whistling,
thrashing, and dashing gale, was common-place, and has been a thousand
times described; but the sea-sickness, and rage, and fury of these
two grizly denizens of the deep ravines and rocky crags of the Rocky
Mountains, were subjects as fresh as they were frightful and appalling
to the terrified crew and passengers who were about them, and therefore
deserve a passing comment.
The immediate guardian of these animals was a faithful man by the name
of Daniel Kavanagh, who had for several years been in my employment
as curator of my collection, and designed to accompany me in my tour
through England. This man has occupied a conspicuous place in my
affairs in Europe, and much will be said of him in the following pages,
and the familiar and brief cognomen of "Daniel" or "Dan" applied to
him. On embarking with this man and his troublesome pets at New York, I
had fully explained to Captain Collins their ferocious, and deceitful,
and intractable nature, who had consequently issued his orders to all
of his crew and to the steerage passengers not to venture within their
reach, or to trifle with them. Notwithstanding all this precaution,
curiosity, that beautiful trait of human nature, which often becomes
irresistible in long voyages, and able to turn the claws of the Devil
himself into the soft and tapering fingers of a Venus or a Daphne,
got the better of the idle hours of the sailors, who were amusing
themselves and the passengers, in front of the iron bars, by believing
that they were wearing off by a sort of charm the rough asperities of
their grizly and grim passengers by shaking their paws, and squaring
and fending off the awkward sweeps occasionally made at them by the
huge paw of the _she_ bear, which she could effectually make by lying
down and running her right arm quite out between the iron bars. On one
of these (now grown to be amusing) occasions, one of the sailors was
"squared off" before the cage, inviting her grizly majesty to a sort
of set-to, when she (seemingly aware of the nature of the challenge)
gradually extended her arm and her huge paw a little and a little
further out of her cage, with her eyes capriciously closed until it was
out to its fullest extent, when she made a side-lick at his head, and
an exceedingly awkward one for the sailor to parry. It was lucky for
him, poor fellow, that he partly dodged it; though as her paw passed
in front of his face, one of her claws carried away entirely his nose,
leaving it fallen down and hanging over his mouth, suspended merely by
a small piece of skin or gristle, by which alone he could claim it.
Here was a sudden check to the familiarity with the bears; the results
of which were, a renewal of the orders of non-intercourse from Captain
Collins, and a marked coolness between the sailors and steerage
passengers and the grizlies during the remainder of the voyage.
The sailor was committed to the care of Dr. Madden, in the cabin, the
distinguished traveller in Africa and the West Indies, and now one of
our esteemed fellow-passengers, who skilfully replaced and arranged his
nose with stitches and splints, and attended to it during the voyage.
The poor fellow continued to swear vengeance on the bears when they
should reach the land; but I believe that when they were landed in
Liverpool, his nose was not sufficiently secure to favour his design.
This unlucky affair had happened some days previous to the gale which I
have begun to describe; and with the unsociable and cold reserve with
which they were subsequently treated by all on board (visited only at
stated periods by their old, but not yet confiding friend Daniel, who
brought them their daily allowance), they had, as I have mentioned,
become partakers and sufferers with us in the pangs and fears of the
hurricane that was sweeping over the vessel and the sea about us.
The third day of the gale became the most alarming, and the night of
that day closing in upon us, seemed like the gloomy shroud amidst
the hurrying winds and the cracking spars, that was to cover us in
death. Until this day, though swinging (and now and then jumping) from
mountains to mountains of waves, the ship and the elements mingled
our fears with amusement. When, however, this day's light was gone,
curiosity's feast was finished, and fear was no longer chained under
our feet--we had reached the climax of danger, and terror seemed to
have seized and reigned through every part of the ship. The bears, in
contemplative or other vein, had been mute; but at this gloomy hour,
seeming to have lost all patience, added, at first their piteous
howlings, and then their horrid growls, to the whistling of the winds;
and next, the gnashing of their teeth, and their furious lurches, and
bolts, and blows against the sides of their cage, to the cracking of
spars and roaring of the tempest! Curiosity again, in desperate minds,
was resuscitated, and taking in its insatiable draughts even in the
midst of this jarring and discordant medley of darkness--of dashing
foam, of cracking masts, and of howlings and growlings and raging of
grizly bears; for when the lightnings flashed, men (and even women)
were seen crawling and hanging about the deck, as if to see if they
could discover the death that was ready with his weapons drawn to
destroy them.
The captain had twenty times ordered all below, but to no purpose,
until in the indiscriminate confusion of his crew and the passengers,
in the jet blackness of the gale, when his ship was in danger, and our
lives, his trumpet announced that "the bears were on deck!"
"Good God!" was exclaimed and echoed from one end of the ship's deck to
the other; "the grizly bears are out! down with the hatches--down the
hatches!" The scrambling that here took place to reach the cabins below
can only be justly known to each actor who performed his part in his
own way; and of these there were many. Some descended headlong, some
sidewise, and others rolled down; and every one with a ghastly glance
back upon the one behind him, as a grizly bear, of course, that was to
begin his "chawing" the next moment.
When the scrambling was all over, and the hatches all safe, all in the
cabin were obliged to smile for a moment, even in the midst of the
alarm, at the queer position and man[oe]uvres of a plump little Irish
woman who had slipped down the wrong hatchway by accident, and left her
"other half" to spend a night of celibacy, and of awful forebodings,
in the steerage, where she would have gone, but to which her own
discretion as well as the united voices of the cabin passengers decided
her not to attempt to make her way over the deck during the night.
The passengers, both fore and aft, were now all snugly housed for
the rest of the night, and the captain's smothered voice through his
trumpet, to his hands aloft, and the stamping of the men on deck, while
handling the ropes and shifting the sails, were all caught by our open
ears, and at once construed into assaults and dreadful conflicts with
the grizly bears on deck.
In the midst of these conjectures some one of the passengers screamed
and sprang from near the stairway entering the cabin, when it was
discovered, to the thrilling amazement of all, that one of the bears
had pawed open the hatchway, and was descending into the cabin! The
ladies' salon, beyond the cabin, was the refuge to which the instant
rush was making, when the always good and musical sound of the
captain's voice was recognized. "Why! you don't think I'm a grizly
bear, do you?" The good fellow! he didn't intend to frighten anybody.
He had just raised the hatch and came down to get a little breath and
a "drop to drink." He is as unlike to a grizly bear as any one else in
the world, both in looks and in disposition; but he happened to have on
for the occasion a black oil-cloth hood or cap, which was tied under
the chin; and a jacket covered with long fur on the outside, making his
figure (which was of goodly size, and which just filled the gangway),
with a little of the lively imagination belonging to such moments, look
the counterpart of a grizly bear. "Where's Catlin?" said he; "damn the
bears!" "Are they out?" cried the passengers all together. "Out?--yes;
they have eaten one man already, and another was knocked overboard
with a handspike; he was mistaken for one of the bears. We are all in
a mess on deck--it's so dark we can't see each other--the men are all
aloft in the rigging. Steward! give me a glass of brandy-and-water--the
ship must be managed, and I must go on deck. Keep close below here, and
keep the hatches down, for the bruins are sick of the scene, and pawing
about for a burrow in the ground, and will have the hatches up in a
moment if you don't look to them. Where's Catlin?" "We don't know," was
the reply from many mouths; "he is not in the cabin."
"Will, here, Misther Captain, yer honour, I'll till ye," said a poor
fellow, who in the general fright and flight had tumbled himself by
accident into the cabin, and observed sullen silence until the present
moment; "I'll jist till ye--I saw Misther Cathlin (I sippose he's the
jintleman that owns the bastes) and his mon Dan (for I've known Dan for
these many a long year in ould Amiriky, and I now he has chargin o' the
bears on board); I saw the two, God bliss them, when the bastes was
about gettin their hinder parts out of the cage, stannin on the side
jisth before 'em, Misther Cathlin with his double-barrel gun, and his
mon Dan pointin at 'em in the face, with a pistol in each hand; and
this was jist whin I heard they were outh, and I jimped down here jist
in the wrong place, as I am after observin when it is too late, and I
hope there is no offence to your honour."
"Catlin's gone then," said the captain; "he is swallowed!"
The captain was at his post again, the hatches closed, and in the midst
of dozing, and praying, and singing (and occasionally the hideous
howlings of the grizlies whenever a wave made a breach over the deck
of the vessel) was passed away that night of alarm and despair, until
the rays of the morning's sun having chased away the mist and assuaged
the fury of the storm, had brought all hands together on the deck, and
in the midst of them the cheerful face of our good captain; and in
their huge cage, which had been driven from one side of the deck to the
other, but now adjusted, sitting upon their haunches, with the most
jaded and humiliating looks imaginable, as they gazed between their
iron bars, their two grizly majesties, who had hurt nobody during the
night, nor in all probability had meditated anything worse or more
sinful than an escape, if possible, from the imprisonment and danger
they considered themselves unfortunately in.
In the general alarm and scramble on deck in the forepart of the night,
the total darkness having been such that it was impossible to tell
whether the bears were out of their cage or not, and quite impossible
to make one's way to the quarter-deck, unaccustomed to the shapes of
things to be passed over, "Misther Cathlin" had dropped himself into
the steerage as the nearest refuge, just before the hatch was fastened
down for the night. Any place, and anything under deck at that time,
was acceptable; and even at so perilous a moment, and amidst such
alarming apprehensions, I drew a fund of amusement from the scenes
and conversations around me. The circumstance of sixty passengers,
men, women, and children, being stowed into so small a compass, and
to so familiar an acquaintance, would have been alone, and under
different circumstances, a subject of curious interest for a stranger
so suddenly to be introduced to; but to be dropped into the midst of
such a group in the middle of the night, in the thickest of a raging
tempest, and the hour of danger, when some were in bed--some upon their
knees at their prayers--others making the most of the few remaining
drops of brandy they had brought with them, and others were playing at
cards and enjoying their jokes, and all together just rescued from the
jaws and the claws of the bears over their heads, was one of no common
occurrence, and worthy at least of a few passing remarks.
The wailings of the poor fellow whose wife had got into the cabin were
incessant, and not much inferior to the howlings of the grizlies on
deck. She had been put into my berth, and I had had the privilege of
"turning in" with her disconsolate husband, if I had seen fit to have
done so, or if his writhings and contortions had not taken up full
twice the space allotted to him. It was known and told to him by some
of his comrades, that they saw his wife go into the cabin, and that she
was safe. "Yis," said he, "but I'm unasy, I'm not asy about her, d'ye
see; I don't fale asy as she's there, God knows where, along with those
jintlemen."
Amongst the passengers in this part of the vessel I at once found
myself alongside of at least two very eccentric characters. The one, I
afterwards learned, was familiarly called by the passengers "the little
Irishman in black," and the other "the half-Englishman, or broken-down
swell."
The first of these two eccentrics was a squatty little gentleman of
about four feet nine inches elevation, and between two and three feet
breadth of beam, with a wrinkled face and excessively sharp features.
To be all in black he showed no signs of a shirt, though he was
decently clad, but in black from head to foot, being in mourning, as
he said, for "his son who had emigratin to Amiriky fifteen years sin,
and livin there jist long enough to become a _native_, had died and
leaven of a fortin, which he had been over to sittle up and receivin,
with which he was recrossin the ocean to his native country." He
said he wished to be rispectable and dacent, havin received 12,000
dollars; and as he thought the dacent thing was in "payin," now-a-days,
he had paid for a berth in the cabin, but preferred to ride in the
steerage. He made and found much amusement in that part of the vessel
with his congenial spirits, and seemed peculiarly happy in the close
communication with the other oddity of the steerage, whom I have said
the passengers called the half-Englishman, or broken-down swell, who,
I learned from my man Daniel, had laid in three barrels of old English
porter, in bottles, when leaving the city of New York, and the last of
which they were now opening and making the whole company merry with,
as a sort of thanksgiving on their lucky escape from the grizly bears,
who they firmly believed held possession of everything on the vessel
outside of the hatchway.
This eccentric and droll, but good-natured gentleman, with the aid of
porter made much amusement in the steerage, even in the hour of alarm;
and though I did not at that time know his calibre, or exactly what to
make of him, I afterwards learned that he was an English cockney who
had been on a tour through the States, and was now on his way back to
his fatherland. He had many amusing notions and anecdotes to relate of
the Yankees, and in his good-natured mellowness told a very good one of
himself, much to the amusement of the Yankees on board, and the little
Irishman in black, and my man Daniel. He said that "the greatest luxury
he found in New York were the hoisters, and much as he liked them he
had eaten them for two years before he had learned whether they were
spelled with a haitch or a ho." Much valuable time would be lost to the
reader if I were to chain him down to the rest of the incidents that
happened between the middle of the ocean and Liverpool; and I meet him
there at the beginning of my next chapter.
CHAPTER II.
Howling of the grizly Bears--Alarm and excitement about
the docks--Scuffle for luggage--Scene at the Grecian
Hotel--Landing the grizly Bears--Author's journey to
London--Ibbotson's Hotel--First sally into the streets--First
impressions of London--Adventure in the fog and mud--Amusing
occurrence in the street--Beggars at the crossings of the
streets--Ingenious mode of begging--Rich shops--No pigs
in the streets--Soot and smoke of London--Author returns
to Liverpool--Daniel's trouble with the Bears--Passing
the Indian Collection and grizly Bears through the
Customs--Arrival in London with Collection and Bears--Daniel
in difficulty--Howling of Bears passing through the
Tunnel--The "King of New York," and "King Jefferson."
On nearing the docks at Liverpool, not only all the passengers of the
ship, but all the inhabitants of the hills and dales about, and the
shores, were apprised of our approach to the harbour by the bellowing
and howling of the grizlies, who were undoubtedly excited to this sort
of _Te Deum_ for their safe deliverance and approach to _terra firma_,
which they had got a sight (and probably a smell) of.
The arrival of the Roscius on that occasion was of course a conspicuous
one, and well announced; and we entered the dock amidst an unusual
uproar and crowd of spectators. After the usual manner, the passengers
were soon ashore, and our luggage examined, leaving freight and grizly
bears on board, to be removed the next morning. From the moment of
landing on the wharf to the Custom-house, and from that to the hotel
where I took lodgings, I was obliged to "fend off," almost with foot
and with fist, the ragamuffins who beset me on every side; and in
front, in the rear, and on the right and the left, assailed me with
importunities to be allowed to carry my luggage. In the medley of
voices and confusion I could scarcely tell myself to which of these
poor fellows I had committed my boxes; and no doubt this (to them)
delightful confusion and uncertainty encouraged a number of them to
keep close company with my luggage until it arrived at the Grecian
Hotel. When it was all safely landed in the hall, I asked the lad who
stood foremost and had brought my luggage in his cart, how much was to
pay for bringing it up? "Ho, Sir, hi leaves it to your generosity, Sir,
has you are a gentleman, Sir; hit's been a werry eavy load, Sir."
I was somewhat amused with the simple fellow's careless and easy
manner, and handed him eighteen pence, thinking it a reasonable
compensation for bringing two small trunks and a carpet-bag; but
he instantly assumed a different aspect, and refused to take the
money, saying that no gentleman would think of giving him less than
half-a-crown for such a load as he had brought. I soon settled with and
dismissed him by giving him two shillings; and as he departed, and I
was about entering the coffee-room, another of his ragged fraternity
touched my elbow, when I asked him what he wanted. "Wo, Sir, your
luggage there--" "But I have paid for my luggage--I paid the man you
see going out there." "Yes, Sir; but then you sees, hi elped im put
it hon; hand I elped im along with it, hand it's werry ard, Sir, hif
Ise not to be paid has well as im." I paid the poor fellow a sixpence
for his ingenuity; and as he left, a third one stepped up, of whom I
inquired, "What do _you_ want?" "Why, Sir, your luggage, you know,
there--I am very sorry, Sir, to see you pay that worthless rascal
what's just going out there--I am indeed sorry, Sir--he did nothing,
but was hol the time hin our way--hit urts me, Sir, to see a gentleman
throw is money away upon sich vagabonds, for it's hundoubtedly ard
earned, like the few shillings we poor fellows get." "Well, my good
fellow, what do you want of me?" "Ho, Sir, hit's honly for the cart,
Sir--you will settle with me for the cart, Sir, hif you please--that
first chap you paid ad my cart, hand I'll be bound you ave paid im
twice has much has you hought." "Well, to make short," said I, "here,
take this sixpence for your cart, and be off." I was thus brief, for I
saw two or three others edging and siding up in the passage towards me,
whom I recollected to have seen escorting my luggage, and I retreated
into the coffee-room as suddenly as possible, and stated the case to
one of the waiters, who promised to manage the rest of the affair.
I was thus very comfortable for the night, having no further annoyance
or real excitement until the next morning after breakfast, when it
became necessary to disembark the grizly bears. My other heavy freight
had gone to Her Majesty's Custom-house, and all the passengers from
the cabin and steerage had gone to comfortable quarters, leaving the
two deck passengers, the grizlies, in great impatience, and as yet
undisposed of. My man Daniel had been on the move at an early hour, and
had fortunately made an arrangement with a simple and unsuspecting old
lady in the absence of her "good man," to allow the cage to be placed
in a small yard adjoining her house, and within the same inclosure,
which had a substantial pavement of round stones.
This arrangement for a few days promised to be an advantageous one for
each party. Daniel was to have free access and egress for the purpose
of giving them their food, and the price proposed to the good woman was
met as a liberal reward for the reception of any living beings that
she could imagine, however large, that could come within her idea of
the dimensions of a cage. Daniel had told her that they were two huge
bears; and in his reply to inquiries, assured her that they were not
harmless by any means, but that the enormous strength of their cage
prevented them from doing any mischief.
The kind old lady agreed, for so much per day, to allow the cage to
stand in her yard, by the side of her house, at least until her husband
returned. With much excitement and some growling about the docks and
the wharf, they were swung off from the vessel, and, being placed on a
"float," were conveyed to, and quietly lodged and fed in, the retired
yard of the good woman, when the gate was shut, and they fell into a
long and profound sleep.
The grizly bears being thus comfortably and safely quartered in the
immediate charge of my man Daniel, who had taken an apartment near
them, and my collection being lodged in the Custom-house, I started by
the railway for London to effect the necessary arrangements for their
next move. I had rested in and left Liverpool in the midst of rain, and
fog, and mud, and seen little else of it; and on my way to London I
saw little or nothing of the beautiful country I was passing through,
travelling the whole distance in the night. The luxurious carriage in
which I was seated, however, braced up and embraced on all sides by
deep cushions; the grandeur of the immense stations I was occasionally
passing under; the elegance and comfort of the cafés and restaurants I
was stumbling into with half-sealed eyes, with hundreds of others in
the middle of the night, with the fat, and rotund, and ruddy appearance
of the night-capped fellow-travellers around me, impressed me at once
with the conviction that I was in the midst of a world of comforts and
luxuries that had been long studied and refined upon.
I opened my eyes at daylight at the terminus in the City of London,
but could see little of it, as I was driven to Ibbotson's Hotel, in
Vere-street, through one of the dense fogs peculiar to the metropolis
and to the season of the year in which I had entered it. To a foreigner
entering London at that season, the first striking impression is the
blackness and gloom that everywhere shrouds all that is about him. It
is in his hotel--in his bed-chamber--his dining-room, and if he sallies
out into the street it is there even worse; and added to it dampness,
and fog, and mud, all of which, together, are strong inducements for
him to return to his lodgings, and adopt them as comfortable, and as a
luxury.
I am speaking now of the elements which the Almighty alone can control,
and which only we strangers first see, as the surface of things, when
we enter a foreign land, and before our letters of introduction, or
the kind invitations of strangers, have led us into the participation
of the hospitable and refined comforts prepared and enjoyed by the
ingenuity of enlightened man, within. These I soon found were all
around me, in the midst of this gloom; and a deep sense of gratitude
will often induce me to allude to them again in the future pages of
this work.
My breakfast and a clean face were the first necessary things
accomplished at my hotel, and next to them was my first sally into
the streets of the great metropolis, to inhale the pleasure of first
impressions, and in my rambles to get a glance at the outer walls
and the position of the famous Egyptian Hall, which I have already
said my kind friend the Hon. C. A. Murray had conditionally secured,
as the locale of my future operations. It is quite unnecessary,
and quite impossible also, for me to describe the route I pursued
through the mud and the fog in search of the Hall. Its direction had
been pointed out to me at my start, and something like the distance
explained, which, to an accustomed woodsman like myself, seemed a
better guarantee of success than the names of a dozen streets and
turnings, &c.; and I had "leaned off" on the point of compass, as
I thought, without any light of the sun to keep me to my bearings,
until I thought myself near its vicinity, and at a proper position to
make some inquiry for its whereabouts. I ran against a young man at
the moment (or, rather, he ran against me, as he darted across the
street to the pavement, with a black bag under his arm), whom I felt
fully at liberty to accost; and to my inquiry for the Egyptian Hall,
he very civilly and kindly directed me in the following manner, with
his hand pointing down the street in the opposite direction to the one
in which I was travelling:--"Go to the _bottom_, d'ye see, sir, and
you are at the _top_, of Piccadilly; you then pass the third turning
to the left, and you will see the hexibition of the uge hox; that hox
is in the Hegyptian All, and ee _his_ a wapper, sure enough!" By this
kind fellow's graphic direction I was soon in the Hall, got a glance
of it and "the fat ox," and then commenced my first peregrination,
amidst the mazes of fog and mud, through the Strand, Fleet-street,
and Cheapside; the names of which had rung in my ears from my early
boyhood, and which the sort of charm they had wrought there had created
an impatient desire to see.
I succeeded quite well in wending my way down the Haymarket, the
Strand, and Fleet-street, slipping and sliding through the mud, until I
was in front or in the rear (I could not tell which) of the noble St.
Paul's, whose black and gloomy walls, at the apparent risk of breaking
my neck, I could follow up with my eye, until they were lost in the
murky cloud of fog that floated around them. I walked quite round it,
by which I became duly impressed with its magnitude below, necessarily
leaving my conjectures as to its elevation, for future observations
through a clearer atmosphere.
I then commenced to retrace my steps, when a slight tap upon my
shoulder brought me around to look upon a droll and quizzical-looking
fellow, who very obsequiously proceeded (as he pointed to the collar
of my cloak, the lining of which, it seems, had got a little exposed),
"The lining of your cloak, sir; hit don't look very well for a
gentleman, sir; hexcuse me, hif you please, sir." "Certainly," said
I; "I am much obliged to you," as I adjusted it and passed on. In my
jogging along for some distance after this rencontre, and while my
eyes were intent upon the mud, where I was selecting the places for
my footsteps, I observed a figure that was keeping me close company
by my side, and, on taking a fairer look at him, found the same droll
character still at my elbow, when I turned around and inquired of him,
"What now?" "Ho, sir, your cloak, you know, sir; hit didn't look well,
for a gentleman like you, sir. Your pardon, sir; ha sixpence, hif you
please, sir." I stopped and gave the poor fellow a sixpence for his
ingenuity, and jogged on.
The sagacity of this stratager in rags had detected the foreigner or
stranger in me at first sight, as I learned in a few moments, in
the following amusing way. I had proceeded but a few rods from the
place where I had given him his sixpence and parted company with him,
when, crossing an intersecting street, I was met by a pitiable object
hobbling on one leg, and the other twisted around his hip, in an
unnatural way, with a broom in one hand, and the other extended towards
me in the most beseeching manner, and his face drawn into a triangular
shape, as he was bitterly weeping. I saw the poor fellow's occupation
was that of sweeping the crossing under my feet, and a sixpence that
I slipped into his hand so relaxed the muscles of his face, by this
time, that I at once recognised in him the adjuster of the lining of my
cloak; but I had no remedy, and no other emotion, at the instant, than
that of amusement, with some admiration of his adroitness, and again
passed on.
Casting my eyes before me I observed another poor fellow, at the
crossing of another street, plying his broom to the mud very nimbly (or
rather passing it over, just above the top of the mud), whilst his eye
was fixed intently upon me, whom he had no doubt seen patronizing the
lad whom I had passed. I dodged this poor fellow by crossing the street
to the right, and as I approached the opposite pavement I fell into the
hands of a young woman in rags, who placed herself before me in the
most beseeching attitude, holding on her arm a half-clad and sickly
babe, which she was pinching on one of its legs to make it cry, whilst
she supplicated me for aid. I listened to her pitiable lamentations a
moment, and in reproaching her for her cruelty in exposing the life of
her little infant for the purpose of extorting alms, I asked her why
she did not make her husband take care of her and her child? "Oh, my
kind sir," said she, "I give you my honour I've got no husband; I have
no good opinion of those husbands." "Then I am glad you have informed
me," said I; "you belong to a class of women whom I will not give to."
"Oh, but, kind sir, you mistake me; I am not a bad woman--I am _not_
a bad woman--I assure you! I am a decent woman, and God knows it:
the child is not mine; it is only one that I hires, and I's obliged
to pay eighteen pence a day for it; which is as true as God's holy
writ; that's what it is." "Then," said I, "you are a wretch, to keep
that innocent little thing here in the cold; and, instead of alms, you
deserve to be handed over to the police." She gave me many hard names
as I was stepping into a cab which I had beckoned up and directed to
drive me to Ibbotson's Hotel, in Vere-street.
"Where, sir?" asked the cab-driver as he mounted his seat. "Vy, sir,
didn't you ear the gentleman?" said a man with a large bronze medal
hanging on his breast, who had one hand on the door; "drive im to
Hibbotson's Otel, Were-street, Hoxford-street." "Who are you?" said I,
as we were moving off, and he held the door open with one hand and his
hat raised with the other; "what do you want?"
"I'm the vaterman, sir; you'll recollect the vaterman?" "Yes, I'll
not forget you in a long time." So I shut the door without giving the
poor man his ha'penny, not knowing the usual custom yet, and too much
pressed for time to learn it at that moment.
I observed, in passing several equestrian and other statues in the
streets, that they were all black; which seemed curious; and also,
in every street, I saw what was new to me, and not to be seen in
the streets of the American cities--meat-shops and fishmongers
indiscriminately mingled along the same side-walks with dry
goods--hosiers, china, and hardware--and fancy shops; and also
performed the whole route, outward and homeward, without having seen
a solitary pig ploughing the gutters, as we too familiarly meet them
in many of the American cities, though the gutters, much of the way,
would seem to have offered a tolerably rich field for their geological
researches.
I met with evidences enough, however, that I was not out of the land of
pigs, though they were not seen promenading or ploughing the streets.
I passed several shops, all open in front, where poor piggies were
displayed in a much less independent way--hanging by their hind legs
at full length, and the blood dripping from their noses upon the
sills of the shops and pavements, to amuse the eyes of the silken and
dazzling throng that was squeezing and brushing along by them; and
whilst I easily decided which was the most cruel to the poor brutes, I
was much at a loss to decide which mode was calculated to be the most
shocking to the nerves that would be weak enough to be offended by
either.
I was thus at the end of my first day's rambles in London, without at
present recollecting any other occurrences worthy of note, excepting
a little annoyance I had felt by discovering with my left eye, while
walking in the street, something like a small black spot on the side
of my nose, which, by endeavouring many times to remove by the brush
of my hand across it, I had evidently greatly enlarged, and which,
when I returned, I examined and found to have been at first, in all
probability, a speck of soot which had alighted there, and by passing
my hand over it had, as in other instances, on other parts of my face,
mashed it down and given it somewhat the shape and tail of a comet, or
the train of a falling star, though differing materially in brilliancy
and colour.
I used the rest of this gloomy day in obtaining from the Lords of
the Treasury the proper order for passing my collection through the
Customs, which has been before mentioned, arranging my letters of
credit, &c., and returned by the evening's train to Liverpool, to join
my collection again, and Daniel and the grizly bears.
On my return to that city I found poor Daniel in a sad dilemma with
the old lady about the bears, and the whole neighbourhood under a high
excitement, and in great alarm for their safety. The bears had been
landed in the briefest manner possible; exempted from the usual course
that almost everything else takes through the Queen's warehouse; and,
though relieved from the taxes of the customs, I soon found that I had
duties of a different character accumulating that required my attention
in another quarter. The agreement made by the old lady with Daniel to
keep them in her yard for so much per day, and for as long a time as he
required, had been based upon the express and very judicious condition
that they were to do no harm. From the moment of their landing they
had kept up an almost incessant howling, so Rocky-Mountain-ish and so
totally unlike any attempts at music ever heard in the country before,
that it attracted a crowd night and day about the old lady's door, that
almost defeated all attempts at ingress and egress. A little vanity,
however, which she still possessed, enabled her to put up with the
inconvenience, which she was turning to good account, and counting
good luck, until it was ascertained, to her great amazement as well as
alarm, that the bears were passing their huge paws out of the cage,
between the iron bars, and lifting up the round stones of her pavement
for the pleasure of once more getting their nails into the dirt, their
favourite element, and which they had for a long time lost sight of.
In their unceasing pursuit of this amusement, by night and by day,
they had made a sad metamorphosis of the old lady's pavement, as, with
the strength of their united paws, they had drawn the cage around to
different parts of the yard, totally unpaving as they went along. At
the time of the poor old lady's bitterest and most vehement complaint,
they were making their move in the direction of her humble tenement,
the walls of which were exceedingly slight; and her alarm became
insupportable. The ignorant crowd outside of the inclosure, who could
get but a partial view of their operations now and then, had formed
the most marvellous ideas of these monsters, from the report current
amongst them that they were eating the paving-stones; and had taken the
most decided and well-founded alarm from the fact that the bears had
actually hurled some of the paving-stones quite over the wall amongst
their heads, which were calling back an increased shower of stones and
other missiles, adding fresh rage and fears to the growling of the
bears, which altogether was threatening results of a more disastrous
kind.
In this state of affairs I was very justly appealed to by the old lady
for redress and a remedy, for it was quite evident that the condition
of her agreement with Daniel had been broken, as the bears were now
decidedly doing much harm to her premises; destroying all her rest,
and (as she said) "her appetite and her right mind;" and I agreed
that it was my duty, as soon as possible, to comply with her urgent
request that they should be removed. She insisted on its being done
that day, as "it was quite impossible to pass another night in her
own bed, when there was such howling and groaning and grunting in
her yard, by the side of her house." Daniel took my directions and
immediately went through the town in search of other quarters for
them, and was to attend to their moving whilst I was to spend the day
in the Custom-house, attending to the examination of my collection of
600 paintings and many thousand Indian costumes, weapons and other
curiosities, which were to be closely inspected and inventoried, for
duties.
Immersed in this mystery of difficulties and vexations at the customs
during the day, I had lost sight of Daniel and his pets until I was
free at night, when I was assailed with a more doleful tale than ever
about the bears. Troubles were gathering on all sides. Poor Daniel
had positively arranged in several places for them, but when "their
characters were asked from their last places," he met defeat in every
case, and was obliged to meet, at last, the increased plaints of his
old landlady, whose rage and ranting were now quite beyond control.
She had made complaint to the police, of whom a _posse_ had been sent
to see to their removal. Daniel in the mean time had dodged them, and
was smiling amidst the crowd at the amusing idea of their laying hold
of them, or of even going into the yard to them. The police reported
on the utter impossibility of removing them to any other part of the
town, their "character" having been so thoroughly published already to
all parts; and it was advised, to the utter discomfiture of the old
lady, that it would be best for them to remain there until they should
be removed to London, and that I should pay for all damages. The poor
old lady afterwards had a final interview with Daniel in the crowd,
when she very judiciously resolved that if the bears did not move, _she
must_--which she did that night, and placed Daniel in her bed, as the
guardian of her property and of his pets, until the third or fourth
day afterwards, when they were moved to the railway, and by it (night
and day, catching what glimpses they could of the country they were
serenading with their howls and growls as they passed through it under
their tarpaulin) they were conveyed to the great metropolis.
Owing to the multiplicity of articles to be examined and inventoried
in the customs, and the great embarrassment of the clerics in writing
down their Indian names, my labours were protracted there to much
tediousness; but when all was brought to a close by their proposing,
most judiciously, to count the number of curiosities instead of wasting
paper and time and paralysing my jaws by pronouncing half a dozen times
over, and syllable by syllable, their Indian names, my collection of
eight tons weight was all on the road and soon at the Euston station in
London, where we again recognised the mournful cries of the grizlies,
who had arrived the night before.
On arriving at the station, I found Daniel at a small inn in the
vicinity, where he seemed highly excited by some unpleasant altercation
he had had with the landlord and inmates of the house, growing out of
national and political prejudices, which had most probably been too
strongly advanced on both sides. Daniel had suddenly raised a great
excitement in the neighbourhood by his arrival with the grizly bears,
whose occasional howlings had attracted crowds of people, curious to
know the nature of the strange arrival; and all inquirers about the
station being referred to their keeper, who was at the inn, brought
Daniel and his patience into notoriety at once.
Daniel (_Plate No. 2_) is an Irishman, who emigrated to the United
States some twenty years since, and, by dint of his industry and hard
labour, had met with success in acquiring an humble independence, and
had formed the most undoubted attachment to the Government and its
institutions; and, from his reading, and conversation with the world,
had informed himself tolerably well in political matters, which he was
always ready to discuss; and being rather of a hasty and irascible
temperament, he often got into debates of that nature, that led him
into danger of unpleasant results. It was in the midst of one of
these that I found him at the inn, surrounded by at least a hundred
labouring men and idlers from the streets, who had been drawn around
him at first, as I have said, to get some information of the bears,
but who had changed their theme, and were now besieging him on all
sides, to combat him on some political dogma he had advanced relative
to his favourite and adopted country, the United States; or to taunt
him with slaunts at his native country, all of which, with his native
wit, he was ready to meet with ability, until, as he afterwards told
me, "they were showered upon him so rapidly, and from so many quarters
at once, that it became quite impossible to answer them, and that the
stupid ignorance and impertinence of some of them had worn out all
his patience, and irritated him to that degree, that I must excuse
him for the excitement I had found him under when I arrived." With
much difficulty I rescued him from the crowd that had enclosed him,
and, retiring to a private room, after matters of business had been
arranged, he gave me the following account of the difficulties he had
just been in, and of the incidents of his journey from Liverpool to
London with the bears.
[Illustration: N^o. 2.]
At Liverpool he had had great difficulty in getting permission to
travel by the luggage train, to keep company with the bears, the
necessity of which he urged in vain, until he represented that, unless
he was with them to feed them, their howlings and other terrific noises
and ravings would frighten their hands all out of the stations, and
even add probabilities to their breaking loose from the cage in
which they were confined, to feed upon the human flesh around them, and
of which they were peculiarly fond. Upon these representations, he was
allowed the privilege of a narrow space, to stand or to sit, in the
corner of one of the luggage-trains, and thus bore the bears company
all the way.
When they entered the first tunnel on their way, they raised a hideous
howl, which they continued until they were through it, which might
have been from a feeling of pleasure, recognizing in it something of
the character of the delightful gloominess of their own subterranean
abodes; or their outcries might have been from a feeling of dread or
fear from those narrow and damp caverns, too much for their delicate
tastes and constitutions. This, however, is matter for the bears to
decide. At Birmingham, where they rested on the truck for the greater
part of a day, their notification to the town had called vast crowds
of spectators around them; and though their tarpaulin prevented them
from being seen, many, very many, drew marvellous accounts of them
from one another, and from the flying reports which had reached them
several days before from Liverpool, of "two huge monsters imported from
the Rocky Mountains, that had scales like alligators, with long spears
of real flint at the ends of their tails; that they made nothing of
eating paving-stones when they were hungry, and that in Liverpool they
had escaped, and were travelling to the north, and demolishing all the
inhabitants of Lancashire as they went along," &c. Their occasional
howls and growls, with, once in a while, a momentary display of one
of their huge paws, exhibited from under the tarpaulin, riveted the
conviction of the gaping multitude as to the terror and danger of these
animals, while it put at rest all apprehensions as to their being at
large and overrunning the country. Poor Daniel had to stand between
the crowd and his pets, to save them from the peltings and insults
of the crowd, and at the same time, to muster every talent he had at
natural history, to answer the strange queries and theories that were
raised about them. He was assailed on every side with questions as
to the appearance and habits of the animals, and at last, about "the
other animals," as they called them, "running on two legs, in America;"
for many of them, from his representations, had come fresh from the
coal-pits and factories, with ideas that Americans were a sort of
savages, and that savages, they had understood, were "a sort of wild
beastises, and living on raw meat." These conjectures and queries were
answered amusingly for them, by Daniel; and, after he had a little
enlightened them by the information he gave them, their conversation
took a sort of political turn, which, I have before said, he was prone
to run into; and thus, luckily, the time was whiled away, without any
_set-to_ to bother the bears and himself, which he had seen evidently
preparing, until the whistle announced them and him on their way again
for the metropolis.
The next morning he found himself and the bears safe landed at the
terminus in London, where I have already said that I found him and
released him from a medley of difficulties he had worked himself into.
The keeper of the inn had himself been the first to provoke poor
Daniel, but when he found it for his interest, and advised a different
course, he endeavoured to turn his criticisms into good nature, and
had taken sides with him. Daniel, very amusingly however, describes
his remarks as so excessively ignorant, that they excited his mirth
more than anger, and he repeated several of them in the following
manner:--He first provoked Daniel by inquiring "who his master was,
and where he was at that time." Daniel replied to him, somewhat to his
surprise, "I have no master, Sir; I live in a country, thank God, where
we are our own masters. My 'boss' (if you will have it that way) is a
Mr. Catlin, who I expect here in a few hours." Finding that Daniel and
the bears were from America, of which country he had heard some vague
accounts, he very innocently enquired who was the King in America at
that time, apologizing, that by the treacherousness of his memory he
had lost the run of them. Daniel told him that they had no king in
America. He then said "he well recollected when the old fellow died,
but he had equally forgotten the name of the Queen; he recollected to
have read of the King of New York." Daniel soon put his recollection
right, and in doing so had given umbrage to the poor man, which led to
the long and excited political debate with which I found Daniel so much
exasperated when I arrived.
Daniel had, in the beginning of this affair, explained to the
bystanders around him the difference between a King and a President,
and then had provoked his landlord by amusingly and pleasantly
repeating the anecdote of "King Jefferson" (which is current in
America) in reply to his questions about the "King of New York;" and in
the following manner:--
"During the presidency of Thomas Jefferson, who lived in the city of
Washington, two poor emigrants from the county of Cork, in my own
country, made their way to America in a vessel which landed them in
Philadelphia; they got ashore, and as they were taking their first
stroll through the streets in the 'land of liberty and equality,'
without a shilling in their pockets, they began to 'sing out' 'Huzza
for King George!' This of course excited too much opposition to last
long in the streets of a republican city, and a gentleman very kindly
stopped the poor fellows, and to their great surprise informed them
that he feared they would get into difficulty if they continued to
huzza for the king, as King George was not the king of the country they
were now in. He informed them that Mr. Jefferson was the great man in
America--that he was President of the United States, and that it would
not do for them to huzza for King George. They thanked him, and as
they proceeded on they increased the volume of their voices in huzzas
for 'King Jefferson!--huzza for King Jefferson!' This soon excited the
attention of the police, who silenced their bawling by 'putting them in
the jug!'"
CHAPTER III.
Letters of introduction--Driving a friend's horse and chaise--Amusing
accidents--English driving--"Turn to the _right_, as the law
directs"--A turn to the _left_--A fresh difficulty--Egyptian
Hall--Lease for three years--Arrangement of collection--Bears sold
and removed to Regent's Park Zoological Gardens--Their fates.
Having landed all my effects safely at the terminus in London, the
next thing was the final _locale_; and to decide on this, my letters
of introduction, or a part of them at least, should be delivered; and
for this and other dodgings about through the city for a few days,
the first gentleman to whom I delivered a letter had the kindness to
insist on my using his horse and chaise during certain portions of the
day, when he did not use them himself. This was the kindest thing that
he could have done for me, and I shall never forget the obligation he
laid me under by doing so. His footman, who accompanied me, relieved me
from all anxiety about the horse, which was a noble animal; and my long
errands through the mud were most delightfully abridged.
As the fatalities of life seem to bring us more or less trouble in
every step we take in it, I had mine, even in this new and independent
arrangement. In my first dash through the streets with all the
confidence and tact I had acquired from my boyhood in driving a
similar vehicle in my own country, I was suddenly in the midst of
fresh misfortune by "turning to the right, as the law directs" (the
regulation and custom of the United States), which brought my horse
into the most frightful collision with a pair that were driven by a
gentleman, and who had reined in the same direction under the English
custom of "turn to the left."
This affair was not only one of imminent danger of harm, which we had
all luckily escaped, but one of exceeding mortification to me from the
circumstances which immediately followed.
The extreme care and skill in driving, with the fine training of horses
in England (of which we have little idea in the United States), render
accidents in the streets of London so exceedingly rare, that when
they do occur they immediately attract an immense crowd, and into the
midst of such an one was I thrown by the unfortunate accident which my
ignorance rather than carelessness had just been the cause of.
By the violence of the concussion I had been landed in the street, and
the gentleman, to whose harness I had done some injury, was suddenly
in front of me with his whip in his hand; and in the hearing of the
crowd that was hovering around, in the most excited manner, demanding
of me what I meant by driving against him in that awkward manner, and
threatening to hold me responsible for damages done by not turning the
right way, whilst I felt every disposition to answer his questions
respectfully, as I saw the injury was all on his side. I still felt
that a little tenacity was allowable on my side; and I almost as
peremptorily demanded of him why he did not rein to the right, as the
law requires:--"Rein to the right!" said he, "who the devil ever heard
of such a thing as turning to the right? Where are you from, I should
like to know?" "I am from a country, sir, where the law directs all
vehicles to 'turn to the right.'" "What country is that, I should like
to know?" "North America, sir." "Ha! just about what I should have
thought, sir:--I suppose I shall get pay for my coupling-lines about
the time the States pay interest." "Most likely," said I, as we were
mutually taking our seats, amidst the sullen remarks that I heard in
various parts of the crowd as I was driving off--"There's a Yankee
for you!--ee's a rum-looking fellow, ha?--There's a Repudiator for
you"--"I'll be bound--" &c., &c., &c.
I drove off from this scene with some satisfaction that I had learned
so important a fact at so little expense, and steered my way very
safely amidst the thousands of vehicles of various sorts that I was
passing and meeting, in which time I was very pleasantly receiving
a brief lecture on the subject from my good-natured and very civil
footman, who was behind me; in which (having silently learned in the
disaster we had just witnessed that I was from a foreign country) he
took especial pains to explain to me that "in Hengland it's holays
the abit to turn to the left." Just at that moment I found myself in
a fresh difficulty, and some danger also, by one wheel of my chaise
grinding against the curbstone, and a huge omnibus in full press
against us, and driving us on to the pavement, where it had at that
moment stopped and fastened us, whilst discharging a passenger. I
demanded of the driver, a sullen-looking fellow, half covered with
an apron or boot which protected him from the weather in front, and
something like a feather-bed and bolsters tied around his neck and
chin, and half concealing his bloated face, what he meant by reining
in upon me in that way, and crowding me upon the pavement? to which
he grumly replied as he snapped his whip, "I should like to know what
business you have in there?" "Never mind," said I, "I shall go ahead."
"No you woan't--ain't you old enough to know which side of a carriage
to pass?" At that moment the conductor of the omnibus cried out "All
right!" which was echoed by a policeman who had taken my horse by the
bit. I was somewhat relieved, though a little surprised, at the verdict
given by the conductor and the policeman at the same instant, that
"all" (or both), as I at that moment understood it, "were right." I
sat still of course till the omnibus had left us, nearly crushed, but
luckily not damaged, when I said to my footman, "Why, what does this
mean?--what do you call the 'left side' in this country, I should like
to know?" To this he very distinctly as well as amusingly explained,
that the invariable custom in England is when _meeting_ a vehicle,
to turn to the _left_, and when _passing_, to turn to the _right_.
But why did the policeman and the conductor say we were both right or
"all right?" "Why, sir, you know wen the homnibus olds up to land a
gent or a lady, or to take em hin, it would be wery hawkard to drive
off wen the lady ad one leg hin the bus and the other hout; so wen
they are both hout or both hin, and all right, the conductor ollows
out 'Holl right!' and the bus goes hon, d'ye see, sir?" "Ah, yes, I
thank you, Jerry, I understand it now." I was then growing wiser every
moment amongst the incidents that were occasionally taking place in my
drives with the goodnatured footman and his fine horse, which I used
for several days, much to my satisfaction and amusement, without other
accident or incident worth the reader's valuable time.
I called upon my kind friend the Hon. C. A. Murray, at his office in
Buckingham Palace, where I was received with all that frankness and
sincerity peculiar to him; and, with his kind aid, and that of Charles
D. Archibald, Esq., of York Terrace, to whom I am also much indebted,
the arrangements were soon made for my collection in the Egyptian Hall,
which I took on a lease, for three years, at a rent of 550_l._ per
annum.
My collection was soon in it, and preparing for its exhibition, while
the grizly bears were still howling at the Euston station, impatient
for a more congenial place for their future residence. It was quite
impossible to give them any portion of the premises I had contracted
for in the Egyptian Hall, and the quarters ultimately procured for
them being expensive, and the anxieties and responsibilities for
them daily increasing upon me as they were growing stronger and more
vicious in their dispositions, it was decided that they should be
offered for sale, and disposed of as soon as possible. For this
purpose I addressed letters to the proprietors of zoological gardens
in Liverpool, in Dublin, and Edinburgh, and several other towns, and
received, in reply from most of them, the answer that they already had
them in their gardens, and that they were so complete a drug in England
that they were of little value. One proprietor assured me that he had
recently been obliged to shoot two that he had in his gardens, in
consequence of mischief they were doing to people visiting the grounds,
and to the animals in the gardens.
My reply to several of these gentlemen was, that since the death of
the famous old grizly bear, that had died a few months before in
Regent's-park, it was quite certain that there had not been one in
the kingdom until the arrival of these, "and that if either of those
gentlemen would produce me another living grizly bear, at that time, in
the kingdom, I would freely give him my pair." This seemed, however, to
have little weight with the proprietors of wild beasts; but I at length
disposed of them for about the same price that I had given for them
four years before, when they were not much larger than my foot (for the
sum of 125_l._); and they went to the Zoological Gardens, Regent's Park.
A word or two more of them and the reader will have done with the
grizlies, who had been much obliged to me, no doubt, for four years'
maintenance, and for a sight of the beauties of the ocean, and as much
of the land of comforts and refinements as they were allowed to see
through the bars of their cage, while they were travelling from the
rude wilds of the Rocky Mountains to the great metropolis, the seat and
centre of civilization and refinement. As in their new abode they were
allowed more scope and better attendance, it was reasonable to suppose
that their lives would have been prolonged, and their comfort promoted;
but such did not prove to be the case. From the continual crowds about
them, to which they had the greatest repugnance, they seemed daily to
pine, until one of them died of exceeding disgust (unless a better
cause can be assigned), and the other with similar symptoms, added to
loneliness perhaps, and despair, in a few months afterwards.
Thus ended the career of the grizly bears, and I really believe there
were no tears shed for them, unless they were tears of joy, for they
seemed to extend their acquaintance only to add to the list of their
enemies, wherever they went.
CHAPTER IV.
Indian Collection arranged for exhibition--Description of
it--The Hon. Charles Augustus Murray--Collection opened to
private view--Kindness of the Hon. Mr. Murray--Distinguished
visitors--Mr. Murray's explanations--Kind reception by the Public
and the Press--Kind friends--Fatigue of explaining and answering
questions--Curious remedy proposed by a friend--Pleasures and
pains of a friendly and fashionable dinner.
My business now, and all my energies, were concentrated at the Egyptian
Hall, where my collection was arranged upon the walls. The main hall
was of immense length, and contained upon its walls 600 portraits and
other paintings which I had made during eight years' travels amongst
forty-eight of the remotest and wildest tribes of Indians in America,
and also many thousands of articles of their manufacture, consisting
of costumes, weapons, &c. &c., forming together a pictorial history
of those tribes, which I had been ambitious to preserve as a record
of them, to be perpetuated long after their extinction. In the middle
of the room I had erected also a wigwam (or lodge) brought from the
country of the Crows, at the base of the Rocky Mountains, made of
some twenty or more buffalo skins, beautifully dressed and curiously
ornamented and embroidered with porcupine quills.
My friend the Honourable C. A. Murray, with several others, had now
announced my collection open to their numerous friends and such others
as they chose to invite during the three first days when it was
submitted to their private view, and by whom it was most of the time
filled; and being kindly presented to most of them, my unsentimental
and unintellectual life in the atmosphere of railroads and grizly bears
was suddenly changed to a cheering flood of soul and intellect which
greeted me in every part of my room, and soon showed me the way to the
recessed world of luxury, refinements, and comforts of London, which
not even the imagination of those who merely stroll through the streets
can by any possibility reach.
During this private view I found entered in my book the names of very
many of the nobility, and others of the most distinguished people
of the kingdom. My friend Mr. Murray was constantly present, and
introduced me to very many of them, who had the kindness to leave
their addresses and invite me to their noble mansions, where I soon
appreciated the elegance, the true hospitality and refinement of
English life. Amongst the most conspicuous of those who visited my
rooms on this occasion were H. R. H. the Duke of Cambridge, the Duke
and Duchess of Sutherland, the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch, Duke of
Devonshire, Duke of Wellington, the Bishop of London, the Bishop of
Norwich, Sir Robert and Lady Peel, Lord Grosvenor, Lord Lennox, Duke
of Richmond, Duke of Rutland, Duke of Buckingham, Countess-Dowager of
Dunmore, Countess-Dowager of Ashburnham, Earl of Falmouth, Earl of
Dunmore, Lord Monteagle, Lord Ashley, Earl of Burlington, Sir James and
Lady Clark, Sir Augustus d'Este, Sir Francis Head, and many others of
the nobility, with most of the editors of the press, and many private
literary and scientific gentlemen, of whose kindness to me while in
London I shall have occasion to speak in other parts of this work.
The kindness of my friend Mr. Murray on this occasion can never
be forgotten by me. He pointed out to my illustrious visitors the
principal chiefs and warriors of the various tribes, with many of whom
he was personally acquainted; explaining their costumes, weapons,
&c., with all of which his rambles in the Indian countries beyond the
Mississippi and Missouri had made him quite familiar. He led Duchesses,
Countesses, and Ladies in succession upon his arm, into the wigwam
of buffalo-hides, where he descanted, to the great satisfaction and
amusement of his friends, upon the curious modes of Indian life into
which he had been initiated, and which he had long shared with these
simple people, whilst he resided with them under roofs of buffalo-hides
(like the one now over their heads) on the vast plains and prairies of
the wilds of America.
This was evidently an opportunity affording him great satisfaction, of
illustrating to his friends the styles of primitive life which he had
witnessed in America, whilst his explanations and descriptions were
exceedingly entertaining and amusing to them, and at the same time the
strongest corroboration of the fidelity with which I had made them, and
therefore the best recommendation of them and me to the consideration
of the English community.
He was fully employed, as he led alternately the Duchess of Sutherland
(with her lovely daughters by her side), and the Duchess of Buccleuch
on his arm, and a numerous group around him, while he commented upon
the features and disposition of his old friend _Wee-ta-ra-sha-ro_, who
had taken him under his immediate protection and saved his life from
the designs of some young men who had laid their plans to destroy him
when in the country of the Pawnees.
He explained to them and the Bishops of London and Norwich, who were
following in the wake of the ladies and giving ear, the religious
ceremony of the Indians, their modes of warfare, of hunting, and
throwing the lasso in catching the wild horse. He showed them the
Indian cradles in which the squaws carry their pappooses, slung on
their backs. He took in his hands the lasso, and illustrated the mode
of throwing it, with which he was familiar. He took also in his hands
their war-clubs, their tomahawks and scalping knives, and then the
scalps from the heads of enemies slain in battle, and ably explained
them all. With these he made lasting and thrilling impressions; but
with more satisfaction to himself, and to the fair and tender Graces,
whose sylph-like gracefulness formed a halo of loveliness around
him, he pointed to my paintings of the ever verdant and enamelled
prairies--to the very copses and lawns through which, with his
unerring rifle, he had stalked the timid antelope or the stately elk
and shaggy bison, and, after quieting his raving stomach with their
broiled delicacies, he had straightened his wearied limbs upon his
spread buffalo robe, and, with the long, waving grass and bowing lilies
stooping over his head, he had reflected upon London, upon Palaces and
friends, as he had glided into that sweet forgetfulness that belongs
peculiarly to the wearied huntsman, whose rifle has catered for his
stomach, and whose quiet conscience starts him not at the rustling of
the sweetened winds that are gently breezing over him.
_I_ was also constantly engaged with surrounding groups, who
were anxious to know the meaning and moral of this strange and
unintelligible collection, while my man Daniel, with his rod in his
hand, was enlightening another party at the end of the room, by
pointing out the leading personages of the various tribes, explaining
their costumes, weapons, &c., and answering the thousand questions
which were put to him, and which several years of familiarity with the
subject had abundantly qualified him to do.
Thus passed my first interview with the English aristocracy. I was in
the midst and the best of it; and by it, on all sides, was met with
the kindliest feelings and condescension, while I received compliments
from all (in the most undoubted sincerity) for the successful efforts I
had thus made to perpetuate the records of an abused and dying race of
human beings.
The reception that myself and my works met on these days, amongst
the highest critics, the most refined and elevated of the world, was
beyond description pleasurable to me, as I had arrived a stranger in a
foreign land, where I had risked everything upon the value that should
be set upon my labours; and that, where I had been told that national
prejudices would labour to defeat me. My life had been a tissue of
risks and chances, and I resolved to hazard again; and I am now pleased
(and bound) to acknowledge that I was frankly met with the most
unprejudiced and congenial feelings; and, even more than that, with a
settled and genuine sympathy for the benighted people whom my works
were representing, and a disposition to reward my labours by kind and
unexpected invitations to the hospitable boards of those who fill the
highest and most enviable stations in life.
To this general feeling it affords me pleasure to respond in general
terms, in this place; and I shall have occasion, in other parts of this
work, to return my personal thanks for such spontaneous kindness, which
my lasting gratitude will make it my duty to allude to.
The editors of the leading literary and scientific journals of London,
and of the daily newspapers, were chiefly there, and with their very
friendly and complimentary notices of my collection, with the usual
announcements by advertisements, I opened it for the inspection of the
public on the first day of February, 1840.[2]
[2] The reader, by referring to Appendix A of this volume, will see
the comments of the Press on this Collection, in _England_,
_France_, and the _United States_.
Its commencement was flattering, from the numbers and high
respectability of my visitors, and I was pleased, from day to day, to
meet the faces and friendly greetings of those whom I had seen there at
the private view.
I was pleased also with the freedom which is granted to exhibitions in
London, leaving them entirely independent of tithing or taxation, as
well as of licences to be obtained from the police, as is the case in
France and some other countries. Under such auspices I very pleasantly
commenced, with a rent of 550_l._ per annum, and continued it with
reasonable success for the space of four years. The vicissitudes and
incidents of that time it is not the object of this work to detail;
but I shall connect the links of my narrative better, and, I trust, do
no injustice to my readers, by reciting a few of the incidents that
transpired in that time: and, while I am doing so, endeavouring to do
the justice which gratitude prompts, to those persons whose kindness
has laid me under peculiar obligations.
Amongst those kind friends I must be allowed at present to mention
the names of the Hon. C. A. Murray, Sir Augustus d'Este, Charles D.
Archibald, Esq., Sir James Clark, Sir Thomas Phillips, Mr. Petty
Vaughan, Dr. Hodgkin, Capt. Shippard, Sir Francis Head, Lord Monteagle,
John Murray, A. M. Perkins, and Sir David Wilkie; and there were many
others with these who were very frequently at my rooms; and for their
friendly and constant efforts to promote my interest they have my
sincerest thanks.
Several of these gentlemen, and others, whose visits were so frequent
to my rooms, having formed an acquaintance with the Indians in their
own country, or, from feelings of sympathy for them, taken so deep an
interest in the subject, relieved me much of my time from the fatiguing
task which I had adopted of explaining around the rooms such subjects
as I considered most curious and instructive, and of answering the
thousands of questions which were naturally put in every part of the
room for information on so novel and exciting a theme.
I had entered upon this, at first, not as a task but an amusement,
from which I drew great pleasure whilst I was entertaining my visitors
and cultivating their pleasing acquaintance. From an over desire and
effort on my part to explain the peculiar and curious modes of those
wild people, and from a determination on the part of my visitors to get
these explanations from my own lips (although I had my man Daniel and
several others constantly in the rooms for the same purpose), I was
held in my exhibition rooms almost daily from morning until night.
My men were able to explain the meaning of everything in the
collection, but this did not satisfy the public whilst I was present.
All inquired for me: "Where's Mr. Catlin? he's the Lion; his collection
is wonderful; but I would give more to see him than all the rest." "He
is yonder, Madam, at the farther end of the room, where you see a
crowd of people around him."
I was generally in the midst of a crowd, who were densely packed around
me; moving about the rooms whilst, with a rod in my hand to point
with, I was lecturing or answering the numerous questions which were
naturally put relative to these strange people and their modes. To
lecture or to explain all day, following the current of one's thoughts,
would have been a thing feasible, though fatiguing; but to stand upon
one's feet and all day long to answer to interrogations, and many of
those fifty times over, to different parties who were successively
taking me in tow, I soon found was far more fatiguing than my travels
and labours in the Indian wilderness; and I at length (at a much later
period than my friends and my physician advised) gradually withdrew
from the scene and this suicidal course, just before it might have been
too late to have saved anything useful of me.
I followed the advice of my physician by going to my rooms at stated
hours, but soon departed from it by failing to leave them with
punctuality, and take recreation in the open air. The partial change I
had adopted, however, was of advantage to me--talking part of the day
and breaking off and leaving my men to do the talking for the other
half.
Like most adventurers in wilderness life I was fond of describing
what I had seen; and, having the works of several years around me, in
their crude and unfinished condition, spread before the criticising
world, and difficult to be appreciated, I was doubly stimulated to be
in the collection, and with all the breath I could spare, to add to
the information which the visitors to my rooms were seeking for. Under
these conflicting feelings I struggled to keep away from my rooms, and
did so for a part of the day, and that, as I soon found, only to meet a
more numerous and impatient group when I re-entered.
All of the above-mentioned kind friends, and many others, repeatedly
called to impress upon me the necessity of leaving my exhibition to my
men, "to save my lungs--to save my life," as they said. Some snatched
me away from the crowd, and in the purest kindness hurled me through
the streets in their carriages, still _yelling_ answers to their
numerous questions as we were passing over the noisy pavements; and
then at their kind and festive boards, to which I had been brought as
places of refuge and repose, I was, for an instance, presented as--"My
dear, this is Mr. Catlin! (_Plate No. 3, next page._)--Mother, you have
heard of Mr. Catlin?--Cousins Lucy and Fanny, here's the celebrated Mr.
Catlin you have heard me speak of so often. Poor fellow! I have dragged
him away from his exhibition, where they are talking him to death--he
_must_ have _repose_--and here we can entertain and amuse him. Here, my
little chicks--come here all of you--here's Mr. Catlin!--here's the man
who has been so long among the wild Indians! he will tell you a great
many curious stories about them. Where's sister Ellen, and Betty?" "Oh,
they are in the garden with Mr. S. and his son, who has just returned
from New Zealand." "Good, good; run for them, run for them, quick! Send
the carriage for aunt W----n as swift as possible, and don't let her
fail to stop on the way and bring Lady R----e: you know how fond she is
of the Indian character--she was three years, you know, in Canada--and
the poem she is now writing on the Indians! What a treat this will be
to her! Won't it be delightful to see her and Mr. Catlin come together?
She told me the other day she had a thousand questions she wished to
put to Mr. Catlin--how interesting! Have the dinner up at _six_--no,
say at _seven_; it will give us the more time for conversation, and
for Professor D., the phrenologist, to get here, and whom I have
invited--he's always behind the time--and this treat will be so rich to
him--I would not miss him for anything in the world."
My lecturing lungs and stomach being under a running engagement for
dinner at three o'clock, the sound of "_six_"--then, "no, _seven_,"
with the words "Indian poem," "phrenologist," &c., produced a most
rebellious and faltering sensation in my chest; the one entirely
exhausted from its customary exertions until three o'clock, and the
other, at that moment, completely in a state of collapse. The difficult
trials I had lived through with the latter, however, in my wild
adventures in the Indian wilderness, and the more recent proofs in the
Egyptian Hall, of the elasticity of the other, inspired me with courage
to enter upon the ordeal that was before me, and (even in distress)
justly to appreciate what was so kindly preparing for me.
I here instantly forgot my troubles as the party entered from the
gardens, when I was thus presented by my good friend:--"Ellen, my dear,
and Betty, here's Mr. Catlin; and, Mr. S----n, I have the extreme
pleasure of presenting to your acquaintance the famous Mr. Catlin,
whose name and whose works are familiar to you: and now, Catlin, my
dear fellow, I introduce you to Mr. J. S., the son of the gentleman
with whom I have just made you acquainted. Mr. J. S. has just returned
from amongst the natives of New Zealand, where he has spent three or
four years; and your descriptions of all the modes and customs of
the North American Indians, compared with his accounts of the New
Zealanders, will be so rich a treat to us!----But, Catlin, you look
pale! Are you not well? You look so fagged!" "Yes, yes; I am well."
"Oh, that plagued exhibition of yours--it will be the death of you! You
must keep away from it, or you will talk yourself to death there! My
good friends, come, take seats! Catlin, my dear fellow, come, join us
in a glass of good old sherry--it will give you an appetite for your
dinner--Is it to your liking?" "I thank you, it is very fine." "Will
you take another?" "No, I am much obliged to you." "My dear, look at
the clock--what time is it?" "Quarter past five." "Ah, well, I didn't
think it was so late--be sure to have the dinner up at seven--do you
hear?"
[Illustration: N^o. 3.]
Oh, Time and Paper! I will not tax you with the pains of kindness I
was at that moment entering upon--I, who had been for eight years
eating at the simple Indians' hospitable boards, where eating and
talking are seldom done together; or taking my solitary meals, cooked
by my own hand; where I had no one to talk with--but will leave it to
Imagination's exhaustless colours, which, for a harmless pastime, will
paint the pleasures, perhaps, of the dragging hours of my lifetime that
I sighed through from that until twelve o'clock at night (the last
half-hour of which I had stood upon my feet, with my hat in my hand,
taking affectionate leave, with, "My dear, charming Sir, you can't tell
how happy we have all been--your accounts have been so interesting!
You _must_ come another evening and dine with us, and we will have
Mr. G. and Mr. and Mrs. L----n; they will be so impatient to hear you
tell all you have told us. Good night!--_good_ night!--we shall all
be in a party at your exhibition to-morrow at an early hour, at ten
o'clock--mind, don't forget the hour--and it will be so delightful to
hear you explain everything in your collection, which my dear husband
has seen so often, and says are so curious and interesting. Poor
fellow! he is quite knocked up--he has been up all day, and constantly
talking, and was so completely worn out that he went off to bed an hour
ago--you will know how to excuse him. We ladies can often entertain our
friends long after _his_ powers of conversation are fagged out. Good
night--good night, my dear Sir--farewell!"
Thus and at that hour I took leave, when the busses and cabs were all
still, and I had, from necessity, a solitary walk of three miles to
my lodgings; and before I laid my head on my pillow, from an equal
necessity, to feed my poor stomach with some substitute for _dinner_,
which had been in abundance before my eyes, but which the constant
exercise of my lungs had prevented me from eating. Such a rendezvous
as had been appointed for ten o'clock the next day, and by so fair and
so kind a lady, even the rough politeness of a savage would have held
sacred.
At twelve o'clock on the following morning, and when I had nearly
finished my descriptions of Indian modes to the ladies, my kind friend
who had taken me to his house the day before, and having a little
overslept himself on that morning had taken a late breakfast at eleven,
entered the rooms with three or four of his friends, and quite rapidly
addressed his wife in the following manner:--"Come now, my dear, you
and your party have kept poor Catlin talking and answering questions
quite long enough; you will kill him if you don't let him rest once in
a while. See how pale the poor man is. Go off and get home as quick as
possible. See all this crowd waiting around to talk him to death when
you are done with him. I have brought Mr. C., the famous mineralogist,
and the two Mr. N.'s, the geologists, to whom I want him to explain
the mineralogy and geology of those boundless regions, of the Missouri
and Rocky Mountains, and I was to have had the famous botanist, Mr.
D. S--, but he may come by and by; and after we have done here, I am
going to take him, that he may have a little relaxation and repose, to
the British Museum, which he has not seen yet, and to the Geological
Society's rooms; and after that, I have got for him an invitation
to dine with the Reverend Mr. O., who will have several reverend
gentlemen, and the famous Miss E. and Mrs. W., who you know are all so
anxious to learn about the Indians' religion and modes of worship." I
was then introduced to my friend's three or four companions, but a few
moments after was reminded, by one of my men, of an engagement which
took me off for the remainder of that day.
CHAPTER V.
Author's illness from overtalking in his collection--Daniel's illness
from the same cause--Character of Daniel--His labour-saving plan
for answering one hundred questions--His disappointment--Daniel
travels to Ireland for his health--Author prepares to publish his
Notes of Travel amongst the Indians--John Murray (publisher)--His
reasons for not publishing the Author's work--His friendly
advice--Author's book published by himself at the Egyptian
Hall--Illustrious subscribers--Thomas Moore--Critical notices in
London papers.
In this manner passed the time from day to day, from week to week,
and from month to month; and as I was daily growing richer, I was
daily growing poorer--_i. e._ I was day by day losing my flesh, not
from the usual cause, the want of enough to eat, but from derangement
of the lungs and the stomach, both often overworked, with a constant
excitement and anxiety of the mind, the seat of which was not far
distant.
I endeavoured, however, and gradually succeeded in dividing my time
and my thoughts, giving a proper proportion to the public in my rooms,
a portion to my friends, and (as it was then becoming a matter of
necessity for the preparation of my notes of eight years' travel,
which were soon to be published) decidedly the greater part to myself,
leaving my exhibition mostly to the management of my men, of whom I had
several, and all familiar enough with the meaning of everything in the
collection to give a lucid description of its contents.
As I was gradually receding from the exhibition, the arduous duties
began to thicken more strongly upon my man Daniel, of whom I have
before often spoken. He had been longest associated with me and
my collection, and having it more by heart than the rest, was the
foremost man in illustrating it, of which he had been curator for
seven or eight years. I have before mentioned that he was of a quick
and irascible disposition, exceedingly tenacious of national feelings,
and those national prejudices mostly in favour of the country I said
he had some twenty years since adopted--the United States. Though he
was quick-tempered and violent in his prejudices, there was always the
redeeming trait at the end, that his anger was soon over, and there was
good nature and civility at the bottom.
Though I had often complaints made to me of the want of politeness
or of the rudeness of my man Daniel, I generally found that they
were instances where he had been provoked to it by some unnecessary
allusions to the vices of his own country, or by some objections to
his political opinions relative to the institutions of the United
States, upon which subjects he holds himself exceedingly punctilious
and very well prepared for debate. With whatever foibles he has, I
have found him invariably and strictly an honest man; and many of his
highest offences alleged to have been given to the public in my rooms,
were given strictly in obedience to my orders for the support of the
regulations of my exhibition, or for the protection of my property
and the advancement of my interest. To those who entered my rooms
respectfully for information, he was civil and communicative, and all
such drew valuable information from him, and many became attached to
him. His lungs were now labouring for me, while mine were getting a
little rest; and from morning to night of every day he was conducting
individuals and parties around the rooms, pointing out and explaining
the leading peculiarities of the museum, and answering the thousand
questions that were asked by all classes of society relative to the
looks, the modes, and habits of the Indians--the countries they lived
in--and also of Mr. Catlin, the proprietor and collector of the museum,
whom all were anxious to see, and many of whom had been led to believe
was himself an Indian.
In my own answering of these questions, many of which were natural to
be raised on so new and exciting a subject, I was often amused, and
as often surprised at the novelty and ignorance of many of them, even
amongst a polite and well-clad and apparently well-educated class of
people. Many of the questions, which only excited a smile with me,
elicited broad laughter from Daniel, which he could not help, and
having laughed, could not well avoid expressing his surprise at, and
his detection of, which gave umbrage, and sometimes was another cause
of difficulties that he occasionally though seldom got into.
I observed, after a while, that the same causes which had affected me
were emaciating him, and he finally told me that he was talking his
lungs out--and that he could not bear it much longer at the rate he
was going on. The questions which were constantly put to him in the
room were so much of a sort, or class, that there was little variety or
novelty in them to please or excite him; almost every person putting
the same; much the greater part of them being general, and therefore
irksome to him, as they were often asked a hundred or more times in
the day and as often answered. He came to me one evening, seemingly
much relieved from the painful prospect he had been suffering under,
and which was still before him, by the hope that I would adopt a plan
he had hit upon for obviating much of the difficulty, and of saving
his lungs for the explanations of questions which might be casual, and
not exactly reduced to rule. He said he had ascertained that there
were about 100 questions which were commonplace--were put (and in the
same way precisely) by the greater part of people who came in, and had
time to ask them; and that 50 of those, at least, were asked 100 times
per day, the answering of which took the greater part of his time and
the best part of his strength, which he thought might be reserved for
giving more useful information, while these 100 questions, the most of
which were extremely simple or silly, and of little importance to be
known, might be disposed of by a printed table of answers placed around
the rooms for every one to read as they walked, without the loss of
time and fatigue consequent upon the usual mode of asking and answering
questions. Though I could not consent to adopt his mode, yet I was
amused at its ingenuity; and I give here but a small part of his list,
which commenced and ran thus:--
"The Indians have _no beards at all_, only may be one in twenty or
so."
"The Indians _don't_ shave--they pull it out, when they have any
beard."
"Virtuous?--Yes. I should say they are quite as much so as the
whites, if the whites would keep away from them and let them alone."
"Ah, as amorous?--No. Mr. Catlin says they have not the spices of
life and the imaginations to set them on, or I'll venture they would
be quite as bad as the whites."
"The Indians in _America are not_ cannibals. Mr. Catlin says there is
no such thing."
"No, there are no tribes that go entirely naked; they are all very
decent."
"The Indians _don't_ eat raw meat, they cook it more than the whites
do."
"Mr. Catlin was amongst the Indians eight years, and was never killed
during that time."
"The scalp is a patch of the skin and hair taken from the top of the
head by a warrior when he kills his enemy in battle."
"No, they don't scalp the living--it is not a scalp to count if the
man is alive."
"They _sometimes_ eat a great deal, to be sure, but generally not so
much as white people."
"They _do_ get drunk sometimes, but white people sell them rum and
make them so, therefore I don't think we ought to call them drunkards
exactly."
"The Indians all get married--some have a number of wives."
"Yes, they seem as fond of their wives as any people I ever saw."
"The Indians never injured Mr. Catlin in any way."
"Mr. Catlin _didn't_ live on 'raw meat;' he was one time eighteen
months with nothing but meat to eat, but it was well cooked."
"The Indians know _nothing about salt_--they don't use it at all."
"Reason! yes; why, do you think they are wild beasts? to be sure they
reason as well as we do."
"They _are_ thieves, sometimes; but I don't think they thieve so
often as white people do."
"The Indians _do_ lend their wives sometimes to white men, but it is
only their old superannuated ones, who are put aside to hard labour,
so it is a sort of kindness all around, and I don't see that there is
much harm in it."
"The Indians all have their religion, they all worship the Great
Spirit."
"They are _treacherous_, to be sure, towards their enemies only, and
I'll be whipped if the white people an't just as bad."
"The Indians _are cruel_, there's no mistake about that; but it is
only to their enemies."
"Sale? there _won't be_ any sale; Mr. Catlin don't intend to sell his
collection in this country."
"Mr. Catlin _is not_ an Indian."
"No, he has _no_ Indian blood in him."
"Mr. Catlin speaks the English language very well."
"The Indians _don't raise_ tea."
"They _never eat_ the scalps."
"The Indians that Mr. Catlin saw are not _near_ Chusan, they are
3,000 miles from there, they are in America."
"You _can't come overland_ from America."
"A scalping-knife is _any_ large knife that an Indian takes a scalp
with."
"A prairie is a meadow."
"The Indians speak _their own_ language."
"A pappoose is an Indian baby while it is carried in the cradle."
"A prairie bluff is a hill that is covered with grass."
"The Rocky Mountains are in _America_, between New York and the
Pacific Ocean, and _not_ in the _Indies_ at all."
"A snag is a large tree that is lying in the river, its roots fast in
the mud at the bottom, and its trunk at the top, pointing down the
stream."
"Sawyers _are not_ alligators."
"An alligator is a sort of crocodile."
"The Chesapeake didn't take the Shannon, it was the Shannon that took
the Chesapeake."
"The Americans are _white_, the same colour exactly as the English,
and speak the same language, only they speak it a great deal better,
in general."
"A stump is the but-end and roots of a tree standing in the ground
after the tree is chopped down."
"It _is_ true that all Indian women stay away from their husbands
the seven days of their illness, and I think they are the decentest
people of the two for doing it."
"A squaw is an _Indian woman_ who is married."
"The _Calumet_ is a pipe of peace."
"Horns on a chief's head-dress have _no bad_ meaning."
"Mr. Catlin _is not_ a repudiator," &c., &c.
And thus went on poor Daniel's list to the number of about 100
commonplace questions which he had hoped to have disposed of by a sort
of steam operation; but finding that they must all continue to be
"done by hand," as before, he returned to his post, which, from his
disappointment in his unrealized hopes, seemed to drag more heavily
than ever upon him, and so rapidly to wear him down that he was obliged
to plan a tour to his own native land of Erin, where he went for
some weeks, to restore his lungs and his strength. His labour-saving
suggestion might have been a very convenient one for me in his absence,
but it was dispensed with, and he was soon back at his post, recruited
and assuming the command again, whilst I was busy in advancing the
material for my forthcoming work.
The Notes of my Eight Years' Travels amongst Forty-eight different
Tribes of Indians in America, to be illustrated with more than 300
steel plate illustrations, were nearly ready to be put to press; and I
called on my good friend John Murray, in Albemarle Street, believing
that he would be glad to publish them for me. To my surprise he
objected to them (but without seeing my manuscript), for two reasons
which he at once alleged: first, because he was afraid of the great
number of illustrations to be embodied in the work, and secondly for
(certainly) the most unfashionable reason, that "he loved me too much!"
I had brought a letter of introduction to him from his old friend
Washington Irving; and from the deep interest Mr. Murray had taken
in my collection and the history and prospects of the poor Indians,
my rooms (which were near his dwelling-house) were his almost daily
resort, and I a weekly guest at his hospitable board, where I always
met gentlemen of eminence connected with literature and art. Good and
generous old man! he therefore "loved me too much" to share with me
the profits of a work which he said should all belong to me for my
hard labour and the risks of my life I had run in procuring it; and
as the means of enlarging those profits he advised me to publish it
myself. "I would advise you," said he, "as one of your best friends, to
publish your own book; and I am sure you will make a handsome profit
by it. Being an artist yourself, and able to make the drawings for
your 300 illustrations, which for me would require a very great outlay
to artists to produce them, and having in your exhibition-room the
opportunity of receiving subscriptions for your work, which I could
not do, it will be quite an easy thing for you to take names enough to
cover all the expenses of getting it up, which at once will place you
on safe ground; and if the work should be well received by Mr. Dilke
and others of the critical world, it will insure you a handsome reward
for your labours, and exceedingly please your sincere friend, John
Murray."
This disinterested frankness endeared me to that good man to his last
days, and his advice, which I followed, resulted, as he had predicted,
to my benefit. My subscription list my kind friend the Hon. C. A.
Murray had in a few days commenced, with the subscriptions of
HER MOST GRACIOUS MAJESTY THE QUEEN,
H. R. H. PRINCE ALBERT,
HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN DOWAGER,
H. R. H. THE DUCHESS OF KENT,
HIS MAJESTY THE KING OF THE BELGIANS,
H. M. THE QUEEN OF THE BELGIANS,
HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE DUKE OF SUSSEX,
H. R. H. LEOPOLD DUC DE BRABANT,
After which soon followed a complimentary list of the nobility and
gentry, together with the leading institutions of the kingdom.
My work was published by myself, at the Egyptian Hall, and the only
fears which my good friend John Murray had expressed for me were
all dispersed by the favourable announcements by Mr. Dilke, of the
Athenæum, and the editors of other literary journals, from which it
will be seen that the subjoined notices are but very brief extracts.
It may not be improper also here to remark, that for all the Royal
copies subscribed for above, the Hon. C. A. Murray was ordered to
remit me double the amount of the price of the work; and that, on a
subsequent occasion, when my dear wife and myself were guests at the
dinner table of John Murray, he said to his old friend Thomas Moore,
who was by our side, "That wild man by the side of you there, Mr.
Catlin, who has spent enough of his life amongst the wild Indians
(sleeping on the ground and eating raw buffalo meat) to make you and
I as grey as badgers, and who has not yet a grey hair in his head,
applied to me about a year ago to publish his Notes. I was then--for
the first time in my life--too honest for my own interest, as well as
that of an author; and I advised him to publish it himself, as the
surest way of making something out of it. My wife here will tell you
that I have read every word of it through, heavy as it is, and she
knows it is the only book that I have read quite through in the last
five years. And I tell Mr. Catlin now, in your presence, that I shall
regret as long as I live that I did not publish that work for him; for
as sincerely as I advised him, I could have promoted his interest by so
doing, and would have done so, had I known what was in the work when he
proposed it to me."
The reader will pardon me for inserting here the critical notices which
follow:--
EDINBURGH REVIEW. _Fifteen pages._
"Living with them as one of themselves; having no trading purposes to
serve; exciting no enmity by the well-meant but suspicious preaching
of a new religion, Mr. Catlin went on with his rifle and his pencil,
sketching and noting whatever he saw worthy of record; and wisely
abandoning all search for the ancient history of a people who knew
no writing, he confined his labours to the depicting exactly what
he saw, and that only. Notes and sketches were transmitted, as
occasion served, to New York, and the collected results now appear,
partly in a gallery which has been for some time exhibited in
London, containing some five hundred pictures of Indian personages
and scenes, drawn upon the spot, with specimens of their dress and
manufactures, their arts and arms; and partly, as just stated, of the
volumes under our hands, which display engravings of most of those
specimens and pictures, accompanied by a narrative, written in a very
pleasant, homely style, of his walks and wanderings in the '_Far
West_.'
"The reader will find a compensation in the vigour of the narrative,
which, like a diary, conveys the vivid impressions of the moment,
instead of being chilled and tamed down into a more studied
composition. Such as the work is, we strongly recommend it to the
perusal of all who wish to make themselves acquainted with a singular
race of men and system of manners, fast disappearing from the face of
the earth; and which have nowhere else been so fully, curiously, and
graphically described."
----*----
WESTMINSTER REVIEW. _Twelve pages._
"This is a remarkable book, written by an extraordinary man. A work
valuable in the highest degree for its novel and curious information
about one of the most neglected and least understood branches of
the human family. Mr. Catlin, without any pretension to talent in
authorship, has yet produced a book which will live as a record
when the efforts of men of much higher genius have been forgotten.
Every one in London has seen Mr. Catlin's unique gallery, and his
attractive exhibition of living models at the Egyptian Hall; we
cannot too strongly recommend them to our country friends. And here
we take our leave of a work over which we have lingered with much
pleasure, strongly recommending it to the reader, and hoping its
extensive sale will amply repay Mr. Catlin for the great outlay he
must have incurred."
----*----
DUBLIN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE. _Fifteen pages._
"Mr. Catlin's book is one of the most interesting which we have
perused on the subject of the Indians. His pencil has preserved the
features of races which in a few years will have disappeared; and
his faithful and accurate observations may be considered as the
storehouse from whence future writers on such topics will extract
their most authentic statements."
----*----
TAIT'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. _Two Notices, Twenty-two pages._
"This is altogether an _unique_ work. It may be considered as a
_Catalogue Raisonnée_ of the numerous objects of art and curiosity
which Mr. Catlin has collected in the course of his wanderings,
and arranged in his Indian Gallery. The narrative of Mr. Catlin's
personal adventures during the wandering years in which he was thus
engaged, forms a work as unique in literature, as his collection of
original portraits and curiosities is rare in art.
"Many curious traits of character and pictures of manners are
exhibited in these large and closely-printed volumes, which will
remain an interesting record of the Homeric age and race of North
America, when, save a few wild traditions and scattered relics, and
a few of the musical and sonorous Indian names of lakes, rivers, and
hunting grounds, every other trace of the red man will have perished
on that vast continent."
----*----
LITERARY GAZETTE, _London_. _Three Notices, Twenty-five Columns._
"_Catlin's Book on the North American Indians._--An _unique_ work!
A work of extraordinary interest and value. Mr. Catlin is _the_
Historian of the Red Races of mankind; of a past world, or at least
of a world fast passing away, and leaving hardly a trace or wreck
behind. We need not recommend it to the world, for it recommends
itself, beyond our praise."
----*----
ATHENÆUM, _London_. _Four Notices, Thirty-one Columns._
"The public have fully confirmed the opinion we formerly pronounced
on Catlin's Indian gallery, as the most interesting exhibition which,
in our recollection, had been opened in London. The production of the
_work_ will, therefore, be most acceptable to those who have seen the
exhibition, as serving to refresh their memories; to those who have
not, as helping to explain that of which they have heard so much; to
all as a pleasant narrative of adventure, and a circumstantial and
detailed history of the manners and customs of an interesting people,
whose fate is sealed, whose days are numbered, whose extinction is
certain. The Americans should make much of Mr. Catlin for the sake
of by-gone days, which his books, portraits, and collections will
present to their grandchildren."
----*----
ART UNION, _London_.
"We have rarely examined a work at once so interesting and so useful
as this; the publication of which is, in truth, a benefit conferred
upon the world; for it is a record of things rapidly passing away,
and the accurate traces of which are likely to be lost within a
brief time after they have been discovered. As a contribution to
the history of mankind, these volumes will be of rare value long
after the last of the persecuted races are with 'the Great Spirit,'
and they may even have some _present_ effect; for they cannot fail
to enlist the best sympathies of humanity on the side of a most
singular people. The book is exceedingly simple in its style; it is
the production of a man of benevolent mind, kindly affections, and
sensitive heart, as well as of keen perceptions and sound judgment.
If we attempted to do justice to its merits, we should fill a
_number_ of our work instead of a _column_ of it; we must content
ourselves with recommending its perusal to all who covet knowledge
or desire amusement;--no library in the kingdom should be without a
copy."
----*----
TIMES, _London_. _One Notice, Three Columns._
"The reflection is almost insupportable to a humane mind, that the
indigenous races of America, comprising numerous distinct nations,
the original proprietors of that vast continent, are probably doomed
to entire extermination--a fate which has already befallen a large
portion of the red tribes. It is still more painful to think that this
should be the effect of the spread of the civilized races, who thus
become the agents of a wholesale destruction of their fellow-men. If
these melancholy truths were capable of aggravation, it may be found
in the dreadful fact that the process of destruction is not left
to the slow operation of invisible and insensible causes, but is
hastened by expedients devised for that express end by civilized men,
the tribes being stimulated or compelled to the destruction of each
other, or provided with the means of destroying themselves.
"Mr. Catlin, the author of the work which has suggested these
observations, has had better opportunities for studying the character
of the North American Indians than most travellers since the early
French writers.
"Mr. Catlin is an American, a native of Wyoming, and the publisher of
his own work, at the Egyptian Hall."
----*----
MORNING CHRONICLE, _London_.
"As a work intended merely for general amusement, and independently
of the higher object to which it is devoted, Mr. Catlin's book will
be found exceedingly interesting. The salient or rugged points of its
style have not been smoothed down by any literary journeyman. Mr.
Catlin ventures alone and unaided before the public. What he has seen
in the prairie, and noted down in its solitude, he sends forth, with
all the wildness and freshness of nature about it. This, together
with his free and easy conversational style, plentifully sprinkled
with Americanisms, gives a peculiar charm to his descriptions, which
are not merely animated or life-like, but _life_ itself. The reader
is made to believe himself in the desert, or lying among friendly
Indians in the wigwam, or hurried along in the excitement of the
chase. He is constantly surrounded by the figures of the red man, and
hears the rustle of their feathers, or the dash of their half-tamed
steeds as they bound by him.
"The work is ornamented with hundreds of engravings, taken from
original pictures drawn by Mr. Catlin, of the persons, manners,
customs, and scenes that he met with in his wanderings. They give
an additional value to those volumes which are published, as the
title-page informs us, by Mr. Catlin himself, at the Egyptian Hall.
We wish him all the success to which his candour no less than his
talents fully entitle him."
----*----
MORNING HERALD, _London_.
"In the two ample volumes just published, and illustrated with more
than 300 plates, Mr. Catlin has given to the world a lasting and
invaluable memorial of the doomed race of the Red Man, which, after
having from immemorial time held the unmolested tenancy of an entire
continent, is now but too obviously hurried on to utter extinction.
Mr. Catlin's literary matter resembles his drawings; it has all the
freshness of the sketch from nature. Through both he brings us into
companionship with the red man, as if careering with him over the
boundless plains, the primeval forests of his hunting grounds in the
far West, or in the vicinity of his temporary village settlements,
witnessing his athletic games, his strange, fantastic dances, and his
spontaneous endurance of those revolting tortures by which he evinces
his unflinching stoicism."
----*----
MORNING POST, _London_.
"Upwards of three hundred very well executed etchings from the
paintings, drawn by Mr. Catlin, adorn these volumes, and offer to the
eye one of the most complete museums of an almost unknown people that
ever was given to the public. The style of the narrative is diffuse,
inartificial, and abounding in Yankeeisms; but it is earnest, honest,
and unpretending; and contains most undoubted and varied information
relative to the red savage of America, fresh from the wilds, and
unembittered by border hostility or unfounded prejudice. These
volumes are handsomely printed, and 'brought out,' in all respects,
with much care and taste."
----*----
SPECTATOR, _London_. _Five Columns._
"The illustrative plates of these volumes are numbering upwards
of three hundred subjects--landscapes, hunting scenes, Indian
ceremonies, and portraits form a remarkable feature, and possess a
permanent interest as graphic records. They are outline etchings
from the author's paintings, and are admirable for the distinct
and lively manner in which the characteristics of the scenes and
persons are portrayed: what is called a _style of art_ would have
been impertinent, and might have tended to falsify. Mr. Catlin, in
his homely, but spirited manner, seizes upon the most distinguishing
points of his subjects by dint of understanding their value, and
every touch has significance and force: hence the number of details
and the extent of view embraced in these small and slight sketches,
hence their animation and reality."
----*----
ATLAS, _London_. _Three Notices, Twelve Columns._
"This publication may be regarded as the most valuable accession to
the history of the fast perishing races of the aboriginal world that
has ever been collected by a single individual. The descriptions it
contains are minute and full, and possess the advantage of being
wonderfully tested by the long experience of the writer, and verified
by the concurrent testimonials of many individuals intimately
acquainted with the scenes and races delineated. The engravings,
which are liberal to an unprecedented extent, cannot be too highly
praised for their utility as illustrations. To the readers who have
never had an opportunity of visiting Mr. Catlin's gallery, these
engravings will form for them quite a museum of Indian curiosities
in themselves; while to those already familiar with the actual
specimens, they will serve as useful and agreeable souvenirs. But we
chiefly approve and recommend this work to universal circulation for
the sake of the pure and noble philanthropy by which it is everywhere
inspired. As the advocate of the oppressed Indian, now vanishing
before the white man on the soil of his fathers, Mr. Catlin deserves
the unmixed thanks of the Christian world. His volumes are full of
stimulants to benevolent exertion, and bear the strongest testimony
to the character of the races for whose preservation he pleads." #/
----*----
UNITED SERVICE GAZETTE, _London_.
"Mr. Catlin is one of the most remarkable men of the age. Every one
who has visited his singularly interesting gallery at the Egyptian
Hall, must have been struck by his remarkable intelligence on every
subject connected with the North American Indians; but of its extent,
as well as of his extraordinary enthusiasm and thirst for adventure,
we had formed no idea until we had perused these volumes. In the
present _blazé_ condition of English literature, in which hardly any
work is published that is not founded more or less on other volumes
which have preceded it, until authorship has dwindled to little more
than the art of emptying one vessel into another, it is refreshing to
come across a book which, like the one before us, is equally novel
in subject, manner, and execution, and which may be pronounced,
without hyperbole, one of the most original productions which have
issued from the press for many years. It is wholly impossible, in the
compass of a newspaper notice, either to analyze or afford even a
tolerable idea of the contents of such a book; and for the present,
at least, we must limit ourselves altogether to the first volume."
----*----
CALEDONIAN MERCURY, _Edinburgh_.
"_Mr. Catlin's Lectures on the North-American Indians._--We have much
pleasure in publishing the following testimonial from a gentleman
well qualified to pronounce an opinion, on the remarkable fidelity
and effect of Mr. Catlin's interesting and instructive exhibition:--
'Cottage, Haddington, 15th April, 1843.
'Dear Sir,--I have enjoyed much pleasure in attending your lectures
at the Waterloo-rooms in Edinburgh. Your delineations of the Indian
character, the display of beautiful costumes, and the native Indian
manners, true to the life, realised to my mind and view scenes I
had so often witnessed in the parts of the Indian countries where
I had been; and for twenty years' peregrinations in those parts,
from Montreal to the Great Slave River, north, and from the shores
of the Atlantic, crossing the Rocky Mountains, to the mouth of the
Columbia River, on the Pacific Ocean, west, I had opportunities of
seeing much. Your lectures and exhibition have afforded me great
pleasure and satisfaction, and I shall wish you all that success
which you so eminently deserve, for the rich treat which you have
afforded in our enlightened, literary, and scientific metropolis.
'I remain, dear Sir, yours very truly,
'JOHN HALDANE.
'_To George Catlin, Esq._'
"The following is an extract of a letter received some days since by
a gentleman in Edinburgh, from Mr. James Hargrave, of the Hudson's
Bay Company, dated York Factory, Hudson's Bay, 10th December, 1842:--
#/
'Should you happen to fall in with Catlin's Letters on the North
American Indians, I would strongly recommend a perusal of them for
the purpose of acquiring a knowledge of the habits and customs of
those tribes among whom he was placed. Catlin's sketches are true
to life, and are powerfully descriptive of their appearance and
character.'"
----*----
THE WORLD OF FASHION, _London_.
"We venture to affirm of Mr. Catlin's book, which can be said of very
few others, that it is impossible to open it at any page, and not
continue its perusal with unmingled satisfaction. It has too the rare
quality of being written by a man who says nothing but that which
he knows, who describes nothing but that which he has seen. We feel
while reading the book as in the society of a man of extraordinary
observation, of great talent, of wonderful accomplishments; and most
cordially and earnestly do we recommend this invaluable book to the
patronage of the public generally, and to the perusal of our readers
in particular."
----*----
WEEKLY DISPATCH, _London_.
"A person might well be startled and frightened at the appearance of
two such large volumes as these on only the manners, customs, and
condition of the North American Indians, a race of savages now almost
extinct. With all this complaint against the immense bulk of a book,
moreover, on such a subject, we are bound to confess that not only is
it the least wearisome of large books that we have for a long time
seen, but that it is at least one of the most amusing and animating
amongst even the condensed publications that for a considerable
period have been submitted to our perusal and judgment, and we can
confidently recommend it to our readers."
----*----
CHAMBERS'S EDINBURGH JOURNAL. _Two Notices, Four Columns._
"Of all the works yet published on the subject of the aboriginal
inhabitants of North America, no one, it seems to us, can be compared
in point of accuracy and extent of research with that of Mr. Catlin.
In the course of eight years he traversed North America almost from
end to end, saw and mixed with forty-eight Indian tribes, composing
a large portion of the two millions of red people yet in existence,
examined personally into all their peculiarities, and, finally,
accumulated a noble gallery of portraits, and a rich museum of
curiosities, calculated to form at once a lasting monument to himself
and an invaluable record of Indian persons, manners, and habiliments.
"Mr. Catlin, combining all the qualities of the traveller,
artist, and historian, merits no sparing notice. His two volumes,
large octavo, and closely printed, are full of most interesting
matter, and contain, besides, upwards of three hundred beautiful
illustrations, engraved from the original paintings."
----*----
"Légation des Etats-Unis, Paris, Dec. 8th, 1841.
"Dear Sir,--No man can appreciate better than myself the admirable
fidelity of your drawings and book, which I have lately received.
They are equally spirited and accurate; they are true to nature.
Things that _are_, are not sacrificed, as they too often are by the
painter, to things as in his judgment they should be.
"During eighteen years of my life I was superintendent of Indian
affairs in the north-western territory of the United States; and
during more than five I was Secretary of War, to which department
belongs the general control of Indian concerns. I know the Indians
thoroughly; I have spent many a month in their camps, council-houses,
villages, and hunting grounds; I have fought with them and against
them; and I have negotiated seventeen treaties of peace or of cession
with them. I mention these circumstances to show you that I have a
good right to speak confidently upon the subject of your drawings;
among them I recognize many of my old acquaintances, and everywhere I
am struck with the vivid representations of them and their customs,
of their peculiar features and of their costumes. Unfortunately they
are receding before the advancing tide of our population, and are
probably destined, at no distant day, wholly to disappear; but your
collection will preserve them, as far as human art can do, and will
form the most perfect monument of an extinguished race that the world
has ever seen.
"LEWIS CASS.
"_To Geo. Catlin._"
CHAPTER VI.
The Author's wife and two children arrive in the British Queen, from
New York--First appreciation of London--Sight-seeing--Author
lectures in the Royal Institution--Suggests a _Museum of
Mankind_--Great applause--Vote of thanks by members of the Royal
Institution--The "_Museum of History_"--Author lectures in the
other literary and scientific institutions of London--Author
dines with the Royal Geographical Society, and with the Royal
Geological Society--Mrs. Catlin's travels in the "Far West"--Her
welcome, and kind friends in London.
My work being published under the flattering auspices explained in the
foregoing pages, and now in the hands of the reading public, attracted
additional numbers of visitors to my Rooms, greatly increasing the
labours of poor Daniel, and calling also for more of my time and
attention, which I could now better devote to it. My old friends were
calling to congratulate me on the success of my book, and strangers
to form an acquaintance with me and offer me the civilities of their
houses.
Though every part of these calls upon my time, either in the labours
of my exhibition or in the society of friends, was pleasing and
gratifying to me, yet it became necessary for my health to evade a part
of these excitements on either hand, and I subsequently endeavoured,
by a limited indulgence in the pleasures of society, and a moderate
endurance of the excitements and fatigue of my Rooms, to save my life;
throwing the cares and labours of the exhibition, as much as possible,
upon the broader shoulders and stronger lungs of Daniel and his
assistants.
I felt now as if I had a sort of citizenship in London, and began
to think of seeing its "sights;" and from this time may date the
commencement of my real appreciation of the elegances and comforts of
London, its hospitalities, and the genuine English character.
It was an opportune moment, also, for the arrival of my dear wife and
her two infant children, for whom I had written to New York, and who
were just landing from the British Queen, in London, to share the kind
attentions and compliments that were being paid to me, and also for
seeing with me the sights and curiosities of the metropolis.
About this time I was highly complimented by an invitation to deliver
a lecture in the Royal Institution, Albemarle-street. The venerable
members of that institution were nearly all present, and every seat
was filled. I had, on the occasion, several living figures, dressed in
Indian costumes, with weapons in hand, as well as many of my paintings
exhibited on my easel, as illustrations; and I was highly gratified
with the attention and repeated applause, convincing me that the
subject and myself were kindly received.
I endeavoured, in the compass of an evening's lecture, to give as
comprehensive a view as I could of the motives which had led me into
the Indian countries--of the time I had spent in them--of the extent
and nature of the collection I had made--of the condition and numbers
of the various tribes, and of their personal appearance and habits of
life, which I illustrated by my numerous paintings, and by the curious
manufactures of their own hands. I endeavoured also to delineate
their true native character, as I had found it in its most primitive
condition--and to explain the principal causes that have been, and
still are, leading to their rapid declension.
I took advantage of this occasion likewise to introduce a subject
which had been for many years my favourite theme, which had constantly
stimulated me through my toils in the Indian country, and which, as
I was the first to propose in my own country, I believe I was the
first to suggest on this side of the Atlantic--a MUSEUM of
MANKIND. A shout of enthusiastic applause burst from every
part of the Hall when the subject was named, and rounds of applause
followed every sentence when I proceeded to say, that in the toils
and dangers of my remotest travels in the wilderness I had been
strengthened and nerved by the hope and the belief, that if I lived to
finish my studies and to return with my collection, I should be able
to show to the world the plan upon which a Museum could be formed, to
contain and perpetuate the looks and manners and history of all the
declining and vanishing races of man, and that my collection would
ultimately form the basis of such an institution.
I agreed with all the world as to the great interest and value of their
noble collections of beasts, and birds, and reptiles, of fossils, of
minerals, of fishes, of insects, and of plants, all of which can be
gathered hundreds of years hence as well as at the present time; and
I believed that all of the reasoning world who would give the subject
a moment's thought, would agree with _me_, that there was one museum
yet to be made, far transcending in interest and value all others
yet designed, and which must needs be made soon, or it will be for
ever lost--a museum containing the familiar looks, the manufactures,
history, and records of all the remnants of the declining races of our
fellow-men.
It occurred to me, and I said it then, that Great Britain has more
than thirty colonies in different quarters of the globe, in which the
numbers of civilized men are increasing, and the native tribes are
wasting away--that the march of civilization is everywhere, as it is in
America, a war of extermination, and that of our own species. For the
occupation of a new country, the first enemy that must fall is _man_,
and his like cannot be transplanted from any other quarter of the
globe. Our war is not with beasts or with birds: the grizly bear, the
lion, and the tiger are allowed to live. Our weapons are not employed
against them: we do not give them whiskey, and rum, and the small pox,
nor the bayonet; they are allowed to live and thrive upon our soil, and
yet their skins are of great value in our museums; but to complete a
title, man, our fellow-man, the noblest work of God, with thoughts,
with sentiments and sympathies like our own, must be extinguished; and
he dies on his own soil, unchronicled and unknown (save to the ruthless
hands that have slain him, and would bury his history with his body in
oblivion), when not even his _skin_ has a place assigned it amongst
those of the beasts and birds of his country.
From England, from France, and the United States, government vessels,
in this age of colonization, are floating to every part of the globe,
and in them, artists and men of science could easily be conveyed to
every race, and their collections returned free of expense, were there
an institution formed and ready to receive and perpetuate the results
of their labours.
I believed that the time had arrived for the creation of such an
institution, and that well-directed efforts to bring it into existence
would have the admiration and countenance of all the philanthropic
world.
There was but one expression of feeling from every part of the hall at
the close of these remarks, and every voice seemed to say "Yes--the
noble philanthropy of this Christian and enlightened and enlightening
age calls for it, and it must be done before it is too late."[3]
[3] The noble and unaided efforts of my best of friends, Captain
Shippard, to bring into existence such an institution, are, I
believe, too well known and appreciated by the English public to
require more of me here, than barely to refer to his beautifully
illustrated lectures on the "_Arabians_" and the "_Ruined
Cities of America_;" and whilst wishing all success to his
noble enterprise, I beg to refer the reader to Appendix B for a
synopsis of his design.
A few days after my lecture was delivered, I received with much
satisfaction from the secretary of the institution the following
communication, which the reader will allow me the vanity of inserting
here:--
"Sir,--I have the honour to return you the thanks of the members
of the _Royal Institution of Great Britain_ for your interesting
account of your residence and adventures among the native tribes of
North American Indians, with notices of their social condition,
customs, mysteries, and modes of warfare--communicated at the weekly
meeting of the members on Friday, the 14th February.
"I am, Sir, your very obedient Servant,
"EDWARD R. DANIELL, _Secretary_.
"_To Geo. Catlin, Esq._"
* * * * *
Invitations from the other literary and scientific institutions of
London afforded me the opportunity of repeating my lectures in most of
their halls, where I was uniformly received with applause, which was
also a source of much gratification to me. These interviews suddenly
and delightfully led me into the society of literary and scientific
men, and also into the noble collections and libraries under their
superintendence. I was here at once ushered, as it were, into a
new world--a new atmosphere--and in it was met and welcomed every
where with the utmost cordiality and kindness; libraries, museums,
laboratories, and lectures were free to me; and not only the private
tables of the advocates of science, but their public tables in their
banqueting halls, prepared a seat for me.
Thus were my labours being requited; and I was happy in the conviction
that the claims of the poor Indians were being heard in the right
tribunal, and that I was their advocate at the true source from which
emanated most of the great and moral influences that govern and improve
the world.
I was invited to the annual dinners of the Royal Geographical,
Geological, and Historical Societies; and in responding to the
compliments paid me at all of them, in proposing my health and the
prosperity of my country, I was delighted to find that my advocacy
of the rights of the poor Indian, and my scheme for a _Museum_ of
_Mankind_, were met and sanctioned with rounds of enthusiastic applause.
I have mentioned that my dear wife with her two children had arrived
from New York, and the pleasures and endearments of my own little
fireside, now transplanted into a foreign land, were stealing away
their part of my time, which, with the necessary attention to the
kind civilities being paid us, our sight-seeing, our dinings-out,
our drives, and my attendance in my rooms and lectures at night, was
curiously divided and engrossed.
The advent of my dear Clara, with her two babes, was like the coming
of the warm and gentle breezes of spring--she who, though delicate
and tender, had been, during the three last years of my rambles in
the Indian wilds, my indefatigable companion--She who had traced and
retraced with me the winding mazes of the mighty Mississippi, the
Missouri, the Ohio, and the Arkansas--and with the lightness of the
bounding antelopes that dwell upon their shores, had darted over their
grassy banks and their green carpeted and enamelled slopes, and plucked
their loveliest flowers--she who had also traced with me the shores
of the great lakes of the north, and inhaled the glowing sweetness of
Florida's lovely coast--and had kept her journal of thirteen thousand
miles of wild rambles with her husband, and since her return to the
land of her birth had blessed him in the richness of gift with two
children, was now by his side (as I have said, like the coming of
spring), to cheer him with the familiar sweet smiles and sounds in
which he never knew guile.[4]
[4] The reader will pardon these expressions, and others of a
similar nature that may occasionally occur, for they apply to
one who now rests with the silent dead, as will be explained in
future pages of this work.
Thanks to the kind friends who took her fair hand and bade her
welcome--for they were many, and ready to contribute to her happiness,
which filled (at that moment at least) the cup of our mutual enjoyment.
CHAPTER VII.
The Author dines with the Royal Highland Society--The Duke of
Richmond presides--His Grace's compliment to the Author
and his country--Sir David Wilkie--His compliment to the
Author--Charles Augustus Murray and the Author at the Caledonian
Ball (Almack's) in Indian costumes--Their rehearsal--Dressing
and painting--Entering the ball--Alarm of ladies--Mr.
Murray's infinite amusement (_incognito_) amongst his
friends--War-dance and war-whoops--Great applause--Bouquets of
flowers--Scalp-dance--Brooches and bracelets presented to the
chiefs-Trinkets returned--Perspiration carries off the paint, and
Mr. Murray recognised--Amusement of his friends--The "Indians"
return to Egyptian Hall at seven in the morning--Their amusing
appearance.
Among the many very friendly invitations extended to me about this
time, there was one which I cannot omit to notice in this place.--I
was invited to take a seat at the _Royal Highland Society's_ annual
dinner, at which his Grace the Duke of Richmond presided. The name of
this society explains its character, and most of the guests at the
table were in full highland dress, with their kilts, and with the
badges and plaids of their peculiar clans. The scene was altogether a
very picturesque one, and I observed that their chiefs wore the eagle's
quills for the same purpose and in the same manner that the Indians do;
but I did not see any of them painted red, as the Indians paint them,
to adorn their heads as symbols of war when they are going to battle.
The banqueting hall was beautifully arranged, and two of Her Majesty's
pipers from the Palace, in the most gorgeous Highland dress, were
perambulating the table "in full blast" whilst we were eating.
The Duke of Richmond, who is an easy, affable, and entirely
unostentatious man, and the best president at a convivial table
that I ever saw, offered the customary healths, of--the Queen--the
Prince--the Duke, &c., which were drunk with the usual enthusiasm, and
after that proceeded to pay his ingenious and judicious compliments to
individuals at the table, by alluding, in the most concise and amusing
manner, to their exploits or other merits, and then proposed their
healths.
After we had all joined in the uproar of--Hip, hip, hips,--with one
foot on our chairs and the other on the table, in a number of such
cases, he arose and said--
"Gentlemen, I now rise quite confident of your approbation of the
sentiment I am to propose, and the sentiments I am to offer. The
nations of the earth, like the individuals in the different branches
of a great family, stand in certain degrees of relationship towards
each other; and as those degrees of consanguinity are more or less
remote, so are the friendships and attachments of those nations for
each other. Now, gentlemen, as an individual component part of one of
the great nations of that great national family, I feel proud to say,
that there are two of that family so closely related, not only in
commercial interests, but by blood, as almost to identify them in an
unity of existence.--The relationship that I speak of, gentlemen (and
which I believe will be familiar to many of you, as married men), is
that of parent and child."
At this period commenced a tremendous cheering, and all eyes seemed
to be in a rotary motion, endeavouring to fix upon the representative
of that nearly related country on whom the next responsibility was to
fall. His Grace proceeded:--
"Gentlemen, the term parent and child I have used to express the
endearments of one stage of domestic relations; but there is
another which lessens not the tie, but carries with it the respect
that children do not win--I would call it father and son (_immense
cheering_). I perceive, gentlemen, that you all understand me, and
are preparing for the sentiment I am to offer; but I would remark,
that when a distinguished individual from one of those nearly related
countries pays a visit to the other, common courtesy demands that
he should be treated with kindness and respect. If that individual,
gentlemen, be one who, by the force and energy of his own mind, has
struck out and accomplished any great undertaking for the advancement
of science, or the benefit of mankind, he is a philanthropist,
a public benefactor, and entitled to our highest admiration
(_cheering_).
"Gentlemen, I have the satisfaction of informing you that there is at
our table an individual whose name when I mention it will be familiar
to most of you; who, contemplating several millions of human beings
in his own country sinking into oblivion before the destructive
influences of civilization, had the energy of character, the courage
and philanthropy, to throw himself, unprotected and unaided, into the
midst of them, with his brushes and his pen, endeavouring to preserve
for future ages their familiar looks, and all that appertained to
their native modes and history. In this noble enterprise, gentlemen,
this individual laboured eight years of his life; and having with
incessant toil and hazard visited most of the native tribes of North
America, he has brought home and to our city a collection (which
I trust you have all seen) of vast interest and value, which does
great honour to his name, and entitles him to our highest admiration
and esteem. I now propose, gentlemen, the health of Mr. Catlin, and
success to the great country that gave him birth!"
Whilst these compliments were applying to my country only, I was fully
confident there was some one of my countrymen present better able than
myself to respond to them; but when they became personal, and all eyes
were fixed upon me, I saw there was no alternative, and that I must
reply, as well as I could, to the unexpected compliment thus paid me
and answered to with a bumper and many rounds of applause, every guest
at the table, as before, with one foot on his chair and the other on
the edge of the table. An awful pause for a moment, while my name was
echoed from every part of the room, brought me upon my feet, and I
replied: but I never shall recollect exactly how. I believe, however,
that I explained the views with which I had visited the Indian tribes,
and what I had done; and put in a few words, as well as I could, for my
country.
His Grace next rose, and, after the most chaste and eloquent eulogium
upon his works and his character, proposed the health of Sir David
Wilkie, who, to my great surprise and unspeakable satisfaction, I found
was sitting by my side and the next to my elbow. His health was drunk
with great enthusiasm, and after he had responded to the compliment he
begged to be allowed to express to his Grace and the gentlemen present
the very great satisfaction he had felt in being able to join in the
expression of thanks to so distinguished a gentleman as Mr. Catlin, and
whom it afforded him great pleasure to find was by his side. He stated
that he had been many times in my exhibition rooms, but without the
good luck to have met me there. He commented at great length upon the
importance and value of the collection; and, while he was according to
me great credit for the boldness and originality of the design, he took
especial pains to compliment me for the execution of my paintings, many
of which, he said, as works of art, justly entitled me to the hands of
artists in this country, and he was proud to begin by offering me his,
in good fellowship, which he did, and raised me from my seat as he said
it.
This was sanctioned by a round of applause, and as he resumed his seat
I was left upon my feet, and bound again to reply, which I did as well
as I could.
The reader can more easily imagine than I can describe, how gratifying
to me was such a mode of acquaintance with so distinguished and so
worthy a man as Sir David Wilkie, at whose elbow I was now placed, and,
for the most part of the evening, in familiar conversation.
The pipers played, the wine flowed, many good songs were sung; a
Highland dance was spiritedly flung by M'Ian, M'Donald, and several
others, in Highland costume. An Indian song and the war-whoop were
called for, and given--and with other good fellowship and fun this
splendid affair was finished.
I was at this time devoting certain hours of the day to visitors in my
Rooms, and I found my kind friend C. A. Murray almost daily bringing
ladies of rank and fashion upon his arm, to take a peep into the
mysteries of savage life, which he was so well prepared to explain to
them, and to illustrate by my numerous paintings and works of Indian
manufacture.
I met him here one day, however, on my entering, where he had been
for some time waiting without acting the beau, for any one, which was
quite an unusual thing. He called me aside, and told me there was a
chance for us to make _a sensation_ if I felt disposed to join him
in it, and to make a great deal of amusement for others as well as a
dish of fun for ourselves--this was, to assume the Indian costume
and throw ourselves into the Caledonian ball, which was to be given
at Almack's that evening, and for which he had procured the tickets.
For the information of those who never have seen one of those annual
balls, I will briefly say that they are decidedly the most brilliant
and splendid affairs that can be seen in London--presenting the most
gorgeous display of costumes and diamonds that the world can exhibit,
short of royalty itself. It was but for Mr. Murray to propose--the
finest costumes were taken from the Walls of my Room--weapons,
head-dresses, scalping-knives, scalps, &c.--and placed in one of the
chambers of the Egyptian Hall: and three o'clock was the hour appointed
for Mr. Murray to meet me again, to fit us with our respective dresses,
and go through a sort of rehearsal in our songs, dances, &c., which we
might be called upon to enact during the evening, and in which it would
be a great pity for us Indian knowing ones to make any mistake.
Mr. Murray was punctual at the hour of three; and having proposed that
my nephew, Burr Catlin, a young man of 21 years and then living with
me, should be of the party, we entered the dressing-room, and were soon
suited with our respective dresses and took our weapons in hand. My
nephew, Burr, being six feet two inches, with a bold and Indian outline
of face, was arrayed in a Sioux dress; and it was instantly agreed that
he should be put forward as the Big Sioux--the Great Chief Wan-ne-ton.
He happened to wear the identical head-dress of that distinguished
chief, which was made of war-eagle's quills and ermine skins. He was to
hold himself entirely mute upon his dignity, according to the customs
of the country. I was dressed as a warrior of the _Sac_ tribe, with
head ornaments of red and white quills of the war-eagle, denoting,
according to the custom of the country, my readiness for war or for
peace. Mr. Murray had chosen a dress less rich, and more light and easy
to act in, and a head-dress that was made much like a wig of long black
hair spreading over his shoulders and falling down nearly to the calves
of his legs, surmounted by a solitary eagle's quill--giving himself
more the appearance of a "Bois Brûlé," as they are termed on the Indian
frontiers of America--a race of half-castes, who are generally used as
interpreters, speaking a little French and some "Americaine" (as they
call the English language). These curious personages are generally the
spokesmen for all parties of Indians travelling abroad or delegations
to neighbouring tribes. This character exactly suited Mr. Murray, as
he spoke the French and the German, and also a little of two or three
Indian tongues; and, in the position of an interpreter for the party,
he would be the vehicle of communication between the two chiefs and his
numerous friends and relations, both ladies and gentlemen, whom he was
to meet in every part of the Rooms.
The least discerning will easily see that he was most ingeniously
laying his plans for a great deal of amusement; and if my readers could
have seen the manner in which he was dressed out and metamorphosed for
the occasion, they would have insured him, at a low premium, fun enough
on that evening to have lasted him for a week. Having arrayed our
persons in the respective costumes we had agreed upon, and arranged the
different characters which we were to sustain, I took the Indian drum
or tambour in my hand, and to the music of that and the chief's rattle,
and our combined voices in concert in an Indian song, we practised the
war-dance and scalp-dance of the Sioux, until we agreed that we could
"do them" beyond (at least) the reach of civilized criticisms, in
case we should be called upon to dance, which it was agreed should be
at first met as a condescension that the chiefs could not submit to,
but which it was understood we should yield to if the measure was to
be very strenuously urged. Matters being thus arranged, we adjourned
until nine o'clock, when we were to meet again, and make our final
preparations for our début in the ballroom.
At nine we were drawing on our buckskin leggings, and mocassins fringed
with scalp-locks and ornamented with porcupine quills of various
dyes; our shirts or tuniques were also of deerskins richly ornamented,
and their sleeves fringed, like the leggings, with locks of the hair
of Indian victims slain in battle. We painted our faces and hands
of a copper colour, in close imitation of the colour of the Indian,
and over and across that, to make the illusion more complete, gave
occasional bold daubs of vermilion and green or black paint, so that,
with our heavy and richly garnished robes of the buffalo, thrown over
our shoulders and trailing on the floor as we walked, with tomahawks
and scalping knives in our belts, our shields of buffalo hides on our
arms, with our quivers slung and our bows and arrows clenched in our
hands, we were prepared for the sensation we were in a few minutes
to make. We stood and smiled at each others' faces a few moments in
curious anticipation, practising over each other's names, which we had
almost forgotten to take. And having decided that the great chief was
_Wan-ne-ton_, that the warrior's name was _Na-see-us-kuk_, and that of
the interpreter _Pah-ti-coo-chee_, we seated ourselves in a carriage,
and in three minutes were being ushered through the crowded halls
leading to the splendid and brilliant array, into the midst of which a
long Indian step or two more placed us!
There was a little cruelty in the suddenness of our approach, and a
simultaneous yell which we gave, innocently mistaking the effect it
might have upon the nerves of ladies standing near us, several of whom,
on catching the sound and then the sight of us, gave sudden shrieks far
more piercing and startling than the savage war-whoop that had been
sounded over their shoulders. By this time we formed the centre of
attraction in the room, and we stood in so dense a crowd to be gazed
at, that nothing could be scanned of us lower down than our chins and
shoulders. The big Sioux chief, however, who was a head taller than
the crowd around him, flourishing his enormous head-dress of eagle's
quills, was quietly rolling his eagle eyes around over the multitude,
who were getting so satisfactory a view of him that it eased us a
little from the rush that otherwise would have been upon us.
We had made our entry into this world of fashion and splendour entirely
unexpected by any one, and of course unknown to all. Here was truly
a splendid field for my friend Mr. Murray, and the time for his
operations had now arrived. All questions (and there were many, and
in various languages) put to the big chief or the warrior were, by
the understanding, answered only by frowns; and the interrogations
referred to _Pah-ti-coo-chee_, the interpreter. This brought him at
once into great demand, and he replied at first in Indian, and then
strained a few distorted words of French and German into his replies,
by which he made himself partially understood. Lords and ladies, dukes
and duchesses, and princes and princesses of his acquaintance were in
the room, and now gazing at his copper colour, bedaubed with red and
black paint, and patiently listening to and endeavouring to translate
his garbled French and German and Indian for some description of the
grand personages he had in tow, without dreaming of the honourable
gentleman upon whose visage they were actually looking. From a custom
of the Prairie country, which he had wisely thought of, he carried a
rifle-bullet in his mouth whilst he was talking, and his voice was thus
as much a stranger as his face.
Amongst the gazers on, and those who questioned him, were many of his
most familiar friends; and even his own brother, the Earl of Dunmore,
drew some marvellous tales from him before he made himself known, which
he did at last to him and a few others of his friends, that he might
the better crack the good jokes he had come to enjoy.
The crowd, by this time, had completely wedged us in, so that there was
no apparent possibility of moving from our position, yet it was not a
crowd that was insupportable: it was, at least for a while, a pleasure
to be thus invested, as we were, by silks and satins, by necklaces
of diamonds and necks as fair as alabaster, by gold lace, and
golden epaulettes, chapeaux and small swords; but the weight of our
bison robes at length brought us to the expedient that our ingenious
interpreter put forth, which gained us temporary relief, and gave us
locomotive powers by which we could show ourselves at full length, and
occasionally escape investigations when they became too close for our
good friend or ourselves.
It was a lucky thought of our interpreter, which he divulged to some of
his confidential friends much to our advantage, that the paints which
the Indians used were indelible colours, and he regretted to learn that
some of the ladies had injured their costly dresses by being in too
close contact with us. And again he feared that some of the scalp-locks
on the dresses of the chief and the warrior were not quite dry, as they
were fresh from the country where they had just been at war with the
Sacs and Foxes. This had a delightful effect, and we were not again in
danger of suffocation, though the space we had to move in was limited
enough during the rest of the night for our warm dresses and our
enormous buffalo robes.
The introductions I had on that night, to lords and ladies, and to
dukes and duchesses, as _Na-see-us-huk_, a famous warrior of the Sacs,
and my nephew, as _Wan-ne-ton_, the great Sioux Chief, were honours
certainly that he or I could never have aspired to under any other
names; and our misfortune was, that their duration was necessarily as
brief as the names and titles we had assumed.
In the midst of this truly magnificent scene, where our interpreter
was introducing us as two dignified personages from the base of the
Rocky Mountains, and enjoying his own fun with his friends as he moved
around, and after a set of quadrilles had finished, it was announced
through the rooms that the Indians were going to give the War Dance!
This of course raised a new excitement, and the crowd thickened, until
at length a red rope or cord was passed around us three about as
high as our waists. The bystanders were desired to take hold of this
and walk back, which they did in all directions until a large space
was opened for us, and we were left standing in the centre. We found
ourselves there in full display in front of the ladies patronesses of
the ball, who were seated upon a platform, elevated several feet above
the level of the floor, and who, it was stated to us, had expressed a
desire to see the Indians dance.
Alas! poor Murray, he had then an off-hand use to make of his mongrel
dialect, which seemed to embarrass him very much, and which he had
found he got along with much better in the crowd. We were also
pledged to hesitate about our dignity in case we were asked to dance,
which here made a dialogue in Indian language indispensable, giving
our interpreter fresh alarm; nevertheless, with enough of the same
determination and firmness left that used to decide him to dash through
the turbid rivers of the prairie, or to face the menacing savages that
he met in the wilderness, he resolved to go through with it, and the
Indian dialogue that he opened with me was never doubted, I believe,
for it was never criticised. The objections raised by the chief and his
warrior were translated in tolerable French (with the bullet accent),
to their ladyships and the audience around us. The dignity of a Sioux
Chief could not be lowered by such a condescension, and the dance could
not be made without him. "Good Mr. _Pah-ti-coo-chee_," said her Grace
the Duchess of ---- (who was the presiding patroness on the occasion),
in excellent French, "do, I beg of you, do prevail on that fine old
fellow to gratify us with a dance--don't let him look so distressed
about it--tell him that he has just been looking on to see some of
the greatest chiefs in our country dance, and he must not think it
degrading to show us the mode in which the Indians dance; I dare say it
is very fine. Oh, dear, what shall we do? they are fine-looking men--I
wish I could speak to them--I dare say they know Charles A. Murray,--he
was in their country--I have read his book. Where's Murray? he ought to
be here to-night; I am sure he knows them. Do you know Murray, my good
fellows? Ah, no, they don't understand French, though."
Our interpreter smiled, and the Sioux chief and the Sac warrior came
very near the misfortune also. The arguments of the duchess were
translated to the chief and the warrior with great difficulty, when,
after a few moments of silence, they began to put off their robes,
which were very deliberately folded up and laid aside, to the great
gratification of the ladies patronesses and the rest of the crowd.
By three dancers the war dance of the Sioux is given with considerable
effect, and we were now ready to "go into it." The drum, which until
this moment had been slung on Mr. Murray's back, was taken into my
hands, the chief took his rattle in one hand and his war-club in the
other, while the interpreter's shield skilfully manoeuvred over his
left shoulder and his tomahawk brandished in his right hand, which,
with the shrill sounds of the war-song and the war-whoop, altogether
suddenly opened a new era in the musical and dancing sphere of Almack's.
When it was done, the whole house rung with applause; bouquets of
flowers were showered upon us, and many compliments were paid us by the
most bewitching young ladies, but which, unfortunately for us, we could
not understand. The crowd now thickened around us to shake hands with
us and lavish their praises upon us; and among them a lovely little
creature, whose neck seemed forged from a bouquet of white lilies, who
was supported on the arm of an officer, with her languishing soft blue
eyes, and breath sweeter than that of the antelope that jostles the
first dew-drops of the morning from the violets of the prairie, was
beseeching me to allow her to adjust on my wrist a magnificent bracelet
which she had taken from her own lovely arm, and for which she wished
only, as she made me understand by signs, a small scalp-lock from the
seams of my leggings. To play our parts well it was necessary, for
the time being, to do as an Indian warrior would do--I tore off the
scalp-lock and gave it to her, and when her fair hands had adjusted
the precious trinket on my wrist, I raised the leathern shirt a little
higher on my arm and showed her the colour of my skin. This unfolded a
secret to her which compelled me to speak, and I said to her and her
guardian, "Pray don't expose us; let us have our fun. Your precious
trinket I will restore to you in a little time." This was answered
with the sweetest of smiles, and, as my joke was thus ended, I turned
round and found the ring prepared again for another dance. Fair hands
had been lavish upon the other two Indians, who were already decorated
with several keepsakes of beautiful and precious workmanship. The
scalp-dance now commenced, and as I had brought with me a real scalp,
according to the custom of a warrior, we gave it the full effect and
fury of such scenes as they are acted in the wilderness. We entered
upon this unfortunate affair with our prizes displayed in the fullest
exultation, and no doubt might have gained many more but for the
unforeseen misfortune which our over exertions to please and astonish
had innocently brought upon us. The warmth of the rooms at this hour
had become almost insupportable, and, in the midst of it, our violent
exertions, under the heat of our Indian dresses, had produced a flow
of perspiration which had carried away the paint in streaks from our
foreheads to our chins, making us simple studies for the ethnologist,
if any there were present, and easy of solution. Poor Murray! he
had supplied himself with a red handkerchief, which he had often
pressed upon his face, the consequence of which was--and it was funny
enough--that his nose and his chin, and the other prominent points of
his face, had all become white, long before he had finished his fun or
been willing to acknowledge our true character and caste.
However, he had much merriment in receiving the cheerful
congratulations of his friends (who now recognised him once more as the
Honourable C. A. Murray), and in introducing my nephew and myself in
our real names to many of his friends, we distributed scalp-locks and
feathers to all the fair hands whose trinkets we held and restored;
and after partaking of the good things that were in store for us, and
looking and laughing at our white-washed faces in the mirrors, we made
our way to the front door as the first step towards a retreat to the
Egyptian Hall. We waited in vain full half an hour for a vehicle, such
was the rush of carriages at the door. The only alternative seemed
to be to take to our legs, and once resolved, we dashed out into the
street, and made our way in the best manner we could. It was now past
sunrise and raining in torrents, as it had been during the whole
night. We wended our way as fast as possible through the mud, with our
white and beautiful mocassins, and painted robes; and the reader must
excuse me here, and imagine, if he can, how we three looked when we
arrived at the door of the Egyptian Hall, with the gang of boys and
ragamuffins assembled around us, which the cry of "Indians, Indians!"
had collected as we passed through the streets. The poor porter, who
had waited up for us all night, happened _luckily to be_ ready for our
ring; and thus, fortunately, we were soon safely withdrawn from the
crowd assembling, to gaze and grin at each other, and deliberately and
leisurely to scour ourselves back again to our original characters.
CHAPTER VIII.
Their Royal Highnesses the Duke of Coburg and Prince Ernest visit
the Collection--His Royal Highness the (little) Duc de Brabant
visits the Collection with the Hon. Mr. Murray--The Author
presents him an Indian pipe and pair of mocassins--Visit of His
Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex to the Collection--His noble
sympathy for the Indians--He smokes an Indian pipe under the
wigwam--The Author takes breakfast with the Duke of Sussex in
Kensington Palace--The Duke's dress and appearance--John Hunter,
the Indian traveller--The Duke's inquiries about him--Monsieur
Duponceau--Visit to the Bank of England--To Buckingham Palace--To
Windsor Castle--Author visits the Polish Ball with several
friends in Indian costumes.
Among the distinguished visitors to my rooms about this time were their
Royal Highnesses the Duke of Coburg, and Prince Ernest, the father and
brother of Prince Albert, at that time on a visit to the Queen and the
Prince. They were accompanied by Mr. Murray, who took great pains to
explain the collection to the Duke, who took me by the hand when he
left the room, and told me I deserved the friendship of all countries
for what I had done, and pronounced it "a noble collection." His second
visit was made to it a few days after, when he was also accompanied by
Mr. Murray, and remained in the rooms until it was quite dark.
His Royal Highness the Duc de Brabant, the infant son of the King of
the Belgians, on a visit to the Queen, was also brought in by Mr.
Murray. He was an intelligent lad, nine or ten years of age, and was
pleased with a miniature Indian pipe which I presented to him, and also
a small pair of Indian mocassins suitable for his age.
His Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex, though in feeble health, paid
my collection his first visit. It was his wish, from the state that he
was in, to meet me alone "in an Indian Council," as he called it. My
first interview with him lasted for an hour or more, when he told me
that if his strength would have permitted it, he could have been amused
the whole day. To this fine old venerable man my highest admiration
clung: he expressed the deepest sympathy for the Indians, and seemed to
have formed a more general and correct idea of them and their condition
than any person I had met in the kingdom. When he left my rooms he
took me by both hands and thanked me for the rich treat I had afforded
him, and assured me that for the benefits I was rendering to society,
and the justice I was doing to the poor Indians, I should be sure to
meet my reward in the world to come, and that he hoped I would also be
recompensed in this.
The Duke of Sussex was a great amateur of pipes and good smoking, and
took much interest in the hundreds of different designs and shapes
of the carved pipes in my exhibition. He was curious to know what
the Indians smoked, and I showed him their tobacco, a quantity of
which I had brought with me. The Indians prepare it from the inner
bark of the red willow, and when dried and ready for smoking, call
it "k'nick-k'neck." I prepared and lit a pipe of it for His Royal
Highness to smoke, with which he took a seat under the middle of the
Indian wigwam, where our conversation was held at the moment; and as
he drew the delicious fumes through the long and garnished stem which
passed between his knees, with its polished bowl, carved in the red
pipe stone, resting on the floor, he presented for a few moments the
finished personification of beatitude and enjoyment. He pronounced
the flavour delicious, wanting only a little more strength, which he
thought the addition of tobacco would give it.
I told him that the Indians were always in the habit of mingling
tobacco with it when they could afford to buy it: "Good fellows (said
he), they know what is good--their tastes are as good as ours are."
After he had finished his pipe, and we were moving towards the front
door, the moment before taking leave of me as I have mentioned above,
he asked me if I ever knew _John Hunter_, who wrote a work on the
Indians of America, to which I replied in the affirmative. He seemed
much pleased in learning this fact, and said to me, "You see what a
feeble wreck I am at present; my strength is gone, and I must leave
you; but you will take your breakfast with me at Kensington Palace
to-morrow morning: I am all alone. I am too ill to see the world;
they cannot find the way to me: but I will see _you_, and take great
pleasure in your society. Your name will be made known to the servants
at the back entrance to the palace."
The next morning, at the hour named, found me at the door of the
palace, where my name was recognised, and I at once was ushered into
the apartment of the Duke, where I found him in his arm-chair, wrapped
in his morning gown of white flannel, and his head covered with a cap
of black velvet richly embroidered with gold. He rose and took me by
the hand in the most cordial manner, and instantly led me to another
part of the room, in front of a portrait hanging on the wall.--"There,"
said he, "do you know that face?" "Very well," said I; "that is the
portrait of John Hunter; it is an admirable likeness, and looks to me
like a picture by one of our American artists. If I had met it anywhere
else but in this country I should have said it was by Harding, one of
our most valued portrait painters." "Well," said he, "you know _that_
portrait too, do you?" "Very well--that is his Royal Highness the Duke
of Sussex." "Well," said the Duke, "now I will tell you, they were both
painted by Mr. Harding. Harding is a great favourite of mine, and a
very clever artist."
I at this moment presented to the Duke the Indian pipe, through which
he had smoked the day before, and also an Indian tobacco-pouch, filled
with the k'nick-k'neck (or Indian tobacco) with which he had been so
much pleased.
He thanked me for the present, which he assured me delighted him
very much; and, after showing me a great variety of curious and most
ingenious pipes from various countries, we took our seats alone at the
breakfast table. In the course of our conversation, which ran upon
pipes--upon Indians and Indian countries, his Royal Highness said he
had reasons for asking me if I had known Hunter, and should feel most
happy if he found in me a person who had been acquainted with his
history. He said he had known Hunter familiarly while he was in London,
and had entertained him in his palace, and thought a great deal of him.
He had thought his life a most extraordinary one, well entitling him to
the attentions that were paid to him here--that he had been entertained
and amused by his narrations of Indian life, and that he had made him
several presents, amongst which was a very valuable watch, and had had
his portrait painted, which he highly valued. He said he had learned,
with deep regret, since Hunter had left here, that a learned French
gentleman in Philadelphia, M. Duponceau, and some others, had held
him up to the public, through the journals, as an impostor, and his
narrations as fabulous. "This to me," said the Duke, "you can easily
see, has been a subject of much pain (as I took more pains to introduce
him and his works in this country than any one else), and it explains
to you the cause of my anxiety to learn something more of his true
history."
I replied to his Royal Highness that I had been equally pained by
hearing such reports in circulation in my own country, and that my
acquaintance with Hunter had not been familiar enough to enable me
wholly to refute them, I stated that I had been introduced to Mr.
Hunter in New Orleans, where he was well known to many, and that I had
met him in two or three other parts of the United States, and since
reading his work I had visited many of the Indian villages, in which
he lived, and had conversed with chiefs and others named in his work,
who spoke familiarly of him. I felt assured, therefore, that he had
spent the Indian life that he describes in his work; and yet that he
might have had the indiscretion to have made some misrepresentations
attributed to him, I was not able positively to deny. His work, as
far as it treats on the manners and customs of the American Indians,
and which could not have been written or dictated by any other than
a person who had lived that familiar life with them, is decidedly
the most descriptive and best work yet published on their every-day
domestic habits and superstitions; and, of itself, goes a great way, in
my opinion, to establish the fact that his early life was identified
with that of the Indians.
I stated that I believed his character had been cruelly and unjustly
libelled, and that I had the peculiar satisfaction of believing that I
had justly defended it, and given the merited rebuke at the fountain of
all his misfortunes, which I described as follows:--
"On my return from an eight years' residence amongst the remotest
tribes of Indians in America, and paying a visit to my old friends in
the city of Philadelphia, M. Duponceau, of whom your Royal Highness
has spoken, an old and very learned gentleman, and deeply skilled
in the various languages of America, and who was then preparing a
very elaborate work on the subject, invited me to meet several of
his friends at his table to breakfast; which I did. He was at this
time nearly blind and very deaf, and still eagerly grasping at every
traveller and trapper from the Indian country, for some new leaf to his
book, or some new word to his vocabularies, instead of going himself to
the Indian fireside, the true (and in fact the only) school in which to
learn and write their language.
"After our breakfast was finished and our coffee-cups removed, this
learned M. Duponceau opened his note-book upon the table and began
in this way,--'My dear Sir (addressing himself to me), I am so
delighted with such an opportunity--I am told that you have visited
some forty or fifty tribes of Indians, and many of them speaking
different languages. You have undoubtedly in eight years learned to
speak fluently; and I shall draw from you such a valuable addition
to my great work--what a treat this will be, gentlemen, ha? Now you
see I have written out some two or three hundred words, for which you
will give me the Blackfoot, the Mandan, the Pawnee Pict, &c. You have
been amongst all these tribes?' 'Yes.' The old gentleman here took a
pinch of snuff and then said, 'In this identical place, and on this
very table, it was, gentlemen, that I detected the imposture of that
rascal Hunter! Do you know that fellow, Mr. Catlin?' 'Yes, I have seen
him.' 'Well,' said he, 'I was the first to detect him;--I published
him to the world and put a stop to his impostures. I invited him to
take breakfast with me as I have invited you, and in this same book
wrote down the Indian translation of a list of words and sentences
that I had prepared, as he gave them to me; and the next day when I
invited him again, he gave me for one-third at least of those words
a diffe
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