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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.