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."
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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."
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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."
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"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._"