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 different translation. I asked for the translation of a number of
words in languages that were familiar to me, and which he told me he
understood, and he gave them in words of other tribes. I now discovered
his ignorance, and at once pronounced him an impostor, and closed my
book.'
"'And now,' said I, 'M. Duponceau, lest you should make yourself and me
a great deal of trouble, and call _me_ an impostor also, I will feel
much obliged if you will close your book again; for I am quite sure
I should prove myself under your examination just as ignorant as Mr.
Hunter, and subject myself to the same reproach which is following him
through the world, emanating from so high an authority. Mr. Hunter
and myself did not go into the Indian countries to study the Indian
languages, nor do we come into the civilized world to publish them,
and to be made responsible for errors in writing them. I can well
understand how Mr. Hunter gave you, to a certain extent, a different
version on different days; he, like myself, having learned a little
of fifteen or twenty different languages, would necessarily be at a
loss, with many of his Indian words, to know what tribe they belong
to; and our partial knowledge of so many tongues involves us at once
in a difficulty not unlike the confusion at Babel, and disqualifies
his responses or mine, as authority for such works as I hope you are
preparing for the world. With these views (though I profess to be the
property of the world, and ready and pleased to communicate anything
that I have distinctly learned of the Indians and their modes), I must
beg to decline giving you the translation of a single word; and at the
same time to express a hope that you may verbally, or in the valuable
works which you are soon to bequeath to posterity, leave a repentant
word at least, to remove the censure which you say you were the first
to cast upon Hunter, and which is calculated to follow him to the
grave.'"
His Royal Highness was much interested and somewhat amused by this
narrative, and agreed with me, that such men as M. Duponceau, and
others, to whom the world is to look for a full and correct account of
the Indian languages of America, should go themselves to the wigwams
of the Indians, and there, in their respective tribes, open the books
in which to record their various vocabularies, rather than sit at home
and trust to the ignorant jargon that can be caught from the trapper
and the trader and the casual tourists who make flying visits through
the Indian countries. He related to me many curious anecdotes of poor
Hunter, and as I left him enjoying his k'nick-k'neck through his Indian
pipe, he said to me, "Your name, sir, will be familiar at my door, and
I shall be delighted to see you again at the same hour, whenever you
feel disposed to come."
Amidst the many avocations that were now demanding and engrossing the
most of my time, I was still able, by an effort, to allot certain
portions of the day to the pleasures that are found in the domestic
circles of wives and little ones, and nowhere else; and with them spent
the happiest moments of my life, notwithstanding the attentions of the
world and the efforts to make my enjoyment complete. With my dear Clara
I took my strolls and my rides to see what was amusing or instructive
in the great metropolis, and we saw much that amused and still more
that astonished us. Through the kindness of our untiring friend Mr.
Murray, we got access to the palaces of St. James and Buckingham, and
to the public and private rooms of Windsor Castle; we saw the "five
tons' weight of gold plate" that are said to enrich that noble palace,
and which but few eyes are allowed to gaze upon.
We visited the Royal Mint, the Tower, the noble mansions of the Dukes
of Sutherland and Devonshire, and the Bank of England. I was surprised
that we were allowed to pass through every part of this wonderful
sanctuary of gold and silver, and still more so that a guide should
stand ready to conduct us through all its numerous ramifications, and
as he passed along from room to room, from office to office, and from
vault to vault, to hear him lecture upon everything we passed, as if
they feared we might not appreciate it in all its parts. It has been
many times described and needs no further comment here, except an
occurrence in one of the vaults which deserves a current notice. The
Honourable Charles Fenton Mercer, of Virginia, was among our companions
on the occasion, and as we were shown into this apartment, which I
think was called a vault, though it was a large square room with the
light of a dome over it, the gentleman having charge of it within
received us in the most courteous manner, and as if it were a public
exhibition which we had paid our shilling to see, he led us around the
room and with his keys opened the iron safes which were all sunk in
the walls, with double doors of iron, and showed us the amount of gold
and notes contained in them, and on opening one that was filled with
packages of Bank of England notes, he took a bundle of them some ten
or twelve inches in diameter, and smilingly placing it in the hands of
my wife, asked her if she had any idea how much money she was holding.
Her rough guess was a very moderate one: she was so much excited and
so recently from New York, that she had forgotten pounds sterling, and
replied "Perhaps a thousand _dollars_;" when he turned it the other
side up and referred us to the label upon it--"two millions of pounds!"
He then took out another parcel of equal size, and placing that on
the top of it said to her, "Now, madam, you have four millions." Poor
thing! she looked pale as she handed it back, saying, "Ah, well, I
am glad it is not mine." The kind and gentlemanly attention shown to
us, and the pains taken to explain everything as we passed along,
were unexpected, and even a mystery in politeness which was beyond my
comprehension. We were conducted from this room to the arched vaults,
where we traced for a long distance the narrow aisles to the right
and the left and to the north and the south, through phalanxes of
wheelbarrows loaded with bars of silver and of gold, and all with their
heads one way, seemed ready for a subterraneous crusade in case of
necessity.
We returned from this half-day's work, fatigued, and almost sorry that
we had seen so much of the "shining dust" which our hands are labouring
so hard through life to earn a pittance of.
There were several Americans with us on this day's expedition, and all
agreed that we drew more pleasure from the gentlemanly politeness we
met in the Bank of England than we did from its wonderful system (which
was all explained to us), and from its golden riches which were all
laid open to our view.
Our fatigue, when we got home, seemed enough for one day; but as it
happened on that day, our sight-seeing was only begun; for it had been
arranged that we were to go to the Polish ball at the Mansion House on
that evening, and what was to make it a double task, it was arranged
that we should all go, some five or six of us, in Indian costumes.
My Indian wardrobe was therefore laid under heavy contributions for
that night. My nephew Burr and myself were dressed as chiefs, and two
or three more of my friends were arrayed as warriors. My dear little
_Christian_ Clara, whose sphere it was not, and who never wore an
Indian dress or painted her fair face before, becoming inspired with a
wish to see the splendour of the scene, proposed to assume the dress
of an Indian woman and follow me through the mazes of that night as an
Indian squaw follows her lord on such occasions. I selected for her
one of the prettiest and most beautifully ornamented women's dresses,
which was made of the fine white skin of the mountain sheep; and with
her hair spread over her back, and her face and her arms painted to
the colour of a squaw, and her neck and ears loaded with the usual
profusion of beads and other ornaments, and her fan of the eagle's tail
in her hand, she sidled along with us amidst the glare and splendour,
and buzz and din of the happy throng we were soon in the midst of,
and dragging our awkward shields and quivers and heavy buffalo robes
through, as well as we could. We took good care not to dance on that
occasion, so we kept the paint on our faces, and by understanding
no questions, answered none, and passed off with everybody as _real
Indians_. We went resolved to gratify our eyes, but to give no
gratification to others besides what they could take to themselves by
looking at us. Our interpreter was true to his promise: he made out
his own descriptions for us, and assured all who inquired, that we
could not speak a word of English. French, German, Russian, and Italian
were all tried in vain upon us; and as they turned away, one after
another, from us, they exclaimed, "What a pity! how unfortunate the
poor things can't speak English! how interesting it would be to talk
with them! that's a noble-looking fellow, that big chief; egad, he is
six feet and a half. I'll be bound that fellow has taken many a scalp.
That's a nice-looking little squaw: upon my word, if she had a white
skin she would be rather pretty!" and a thousand such remarks, as the
reader can imagine, while we were wending our tedious way through the
bewildering mazes of this endless throng. The task for my poor Clara
soon became more than she had anticipated before entering the room,
and was growing too much for her delicate frame to bear: she had not
thought of the constant gaze of thousands she was to stand in every
moment of the evening; and another discipline (which she knew must
be strictly adhered to, to act out the character she was supporting,
and which had not occurred to her before she had commenced upon the
toils of the evening) made her part a difficult one to act--that was
the necessity of following in the wake of all the party of men when we
were in motion, the place assigned to Indian women on the march rather
than by the side or on the arms of their husbands. This, in the street
or in the wilderness or anywhere else would have been tolerable, she
said, but in her present condition was insupportable. The idea was so
ridiculous to her, to be the last of a party of Indians (who always
walk in single file) so far behind her husband, and then the crowd
closing in upon her and in danger of crushing her to death. We soon
however were so lucky as to find a flight of several broad steps which
led to a side room, but now closed, which furnished us comfortable
seats above the crowd, which we took good care to hold until our
curiosity was all gratified, and we were ready to return home. Our
interpreter, in answer to all inquiries as to the locale of these
strange foreigners, mentioned the Egyptian Hall; and for weeks after,
Daniel testified to the increase of our receipts, and bore sad evidence
too of the trouble he had in explaining the difficulty of showing to
his visiters the "real Indians." After having satiated our curiosity,
and several of the youngest of the party having received some very
pretty trinkets and other presents that had been forced upon them, we
made our way home in good season to enjoy the joke, and part of a good
night's rest.