and departed on an expedition, uncertain in its termination and results, and guided only by his determination to press as far as man might do, into the lands of the remotest West. Furnished with letters from the highest sources, to the military commandants and Indian agents on the frontier, he obtained every facility in prosecuting his darling pursuit; and he was fortunate enough to form one of the party, who first ascended by steam the Missouri, as far as the mouth of the Yellow Stone River. This voyage on the Missouri occupied between two and three months, as there were difficulties of every kind to oppose the successful navigation of the stream; which for a thousand miles above St. Louis is obstructed by snags and rafts formed by trees of the largest size, which have been washed from its banks by the force of the descending current. The roots of these trees becoming fastened in the bed of the river, their tops float on the surface, and, pointing down the stream, present to the ascending traveller an almost insurmountable barrier. In reference to the dangers of their voyage, Mr. Catlin observes, "with what propriety this Hell of Waters might be denominated the River Styx, I will not undertake to decide, but nothing could be more appropriate than to call it the River of Sticks." The Upper Missouri, however, presented fewer obstacles to the travellers, and they at length attained their journey's end, the fort of the American Fur Company at the mouth of the Yellow Stone. The steamer, on its passage up the river, excited the greatest wonder and terror among the Indians, who, as might be expected, were lost in astonishment at seeing the progress of the apparently self-moving monster. "There were many conjectures," remarks Mr. Catlin, "among their wise men with regard to the nature and powers of the steamboat. Among the Mandans, some called it the big thunder canoe, for, when in the distance below their village, they saw the lightning flash from its sides and heard the thunder come from it. Others called it the big medicine canoe with eyes. It was "medicine" or mystery to them, because they could not understand it; and it must have eyes, for, said they, it sees its own way and takes the deep water in the middle of the channel. Arrived at the termination of his route, our author had a fine opportunity for making himself acquainted with the habits and sports of savage life; and was also supplied with many subjects for his pencil; for parties of the tribes of the Crows, Blackfeet, Assineboins and Crees, or Knisteneaux, were encamped in the immediate neighborhood of the fort-having brought in their annual supply of fur for the use of the Company. These tribes, though all deadly foes to each other while on their hunting grounds, when assembled for a common purpose preserved a dignified reserve towards each other; and while Mr. Catlin was engaged in delineating the braves of each tribe, the warriors of the others would look coolly on, and peaceably and calmly recount the deeds of their lives and smoke their pipes together, though a few days would again bring them into deadly collision, and the scalps of one-half the party might by that time adorn the costumes of the remainder. During his sojourn at this fort, Mr. Catlin collected a large store of dresses, arms, and curiosities, from the various tribes in the vicinity, and laid the foundation of his portrait gallery. Before his departure, an incident occurred which at the same time displays forcibly the reciprocal hostility of the Indians around the fort, and is well calculated to give an insight into the superstitions of the [remotest northwestern tribes. Although rather long, we will extract his description of the affair, as a specimen of Mr. Catlin's powers of description, and as illustrative of the character of his red friends: "Not many weeks since, a party of Knisteneaux came here from the north for the purpose of making their annual trade with the Fur Company; and whilst here, a party of Blackfeet, their natural enemies, came from the west, also to trade. These two belligerent tribes encamped on different sides of the fort, and had spent some weeks here in the fort and about it, in apparently good feeling and fellowship; unable, in fact, to act otherwise, for according to a regulation of the fort, their arms and weapons were all locked up by McKenzie, in his arsenal,' for the purpose of preserving peace among these 'fightingcocks.' "The Knisteneaux had completed their trade, and loitered about the premises, until all, both Indians and white men, were getting tired of their company, wishing them quietly off. When they were ready to start, with their goods packed upon their backs, their arms were given to them, and they started; bidding everybody, both friends and foes, a hearty farewell. They went out of the fort, and though the party gradually moved off, one of them, undiscovered, loitered about the fort, until he got an opportunity to poke the muzzle of his gun through between the pickets, when he fired it at one of the chiefs of the Blackfeet, who stood within a few paces talking with Mr. McKenzie, and shot him with two musket-bullets through the centre of his body. The Blackfoot fell, and rolled about upon the ground in the agonies of death. The Blackfeet who were in the fort, seized their weapons and ran in a mass out of the fort, in pursuit of the Knisteneaux, who were rapidly retreating towards the bluffs. The Frenchmen in the fort, also, at so flagrant and cowardly an insult, seized their guns and ran out, joining the Blackfeet in the pursuit. I at that moment ran to my painting-room, in one of the bastions overlooking the plain, where I had a fair view of the affair; many shots were exchanged back and forward, and a skirmish ensued, which lasted half an hour; the parties, however, were so far apart that little effect was produced. The Knisteneaux were driven over the bluffs, having lost one man, and had several others wounded. The Blackfeet and Frenchmen returned into the fort, and then I saw what I never saw before in my life-I saw a medicine-man performing his mysteries over a dying man. The man who had been shot was still living, though two bullets had passed through the centre of his body, about two inches apart from each other; he was lying on the ground in the agonies of death, and no one could indulge the slightest hope of his recovery; yet the medicine-man must be sent for, and hocuspocus applied to the dying man as the dernier ressort, when all drugs and all specifics were useless, and all possibility of recovery was extinct. Such was the case, and such the extraordinary means resorted to in the instance I am now relating. Several hundred spectators, including Indians and traders, were assembled around the dying were man, when it was announced that the 'medicine-man' was coming; we required to form a ring, leaving a space of some thirty or forty feet in diameter around the dying man, in which the doctor could perform his wonderful operations; and a space was also opened to allow him free room to pass through the crowd without touching any one. "This being done, in a few moments his arrival was announced by the deathlike hush-sh,' through the crowd; and nothing was to be heard, save the light and casual tinkling of the rattles upon his dress, which was scarcely perceptible to the ear, as he cautiously and slowly moved through the avenue left for him; which at length brought him into the ring, in view of the pitiable object over whom his mysteries were to be performed. "His entrée and his garb were somewhat thus:-he approached the ring with his body in a crouching position; with a slow and tilting step-his body and head were entirely covered with the skin of a yellow bear, the head of which (his own head being inside of it) served as a mask; the huge claws of which, also, were dangling on his wrists and ancles; in one hand he shook a frightful rattle, and in the other brandished his medicine spear or magic wand; to the rattling, din, and discord of all which, he added the wild and startling jumps and yells of the Indian, and the horrid and appalling grunts, snarls and growls of the grizzly bear, in ejaculatory and guttural incantations to the Good and Bad Spirits, in behalf of his patient, who was rolling and groaning in the agonies of death; whilst he was dancing around him, jumping over him, and pawing him about, and rolling him in every direction. "In this wise this strange operation proceeded for about half an hour, to the surprise of a numerous and death-like silent audience, until the man died; and the medicine-man danced off to his quarters, and packed up and tied and secured from the sight of the world, his mystery dress and equipments." After a tolerably long sojourn in this region, our traveller resolved to embark in a canoe on the turbulent Missouri, and under the guidance of two “voyageurs" to visit in succession the various races inhabiting its banks between the Yellow Stone country and the frontier of the States. In pursuance of this plan, he one fine morning launched his little craft upon the bosom of the mighty river, and entered upon a journey of two thousand miles, the difficulties and dangers of which cannot easily be imagined. The account of his voyage forms one of the most interesting portions of this book, and several of his descriptions of scenery are well worthy of quotation. One we must give, as a specimen of Mr. Catlin's descriptive style in natural scenery:— "The scene in front of our encampment at this place was placid and beautiful; with its flowing water, its wild fowl, and its almost endless variety of gracefully sloping hills and green prairies in the distance. It was, however, not less wild and picturesque in our rear, where the rugged and various-colored bluffs were grouped in all the wildest fancies and rudeness of nature's accidental varieties. The whole country behind us seemed to have been dug and thrown up into huge piles, as if some giant mason had been there mixing his mortar and paints, and throwing together his rude models for some sublime structure of a colossal city,-with its walls -its domes-its ramparts-its huge porticoes and galleries-its castles-its fosses and ditches-and in the midst of his progress, he had abandoned his works to the destroying hand of time, which had already done much to tumble them down, and de face their noble structure, by jostling them together, with all their vivid colors, into an unsystematic and unintelligible mass of sublime ruins." After various adventures and escapes, he arrived among the tribe of the Mandans, who inhabited two villages about two hundred miles below the point of his departure. This race he describes as differing in appearance from all other Indians, many of them having light-colored eyes, and some, grey hair even in their early youth, a peculiarity possessed by no other nation of the Aborigines. Among the Mandans he remained for a considerable time, painting their chiefs and purchasing their dresses and ornaments. A large por tion of the first volume is taken up with a description of this people, and of their habits and religious ceremonies, which last are very singular, and entirely distinct from those of any other tribe. This people preserved a distinct tradition of the great deluge; and at a particular season of the year devoted several days to certain mysterious rites and celebrations, in honor of that event. This period was also chosen by them as the time of initiation of their young men, by almost incredible tortures, to the rank of warriors; and although a severe ordeal is generally undergone by Indians of all tribes, the ceremonies of the Mandans far surpassed in severity and torture those of any nation visited by our author, These rites of the Mandans were celebrated with great secrecy, and Mr. Catlin was only indebted to a fortunate portrait of the chief Medicine-man of the tribe, for an adoption into his honorable fraternity, under the appellation of Te-ho-pe-nee-washee-waska-pooska, (the white medicine painter,) which gave him the privilege of admission to the Medicine lodge, where the mysteries were celebrated. The "White Medicine Painter" gives a detailed des cription of all their proceedings, but at so great length that we must content ourselves with referring the reader to the book to satisfy any curiosity he may have upon the subject. Leaving this tribe, Mr. Catlin retraced his steps for a short distance, to visit the Minitarees, a branch of the Crow nation, who were living in a Mandans. By these also he was hosmanner under the protection of the pitably received, and while among them made several important additions to his collection. He then revisited his Mandan friends, and again embarked on the Missouri on his homeward voyage. In concluding his account of the Mandans, he broaches a theory respecting their origin, which at least has the merit of originality. He deems it possible that they may be remote descendants of the followers of Madoc the Welsh chieftain, who attempted to discover a new continent; but he wishes it only to be taken as a suggestion, promising at a future time to collect proofs in support of his theory, if theory it deserves to be called. The remainder of the first volume is occupied by a description of the powerful nation of Sioux or Dahcotahs, among whom our traveller remained for some time on his ascension of the river, and whom he revisited in his canoe Voyage down the stream. Among this people, Mr. Catlin pursued his usual occupation with great success, and besides many warriors, he transferred to his canvass several of the Sioux beauties. He had more than his customary difficulty in obtaining the portraits of the latter, for the Dahcotah chiefs, more ungallant even than the more northern tribes, refused to allow their more exquisite forms to be represented, if the artist persisted in delineating those whom they consid ered not as their better, but inferior halves; and the matter was settled only by an explanation on the part of the artist, not exactly founded on veracity; that his object in preserving the portraits of the fair ones, was that they might be hung under the likenesses of their husbands, " merely to show how their women looked, and how they were dressed, without saying more of them." In this way, he succeeded in sketching a few of the women. Concerning one of these, the daughter of a distinguished chief, Black Rock" by name, a touching anecdote is related, which came to the knowledge of Mr. Catlin, after his departure from the Sioux country. The portrait in question had been copied by the artist and given to Mr. Laidlaw, the agent of the United States among the Dahcotahs: "Several years after I left the Sioux country, I saw Messrs. Charden and Piquot, two of the traders from that country who recently had left it, and they told me in St. Louis, whilst looking at the portrait of this girl, that while staying in Mr. Laidlaw's fort, the chief, Black Rock,' entered the room suddenly, where the portrait of his daughter was hanging on the wall, and pointing to it with a heavy heart, told Mr. Laidlaw that whilst his band was out on the prairies, making meat,' his daughter died, and was there buried. My heart is glad again,' said he, when I see her here alive; and I want the one the medicine-man made of her, which is now before me, that I can see her, and talk to her. My band are all in mourning for her, and at the gate of your fort, which I have just passed, are ten horses for you, and E-ah-sa-pa's wigwam, which you know is the best one in the Sioux nation. I wish you to take down my daughter, and give her to me.' "Mr. Laidlaw, seeing the unusually lib. eral price that this nobleman was willing to pay for a portrait, and the true grief that he expressed for the loss of his child, had not the heart to abuse such noble feeling, and taking the painting from the wall, placed it in his hands; telling him, that it of right belonged to him, and that his horses and wigwam he must take back and keep, to mend as far as possible his liberal heart, which was broken by the loss of his only daughter." But as a set-off against this exhibition of feeling, we must be allowed to quote an anecdote of Sioux humanity, which Mr. Catlin, in his admiration for Indian nobleness and perfectionism, might more prudently have omitted: VOL. XI.-NO. XLIX. 7 "When we were about to start on our way up the river from the village of the Puncahs, we found that they were preparing to start for the prairies farther to the west in pursuit of buffaloes, to dry meat for their winter's supply. My attention was directed by Major Sandford, the Inand helpless looking objects that I ever had dian agent, to one of the most miserable seen in my life, a very aged and emaciated man of the tribe, who, he told me, was to be exposed. The tribe were going where hunger and dire necessity compelled them to go, and this pitiable object, who had once been a chief and a man of distinction in his tribe, who was now too old to travel, being reduced to mere skin and bone, was to be left to starve, or meet with such death as might fall to his lot, and his bones left to be picked by the wolves. ** His friends and children had all left him, and were preparing in a little time to be on the march. He had told them to leave him. He was old,' he said, and too feeble to march.' 'My children,' said he, 'our nation is poor, and it is necessary that you should go to the country where you can get meat,—my eyes are dimmed, and my strength is no more; my days are nearly all numbered, and I am a burthen to my children. cannot go, and I wish to die. Keep your hearts stout, and think not of me; I am no longer good for anything.' In this way they had finished the ceremony of exposing him, and taken their final leave of him." I The Indian character, as delineated by Mr. Catlin in these volumes, exhibits an odd mixture of generosity and barbarity, of nobleness and low cunning; and though he strives to conceal the dark points in their natures, they will often peep out unintentionally from the very midst of his laudations. It is, however, extremely natural that our author should look upon the savages in a most favorable light, from his almost uniform success among them; and he in fact seems to cherish for his Indian friends a regard somewhat similar to that which Carter or Van Amburgh may be supposed to entertain for their lions or tigers, which, although not particularly amiable towards the world in general, are affectionately familiar with their masters. And, to carry out the simile, the journeys of Mr. Catlin among the Indians are not so very unlike the favorite amusement of the beast-conquerors, of putting their heads within the mouths of their formidable pets. Our author pursued his voyage in safety, and arrived, with his faithful companions, at Fort Leavenworth, on the Lower Missouri. On his passage down he made the acquaintance of many other Indian tribes, whom he notices in his lively and spirited manner, and for whom, as a matter of course, he has a store of admiration and compassion. In one of his rambles in this region he encountered a fire in a high prairie, of which we must extract a part of his description. He was riding with his two attendants and an Indian guide, denominated "Red Thunder," who had been discoursing to him of the Great Fire Spirit, and foretelling an approaching conflagration. The travellers had listened to his forebodings with little faith, when their attention was called to a sudden movement on the part of their guide: «‹Red Thunder was on his feet!-his long arm was stretched over the grass and his blazing eyeballs starting from their sockets. White man,' said he, 'see ye that small cloud lifting itself from the prairie ?-he rises! The hoofs of our horses have waked him! The Fire Spirit is awake-the wind is from his nostrils and his face is this way!' No more, but his swift horse darted under him, and he gracefully slid over the waving grass as it was bent by the wind. We were swift on his trail. The extraordinary leaps of his wild horse occasionally raised his red shoulders to view, and he sank again in the waving billows of grass. The tremulous wind was hurrying by us fast, and on it was borne the agitated wing of the soaring eagle. His neck was stretched for the towering bluff, and the thrilling screams of his voice told the secret that was behind him. Our horses were swift and we struggled hard, yet hope was feeble, for the bluff was yet blue, and nature nearly exhausted! The sunshine was dying, and a cool shadow advancing over the plain! Not daring to look back, we strained every nerve. The roar of a distant cataract seemed gradually advancing on us-the winds increased-the howling tempest was maddening behind us-and the swiftwinged beetle and heath hens, instinctively drew their straight lines over our heads. The fleet-bounding antelope passed us also; and the still swifter long-legged hare who leaves but a shadow as he flies! Here was no time for thought-but I recollect the heavens were overcast, the distant thunder was heard-the lightning's glare was reddening the scene-and the smell that came on the winds struck ter We are here tempted to quote from another volume now lying before us for review, Mr. Colton's recent poem of "Tecumseh," (of which we shall probably give our readers some account in of the same scene of terrific sublimity our next Number,) another description on our western prairies. Fisher's fine bly familiar to many from the engrapicture of the Prairie on Fire is probaving of it which has been published in one of the Annuals. The incident here related, of the escape of a man from the fiery fury that rages around-and which sometimes travels in a line of many miles in length, at the rate of ten or twelve miles an hour-by bursting through it, is of course extremely rare, being next to an impossibility. It is said, however, to be occasionally achieved successfully, by the last wild daring of despair: "He reached a swell-amazement grew Ten-fold before th' appalling view. The prairie was on fire! Afar, With semblance of destroying war, In army widening as it came, On strode the vast, consuming flame. A league away and on each hand Beyond the utmost ken, and fanned By swift hot airs, in massive sweep The lofty columns, red and deep, Wide-waving rushed-with furnace-glare Wreathing their spiral arms in air, Or bending to the earth; and where The withered grass was serer grown, Long lines ran forth and blazed alone; And ever flames, like steeds of fire, Did mount and lift them high and higher. Fast-fast they came! The earth before Was swept with a continuous roar, That filled all heaven; above them high Glowed tremulous the heated sky, As one great furnace, where, upsent, Flaked cinders strewed the firmament; But ne'er was seen their fearful track, How waste, and desolate, and black, For all behind, in billows broke, Convulsed and rolled a sea of smoke. And-lo! what darkly heaving mass Confused before the fire doth pass? Enormous herd! Unconscious caught By some green course, with terror fraught, |
