acquainted with both. Numbers of the plates, illustrating his work, consist of full-length likenesses and groups, which accurately display the costumes and attitudes of the tribes he visited. Others depict their dwellings, ceremonial lodges, implements and arms, or striking features of the scenery, bringing vividly to the eye what books of travels in those regions have never before done so well.

In each of these recited branches of the economical and ceremonial history and present condition of the aboriginal race, Mr. Catlin is conceived to have supplied a desideratum. This constitutes, alone, the leading characteristic, and the chief merit, of the work. Others have described the physiognomy and dress of the Indians; Mr. Catlin has painted them. Books and letters and verbal reports, in one way or another, have heretofore apprized the public of novel and striking scenes in the cliffs and prairies, and wild and fantastic valleys, of the "far West"; but Mr. Catlin has portrayed them on his canvass, and he thus imparts a freshness and novelty to his pages, which cannot but impress the reader. Some of these plates convey an idea of the geological structure of the country.

The author, after his return, and during the intervals of his travels, attempted to turn to account his time, and money, and skill, by exhibiting his collection of paintings, costumes, &c., in this country, in which he excited a general interest; but without realizing, in some respects, the highest wishes of his friends, and the friends of the Indian race. His "Indian Gallery," the best of the kind ever exhibited, was visited and admired and praised. Although illustrating rather the ornamental, than the useful products of aboriginal skill, and thus differing from Mr. Dunn's "Chinese Museum," it was exceedingly attractive to all, and one of the best means, perhaps, of awakening sympathy for the race. He had also, in the course of his peregrinations, sketched the outlines of his observations, from time to time, for the newspapers of the day, through which they were warmly received, and extensively perused by the public. He took his collection to the seat of government at Washington, under the hope of depositing it there, for the future gratification and study of his countrymen; but it is still the condition of our affairs, to be too essentially engrossed with objects of a practical kind, to permit the application of large sums for the promotion of

the fine arts, or the patronage of science, letters, or antiquities. Under these circumstances, about two or three years ago, Mr. Catlin went to Europe, taking the result of his skill and enterprise with him, and we notice that he has established his "Gallery" in London. Such is a brief outline of the history and origin of this performance.

And

We have stated the prominent merits of the work, and shall subjoin a few extracts. We do not feel disposed to hold the author to a systematic plan, nor to represent him as having completely avoided descriptive, geographical, or theoretical errors, or literary blemishes. His method is discursive and rambling by design. He did not sit down to write a formal treatise or disquisition; far less to aim at a philosophical work. It was his design to send out sketches of Indian customs and manners, which, so far as they went, should exhibit the native in a new and true light. He wished to impart fresh interest to a subject that had been underrated, and had palled on the public appetite. He aimed to do with the pen, what he had so successfully done with the pencil. What impressed him as worthy of record, he recorded. He picked up traits, he gleaned information,— not of the dead, but of the living, wherever he went. to this end, pen and pencil were both employed. He often paddled his own canoe; he hunted buffaloes; he attended feasts and dances; his eye and his hand were in perpetual requisition. He had not leisure, or other means, to investigate traditions, or collate evidence. He put in his notebook, as he went along, whatever struck his thoughts, or pleased his fancy. Such are the impressions we derive from an attentive perusal of his book; and he appears to have feared, that the recasting of the matter thus thrown out, or its formal revision, or re-concoction, would detract from its interest, its freshness, or its originality. "I am travelling in this country," he says,* "not to advance or to prove theories, but to see all that I am able to see, and to tell it, in the simplest and most intelligible manner I can, to the world for their own conclusions; or for theories I may feel disposed to advance after I get out of this singular country, where all the powers of one's faculties are required, and much better employed, I consider, in helping him along, and

* Vol. I. p. 206.

in gathering materials, than in stopping to draw too nice and delicate conclusions by the way." And in this view, the title, prefixed, of "Letters and Notes," is appropriate. It would have added to their value, if the original dates had also been retained, as it would give precision to references, which may hereafter be more important, particularly in the estimate of numbers, &c., than at present.

The

About one third of the text of both volumes is devoted to the Mandans, and some adjacent tribes; and we regard this as one of the most interesting, original, and valuable parts of the author's observations. This would have been felt, had this tribe continued to occupy its somewhat peculiar position among the western stocks; but the author's descriptions have become the more important, from the subsequent annihilation of the entire tribe by the small-pox. This fatal disease was carried up the Missouri by a mulatto man on board a steamboat, which left St. Louis in the spring of 1837. disease did not manifest itself until the boat had got up five hundred miles, and it became impossible, at this time, to arrest its progress among the tribes. Thousands of the bands inhabiting the upper portions of this river fell before it, but on none were its comparative ravages so great and appalling, as on the Mandans. Out of a population estimated at sixteen hundred, in July of that year, but thirty-one escaped with life; and these few, dejected, fear-stricken, and overwhelmed by the calamity of their countrymen, are represented to have destroyed themselves by jumping from precipices, or rushing upon the lances of their enemies. The fatality of its action upon this tribe, may be attributed in some degree to the fact of their living in a closely embodied form, in two villages compactly built, and surrounded by palisades, to keep off their enemies.

Mr. Catlin speaks in high terms of the personal bravery, the hospitality, dress, arms, and physical traits of this tribe, whom he regards as remotely of Welch origin. Lewis and Clarke had spoken of them as a tribe of lighter color than others. Numbers of them, it has also been observed, from an early period of our acquaintance with them, have light and very long hair and blue eyes. But in all other respects, they exhibit a striking similarity to the other leading members of the red race. What proportion of them are thus characterized is not stated, nor whether the intermarriages with Euro

pean stocks, so common on the frontiers, have been greater or less than usual. It is stated, that they manufacture clay pots and other vessels, an art which all the American tribes possessed at the era of the discovery, but which nearly all of them have long dropped, supplying themselves, through the medium of the fur trade, with vessels of brass, copper, and tin. Several of their customs, as detailed by our author, are more revolting and barbarous than those of any known tribe on the continent. We refer, particularly, to the trial of bravery, or physical endurance, as exhibited in the sixtysixth, sixty-seventh, and sixty-eighth plates of the first volume, and the accompanying text. Their language, judged by the specimens exhibited, bears a strong affinity to the Sioux; and the ire with which the latter have at all times warred against them, partakes much of the bitterness of a family quarrel. It is believed there are facts within the range of American aboriginal history and antiquities, to countenance the tradition of an early migration of the ancient Britons to North America; but, if we have not mistaken the chain of evidence, the supposed descendants of the captured colonists are to be sought for west and south of the late residence of the Mandans.

The military expedition from Fort Gibson on the banks of the Arkansas, to the hostile tribes living on the upper waters of Red River, before referred to, opened a new field for observation in the wide-spread circles of the red race. By extending the boundaries of our actual knowledge of the tribes to those Arabs of the southwest, the Camanches, and their almost equally equestrian neighbours, the Kiowas and Pawnee Picts, we have added to the preexisting evidences, drawn from physiognomy, color, and customs, which, despite apparent discrepances of language, denote an original unity of the red race. The account of this expedition, given in the printed report of Colonel Dodge, who, after the demise of General Leavenworth, assumed the command, embraces valuable information, and indicates his efficiency as an officer. It is a subject of regret, that the extensive prevalence of fever among the troops, necessarily curtailed and limited their operations. Mr. Catlin represents the Camanches as rather low in stature, and somewhat heavy and ungraceful on their feet, but possessing great dexterity, and evincing ease and grace of manner, on horseback. He estimates their popula

tion, very vaguely we think, at from thirty to forty thousand. He gives no specimens of their language, the shortness of his stay requiring all his time to be devoted to his pencil. From the names of the chiefs, whose portraits he painted, the sounds of ts and tz appear to distinguish it from the Pawnee and other dialects north of them. The same combination of consonants marks the names of the Wicos, and also of the Kiowas, a tribe living some four days' journey to the southwest, who are described as "a much finer looking race of men than either the Camanches or Pawnees, are tall and erect, with an easy and graceful gait, with long hair, cultivated oftentimes so as to reach nearly to the ground. They have, generally, the fine and Roman outline of head, that is so frequently found at the North, and decidedly distinct from the Camanches and Pawnee Picts." * This tribe, together with the Wicos and Pawnee Picts, appear to be living on terms of close alliance, and will, we apprehend, be found to possess stronger points of connexion than the philological affinities pointed out. Among this group, comprehending the southwest angle of the Union and extending largely into Texas, we notice the same fluent and frequent use of the letter r in their proper names, connected with the open vowel sounds a, i, o, which obtains in the Tuscarora and other kindred dialects of the Iroquois.

Another portion of our western country, to which Mr. Catlin brings the merit of original observation, is the vast semi-mountainous chain, which, rising near the Red River of Lake Winnipec, runs due south into the denuded prairie region, and terminates at a point nearly equidistant from the waters of the Mississippi and Missouri, in north latitude about 44°. To this elevated range, called the Coteau des Prairies, our author was led chiefly by the celebrity it had acquired in Indian traditions, as the locality of the dark red, easily cut, sedimentary mineral, out of which the tribes make their pipes. † And in this journey he appears, with his companion, a Mr. Wood, of England, as the first actual explorer. If any other traveller or curiosity-hunter had

* Vol. II. p. 74.

Mr. Catlin is inadvertent in stating, that this is the only locality of this kind of stone in America. A similar stone, of darker red or chocolate color, occurs on a high hill on the banks of Chippewa river, in the Territory of Wisconsin.