Adventures of the Ojibbeway and Ioway Indians in England, France, and Belgium; Vol. 1 (of 2): being Notes of Eight Years' Travels and Residence in Europe with his North American Indian CollectionCatlin, George
History
Adventures of the Ojibbeway and Ioway Indians in England, France, and Belgium; Vol. 1 (of 2): being Notes of Eight Years' Travels and Residence in Europe with his North American Indian Collection
Catlin, George
England -- Description and travel; France -- Description and travel; Indians of North America
My opposition to his views in promoting the marriage of this love-sick
pair afforded him the suitable occasion of calling on me one morning
and advising me of a course which "he had been, he said, recommended
by many of his friends to pursue, which was, that (as he had now heard
me lecture on the modes of the Indians until the subject had become
sufficiently familiar to him to enable him to give the lectures well
enough himself) he could promote his own interest much better by
taking the Indians to the provincial towns, meeting all the expenses,
and taking all the receipts, instead of sharing with a second person,
which his friends thought was a great pity he should any longer do."
He represented that by such a course he could afford to do better by
the Indians, and he thought it would be decidedly for the interest of
both, and he had resolved to do it. I said to him that it was, to be
sure, a resolve which he could easily make, as we were under no other
than a verbal agreement, and entirely confidential, so that, if his
interest urged it sufficiently strong, there was no doubt that he could
do as he pleased, and that, under any circumstances, I should have but
one anxiety, and that would be for the welfare of the Indians under
his charge. I had so far done all I could to introduce them and him
properly. I had added my collection to their exhibition, to give it
additional interest. I had devoted my best efforts in lecturing on them
and their customs, and had succeeded (after lying still with them for
a month in London) in getting for them an audience of the Queen. By
these means I had rendered him and them a service, for which I wanted
no other return than the assurance that, wherever he went with them, he
should take good care of and protect them.
He said he had made up his mind to take them on his own hands in that
manner after an exhibition for ten days longer in the Egyptian Hall,
when he was to leave London on a tour to the provincial towns; and
he wished me to advertise these exhibitions positively to close on a
certain day. I then informed him that I should do so, and should freely
yield to his proposition to sever in the manner he had proposed, on
account of the accomplishment of the marriage, which he had assured me
was just at hand, and in the responsibility of which I was determined
to take no part. This I told him was an argument sufficiently strong,
without further comment, to incline me to meet his proposition without
the slightest objection.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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